1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 152 Something is better than nothing

Yi Long quickly picked up the remaining two or three sprigs of kale from the soup bowl and put them into his own bowl. Although he was a little unaccustomed to it, he still frowned and ate it.

Chen Jiazhi wasn't lying.

Actually, he didn't like eating kale at first, but after learning that eating kale had many benefits for vegetable farmers who spent a lot of time in the sun, he developed a habit of eating it and gradually came to like this vegetable.

Chinese kale, also known as Chinese kale.

It tastes slightly bitter at first, but after chewing for a while, the bitterness turns into sweetness, giving it a bittersweet flavor.

Of course, the quality of the kale these days is still far from that of kale in autumn and winter.

Delicious kale has a crisp, tender, and sweet texture with no bitterness.

Before long, everyone had finished eating the kale in their bowls, but they all felt that the taste wasn't very good.

Chen Jiazhi laughed and said, "Actually, we can peel it to make it taste better. It's just that it's too small, so peeling it is a bit troublesome. If it could grow to be a little smaller than lettuce, we could peel it, slice it diagonally to stir-fry with meat, or shred it and make a cold salad. Both would be delicious and more to our liking."

Li Xiu asked in surprise, "Can kale grow as big as lettuce?"

Chen Jiazhi laughed and said, "It can't compare to lettuce, but it can be smaller. It's just that in Huacheng, it takes spring and autumn to grow to that size. Sometimes a single broccoli can weigh seven or eight ounces."

"Wow~ How much would that yield per acre?"

"Very high."

Chinese kale is a variety that can create miracles. Chen Jiazhi remembers that there were several times when the wholesale price of Chinese kale reached 10 yuan per kilogram.

The domestic wholesale price is 10 yuan per kilogram, not the price in Hong Kong, Macau, or for export.

He won one of his lottery prizes while working in Shanghai, but that was seven or eight years ago, a long time ago.

There may be opportunities in the next few years.

After listening to Chen Jiazhi's introduction, the group couldn't help but feel more expectant, looking forward to the yield of Chinese kale and other ways to eat it.

After meal.

Chen Jiazhi didn't linger. He took the pre-germinated kale and mustard green seeds and went straight to the field.

Recently, we've been sowing Chinese cabbage every two days, and we also sowed mustard greens and Chinese kale on July 7.14th and July 7.17th respectively.

Today is the scheduled planting day for Chinese kale and mustard greens.

They still use bulk water mustard and medium-sized Chinese mustard, which are risky to grow in the summer, so Chen Jiazhi harvests them in advance.

There are three groups of land in total.

Currently, Qi Yongfeng's second plot of land only has five batches of bok choy, and Chen Jiazhi also plans to continue planting bok choy.
In addition to 2.3 mu of cowpeas, Ao Deliang's third group mainly grows mustard greens, and will continue to plant mustard greens.

Ao Dehai's group 1 was planted with Chinese kale.

The three groups managed to form a work rotation system.

The afterglow of the setting sun bathed the vegetable fields, where figures were busy working.

Chen Jiazhi glanced around and took in the situation of the three plots of land.

Vegetable baskets were set up in the vegetable field of Group 1, and four vegetable workers were divided into two groups to rake the land, waiting for nightfall before harvesting the vegetables;

Hu Chunmei and Huang Juan from Group 2 were busy thinning the seedlings. Zhang Weidong, a quiet and honest man, had a black wooden bucket hanging around his neck. He sprinkled handfuls of white urea onto the green seedlings, walking at a steady pace. Qi Yongfeng was behind them, dragging a water hose to water the seedlings.

Group 3 also placed their white vegetable baskets on the ground, and everyone started raking the soil together.
Chen Jiazhi used four words to summarize: orderly and well-organized, which has a unique aesthetic appeal.

Perhaps we could find someone to take a picture together; it would be a nice memory later.
Putting aside such thoughts, Chen Jiazhi also arrived at 3-1, the newly acquired land, which Ao Deliang had managed to give it a refined beauty.

