Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 466 A lot of work

After stirring evenly, pour the water into a clean ceramic pot and let it settle. After settling, pour out the water on top and scrape the scallop powder paste at the bottom into the ceramic basin.

Place it in the sun to dry, then put it into a mortar and pound it into powder. Powder the borneol as well and mix it evenly with the scallop powder.

Take an appropriate amount of mutton fat and melt it in a ceramic pot. After the mutton fat is melted, pour in scallop powder and mix it into a paste. Pour it into a small porcelain jar and it can be used after it cools and solidifies.

Because a lot of mutton fat was boiled, Hua Lei went to the pharmacy to buy Salvia miltiorrhiza, ground it into fine powder, and mixed it with mutton fat in a certain proportion to make a scar removal cream. If you apply it on the scars on your hands or body for a period of time, it will have the effect of fading and removing the scars.

After all the things were made, Hua Lei put everything that could be put into Yinghua Pavilion for sale. Now, the variety of products in the shop is very rich, and it has gradually gained popularity, and the business is getting better and better.

At the beginning of August, Hua Lei received a letter from Bai Yunhe from Xijiang. In the letter was a detailed purchase list. Bai Yunhe had already bought a shop in a small town in Xijiang.

We needed to buy soy sauce, soybean paste, and sweet potato wine for the flower buds. In addition, we also ordered preserved bean curd and salted duck eggs. Of course, we also ordered a lot of moxa sticks and moxa pills.

It took Hualei more than half a month to sort out the goods, fill three ships, and send them to Western Xinjiang. She brought back a large sum of silver.

Next, it is the time of the year when sweet-scented osmanthus is in full bloom. The flower buds are ready to make some sweet-scented osmanthus glutinous rice lotus roots to eat while the sweet-scented osmanthus is in full bloom.

I went to Yuanying Village and selected lotus roots with intact ends and plump stems. I washed them with clean water. Then I washed the glutinous rice and soaked it in clean water for one to two hours to allow the glutinous rice to absorb the water.

Peel the lotus root skin, use a knife to cut off a finger-long section of lotus root together with the lotus stem at one end, leaving it as a lid. Mix the soaked glutinous rice and cleaned fresh osmanthus flowers evenly, and fill the holes in the lotus root.

Use chopsticks to poke it firmly, then cover it with the cut lotus root nodes and use a small bamboo stick to seal it. Put the prepared glutinous rice lotus root into the pot, add water to cover the lotus root, and add yellow and white sugar and red dates.

After boiling over high heat, continue to simmer for half an hour, taste it, if it is not sweet enough, add some maltose and cook for about a quarter of an hour. During this time, turn the lotus root from time to time to allow the flavor to be more evenly absorbed.

When the lotus root turns deep red, poke one end of the glutinous rice lotus root with chopsticks. If it can be easily penetrated, it means that the glutinous rice lotus root is cooked through.

Take it out, cut off the two ends with a knife while it is still hot, cut it into round cakes of even thickness and put them into a bowl. After arranging it on a plate, drizzle some osmanthus honey on it and it is ready to eat.

The taste of glutinous rice, osmanthus and lotus root is very special. After being fully soaked and cooked, the glutinous rice becomes very soft and sticky, while the lotus root maintains a certain crispness. The two complement each other.

The addition of osmanthus not only adds a rich aroma to the glutinous rice lotus root, but also makes it fragrant and sweet when mixed with maltose. Glutinous rice osmanthus lotus root is not only delicious, but also rich in nutrition, suitable for many people to eat.

Knowing that Zhenzhu likes to eat sweets, Hualei made some and personally sent them to Pingyang Marquis Mansion, and visited Zhenzhu by the way. She also asked Qinghe and others to steam the sweets again before Zhenzhu eats them. Sure enough, the greedy Zhenzhu liked them very much.

Pearl's daughter is already one hundred days old. She is very cute and her features look very much like Pearl's. When she grows up, she will probably be a beauty.

Jiang Yunqi has not been very busy with his work in the government office recently, so he often accompanies Pearl and her daughter, and the family seems to be having a great time. Seeing Pearl's relaxed expression, Hualei is also very happy.

Similarly, Hualei also sent some to the Zhenbei Marquis's Mansion, and Rong Jue, who loves sweets, was naturally overjoyed. Even the old Marquis Pei, who usually doesn't like sweets, praised it highly.

Thinking that there were a lot of lotus roots on the farm, Hua Lei temporarily asked the people on the farm to bring out these glutinous rice lotus roots and sell them in Hua Qianbian's shop. After all the lotus roots were picked, the glutinous rice lotus roots would no longer be sold.

In the meantime, Hua Lei also found some time to find Liang Xiangyi and told him about the price increase. Liang Xiangyi, who had been pretending to be stupid, laughed after listening to Hua Lei's complaints and readily agreed to Hua Lei's request for a 20% price increase.

You know, in the past two years, when her goods were shipped to several cities in Jiangnan for sale, the selling price had already been increased by 30%, so Hualei's 20% price increase was still low.

However, Hualei has not yet mentioned the price increase to Boss Yu. The truth is that Boss Yu has recently gone to Xiaojin Clan in person and may not be back until the end of the year. Hualei can only suppress her eager heart.

In mid-September, rapeseed seedlings began to be raised, and in late October, all the rapeseed seedlings grown from rapeseed were planted in the nine cleared basins.

Hualei feels a sense of accomplishment when looking at the green rapeseed in the basin. However, there are still seven basins left to be reclaimed, so Hualei is still very busy.

Moreover, the Ministry of Industry's water wheels have not been completed yet. Only six water wheels have been installed, and there are three basins left, and only the ponds have been dug.

However, there was no other way. Reclaiming wasteland was not a technical job, and anyone with enough strength could do it. So in order to save time, more than 200 people were conscripted to perform corvée labor.

However, there are only a few people in the Ministry of Industry, and making waterwheels is a technical job. There are no woodworking cutting machines like in the past, so every piece of wood needs to be cut, polished and drilled by hand, so the progress is very slow.

Moreover, during the Great Sheng Dynasty, the Ministry of Works had very high requirements for craftsmen, so there were very few ordinary people who could meet the requirements for craftsmen of the Ministry of Works. Even if they were to conscript labor, it would be difficult to find people who were proficient in carpentry.

Just like Uncle Zhao, in Hualei's opinion, his skills are already very good, but when he arrived at the industry department, he could only help out and do the most basic work, and was considered an entry-level player.

So even though the Ministry of Works had been working overtime for several months, they had only completed six water wheels, and they were relatively simple human-powered water wheels.

After all, a wind-powered waterwheel requires the production of a separate windmill, which is more labor intensive. At the beginning, it took about a month to complete a human-powered waterwheel.

Although I am more familiar with the job now and my hands and feet are much faster, no matter how familiar or quick my hands and feet are, the workload of the water truck is still there. Being able to complete six in more than four months is already very impressive.

Therefore, up to now, there are still three basins whose water wheels have not been installed. Lord Mo of the Silin Bureau was extremely anxious, and so was Li Shilang of the Ministry of Works.