Across Ranch Story: Friends of Mineral Town

"We're not eating here today. I'm going to Dart's house. I want to buy a set of sofas~" Lin Xia refused. It's not good to eat here all the time. She still understands the principle that things smell good when they are far away but smell bad when they are close.

"I'm leaving now. See you at the Harvest Festival tomorrow!"

"I won't be attending the Harvest Festival tomorrow, so let's meet at the sale on the 10th!" Huo An said.

"Ah? Why not participate? Zack won't participate either?" Lin Xia was curious.

"I want to join in," Zach said. "I have to help Dart. Otherwise, it will be too hard for him to handle all the ingredients!"

Receiving Lin Xia's curious gaze, Huo An could only say: "I can't eat hodgepodge~"

Lin Xia: “…Oh~”

Zach said dissatisfiedly, "You are the only one who is particular and picky. The harvest festival in our town is highly praised by everyone every year. Dart's cooking skills are absolutely beyond doubt."

Huo An said unhappily: "Big pot rice, small pot dishes, what do you know? For someone like me who has high demands on food, you won't understand. Besides, I didn't stop you from going, so don't make demands on me, okay?"

Lin Xia quickly stopped the quarrel between the two: "Well, everyone has different living habits, and this cannot be forced. The new artist Brandon will not participate tomorrow. He is not used to eating with too many people~"

After hearing this, Zack had no choice but to give up and say nothing more.

Before leaving, Lin Xia gave Huo An a piece of mithril ore, and received Huo An's praise of "You are such a good person", and gave Zack a bag of newly harvested and roasted melon seeds from her ranch.

After leaving the beach house and entering Rose Square, Lin Xia walked north. When she came to the fork in the road, she looked at the time - 4: in the afternoon. Looking at the church in the north direction, Lin Xia was thoughtful. Well, I didn't go to the backyard of the church to pick mushrooms yesterday. After two days of rain, I wonder if there are any new mushrooms growing in the backyard?

With anticipation, Lin Xia prepared to take a trip. It would be a pity to miss such a good opportunity. Tomorrow is the Harvest Festival and the church will not be open!

After entering the church, Cliff was no longer in the church. Carter was on the altar. Seeing Lin Xia coming over, he smiled and said, "Lin Xia, you're here?"

"Yeah~" Lin Xia walked over quickly and handed Carter a bag of melon seeds. Carter thanked her happily. When he learned that Lin Xia wanted to see if there were any mushrooms in the backyard, he immediately said, "Go quickly. It has rained these two days, so the mushrooms should have grown a lot. It will be dark soon~"

Seeing Carter's unconcerned look, Lin Xia was completely relieved. At the same time, she also truly believed that Carter had really gotten over the knot in his heart about the mushrooms in the backyard.

Lin Xia entered the grove in the backyard and found that rain was like a hormone to mushrooms. The ground was covered with densely packed mushrooms, and one could find a large cluster at a time. Lin Xia quickened her pace to pick the big ones.

Today's harvest was undoubtedly rich. Lin Xia found 12 Matsutake mushrooms and collected nearly 10 kilograms of other edible mushrooms. He also collected more than poisonous mushrooms.

Except for the poisonous mushrooms that Lin Xia plans to sell to the hospital, Lin Xia plans to keep all the mushrooms picked this fall for himself. A small portion will be kept fresh for making various stuffings or stir-frying with vegetables; the rest will be dried or baked for preservation. Dried mushrooms will have a richer aroma and will be more delicious when soaked in water for consumption.

After happily picking mushrooms, Lin Xia said goodbye to Carter and went straight to Dart's hotel. Dart was also very happy to see Lin Xia coming over: "Lin Xia, let's have dinner here tonight. I have researched a few new dishes. Please give me some suggestions!"

Lin Xia said no problem: "By the way, I picked some matsutake mushrooms. Can you make me some chicken soup? I'll provide the matsutake mushrooms and you can provide the chicken. How about that?"

Dart was overjoyed. Lin Xia meant to give him the matsutake directly without paying! Although one matsutake is worth 500g now, it is still in short supply and the quantity is scarce!

Besides, in the Mineral Town, no one is willing to go to the mountains to pick mushrooms. Even if they do pick some, people won’t sell them to them for such a small amount of money. They just cook and eat them themselves. No one is short of money!

