Communicate with furry animals without any barriers, and take the farm to the next level

Chapter 301 The Unpalatable Large-Leaf Ant Beans

Looking at the cluster of anthills that resembled tall chimneys in front of him, Josh was slightly surprised.

The leaf ants have built such a large anthill in just a few days. They are very capable.

"Is there anything the leaf ants need my help with?" Josh squatted at the entrance of the anthill and asked the leaf ants that came out.

All the leaf ants shook their antennae to indicate that there was nothing to worry about.

Josh was worried that they might be overconfident, so he observed them for a while. Seeing that they didn't really need anything and were busy carrying clods of earth and clearing weeds, Josh felt relieved for the time being.

Let's start preparing to process the large-leaf ant beans for them. Josh found it amusing to watch them move the pods with such a listless expression.

Josh arrived at the bigleaf ant bean field, where many bigleaf ants were also tending to the bigleaf ant beans. Compared to Josh, who was learning and figuring out how to grow these bigleaf ant beans, the bigleaf ants naturally knew the habits of the bigleaf ant beans inside and out.

They are transforming the land according to the needs of the large-leaved ant bean.

These are the kinds of needs that Josh often fails to hear from Bigleaf Ant Bean.

In Josh's opinion, these large-leaf ant pods were plump and growing quite well.

However, according to the leaf ants, this is only average. Leaf ant beans that are cared for by the leaf ants themselves will grow more beautiful and plump.

As usual, she listened to the sounds of the bigleaf ants. Recently, with the arrival of the bigleaf ants, they have been well taken care of and don't need Josh's help at all. She only heard the comfortable sounds they were making.

That's good.

She's going to start picking the bean pods.

As soon as Josh started picking, a swarm of leaf ants surrounded him, waving their antennae to stop him.

"What's wrong? I was just about to pick some bean pods to make something delicious for you." Josh thought they were being possessive of their food and were afraid that he would take it away from them.

The leaf ant shook its antennae: No, that's not how you pick them. Let us do it.

"Oh, okay, okay." Josh quickly put down the basket, took a few steps back, and gave the battlefield to the leaf ants.

It turned out that they disliked her for picking the bean pods too roughly, as it would tear and injure the large-leafed ant beans.

Josh touched his nose, feeling really embarrassed that he'd been taught how to do things by a bunch of giant ants.

Josh didn't have to pick them herself; she just squatted in the ant field and watched how the ants picked them.

Their sharp and powerful mandibles allow them to easily cut off mature pods, and their small size allows them to move nimbly through the lush thickets of large-leaf ant beans. One large-leaf ant bean is being cut, while several others are being carried away.

Soon Josh's basket was filled with them.

Because the focus of the entire field's planting is on the large-leaved ant bean, the sunflowers are not growing very well.

The sunflower heads that grew out were all small, as if they were underdeveloped.

The leaf ant also chewed off a few sunflowers for Josh and moved the sunflower heads to the side of the basket for her.

Josh watched them carrying things, completely absorbed; it was really interesting.

"Do you need more?" the leaf ant asked Josh, shaking its antennae.

"That's enough, that's enough, thank you." Josh snapped out of his daze and thanked them with a smile.

Thank you! I know you wanted to cook something delicious for us!

Yes, yes, thank you, dear farmer!

Just tell us what else you need us to do.
The leaf ants were much more enthusiastic than they appeared, their antennae twitching as if they were being electrocuted. "Haha, I'll definitely come to you if I need anything. I'll go back now and try to cook you something delicious. Wait for my good news!"

Josh put the basket of bean pods and the sunflower seeds next to it into his spatial backpack and headed towards the farm cabin.

On the way, she kept thinking about how to process the large-leaf ant beans for these little guys. She wondered what kind of taste they liked.

The plump pods of the large-leaf ant bean resemble golden pea pods, and the beans inside are slightly concave, yellowish-green.

Josh tried one.

"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey." Josh wiped the remaining large leaf ant beans from his mouth with his hand.

What is this? It's definitely the most bean-like and strangest-smelling bean she's ever eaten.

The strange taste kept getting into her nostrils as she chewed, and to be honest, Josh suspected that if she ate a few more bites, she might as well skip dinner.

It's no wonder people don't like it; nobody would like this stuff.

Josh felt deep sympathy for the leaf ants.

If she had to eat this stuff every day, she'd lose all will to live.

The large-leaf ant bean contains all the shortcomings of all legumes, but it completely lacks the bean's own aroma and oily fragrance.

Josh suspects that the earliest ancestors of the leaf ants probably thought that eating this would prevent other magical beasts from competing with them for food, so they evolved to only eat this kind of thing.

I never imagined that this would harm their offspring so much. There are so many delicious foods available, yet they can only survive by relying on large-leaf ant beans.

If ants can't get any good food, what's the point of living?

No wonder some of them deliberately harm the large-leaf ant bean to commit suicide.

Miserable!

However, the flavor is so much stronger than that of regular beans. I wonder how much effect boiling and soaking, like bitter chestnut beans, would have.

Josh decided to give it a try.

Peel open each pod of the large-leaf ant bean and remove the beans.

The large-leaf ant beans had only just matured; the beans inside were still very juicy. Josh could squeeze them and they would release water, but the smell wasn't very pleasant.

After quickly shelling the entire basket of bean pods, Josh had harvested half a pot of beans. The water was already boiling, and she added a spoonful of salt to help release the strange taste from the beans.

Once the beans were bubbling and had expanded a second time, Josh turned off the heat, covered the pot, and let the large-leaf ant beans soak slowly.

It takes half a day to soak out the bitterness from bitter chestnut beans, so I reckon these big-leaf ant beans won't be ready until tomorrow.

After cleaning up all the garbage in the kitchen, Josh wiped his hands and prepared to go find Aunt Rose to check on her work.

There were no red beans on the farm, so it was impossible to make red bean paste for the egg yolk pastry. However, taro paste could be used instead. If all else failed, she also had some soaked bitter chestnuts, which would also work, though I don't know how they would taste.

If the taste difference is still too great, Josh plans to buy red beans from other farms, as growing them himself is not cost-effective.

In the new factory, the golden kiwis were busy with production work, and when they saw Josh, they would just wag their tails and smile at her.

More golden kiwis have come down from the mountains recently, but the production line doesn't need that many workers yet, so they all competed for their positions. They dare not be inattentive during their work hours; each one is very serious.

Before Josh even reached Aunt Rose's large kitchen, he smelled a sweet aroma.

Overjoyed, she rushed over to take a look.