1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 172 Such a big cart, yet carrying such a tiny bit of vegetables.

The rain was refreshing, but it also made the vegetable farmers anxious once again.

Rotting during transportation and sales in the high-temperature season has always been a major pain point for small vegetable farmers.

It got dark quite early. Walking through the vegetable fields after the rain, the roads were muddy, and my feet were constantly slipping.

The headlamp shone into the vegetable field, and the leaves of the cabbage hearts were covered with water droplets.

We dare not harvest them yet.

So Chen Jiazhi returned to the courtyard, where Ao Dehai, Qi Yongfeng, and Ao Deliang waited under the eaves.

"Go home and sleep for three or four hours first, then let it air out a bit. We'll harvest the vegetables later. I'll go get some more ice later."

There are many people; if twelve or thirteen people work together to harvest six or seven hundred catties of bok choy, it can be done in just over an hour.

It's only a little past eight o'clock, and it just started raining, so there's less work to do right now.

The rain not only alleviated the drought but also gave farmers a chance to catch their breath.

After the vegetable workers went home to sleep, Yi Dinggan, Li Mingkun, and Guo Mancang also arrived at Chen Jiazhi's door one after another.

"Jiazhi, bring us a block of ice later too."

"Do you need to harvest the crops tonight too?"

Li Mingkun said, "There's nothing we can do. The vegetables are already that big; if we wait a couple more days, they might get too old."

Chen Jiazhi laughed and said, "I've noticed you've been reading my book, 'Lingnan Vegetable Planting Techniques,' these past few days. There's a sentence in the book that I don't know if you've seen."

"Which sentence?"

"Harvest in advance when appropriate."

"Hmm?!" The three of them immediately seemed to be deep in thought.

Chen Jiazhi added, "There's another phenomenon you should have noticed: once it rains, you can't see any local vegetable farmers in the market. We always thought they were lazy and unwilling to work hard, so they didn't want to harvest vegetables in the rain. But actually, after they've learned from their experience, they often harvest earlier."

First, early harvesting ensures better marketability and taste; second, it allows time to wait for the rainwater to dry before harvesting, reducing the risk of rotting.

Therefore, don't underestimate the importance of harvesting early at the right time; it's all based on experience.

The three of them felt they had learned something, and even Qi Yongfeng, who was lying in the house, exclaimed "Good!" He felt that he had another suitable reason for his declining bok choy production.

Li Mingkun felt that all his reading had been for nothing, and said with a wry smile, "There's nothing I can do now."

Chen Jiazhi laughed and said, "That's why I'm bringing you ice. You can also use my basket to pack the vegetables. I'll pack less in one basket and bring them all with you."

"How embarrassing."

"When you guys were pedaling your bikes to bring me groceries, I wasn't embarrassed at all. Why are you all acting all coy now that it's your turn?"

Yi Dinggan thought for a moment and said, "I can borrow your basket, but you don't need to bring the vegetables. Your car is big, and it will be difficult to get out of the temporary alley. I will drive my tricycle tonight, and it will fit everything."

"Okay."

After discussing it, Chen Jiazhi went back to his room to sleep for a while before driving out to the ice factory to pick up ice.

In fact, the history of summer-grown Chinese cabbage in Lingnan is not long. It was not until the 80s, with the promotion of a variety called "Sijiuxin" by the Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, that the supply of Chinese cabbage in all four seasons was initially realized.

However, many problems remain unresolved, including frequent natural disasters, low quality, difficulty in preventing pests and diseases, high pesticide residues, and difficulty in preservation.
Chen Jiazhi also uses the No. 49 Heart 19 seed for the current Chinese cabbage, but he always feels that it is not as good as the seeds of later generations.

He also remembered the company from which he often bought seeds in later years: CKH.

Even after returning to Chengdu for many years, he still went back to Changhefa Seeds, which was also a company in Panyu.

