1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 227 Snow Peas

"Hahaha, good!"

"It must have cost a fortune to fix it up to look this good. As long as it's passable, it's fine."

When Chen Jiazhi said that the house he built back in his hometown was even more beautiful than this, Chen Shaochang and Peng Guozhen both laughed heartily.

"Let's go, don't just stand there. Let's go inside and assign rooms, then tidy up a bit, and go buy anything we're missing."

"Okay~"

"Uncle, do I have a private room too?"

"Yes, there are plenty of rooms. Even if Yi Hu comes, he can have a room by himself."

"that would be great."

The entire house was rented; there were six rooms in total, five of which could be used as bedrooms, in addition to the main room.

Upon hearing Yi Hu's name, Peng Guozhen muttered that they should have brought him out sooner if they had the means. He had become so thin back in his hometown that he was barely recognizable. This made Chen Jiafang feel sad again.

"Hey, there are two loquat trees over there." Before even entering the house, Yi Long noticed several trees on the left side of the house.

"Uncle, what kind of tree is this?"

"Yangmei, I guess?!"

Chen Jiazhi glanced around, also a little uncertain. There were quite a few trees in front of and behind the house, so it was quite cool. "Let's go, don't look anymore."

After some selection, the rooms were assigned.

Chen Jiazhi and Li Xiu chose a room on the right side of the second floor. There was a small balcony in front of it, and a staircase next to it. Further to the left of the staircase were two more rooms. Outside the rooms was an open-air corridor, and at the other end of the corridor was a bathroom.

"This house is so well designed!"

After choosing her room, Li Xiu stood on the small balcony outside the bedroom, looking at the surrounding scenery with great excitement.

A private room is the dream of many migrant workers, but few can actually have it.

Especially for many vegetable farmers, the bed frame creaks and groans when they pollinate at night. There are other people in the room, and although they have all gotten used to it by being separated by a curtain, they have no choice but to endure it. They can't keep holding it in forever.

"I think my taste is pretty good."

"Great!"

Chen Jiazhi whispered in her ear, "Shouldn't we give her a reward tonight?"

Li Xiu's eyes darted away: "I'll go see if there's anything else I need to buy~"

After a while of tidying up, Chen Jiazhi went to town to buy some household items, and finally his home was fully equipped.

Yi Dinggan also rode his bike over after get off work and felt very happy when he saw the new home.

Neither he nor Chen Jiazhi liked cleaning, so their dormitory was a mess and sometimes had a strange smell.

My wife is here now, and this place is spacious and big, and not far from the market!
"Take off! Jiazhi, how much is the rent? Let's make it clear first, I'm paying half!"

"Alright, alright, whatever you say. Let's go to town and get something to eat first. I'm starving. I also need to go to the market this afternoon to see if you've been slacking off these past few days."

Chen Jiazhi had long expected him to pay the rent and was too lazy to argue with him, but he didn't expect him to have even learned the word "take off".

After closing the door, the group headed towards town.

Yi Dinggan also chatted with him about his work at the vegetable market.

He talked a big game, did this and that, which made Chen Jiazhi very suspicious that he was just trying to save face for his father-in-law and his wife.

But he didn't investigate further; he found out everything after going to the market.

After having a casual lunch in town and buying some groceries, Chen Jiafang and Li Xiu planned to cook dinner that evening.

In Yi Dinggan's words, Cantonese food is tasteless, and he can't live without spicy food.

While Chen Jiazhi was taking a lunch break, Yi Dinggan chatted with his father-in-law for the entire lunch break, making them both laugh heartily.

Chen Shaochang's favorite son-in-law was Yi Dinggan. On the day he passed away in his previous life, he kept asking, "Where is Yi Dinggan? Where is Yi Dinggan?" He only breathed his last when Yi Dinggan arrived.

"Let's go to the market, shall we all go together?"

After hiding in his room and contemplating life with Li Xiu for a while, Chen Jiazhi went downstairs and yelled.

Soon, everyone came down.

Yi Long still rides the bicycle he bought with his own savings. He was busy selling vegetables recently, running between two vegetable markets, so he rarely rode the bicycle anymore.

At this moment, he rode towards the market with great enthusiasm, and was slowly overtaken by Chen Jiazhi in his car. Yi Long then chased after him on his bicycle. Looking in the rearview mirror, he looked like a true speed demon.

Behind them, Yi Dinggan followed slowly with Chen Jiafang in his car.

"Manager, you're back!"

"Good morning, Manager!"

As soon as the car stopped in the yard, Xu Yao, Tong Gang, Huang Chuan and others shouted from the second floor of the office. Chen Jiazhi waved in response.

Chen Shaochang and Peng Guozhen immediately understood, while Li Xiu, holding her son, curiously looked around the Jiangxin vegetable market.

It's more spacious than the Dongxiang Market, and it even has a separate office building and several tall camphor trees, unlike the Dongxiang Market which is just a bare building.

Jiazhi sold over 2.6 million worth of goods in one month right here, earning 400,000 yuan himself.

It looks pretty good.

After waiting for a while, Yi Long, Yi Dinggan, and Chen Jiafang arrived one after another.

Chen Jiazhi asked, "Would you like to sit in my office for a while, or go to the market first?"

Yi Dinggan said, "What's so great about the vegetable garden? Come on, Mom and Dad, I'll take you to Jiazhi's office for tea. His coffee table... hehe, one word: comfortable!"

Chen Shaochang and Peng Guozhen were amused and laughed heartily, clearly wanting to go to the office for tea.

"Jiazhi, I'll go with you."

Li Xiu said that she handed her son to Peng Guozhen to hold, and then took the stroller off the car.