Smooth as a sheet of paper, the setting sun caresses the vegetable plots like soft brocade, leaving no inch of land untouched.

Chen Jiazhi walked along the edge of the field, waving his right hand, and seeds fell one by one onto the field. His shadow was stretched long by the setting sun, swaying and wandering in the field, becoming a silhouette.

When more than half of the seeds had been sown, he spotted Ao Deliang walking over from across two ditches, wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts and yellow rubber shoes.

But then they pulled out another roll of water hose from under the shade netting, apparently intending to water the plants.

They really didn't waste a single moment.

Chen Jiazhi estimated the remaining area of ​​the plot, which was less than a third full, and then turned around and called out.

"Deliang~"

"Hey, boss."

"I've reserved some land for you to try planting and see how it goes."

Ao Deliang put down the water pipe by the ditch and walked over somewhat nervously.

"Mr. Chen, I've never sown seeds before. What if I don't sow them well..."

"It's alright, I didn't leave you much." Chen Jiazhi smiled, not caring much. "Even if the seedlings don't sprout well, we can replant them."

"Then I'll try."

Ao Deliang picked up the basin and recalled how Boss Chen sowed the seeds. He couldn't imitate it; he couldn't do it so smoothly.

After a moment's thought, he started scattering the confetti according to his own understanding.

The movements weren't pretty, and the speed was slow, but he felt that the seedlings wouldn't be bad even if they sprouted this way.

Chen Jiazhi watched for a minute or two, then went to lay the water pipes and set up the electric sprinkler. The water pipes were pointing upwards, and the water was scattered like water droplets on the ridge under the flat steel pipes, and soon a patch of it was wet.

After a while, Ao Deliang brought the seed-sowing basin and replaced Chen Jiazhi's.

Chen Jiazhi then took the kale seeds to 1-3.

1-1和1-2前身是6号地的移栽菜心，在7.14和7.17播下了两批芥兰。

1-3 are new land.

Compared to the three groups, the beds in the first group were not as regular, with varying widths and inconsistent quality of furrows.

The ones done by Jin Feng and Pan Dacheng, both beginners, are of poor quality. They can only be described as acceptable.

Like Ao Deliang, when there was less than a third of the seedbed left, Chen Jiazhi also asked Ao Dehai to sow the seeds, while he went to tidy up the seedbed on a nearby plot.

Zhao Yu, Jin Feng, and Pan Dacheng were also there. They learned Ao Deliang's land preparation methods, using ropes, shovels to prepare furrows, and hoes to rake the furrows, which greatly improved the quality.

After Ao Dehai finished sowing the seeds, it was completely dark, so he started harvesting the vegetables.

The task is actually quite challenging.

菜心22件660斤，芥兰8件240斤，芥菜8件240斤。

And 200 jin of kale and 200 jin of mustard greens for Heiwa'er.

A total of 1540 jin of vegetables were delivered, which is only about 500 jin less than before.

However, the remaining two batches of bok choy have a short growing period and low yield, and can only last for three days at most. It is estimated that there will be a shortage of goods for a week after that.

The mustard greens are all gone after tonight's harvest.

Fortunately, we still had kale and cowpeas, otherwise we would have had to start all over again to build the foundation we had laid with the client.

There are 12 people. One person from each of the three groups waters the plants. Two people each use a pump to spray water, and the third person walks around to help pull the water pipe.

The remaining nine people harvested over 1500 jin of vegetables, and with three or four hours to spare, they had more than enough manpower, and their skills were gradually improving.

After sowing the seeds, Chen Jiazhi planned to go home and sleep. He was still tired, but felt much more relaxed than before.

Working from dawn till dusk is the norm for vegetable farmers, but nowadays, apart from sowing, he rarely participates in the actual labor and has experienced a bit of the joy of being a boss.

The paths in the vegetable field are narrow, and the surfaces are wet after watering, making it easy to slip into the ditch if you're not careful.

