Food bloggers made fortunes in ancient times

Song Yan was holding the quilt that had just been hung out to dry, and as soon as she stepped into the house, she subconsciously looked towards the window.

On weekdays, Song Zhengdu always liked to sit by the window and read, but now, that familiar seat was empty.

Only half a day after Song Zhengdu left home, the house seemed empty and quiet, and Song Yan suddenly felt lonely as snow.

Without a capable helper, Song Yan realized how many daily chores there were. Every morning and evening, he had to feed the sheep first, then the donkey, then the geese and the dog.

In addition to being busy, they also need to clean the sheep pens, donkey pens, and clean up the goose droppings on the ground.

Combined with cooking and washing dishes, I can barely take a short break each day.

Song Yan was so busy that it wasn't until nightfall that she remembered that she hadn't watered the flowers yet.

In the past, all these tasks were done by Zheng Du, but now he has to do it all by himself.

Early the next morning, Song Yan stretched and walked to the yard in a daze to water the flowers, but the next second he seemed to be frozen and could not move.

Those plants that he had never been able to name, suddenly blossomed into clusters of snow-white, soft-as-velvet...flowers?

It looks a little familiar, but I'm not sure. I'll take another look.

Song Yan's eyes widened, wondering if she had not woken up yet and was having hallucinations.

He rubbed his eyes hard, then tiptoed closer, looked carefully, and reached out to touch it.

"Is this really... cotton?"

The touch was so soft and comfortable that Song Yan was sure that the white, furry and soft thing in front of her was cotton!

Song Yan was so excited that his hands were shaking slightly. He had just bought some flower seeds from a small stall.

Who would have thought that there were actually a few cotton seeds hidden in these ordinary flower seeds.

Make big money!

From now on, the whole family won’t have to worry about the winter!

Some time ago, he was busy harvesting crops and had no time to pay attention to the flowers and plants in the yard. He didn't even notice when the cotton started to produce bolls.

At this moment, he has begun to imagine the beautiful scene of using this cotton to make warm and thick cotton clothes and quilts.

The cotton has just started to shed its bolls and it will take another month before the cotton is harvested.

Song Yan had never grown cotton before, so she wasn't quite sure about these things, but just in case, she didn't rush to pick them up and let them grow freely.

However, every day, he would observe the cotton several times, paying more attention to it than peppers and watermelons.

Even Gousheng wouldn't let it roll around in the flower bed, for fear that it would crush these precious plants.

One night, Zhou went out to hang Yaya's diapers and saw Song Yan almost clinging to the cotton. She said in a voice so gentle that it could squeeze water out of her: "Baby, spit out more cotton."

Wan Zhou shuddered and said, "Brother, are you possessed?"

"You are the one who is possessed." Song Yan rolled her eyes and then warned, "Take good care of these flowers and don't let Gousheng and Daye crush them."

Hearing Song Yan's emphasis on these flowers, Song Wanzhou patted his chest and assured, "Don't worry, big brother. I will definitely take good care of them."

With the addition of a donkey, Song Yan felt that the house was becoming more and more crowded.

It's time to put the construction of new houses on the agenda.

Song Yan began to think about how to build a new house.

He currently has a total of 350 taels of silver on hand. If he uses half of it to build a new house, it should be enough.

So, Song Yan picked up a pen and scribbled on paper, starting to think about the blueprint of the house.

First, he drew a large open space next to it, indicating that it would be used to build a house.

Then we decided to build a traditional courtyard house, which would be both practical and beautiful.

The yard on the right can be used as a kitchen, woodshed and utility room.

The left side is planned to be a cowshed, a sheep pen, and of course the donkey pen for the little donkey, as well as a goose nest and a dog kennel.

Suddenly, Song Yan remembered the big cat that had not appeared for a long time.

I don't know where it has been begging for food recently.

Song Yan came back to her senses and looked at the scribbles on the paper. It took her a long time to figure out what she had drawn.

He quickly crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it into the stove.

Let’s wait for Zhengdu to come back and let him draw it.

By the way, those tomatoes he planted on the mountain are probably about to mature.

