1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 3 Harvesting the Vegetables Early
Chen Jiazhi was not in a hurry to work, but wanted to go and take a look at the situation of each piece of land first.

Besides the bok choy and choy sum fields, what other fields are there?

The vegetable market covers an area of ​​about 200 acres, but his land is too scattered. It took another 30 years before he found out where the remaining plots of land were after asking people.

A total of five yuan.

The piece of cabbage at the corner just now is more than three inches in size.

There are three more plots scattered in the center of the market, totaling about one mu and four or five mu. A wide variety of vegetables are grown there, including Chinese cabbage, Shanghai greens, bitter melons, beans, cowpeas, and loofahs.

The last piece is also the largest, almost one mu, which was given to him by his second sister and brother-in-law.

The main leafy vegetables grown on this piece of land are Chinese cabbage, Chinese cabbage, and lettuce.

After reading it, Chen Jiazhi felt overwhelmed. The transition period was too chaotic and he looked like a novice at first glance.

More than a decade later, he mainly grows leafy vegetables in greenhouses, and can guarantee that there will be vegetables for more than 350 days a year, basically all year round.

A stable supply of vegetables means stable income, and it can also ensure a stable customer base, and there will be vegetables even when prices are high.

In this situation, the main thing is to go with the flow.

Moreover, after seeing the situation in the field, he became more determined: these vegetables must be harvested early!

The temperature in the Flower City in late March and early April is already quite high, with daytime temperatures consistently above 20 degrees Celsius. It also rains constantly, with the occasional sudden burst of sunshine.
Few leafy vegetables grown outdoors can withstand such treatment.

Chen Jiazhi is very confident in growing vegetables. Even in this kind of weather in the future, he can still guarantee the yield.

But even a good cook cannot cook without rice.

At that time, there was no small shed, no suitable pesticides, and no effort was put into the soil and fertilizer in the early stage. Faced with this situation, there was really no good way.

And we need to take into account several key time nodes in the future. How can we maximize the benefits?

He remembered the crop of cowpeas when his eldest son was born, on July 23, before the typhoon hit.

Where did that crop of cowpeas come from?
Because of heavy rains and high tides in May, the harvest was completely lost, so we had to replant. However, the cowpeas grew the best and were harvested just after the typhoon, coinciding with the peak in vegetable prices.

In fact, vegetable prices are at their peak throughout July and August.

Pushing back further,

The vegetables that were completely lost in May are replanted after the current season’s vegetables rotted away, which is right!
After reading it, Chen Jiazhi determined that harvesting this crop of vegetables in advance was the best solution!

It can not only maintain a certain level of income, but also lay a solid foundation for the subsequent crop period!

...

"Chen Jiazhi, what are you standing there for? You don't even recognize your own land, yet you're asking around. Aren't you embarrassed enough?"

Chen Jiafang's voice came from behind, "I see you haven't learned any other skills, but you've mastered the art of slacking off."

Seeing his second sister approaching, Chen Jiazhi quickly changed the subject: "Second sister, I was thinking about harvesting the vegetables in two days."

"You're out of your mind." Chen Jiafang pointed at the cabbage patch in front of them and said, "Do you think this is ready to harvest? It's still seedlings. We have to wait at least 10 days."

Chen Jiazhi: "These seedlings are more tender, so they won't be a problem to sell. Besides, I have a feeling the rain won't stop any time soon, and the leafy vegetables might turn yellow and their roots rot. So, whatever we can sell now is better."

Chen Jiafang put her hands on her hips, a hint of anger on her face: "I see you're just acting on impulse. Wait another ten days, and the vegetable yield will be at least half as high!
What a pity to accept it now! "

Chen Jiazhi defended himself, "It's been raining non-stop, so I can't harvest it later even if I want to!"

"How did you know it would keep raining? Okay, okay, now that no one is pressing you to pay back the money, just do what you need to do. I won't talk to you anymore. I still have a lot of work to do in the fields."