Have to walk slowly.

Moonlight streamed down, frogs croaked, and a gentle evening breeze blew by. From afar, one could see a group of people gathered in the courtyard, enjoying the cool evening air.

It was the families of Yi Dinggan, Li Mingkun, and Guo Mancang; these were the only people left.

Currently, Chen Jiazhi has rented four of the six houses in Dongxiang Market.

In the other two rooms, Yi Dinggan and his family of three lived in one of them;
In the other room, Qi Yongfeng and Huang Juan moved out, and Guo Mancang moved in to live with Li Mingkun.

Qi Yongfeng partnered with Zhang Weidong, the Ao brothers shared a room, and Pan Dacheng and Huang Shan shared a room.

Chen Jiazhi and Li Xiu also occupied a room by themselves.

21 people in total.

As for the others, they all moved out for various reasons.

That's good too. They're either family or acquaintances. There might be minor bumps along the way, but not too much trouble. I can focus more on growing vegetables.

As they drew closer, Chen Jiazhi could make out the figure and occasionally heard Yi Dinggan's laughter, but no one could see him.

It wasn't until the black paparazzi barked once that anyone noticed him.

"Jiazhi's back. Here, light a cigarette. I saw you took a lot of baskets out. You're going to harvest a lot of vegetables today, aren't you?"

As soon as Chen Jiazhi entered the dam area, Li Mingkun came up to offer him a cigarette.

"I stopped smoking and threw it away. The vegetables are also less, but there are still more than a thousand catties left."

Chen Jiazhi stomped his feet on the ground and then scraped the mud off the soles of his shoes.

Li Mingkun said, "More than a thousand catties of vegetables a day is not a small amount. The cowpeas will be harvested soon, so you've never really been short of vegetables."

Guo Mancang added, "You can't compare. The three of us combined aren't even enough for one person's dishes."

Li Mingkun and Guo Mancang's family still only have 3 to 4 mu of land, while Yi Dinggan has more, with 12 mu.

The combined assets of the three families are roughly equivalent to Chen Jiazhi's previous 17 mu (approximately 1.1 hectares).

However, after six or seven days of produce, they ran out of produce for two or three days, which was nothing compared to Chen Jiazhi's more than 1,000 jin of produce.

Everyone was talking in a hurry.

Zhou Yuqiong, Huang Juan, and Chen Jiafang, in particular, kept talking.

One minute they're talking about how kale and mustard greens can be grown and sold, and the next they're discussing how good Chen Jiazhi's cowpeas are, with the shelves overflowing with them.

Yi Dinggan, who had been chatting quite enthusiastically, suddenly wilted like a frostbitten eggplant and fell silent.

Chen Jiazhi was also quite helpless. These people like to talk about him all the time, trying to figure out how he grows vegetables, and it never ends.

So after quickly washing his shoes, he went to take a shower and catch up on sleep. Heiwa'er Hong'an only woke up groggily at that time.

Yi Long got up even earlier than him and was chatting with Hong An about nonsensical things.

Hong An felt a little relieved when he saw Chen Jiazhi come out.

"Mr. Chen, your bok choy looks beautiful, short, thick, and tender," Hong An said, pointing to the bok choy in the plastic basket. "Could you spare some for me?"

Chen Jiazhi shook his head and said, "Not much left. I can only hold on for another 3 days. The mustard greens will be gone tomorrow."

Hong An: "Then I'll only have 200 catties of kale left every day!"

It's easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality

Having gotten used to the huge profits from 1,000 kilograms of vegetables, going back to 200 kilograms feels rather unappealing.

"Didn't it start with just over two hundred catties of bok choy?" Chen Jiazhi asked, squinting. "By the way, what kind of business does Boss Hong run?"

"..."

Hong An really wanted to say, "Stop pretending. Uncle Zhong already knew you guessed it, but he can't reveal his hand yet. If he did, we might not even have any food left."

Something is better than nothing.

(End of this chapter)