But when he inquired, he learned that the company probably hadn't been established yet; in other words, the seed industry wasn't open to the public yet.

The preservation issue is slightly better.
Besides local traditional experience, pre-cooling technology has also developed rapidly, and there are many ice factories in Huacheng, but small vegetable farmers generally don't bother with it.

At this point, Chen Jiazhi was no longer afraid of trouble; he was just afraid of trouble in interpersonal relationships.

A short while later, he returned to the market in a sizable light truck, loaded with only two blocks of ice and a stack of old newspapers.

Yi Long was already waiting with a club in hand.

In the dead of night, the sound of ice chiseling began again.

Little Bean Chen Zhengyun was awakened and cried loudly in the house. Li Xiu went to the field again, so Chen Jiazhi had to go back into the house, pick him up, and stand under the eaves to watch Yi Long chisel ice blocks from a distance.

The little guy watched intently.

Yi Long was also working hard at chiseling, sweat streaming down his face.

After smashing for a while, Yi Long got tired and put down the mallet to rest. Chen Jiazhi asked him to watch the child, so he took the mallet back and continued smashing.

This is no easy task.

It takes a lot of effort.

Yi Long was able to keep smashing ice blocks for so many days not just because it was fun—even the most fun things get boring after a while—but also because he was capable of enduring hardship.

The two took turns smashing for a while longer when a figure walked out in the darkness, carrying two baskets of vegetables on his shoulders. Even in the rain, his steps were light and quick.

"Brother Zhi, how many ice packs have you filled?"

"There should be about twenty bags. You can take some out for Brother Yi, Lao Li, and Lao Guo as well."

"Have it."

"Have the vegetables been weighed in the field?"

"It's been weighed."

The vegetables were only just started to be harvested, and the two baskets of vegetables I picked back weren't as wet as I had imagined.

Chen Jiazhi held the vegetables by both ends with his hands, neatly lifted them out and placed them on the ground. He then laid an old newspaper on top of the vegetables in the basket, added an ice pack, laid another newspaper, and then carried the vegetables back inside.
This is the most traditional way to preserve Chinese cabbage.

It's a real hassle, but if you use the right method, you can significantly extend the shelf life and avoid problems during customer delivery.

After breaking the two lumps of ice into pieces and putting them into bags, Chen Jiazhi asked Yi Long to watch the child while he took the remaining ice bags to the field.

There was no moon or stars, and the vegetable field was pitch black.

The vegetable harvesters were a little faster than usual. This plot of land was planted by Qi Yongfeng, and the seeds were scattered sparsely. The bok choy roots were thick and strong, with few yellow leaves. Apart from the low yield, it didn't seem to have many drawbacks.

After putting down the ice pack and asking a couple of questions, Chen Jiazhi groped his way to the cowpea field and shouted, "Li Xiu!"

"Is it here?"

"Over here, Mr. Chen."

Following the sound, Chen Jiazhi, wearing a headlamp, also crawled into the cowpea vines.

Under the lamplight, all I could see were slender cowpeas. After walking for a while, I finally saw two women, one tall and one short, one fair-skinned and one dark-skinned, each standing in one of the two furrows.

Li Xiu and Lai Guihui each had several handfuls of cowpeas on their right hands, while their left hands continued picking them.

Picking cowpeas also requires skill; the base of the stem must not be damaged, but both of them picked them quickly and steadily.

"Give me the cowpeas, where do you put the vegetable basket?"

"They'll be finished picking soon."

After Chen Jiazhi had set the cowpeas out, he also came to help pick them, and he was very enthusiastic when he first started picking them.

But over time, it becomes a tedious job, and it can easily cause hand pain. Fortunately, he doesn't have a large area of ​​cowpeas.

By the time the three of them finished picking cowpeas, the bok choy had also been harvested, 20 pieces. They swept their headlamps across the vegetable field, which covered nearly half the area, estimating the yield to be only about 1300 jin per mu.