After a few days, I will call a few little kids and go up the mountain to pick tomatoes together.

Then he remembered that the peanuts had been harvested but not yet pressed into peanut oil.

When Song Yan thought about the many unfinished things waiting for her to deal with, she couldn't relax at all.

By the way, while I have some free time now, I’ll squeeze out the peanut oil first.

Song Yan first asked Uncle Niu to make a mold for extracting peanut oil. Then she thought that there was no steamer at home, and it was not a good idea to always ask the Niu family to borrow a steamer, so she asked Uncle Niu to help make a steamer.

Uncle Niu has superb craftsmanship and he made the mold on the same day. The next day, he also brought the steamer over.

The sooner the better, the later. So Song Yan called Aniu and they started the oil pressing business today.

I had peeled a bag of peanut kernels, weighing a total of thirty pounds, and poured them all into the big pot.

Aniu was responsible for making the fire, while Song Yan held the spatula and kept turning the peanuts in the pot.

The aroma of peanuts gradually spreads, the peanut skin begins to turn brown, and the oil is slowly released under high temperature.

The fried peanuts were put into a wooden barrel and taken to Uncle Dazhu's house to borrow his stone mill.

At this time, the peanut kernels have almost cooled down, pour the peanut kernels into the holes of the millstone.

Aniu drove the donkey to grind the mill, and Song Yan kept adding peanut kernels.

Uncle Dazhu saw this and asked curiously, "Xiao Song, what are you doing?"

While busy, Song Yan took the time to answer: "Uncle, we are pressing peanut oil."

Uncle Dazhu seemed quite shocked: "Can oil be extracted from peanuts?"

Song Yan smiled and replied, "Yes, it smells really good."

Shitou heard their conversation and came over curiously, wanting to see how they squeezed peanut oil.

The ground peanut powder is fine and fragrant. Then Song Yan pours them into the steamer.

A layer of clean gauze has been laid in the steamer to prevent the powder from sticking.

While Aniu was making a fire downstairs, Song Yan kept watching the peanut powder in the steamer until it became moist and expanded.

The steamed peanuts must be pressed while hot, so they are quickly transferred to the mold, which is a special wooden board with grooves on it for pressing the peanut cakes.

Since Aniu was very strong, we asked him to press the mold. He pressed the wooden board tightly, and the oil in the peanuts was pressed out, and a layer of light yellow oil floated on the bottom.

Uncle Dazhu and Shitou were shocked: "Is it really oily?"

As Aniu exerted force, peanut oil slowly flowed out from the gaps in the wooden mold like a thin stream of water and flowed into the container below.

The freshly squeezed peanut oil is still steaming and has a rich peanut aroma.

Uncle Dazhu and Shitou couldn't help but come over and take a look at the peanut oil.

“It really smells good.”

Song Yan carefully filtered the peanut oil in the container, gently covered the oil surface with a fine cloth, and removed the tiny impurities in the oil one by one.

The filtered peanut oil is clearer and more transparent, with a golden luster, which makes people happy at the sight.

Thirty kilograms of peanuts produce eight kilograms of oil, which is a very good amount.

Song Yan poured the filtered peanut oil into clean bottles and sealed each bottle carefully.

After squeezing the oil, there was still a lot of peanut residue left, which Song Yan collected and used to feed the livestock at home.

"Uncle, this is for you, and Aniu, this is yours." Song Yan finally gave two kilograms of peanut oil to Aniu and Uncle Dazhu.

"No, no." Uncle Dazhu waved his hands repeatedly, refusing to accept it.

"Uncle, do we still need to be polite to each other?" Song Yan said without hesitation, and stuffed the bottle full of peanut oil into Shitou's hand, "Brother Shitou, just accept it."

Shitou grinned and carefully put away the bottle of peanut oil: "Then I won't be polite."

Uncle Dazhu was so angry that he gave Shitou two slaps.

A Niu had stopped being polite with Song Yan a long time ago. He took the peanut oil home and immediately started cooking for Aunt Niu.

It was the first time for Aunt Niu to use peanut oil to cook. She heard that this oil was extracted from peanuts and was free, so she stopped being stingy with the oil.