I can only rely on Lin Xia's friendship from time to time to sell some, but it seems that Lin Xia does not intend to make money from Matsutake. He would rather sell the ingredients directly for a meal than ask for money. Alas~ good ingredients are hard to get!

Lin Xia carefully took out three matsutake mushrooms and handed them to Dart. Dart didn't dare to complain that it was too little, because one matsutake mushroom was enough to make a whole pot of soup, and the extra two were obviously a gift from Lin Xia as a gift of friendship!

Dart went back to the kitchen to cook, and Lin Xia ran to the phone at the counter to make a shopping call. She communicated with the other party about the size of her living room, selected the style of the sofa, and confirmed the payment.

After a while, Dart came to Lin Xia's dining table with food: a large bowl of chicken soup stewed with matsutake mushrooms, a serving of seafood bibimbap, steamed eggs with clams, and stir-fried vegetables with chili peppers.

"I wanted to serve you clam soup today, but you wanted to have matsutake chicken soup, so I'll make you clam soup next time!"

"Hey~ Dot is looking for you?" Dot's speed is really amazing.

Dart nodded apologetically and said, "Ah~ Ever since I learned how to cook meat from you and Huo An, I couldn't stop myself and cooked more during this period. I didn't expect that due to the seasonal climate, meat cooking would cause health problems for people."

Lin Xia consoled him, "It's everyone's first time, right? However, seafood is a cold food, and since autumn is prone to causing internal heat, I recommend that you eat seafood in autumn. Anyway, Mineral Town is a place where seafood is the main ingredient, so you can also combine it with meat cooking methods to innovate the cooking methods of seafood dishes."

Dart's eyes lit up after hearing this, and he said excitedly: "Why didn't I think of that? Haha, my mind is imprisoned. Lin Xia, thank you for reminding me~"

"You're welcome!" Lin Xia thought. When it comes to food, no place can compare to the Chinese. "Also, Dart, it's not advisable to eat too much meat in autumn. It will cause internal heat. The cold winter is especially suitable. Seafood is not suitable at that time. In this way, the hotel's autumn and winter menus can be updated with the change of seasons. Isn't it good? It gives guests a great sense of freshness~"

"You are absolutely right. This will not only give customers a good experience, but it will also be good for everyone's health. I guess I will have to ask Duote more about the characteristics and medicinal value of various ingredients in the future. Considering people's health, food should not only satisfy the taste, but also have health benefits. Wouldn't that be better!"

Lin Xia also agrees with this point of view. Dietary supplements are always better than medicinal supplements!

After chatting for a while, Dart went to entertain other people who came to eat, and Lin Xia also concentrated on her dinner. After eating and drinking, Lin Xia said goodbye to Dart and asked if he would like her to help with the harvest festival tomorrow.

"No, we'll have Lin and Zach to help us when the time comes. This is your first year participating in our town's harvest festival, so just have fun!"

Lin Xia felt very warm inside and was grateful to everyone in the town who took good care of her!

After returning home, Lin Xia took out the newly purchased luxury hunting suit, took a quick look at the fishing tools, picked out the ones he needed at the moment, and prepared to go to the moat and the small ditch in the back mountain to set up underground nets tomorrow.

The next morning, the weather was clear and the sun was shining brightly. The back hills after the rain were filled with the fragrance of earth. Fortunately the mountain road was covered with grass, otherwise it would have been quite difficult to walk on.

However, in order to avoid getting her shoes wet, Lin Xia still wore a raincoat and rain boots. It would take half a day for the rain water on the mountain vegetation to dry completely.

Lin Xia came to the edge of the moat with several fishing nets prepared yesterday, found a narrow section, drove fixed nails on both sides, and covered the river channel tightly with the fishing nets, so that all the fish, shrimps and other creatures coming down from upstream would fall into the net.

Lin Xia took a few shrimp cages to the downstream area and placed three of them. He threw some bait into them and decided to collect the cages in the evening. This way of placing cages was something Lin Xia had seen others do when he was a child in his hometown. Eating was secondary. The key was that the harvesting process was very interesting and satisfying.

After the fishing nets in the moat were properly placed, Lin Xia came to several narrow river channels in the back mountain, took out the push net, turned on the vibration mode in the grass on both sides of the river, and scared the shrimps, snails, etc. hiding in the grass or clinging to the shore into going inside.