Go back to the past to plant trees

In the evening, when Feng Cheng saw Chen Guangji return, he immediately ran over to express his gratitude.

Chen Guangji waved his hand magnanimously, telling Feng Cheng not to think too much and to focus his energy on the nursery so that the trees could survive in the dam area as soon as possible.

Chen Guangji said that he was willing to recommend Feng Cheng because he was willing to endure hardship and put in the effort to plant trees. It was precisely because he was serious about his work and wanted to do things that he recommended him.

Feng Cheng patted his chest and guaranteed that he would definitely plant trees on the dam and make them survive. He even made a vow that he would not leave the dam until he had planted trees there.

Although Chen Guangji stopped Feng Cheng from making his vow, it was clear that he was still very pleased that Feng Cheng had signed this military pledge.

Looking at the kind old man in front of him, Feng Cheng felt a strange pang of pain in his heart. How could such a good person have cancer?

With a somewhat sad mood, Feng Cheng returned to his dormitory and began writing his application to join the Party.

Writing an application to join the Party was not difficult for Feng Cheng. The original owner of this body had written it many times when he was in school and had seen many students' applications to join the Party, so Feng Cheng was very clear about the format and content. Now he could write it out in his spare time.

The next day, Feng Cheng handed his application to join the Party to Yu Zhenglai. Since Feng Cheng was in Bashang, there was no need to go through the Party admission ceremony. He could just come down next time and get his Party membership certificate. Everything would be kept simple.

After having lunch, Feng Cheng went out. On his way back, he stopped by a scrap metal recycling station. He gave the old man half a pack of cigarettes, and the old man treated him very well. Feng Cheng spent more than an hour browsing, finding a few history books before coming out. There wasn't much of value there. The area might be better, but Feng Cheng couldn't go there anyway, and since he didn't know anyone there, the old man wouldn't pay him any attention.

With his belongings in hand, Feng Cheng returned to Bashang.

Zhao Jinquan was very happy to see Feng Cheng return. Feng Cheng said that he went down to the dam to buy wheat to make maltose. Zhao Jinquan didn't know how to make maltose, and he couldn't understand how wheat and sweet potatoes could be made into sugar. He was also very curious about how to make it.

"Let's get ten pounds of sweet potatoes first! No need to prepare anything special, the ones in the camp are enough."

Since it was his first time making it, Feng Cheng didn't dare to make too much, afraid that he wouldn't do it well, and that would be a waste.

Feng Cheng took out two ounces of wheat, soaked it, and spread it on a wooden board.

"From now on, water this wheat three times a day, once in the morning, once at noon, and once in the evening. I might forget, so please remember to do so."

“Okay, I’ll remember that,” Zhao Jinquan readily agreed.

"Brother Feng, how many days do we need to water this wheat?"

"Four or five days, five or six days, it's hard to say, it depends on how the wheat seedlings grow."

"Oh."

For the next few days, besides building toilets and chamber pots, Zhao Jinquan kept a close eye on the wheat.

There's not much work left at the nursery, so Feng Cheng doesn't really need Zhao Jinquan to come over all the time, unless he's too busy to handle everything.

Five days later, the malt had grown to a usable height.

"That's about it. We'll start making the sugar tomorrow."

Feng Cheng checked the growth of the malt that evening and felt it was about right, so he decided to make sugar the next day.

The next morning, Zhao Jinquan got busy washing the malt and sweet potatoes. Feng Cheng had already told him the general steps yesterday, so he was clear about the preliminary work.

After Zhao Jinquan finished washing the sweet potatoes and malt, Feng Cheng also got up.

"Chop the malt into small pieces later, the finer the better. Cut the sweet potato into small pieces as well, so it will cook more easily when you cook it."

After checking the progress, Feng Cheng began to arrange the next steps.

There wasn't much work to do, and Zhao Jinquan was quick and efficient; he was almost finished by the time Feng Cheng had finished washing up.

"Let's start cooking the sweet potatoes!"

"okay."

"Brother Feng, how much sugar can be made from ten catties of sweet potatoes and half a catty of wheat?" Zhao Jinquan couldn't help but ask curiously while working.

Feng Cheng shook his head, "I don't know either. I've never done it before. I'll know how much sugar I can get after I finish this one."

While Zhao Jinquan was cooking the sweet potatoes, Feng Cheng went back to the dugout and found a piece of cloth to use for filtering the sweet potato residue later.

