Traveling through the mountains and farming

Hearing the response from the front, Lin Wan walked forward quickly.

When I got closer and saw the two siblings already picking melons, I breathed a sigh of relief.

Only then did she notice that the branches of the trees around them were covered with white frost.

Lin Wan walked over quickly and used her hands to pick at the white frost on the branches. It felt a bit slippery and greasy.

Then, I also observed that there were many small round fruits hanging on the branches.

She was quite sure that it was ash flower.

Those small round fruits are the female insects of the white wax moth.

This is once again thanks to her eight years of hard work in tourism planning in modern times.

She worked on a rural tourism project in an area in Xiaoxiang Province, which is known as the hometown of wax trees. Every household raises wax moths and makes money by making wax from the wax flowers secreted by the wax moths on the ash trees.

But there are no ash borers there, so every spring they have to go to a province in the southwest to buy ash larvae and hang them on ash trees.

The male ash caterpillars secrete a frost-like substance on the tree, which is the ash flower.

There are actually wax moths here, and wax flowers have already been produced.

She still remembered that August was the wax harvesting season, and now it was the end of August, which was exactly the season.

Lin Wan looked at the ash trees in front of her, which were covered with snow-white ash flowers. She seemed to see silver ingots hanging on the trees.

According to the information she found at the time, in her modern country, candles made of insect wax before the Yuan Dynasty were extremely precious, comparable to gold, and only nobles could afford them.

Earn money, earn money~

Lin Wan stared at the white wax flowers in front of her, her face full of uncontrollable joy. She wanted to quickly pick all the white wax flowers and take them back.

At this time, the two siblings nearby had already picked the melons they saw. Looking back, they saw their sister-in-law standing there in a daze and smiling.

Li Ke was familiar with the look of surprise in that smile.

It was similar to what my sister-in-law had seen with Gastrodia elata and Stevia before, maybe even worse.

The clever Li Ke quickly grasped the key point. It seemed that his sister-in-law had found something delicious or valuable.

He immediately pushed the backpack to the younger brother, ran to the elder sister-in-law, and asked hurriedly:

"Sister-in-law, have you found something good? Tell us so we can have fun together."

Lin Wan came back to her senses, her face still filled with a bright smile, and she said with a grin:

"Look, these branches are covered with something that looks like white snow. Do you know what this is?"

Li Ke and Li Chongle, who had just walked over, both shook their heads to indicate that they didn't know.

"This is ash flower, which can be used to make candles. Let's quickly pick the ash flowers from these trees." Lin Wan's mouth corners were raised all the time.

The two siblings had only heard of candles before, but had never seen one. They only knew that no one in the village had them. They also heard that they were extremely expensive and ordinary people could not afford them.

Now their sister-in-law told them that these white fluffy things on the trees could be used to make candles, which was simply unbelievable.

So, Li Chongle curiously touched the white wax flower on the branch, tilted his head and asked, "Sister-in-law, did you read this in that ancient book?"

"Yeah, that's right. Let's quickly clear out a backpack and find some large leaves to cover the bottom and sides of the backpack. This way, we can put the ash flowers in there without them leaking out."

They acted quickly. The two siblings worked together to empty the contents of the backpack, then went looking for large leaves together. Soon they were ready.

They carefully picked clusters of ash flowers from the branches and put them into a backpack covered with leaves.

Gradually, the basket was filled up, but there were still many ash flowers on the trees that had not been picked, so the three decided to come back in the afternoon to pick more.

They also plan to visit other places in the surrounding area, hoping to find a patch of ash trees with white ash flowers.

I returned home with a lot of harvest.

They made a simple lunch together and finished their meal. Lin Wan was about to start making white wax, but when she thought about how many white wax flowers there were still to be picked, she decided to pick them all first.

After a short rest, the three of them set out again to the place where they had picked them in the morning and continued to pick the remaining white wax flowers and bring them home.

Lin Wan didn't even have time to rest and immediately started making white wax.

She planned to make a few candles for her own use first, and boil the rest into large blocks of white wax to store.

With her current status as an ordinary citizen, she cannot protect these wax trees from being snatched away by powerful people. She can only use them for her own use first. As for when to sell them in the future, she will have to wait for the right opportunity.

So she made a few candle molds with small bamboos and dug out the dried rush she had picked up on the roadside.

At that time, I was thinking of buying an oil lamp to use, but every time I went into the city, I forgot this little thing, so now I don’t need to buy it.

Just as Lin Wan picked up the basket and prepared to put the white wax flowers into the pot, Li Chongle beside her asked:

"Sister-in-law, doesn't this need to be washed?"

Lin Wan continued to pour the white wax flowers into the cauldron while responding:

"No, come and help me put them into the pot. There's no need to add water, just boil them directly."

And told Li Ke that he could start the fire now.

After a while, Li Ke saw that the wax flowers in the pot began to change and said, "Wow, these wax flowers are slowly melting. How long will it take to cook?"

"About two hours." Lin Wan replied.

Li Chongle looked at the pot and asked doubtfully: "This color looks a bit dark yellow, can it turn into white when it comes out?"

"You see, the dirt on top will sink to the bottom of the pot after being boiled. Then, take out the liquid on top and let it cool down, and it will turn into white wax."

When the two siblings heard that it would take more than two hours, they turned around and left the yard to deal with the fruits they had picked today.

Now they can all make sweet sauce, basil sweet and sour cakes and melon seeds independently, especially Li Ke. She is very talented in making food. Usually, after watching Lin Wan do it once, she can replicate it the second time.

Lin Wan stayed in the kitchen to boil white wax. As time passed, the liquid in the pot rolled and emitted a strange smell.

She stirred the liquid in the pot from time to time and checked the fire from time to time.

At the same time, prepare the wooden spoon, ladle and wooden basin that will be used later.

Two hours passed slowly. Lin Wan picked up a wooden spoon, carefully scooped out the liquid on top, and put it into the bamboo tube that had been prepared for making candles.

Then use a large ladle to scoop out the rest and put it into a wooden basin that has been prepared nearby.

At this time, the two siblings finished processing the fruits and came into the kitchen to wait to see the white wax coming out of the pot.

When he saw the finished candles, Li Ke said happily:

"Sister-in-law, can we use the newly made candles tonight?"

"Yes, you can put the bamboo tube filled with white wax halfway in the spring water, it will cool faster and you can use it in the evening. Go and do it quickly, clean it up in a while, and we have to make dinner quickly, it's getting dark."

Upon hearing this, Li Ke and Li Chongle immediately grabbed the bamboo tubes and ran to do as they were told.

Then she quickly returned to the kitchen to help Lin Wan clean up and prepare dinner.

By the time all the food was on the table, it was already completely dark.

Lin Wan carefully split the bamboo tube with a machete, took out the white wax inside, and then lit it. Suddenly the whole room was bright.

The two siblings worked together to take the remaining candles out of the bamboo tube. Each of them touched a white wax and praised it as a miracle that the white fluffy thing called white wax flower could actually be made into a candle. The two of them couldn't let it go.

Afterwards, they enjoyed their dinner happily under candlelight.

I wonder if this will be the most relaxing dinner they have at home.