It does grow very well, but the yield is too low, making it somewhat of a loss.

The problem lies in the sowing process.

The team leader's skills still need further improvement.

At midnight,

One by one, the vegetables were loaded onto a blue light truck; there were more than 20 pieces of vegetables, and even the first layer was not fully covered.

Yi Dinggan saw it and joked, "Jiazhi, isn't this upgraded truck a bit of a waste?"

Li Mingkun also said, "They even installed guardrails, but it feels like the money was wasted."

Guo Mancang, smoking a cigarette, chuckled, "But this truck does look like it can hold a lot of food."

Ao Dehai and his fellow vegetable workers felt this even more keenly; during the day, there were many people standing on the cargo compartments, so it wasn't noticeable.

But after actually installing it that night, I realized that the car's capacity was astonishing.

"I feel it can hold at least two hundred pieces of food."

"It's possible to squeeze in 300 dishes."

"Where are we going to find so many vegetables? 300 pieces, that's 9000 jin (4,500 catties) of vegetables! How much land would that take!"

Li Xiu and Chen Jiafang also came to check the carriage one after another. It was a bit empty, which also meant that the carriage could hold more passengers.

Chen Jiazhi smiled and said, "Alright, everyone go back and get some rest. Come on, Yi Long, let's get in the car and set off."

Yi Long jogged over, taking three steps at a time. "You're here! This is the first time I've ever ridden in such a big car!"

"The train is even bigger than this."

"Can you even compare them?"

"Hahaha~"

"Xiaolong is also a lucky person."

Amidst the laughter of the crowd, the engine roared to life, breaking the silence of the night, and then slowly drove out of the market.

Inside the driver's seat, Yi Long curiously observed everything.

"Xiaolong, why don't you get some sleep?"

"If you don't sleep, let's see how you drive."

"Why don't you learn one in a few years?"

"It feels so difficult."

"It's very simple for you, I'll teach you later."

"Really?"

"I'm sure of it."

In his previous life, Yi Long got his driver's license three years earlier than Chen Jiazhi. Back then, Chen Jiazhi was very grateful to Yi Long for helping him practice driving for a while.

Yi Long drives very steadily, but after his divorce, he changed cars as frequently as he changed women, and they were all second-hand.

In contrast, Yi Hu's marriage was stable, he drove aggressively, and he even upgraded his driver's license to A1. The year his father passed away, Yi Hu drove back to his hometown overnight, leaving everyone in the van nauseous. The van's chassis was almost completely ruined, and his fellow passengers talked about it for over a decade. He was lucky, though, because his father passed away so suddenly, and he was able to see him one last time.
The Yuejin was difficult to drive, hard to turn, and slow to brake. Only Chen Jiazhi, being young, strong, and quick-witted, was able to drive it smoothly.

Uh, even with the accelerator floored, it only reaches 90 km/h.

That's a piece of cake.

When he arrived at the market, he made quite a splash. There weren't many people with light trucks in the market, and a few early customers looked on in disbelief as he drove into stall number 56.

After he and Yi Long got out of the car, they saw the wonderful expressions on Chen Ze's, Lao Wu's, and Juanmao's faces.

Curly-haired man asked incredulously, "Mr. Chen, you changed cars?"

Chen Ze smiled and said, "Congratulations."

Old Wu glanced at the vegetables in the truck, his eyes widening: "Boss Chen, your truck is so big, and you're only carrying this little bit of vegetables? Aren't you ashamed?"

More people started arriving at the stall, and even Mr. Hu, the owner of the stall across the street, came over to join in the fun.

“Mr. Chen, this is indeed extravagant. It’s a waste of transportation capacity and fuel costs.”

Chen Jiazhi smiled and said, "It is a bit wasteful, so I also plan to go to Qingyuan sometime to see if I can bring back a truckload of vegetables."

Mr. Hu's heart skipped a beat; he shouldn't have interfered.

(End of this chapter)