Chapter 123
Feng Ningxiang and the others had long discovered that whenever Qing Mengzhu something difficult to grow, he would ask to water it with pond water. They didn't know the reason behind it, but they did find that watering with pond water was quite effective.
Qing Mengzhu explained that there are prawns surviving in the pond, and they are regularly fed with feed and fertilizer, making the pond water very fertile, which is why the irrigation effect is so good.
Whether people actually believed it or not, the public's reaction was that they did.
As Qing Mengzhu and his colleagues engaged in a series of agricultural activities, such as tilling the land, cultivating seedlings, and ridging the soil, New Year's Day finally arrived.
New Year's Day arrived, but Zhao Hexi wasn't happy about the holiday; instead, she was overjoyed that her contract period had finally come to an end.
After January 1st, the land they had rented was finally officially registered under their names, which meant they could now develop and utilize it without any worries.
Not only was Zhao Hexi very happy, but Feng Ningxiang and the others, who had just returned from their holiday, were also very excited.
Looking at the vast fields where the ridges had already been leveled, everyone felt a surge of ambition and determination to make a big splash.
Feng Ningxiang asked Qing Mengzhu excitedly, "Boss, is this a big farm now?"
Qing Mengzhu, holding Ming Chunxi's hand, stood to the side. "Treat it as an agricultural company? If you're talking about a large farm, that sounds plausible."
Zhao Hexi: "Hahaha, whatever they say, we can finally get started!"
Qing Mengzhu: "Then let's do it."
Zhao Hexi said, "You guys come first, you guys dig the first hole with your hoes!"
Qing Mengzhu and Ming Chunxi exchanged a glance, and following Zhao Hexi's instructions, they took hoes and dug the first handful of soil together.
Zhao Hexi led everyone in applause. "Alright! We can officially get to work now."
Their main task today is to create ridges, piling the soil into rows of mounds.
The soil has already been tilled by machine and the basic shape of the ridges has been created, but it still needs some manual finishing touches to make it more refined.
Ridges facilitate drainage and aeration, making subsequent planting easier. This is a very necessary task, and they need to do it carefully.
In addition to being able to work in the fields, Zhuxi Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd.. can also formally establish a community-supported agriculture program, start recruiting members, and prepare for the next planting season.
They've been building up this event for a long time, creating several large group chats with 5,000 members each.
Now that it's finally about to officially begin, the group members are all very excited and are eagerly signing up in the group chat.
Qing Mengzhu asked Zhao Hexi to first post their soil test results in the group chat, and then announce the general condition of the soil after they had treated it.
They promised that they would not only publish the soil test results, but also the test results after the vegetables were produced.
Zhao Hexi, listening from the side, nodded repeatedly. "I understand! We've already done the work, now all we need to do is promote it properly."
Qing Mengzhu: "Almost. We'll try our best to make the vegetable situation clear so that members understand why they pay more."
Qing Mengzhu added, "We need to differentiate ourselves from typical community-supported agriculture models, otherwise I doubt many people will sign up."
Their membership fee is extremely expensive. Other community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs charge around 1,200 to 1,500 yuan for six months, such as Public Benefit Community Association, which charges 1,200 yuan. Their CSA program charges 12,000 yuan for six months, which is ten times that of others.
Qing Mengzhu felt that if they didn't tell the members exactly why the membership fee was so expensive, they probably wouldn't be able to collect much membership fees.
Don't be fooled by the initial excitement; everyone's money doesn't grow on trees, and once a reasonable explanation isn't provided, everyone will leave immediately.
Qing Mengzhu and the others have really done a lot behind the scenes, and their environment has now been truly improved and is now very healthy.
Zhao Hexi and his team sent the test reports to the group file, each report bearing the stamp of a nationally recognized testing company.
The reports were laid out there, and they were quite impressive to look at.
Most group members were surprised to see these large red stamps.
So many test reports? Do you really need to prepare so much for farming?
My major is somewhat related to planting, and after looking at the test report, it seems quite comprehensive.
[Wait, I'd like to know, are there really this many pollutants in the soil in other places? Polychlorinated biphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons? And Hg, Pb, Cd, As? Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration?]
[Spear Dipped in Poop, I'm not exaggerating. Soil pollution is indeed quite serious in some places, and the biological quality of vegetables and grains grown there is poor, easily containing residual toxins. Their soil is quite good.]
[I checked, did your company really do all those testing reports, or was it just a small area where you did so many testing reports?]
[Never mind, I'll sign up first, I'm afraid of dying.]
[I'll sign up too. Your food is pretty good, and I don't want to deprive myself of good food.]
Using data to speak for itself is quite impressive; after Zhao Hexi uploaded the test report, quite a few people came to their company to register.
In just over a day, their company's Community Supported Agriculture membership grew to more than 10,000.
Qing Mengzhu wasn't surprised that others signed up.
To Qing Mengzhu's surprise, Gu Benshu and Li Ba both signed up, saying they wanted to buy an extra vegetable package.
When Qing Mengzhu saw the list, she specifically spoke to them, "Seriously? This is going too far! If you want to eat company food, just take some home. Why did you have to sign up for extra?"
Gu Benshu explained, "I bought it for my parents. It's not convenient to bring it back every day, so buying just one set is more practical."
Li Ba: "I bought this for my parents too. We cultivated this land ourselves, and we'll grow our own vegetables in the future. We feel safe eating these vegetables."
"What's with you signing up?" Qing Mengzhu said, both amused and exasperated. "I'll think about it. I'll just give the employees some vegetable packages as a perk. No need to sign up."
After thinking about it, Qing Mengzhu still felt both touched and amused. "You guys trust the company way too much."
Gu Benshu: "Because our company is truly a company with a conscience. We ourselves live up to our conscience during the production process. If we can't even trust our company, then we can't trust any other company."
Author's Note:
See you tomorrow!
Chapter 123
Qing Mengzhu held a meeting with Ming Chunxi and Zhao Hexi to discuss how to improve employee benefits, hoping that the employees could also taste the vegetables they grew themselves.
Zhao Hexi was much more mature than before. After hearing the whole story, he said, "There's no need to just give out vegetable welfare packages. Many times, people would rather receive a larger bonus than a vegetable package."
Ming Chunxi: "Indeed, we can send them out on holidays. Employees who need them can become members of our community agriculture program at a 50% or 30% discount, and receive weekly vegetable packages just like other regular members."
Zhao Hexi: "Yes, that's my idea too. We can give out a vegetable package every month, but it should be different from the vegetable packages given to community agriculture members."
Qing Mengzhu nodded. "That will work too."
Zhao Hexi: "Then let's continue working on the community agriculture membership program. Take a look at the form I made."
Zhao Hexi distributed the printed forms to them. "Community agriculture outside usually delivers a vegetable package weighing eight to ten pounds per week, with five to eight kinds of vegetables in each package. I want to upgrade it so that we can also deliver a ten-pound vegetable package per week, with eight to twelve kinds of vegetables in each package."
Qing Mengzhu and Ming Chunxi nodded, neither of them having any objections.
Zhao Hexi: "We started delivering the first vegetable package in the first week of March. The vegetables chosen by members through voting are eleven in total: cilantro, radish, scallion, shepherd's purse, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, potato, peas, green beans, and purple cabbage, plus strawberries."
Qing Mengzhu calculated carefully. "No problem, we should be able to produce it."
Zhao Hexi: "Yes, they are all vegetables that grow relatively quickly."
They continued to recruit members, and on January 10th, Zhao Hexi held a meeting with them to tell them that by that day, they had recruited a total of 36,733 members.