Ten pounds of sweet potatoes isn't much, and they cook quickly; a pot of sweet potatoes is cooked in just over half an hour.

Feng Cheng and Zhao Jinquan used a ladle and spatula to mash the sweet potatoes into a paste, then poured in the chopped malt and mixed it together.

"Keep it warm for a few hours, then we'll filter it again this afternoon."

After everything was ready, Feng Cheng put the pot lid on and then left the kitchen with Zhao Jinquan.

After visiting the nursery, watering the seedlings, and pulling out some weeds, Feng Cheng felt it was about time, so he and Zhao Jinquan returned to the camp.

Open the lid; the temperature inside the pot has already dropped.

"Bring that cloth over here, we'll filter out these sweet potatoes."

"okay."

Zhao Jinquan quickly ran over and brought over the prepared cloth. The two of them stayed in front of the stove and worked for more than ten minutes to filter out the sweet potato residue.

"We can use these sweet potato scraps to feed the chickens later."

"We should be able to eat this too!" Zhao Jinquan looked at the half-full plate of sweet potato residue and felt it was a waste to feed it to the chickens.

Feng Cheng thought for a moment, and since it was just sweet potatoes and wheat, and chickens could eat it, people should be able to eat it too, so there shouldn't be any problems. He then said:

"It should be possible. If you want to eat it, I can make it later. I can mix it with oat flour and fry it into a pancake, or steam it."

"Okay, I'll take care of it in a bit."

"Let's boil this pot of sugar first! We can talk about the other stuff after we finish this."

As Feng Cheng spoke, he poured the filtered sweet potato water into the pot and asked Zhao Jinquan to start the fire.

"When you start the fire later, keep an eye on this pot. Once the water boils, remember to stir it every now and then, otherwise it will burn."

As Feng Cheng left, he gave a word of advice: he wouldn't stay here and keep watch. Besides, one person was more than enough; having two people here would be a complete waste.

"Okay, by the way, Brother Feng, how long do we need to cook this pot of sugar?"

"Call me when it's almost pasty, and I'll come and check on it."

"it is good."

After Feng Cheng finished speaking, he left the kitchen, while Xiao Liu stayed in the kitchen to keep Zhao Jinquan company.

More than two hours later, Zhao Jinquan ran over to call Feng Cheng.

"Brother Feng, it's almost done. Come and check if it's ready."

"Okay, wait for me."

Putting down his book, Feng Cheng went to the kitchen. Looking at the syrup in the pot, which was almost as thick as paste, he stirred it and said, "It's almost done. Get something to put it in."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Jinquan quickly handed over the bowl of food he had prepared in advance.

When Feng Cheng scooped up the syrup, he took a sniff. It was very sweet and had a sweet potato aroma.

After scooping up all the syrup, Feng Cheng weighed the bowl in his hand. "It's a little over a pound, probably not two pounds."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Jinquan picked it up and weighed it in his hand. "It's about one and a half pounds."

"One and a half jin of sweet potatoes, ten jin of sweet potatoes, the market price is a bit high now, around 1 mao, that's one yuan, plus half a jin of wheat, 3 mao, that's one yuan and 3 mao, a jin of sugar outside is 1.1 yuan, and that's white sugar, so it's actually a loss, but white sugar is hard to buy now even if you have money, so it's not a loss."

"Moreover, once our own sweet potatoes are harvested, the production cost can be reduced further, making it a worthwhile investment."

Feng Cheng silently calculated the production cost in his mind and finally realized that making this candy was still feasible. Although it required materials and time, at least he could get candy—candy that didn't require ration coupons. In those days, this was considered a very good business.

If you were to sell this pound and a half of sugar outside, it would cost at least three yuan, even though it's maltose, because there was a severe sugar shortage on the market at that time.

After the sugar cooled down a little, Zhao Jinquan stirred some with chopsticks and ate it.

"It's sweet, it really is sugar, it even tastes sweeter than the sugar we buy at the supply and marketing cooperative."

"I'll put this away. I can add some sugar when I cook in the future. When the pumpkin and winter melon are cooked, I'll mix them with this sugar and make pumpkin candy and winter melon candy."

Speaking of these two candies, Feng Cheng thought of another snack, rice candy. That was really delicious, but it was a bit of a pity that it was difficult to get rice here. People here mainly ate noodles, and rice was very scarce.