So the group split into two. Chen Jiazhi pushed his bicycle out of the shed, wiped the seat, and then got on. He then picked up Li Xiu, who had brought the camera, at the door.

Yi Long was already waiting on the road. "Uncle, let's have a race and see who can ride faster?"

"If I don't come, I can't compete with you."

"Tch, forget it, I'm going to charge ahead."

Chen Jiazhi slowly rode Li Xiu on the highway, and then turned into the farm road in the vegetable market.

He kept glancing at the vegetable fields on both sides and occasionally gave Li Xiu a briefing on the market.

"The market is divided into two sections, north and south, by the road. Each section has three groups. The first group in the north section is led by Ao Deliang, the second by Qi Yongfeng, and the third by Huang Rixin."
The first group from the southern region consists of Li Mingkun, the second group consists of Guo Mancang, and the third group consists of Zheng Zhong.

On the surface, Yi Dinggan did not exaggerate when he returned at noon.

Jiangxin Market closed on the 20th, and Chen Jiazhi returned to Dongxiang on the 22nd, which was only two or three days in between.

It rained yesterday~
However, the vegetable stalks and leaves in the field have all been cleared away, and most of them have been turned over and are now drying.

Four micro-tillers can till eighty acres of land a day. Even if we deduct the two or three hundred acres that Ao Deliang, Qi Yongfeng and others harvested and tilled the earliest, the work in the fields never stopped except when it rained.

This relieved Chen Jiazhi.

Because I was determined to work hard, I had to go all out from the very beginning of preparing the land for this crop. The land needed to be dried for at least seven days, and I also needed to fertilize it thoroughly. Rain would cause a lot of delays.

Oh right, we haven't applied the base fertilizer yet. After applying the fertilizer, we need to till the land again.

I wonder how Huang Chuan's procurement is going.

He allowed ample time for this batch of vegetables.

If the cold wave occurs around New Year's Day, then the market will be booming for at least a period of time after New Year's Day.

You can make a quick buck by selling bok choy after this.

As for snow peas, once the seedlings freeze to death, they simply die, and there is no time to replant them for up to several months.

The Spring Festival is just a month after New Year's Day, so demand will be high and the market will definitely be good.

Meanwhile, the harvesting period for snow peas can last from 90 to 120 days, continuing until the arrival of the humid weather in South China around the Qingming Festival next year.

Chen Jiazhi suddenly wanted to plant more snow peas, since the crop rotation wasn't as frequent as that of bok choy.

His plan to protect snow peas from the cold was to use a medium-sized arched greenhouse, which was too troublesome and costly, and some professional growers felt it was unnecessary.

Winter-grown snow peas are generally grown in open fields.

Because the Pearl River Delta region and the coastal areas of South China have very little or no frost-free period, they are very suitable for winter planting of snow peas.

The history of cultivation is also very long. Snow peas originated in Southeast Asia, around Myanmar and Thailand. Later, Arabs brought them to the Mediterranean. After the Dutch became the maritime power, they built Fort Zeelandia on the island of Taiwan, and snow peas were introduced to China in the mid-Qing Dynasty.

In Guangdong, it is generally called "Mai Dou" or "Xue Dou", but it is actually a type of pea.

For many years, it has been cultivated in the open field. There have been years when cold waves caused complete crop failure, but we could only accept our fate.

In fact, the cold wave only lasts for one or two days, and the medium-sized arched greenhouse is most useful for only one or two days.

Upon reflection, Li Zaixing's words make sense; it is indeed a bit of a waste.

Or should we switch to a small arched shed? Are there any other ways to tie the vines?

Before he knew it, Chen Jiazhi was lost in thought. Perhaps a temporary adjustment was necessary, and there was still time.

"Jiazhi, shall we have Yilong take a picture of us?"

Yi Long had already ridden around once and then caught up from behind, so Li Xiu decided to take a photo with him.

"Good~"

Chen Jiazhi snapped out of his daze and called out, "Xiaolong, come take a picture of me and your aunt!"

"Okay."

After Yi Long parked the car, he jogged over and took the camera. "How should we take the pictures?"

"How about filming the scene of your uncle riding his bike with me on the back?" Li Xiu said with a smile, then looked at Chen Jiazhi questioningly.

“Just shoot it like this!”

"Yes, yes."

Chen Jiazhi tidied his hair and clothes, but he was dressed rather maturely today, which didn't quite match Li Xiu's youthful beauty. Would the photos make him look old? And this vegetable field, it's all yellowish-brown. It would be nice if it had vegetables with blooming flowers.

However, Li Xiu seemed very happy.

After they took their picture, I also took a picture of Chen Jiazhi and Yi Long.

Along the way, many vegetable workers greeted them, and Chen Jiazhi responded to each one.

After slowly riding around the entire area, Chen Jiazhi had a good understanding of the conditions in the fields.

The only thing I have concerns about is the snow peas.

If we can solve both the problems of keeping the small arched sheds warm and the problems of trellising and vine tying, the area can be expanded further.

Even the Dongxiang vegetable market could grow some.

Snow peas are probably the crop most severely damaged by this cold wave, and they also command the highest prices.

He vaguely remembered that the price was nine yuan, but he might have misremembered the unit of measurement; it might have been nine yuan per kilogram.

Even so, it still costs 4.5 yuan per jin.

However, it could also be 9 yuan, because in later generations, the market price of snow peas in South China during the Spring Festival has always remained at a high level of 10 to 20 yuan.

The yield is 3000 to 4000 jin per mu, and the output value per mu is steadily over 10,000 yuan in half a year.

Compared to late-maturing Chinese cabbage that takes 60, 80, 90, or 120 days to mature, snow peas may be more cost-effective.

(End of this chapter)