Chen Jiafang left after she finished speaking. Chen Jiazhi felt helpless. He knew that his second sister was doing this for his own good and thought that he was anxious to pay back the money and wanted to harvest the vegetables early.

But this matter is hard to explain.

He could only plan to harvest the vegetables first. Since the family had already split up, his second sister couldn't do anything about it. But he should be able to wait a few more days. It was only March 27th, so harvesting in April would be about right. With the rest of the time, Chen Jiazhi began cleaning the ditch again.

Others had finished cleaning the land long ago, but he hadn't yet. It was difficult to drain the water or irrigate the land, so there was no doubt about it; this job had to be done.

After an unknown amount of time, Chen Jiazhi stopped to catch his breath, rest his back, and felt in his pocket for a cigarette, but found only matches...

wipe!
Are all the cigarettes gone?
Chen Jiazhi suddenly felt like the sky was falling!

I could only swallow my saliva and continue working.

"Brother, come and have a cigarette."

Chen Jiazhi thought he was hallucinating, and when he looked up, he saw a sturdy man about 1.7 meters tall walking towards him. He had a regular face and was only slightly less handsome than him.

"Brother Yi."

Seeing the younger version of his second brother-in-law Yi Dinggan, Chen Jiazhi was dazed for a moment, then took the cigarette, a Yangcheng brand, a cheap one.

My second brother-in-law Yi Dinggan is 39 years old this year, 18 years older than Chen Jiazhi, but the two have always had a good relationship.

Thirty years later, Yi Dinggan, who was retired in his hometown, often called, and Chen Jiazhi would drive back to drink. They had the same bad taste.

After taking a puff of cigarette, Chen Jiazhi immediately felt much better.

"I heard from your second sister that you want to sell vegetables. Why are you in such a hurry? It would be a waste to sell the vegetables now. Wait a little longer. There's no need to rush about the money."

"No, Brother Yi, I'm worried that if the rain continues, the vegetables will rot and we might not be able to harvest them at all."

Yi Dinggan asked suspiciously, "It's really not because of money?"

"No."

"Alright, whatever you want." After finishing his cigarette, Yi Dinggan patted his butt and said, "Let's go back to work."

It's not Brother Yi's style to leave after staying for three or five minutes.

As I recall, Brother Yi would always slack off for at least half an hour. Later, when he became a restaurant owner, it became even worse. He would disappear for half a day or even a whole day.

"Even Brother Yi is working hard. It seems that life has been really hard recently."

My second sister and brother-in-law planted about ten acres of vegetables, but they hired workers and had fixed worker expenses every month. At that time, the vegetable workers' daily salary was about 7 to 8 yuan.

We bought agricultural supplies and paid rent at the beginning of the year, but vegetables haven’t been produced recently, so it’s the time when there’s a gap between the harvests.

After working for another two hours, people from various families returned one after another, and Chen Jiazhi also went back with his second sister and brother-in-law.

When she returned home, Li Xiu was already cooking. The firewood she used was sawdust she had picked up when she went to the market to sell vegetables.

"Second sister, Brother Yi, the noodles will be ready soon. Jiazhi, your rice is also hot and covered on the table."

Chen Jiazhi: "Why bother with all that? Just eat noodles."

For a moment, the three of them looked at him in surprise. Even the fellow who was cooking nearby joined in the fun: "Oh, the scholar has finally come to his senses today and knows how to love his wife."

Chen Jiazhi: “…”

"Lazy people have too many troubles." The second sister muttered, and took the basin to pick noodles from the pot.

Chen Jiazhi went into the house dejectedly to eat. He remembered that now both families had to follow his orders on what to eat every day.

The food was very ordinary, without any meat, and everyone was very thin. Even the second sister who gained weight in later life was not fat.

It seems that there is another benefit to harvesting and selling vegetables in advance, which is that it can improve the family's living conditions earlier.

(End of this chapter)