Traveling through the mountains and farming

After all the charcoal and ash were transported back to Lin Wan's backyard, Lin Wan and Li Chongwu took their tools and followed everyone into the mountains.

They chose a suitable location, demonstrated on-site how to dig an earth kiln, and explained in detail the precautions to be taken during the charcoal burning process.

In the next ten days or so, the people living in seclusion in the cave were busy burning charcoal, and finally all the charcoal for the winter was prepared.

Thanks to Li Chongwu's on-site guidance, Lin Wan's help was basically not needed afterwards.

After finishing the work of burning charcoal in the cave, everyone started to build a wooden house in the open space on the east side of the cave to be used for oil pressing.

I heard that many families are running out of oil, so everyone is urging to speed up the oil pressing process and work with all their might, hoping to squeeze out the oil for use as soon as possible.

Old Man Wang and a few others had been making various tools for oil pressing. Lin Wan had asked him about it before and found that the oil pressing method here was similar to the ancient method she had seen before.

The only difference is that the iron hoops used to make tea cakes are replaced by bamboo strips, and the striking tool is a large wooden hammer instead of the common striking rod.

Lin Wan then suggested that they consider using a labor-saving impact bar.

They also made a stone mill, but it was not the mill driven by water that Lin Wan saw at her friend's house, but a traditional stone mill driven by manpower.

Considering that the site was far away from the stream, Lin Wan did not propose to change to a water-powered model.

During this period, the tomatoes in her family entered the stage of concentrated ripening.

Judging from the weather, it seems unlikely that these tomatoes will bear fruit again.

Lin Wan once again lamented that planting vegetables must be in accordance with the season. If she planted them a month later, the harvest would be much worse and she could only eat the first crop of tomatoes.

Fortunately, she had saved some tomato seeds for breeding at the beginning, and now she has successfully harvested the seeds, which can be sown in the spring of next year.

Seeing that the weather was getting colder, she and her two siblings began to cover the strawberries, sweet potatoes and potatoes with hay in the evening half a month ago.

I uncover the hay in the morning after the sun comes out, hoping to extend its growth cycle as much as possible.

A patch of stevia that Li Chongle had planted in a secret place on a gentle slope had been growing well, and the two siblings had applied fertilizer twice.

Once the stevia leaves grow lush enough, they continue to pick and dry them, and now they have accumulated quite a few.

Lin Wan looked at the dried stevia leaves and had an idea in her mind.

There were some tomatoes at home that had not been eaten yet, so she planned to make some tomato sauce.

After a while, the potatoes are harvested and can be fried into French fries with tomato sauce, eaten with rice cakes, or used as a seasoning for cooking.

Lin Wan had just scalded and peeled the tomatoes in the kitchen and was cutting them into pieces when she suddenly heard Li Chongle's cheerful shout:

"Sister-in-law, the oil press cabin has been completed, and Grandpa Wang and his men are moving the tools needed for oil pressing in."

Lin Wan paused, "Really? Help me boil the syrup with stevia first, and then we'll go over and take a look after we make the tomato sauce."

Li Chongle quickly agreed, added a bowl of water to the pot, took the stevia prepared by Lin Wan and poured it in to start boiling the sugar water.

Lin Wan sped up the process of cutting tomatoes, and after Li Chongle picked up the stevia leaves, she put the cut tomato pieces into the pot and boiled them.

She stirred it with a spatula from time to time to prevent the sauce from sticking to the pot. When the tomatoes were cooked soft and the soup was thick, she put it into clean jars and let them cool, ready to be sealed later.

After cleaning up the kitchen, Lin Wan and Li Chongle couldn't wait to walk towards the oil press hut.

Before I even got close, I could hear the loud voice of Old Man Wang: "Everyone, work harder and put everything in place!"

When I walked into the wooden house, I saw that everyone was busy, and there were many women and children helping to pass things.

When Old Man Wang saw Lin Wan and the others coming, he smiled and said, "Lin Wan, come and take a look at how we are preparing."

Usually, Lin Wan can always come up with some unique insights and give practical suggestions from time to time.

Lin Wan looked around and saw cauldrons and stoves used for roasting tea seeds and grinding tea powder, stone mills for grinding tea powder, and important tools for extracting oil, such as wooden presses, bamboo hoops, and hammers.

It can be seen that the preparations for oil pressing are very complete. Before, she only knew the general situation from Old Man Wang and had not seen it with her own eyes.

Seeing the complete tools and orderly arrangement, Lin Wan couldn't help but wonder, has the oil pressing technology developed so well in this era?

I asked curiously, "Grandpa Wang, you have a complete set of oil pressing tools. Is this how we press oil here?"

In the original body's memory, there is no concept of oil pressing at all, and he has never seen how oil is pressed here.

"There is only one relatively large oil press in our county. I worked there with a master before and I am familiar with the tools and processes of oil pressing. Although our conditions are not as good as theirs, we can still make something similar by following their example."

Old Man Wang explained with a smile, "We can try it today and see if we can squeeze out the oil successfully."

"Uncle Wang, you're being too modest." Uncle Li, who had just finished directing everyone to place items, came over and interrupted.

Old Man Wang laughed heartily and said, "From today on, let's arrange for people to take turns helping everyone press oil."

Since oil pressing is hard work, Uncle Li gathered everyone together and divided them into two groups. One group was responsible for the preliminary preparations, such as roasting tea seeds, grinding them into powder, and steaming the tea powder; the other group focused on operating the tools for oil pressing.

They also arranged the order of oil pressing according to the emergency situation of oil use in each household. Lin Wan took the initiative to ask her family to be the last one in line. She still had a lot of lard stored, so there was no rush for the time being.

After everything was arranged, Lin Wan saw that two cousins ​​from Uncle Li's family had already picked up the tea seeds from their own family. His family was the largest and they used up the oil the fastest, so the lard they had was almost used up.

Old Man Wang directed everyone to start the oil pressing work in an orderly manner.

Lin Wan wanted to watch the entire oil pressing process, so she helped to light the fire nearby. In the middle of the process, she took the two siblings home to make two buckets of crystal ice jelly.

Although it is winter and the weather is cold, the heavy work makes everyone sweat.

When the first drop of oil came out and dripped into the container, everyone cheered. Although there were some bumps and bruises in each link along the way, everyone agreed to discuss improvements.

For example, the first pot of tea seeds were burnt, and the tea seed cake was not very firm at the beginning, resulting in a low oil yield. Also, during the impact and oil pressing process, the strength and rhythm were not well controlled, which affected the efficiency.

However, everyone was not discouraged by this. Instead, they actively looked for problems and offered suggestions.

After continuous adjustments and attempts, the subsequent oil pressing process became smoother and the oil output gradually increased.

In this way, the busy days of oil pressing began in the secluded cave.

By the time they finished pressing oil for all the families, the weather was getting colder and colder.