She heated the pot and poured half a bowl of peanut oil directly into it.

When peanut oil comes into contact with heat, it quickly releases a mild and rich aroma, which is mixed with the sweet aroma of nuts and peanuts.

Aunt Niu took a deep breath of the fragrant oil and couldn't help thinking, no wonder Xiao Song would grow two acres of peanuts, the peanut oil is so fragrant.

That day, she cooked three dishes, and each one was eaten up in no time, not even a trace of oil left on the plate.

For the first time, Aunt Niu felt confident in her cooking skills. Just as Xiao Song said, if you want to cook delicious dishes, you need a lot of oil.

She began to think that maybe next year, her family should set aside half an acre of land to grow peanuts.

On this side, Song Yan also fried two dishes with peanut oil.

Song Yan was used to cooking with lard, but when she switched to peanut oil, the food felt much lighter.

However, Song Wanzhou couldn't tell the difference and felt that all the dishes cooked by his elder brother were equally delicious.

A few days later, word spread that Song Yan could make oil from peanuts, and the aunties in the village came to ask for advice.

Everyone came with good intentions, and some even brought eggs and red dates. Song Yan didn't want to chase them away, so she simply called Aniu to come along and demonstrated it to them personally.

An aunt praised her endlessly, "It turns out that Xiao Song has this skill. Whoever marries into your family will be blessed."

After this reminder, the other aunts unconsciously looked at Song Yan and made secret calculations in their hearts.

Even though Song Dashu used to be a scoundrel, he has turned over a new leaf now.

Besides, Song Yan is not only handsome, but also very decent in his speech and behavior. He is also a well-known tiger-fighting hero in the surrounding villages.

The family has ten acres of fertile land, and with the oil-pressing skill, she will never go hungry after marrying into the family, and can immediately become the head of the household.

My younger siblings, Erlin and Erya, are also growing up gradually.

Erlin will be able to set up his own family soon, and when Erya gets married, a few dowries will be given to her.

As for Yaya, she is just a little girl, how much food can she eat?

Thinking about it this way, Song Yan is indeed a good marriage candidate.

Therefore, the aunts who had daughters of marriageable age at home or among relatives became interested.

At this time, an aunt tentatively asked: "Xiao Song, you have passed the mourning period, when do you plan to get married?"

"There's no rush for this matter. Erlin is still studying. Wait until he finishes his studies before considering his personal marriage." Song Yan said a few perfunctorily.

The eyes of the other aunts flickered, but because there were others present, they could not say much and temporarily dropped the topic, but they already had their own plans in mind.

In the blink of an eye, the end of the month has quietly arrived.

Song Yan had to go to the county town again to collect the dividends for the next two months.

Last month, he was busy harvesting crops and had no time to spare, so it has been postponed until now.

This time, he planned to stay in the county town for one night.

Zhengdu went to a private school, leaving only two little girls, Wanzhou and Yaya, at home, so it was inconvenient for Aniu to stay overnight.

Song Yan thought for a moment and decided to let Wanzhou take Yaya to Aunt Niu's house to spend the night. This would be both safe and convenient.

Although there was no one at home, the food, donkeys and sheep were valuable assets of the family and needed someone to look after them.

So he asked Aniu to come to his house and sleep in his room.

Everything was arranged, and Song Yan set out for the county town early in the morning.

The county town today was no different than usual, and did not seem any different because of the presence of a prince.

The streets are still bustling with people, the cries of vendors can be heard one after another, and hawkers pushing carts loaded with goods shuttle among the crowd, making the scene very lively.

As usual, Song Yan went to the stall of the old couple selling wontons and ordered two bowls of steaming wontons.

As soon as the wontons were served, Song Yan scooped a few spoonfuls of sour beans and sprinkled them on the wontons, adding a bit of sourness.

Just as Song Yan scooped up a wonton and was about to open her mouth, she suddenly heard a loud "slurp" sound in her ears.

Song Yan: “?”

He turned his head quickly and saw a child with simple clothes but red lips and white teeth squatting by the roadside, staring at the wontons on his table and swallowing his saliva unconsciously.