Chapter 219

Ming Chunxi sat down next to him. "Can you tell the quality of the tomato and pepper seedlings now?"

Qing Mengzhu nodded. "Most of these tomato seedlings are up to 'Fine Grade-' quality, and the pepper seedlings are still 'Fine Grade+' quality, but they're very close to 'Superior Grade-'."

Their tomato seeds were "Good Grade+" before being soaked in Seed Gene Agent; after soaking, the quality improved slightly. Their chili seeds were "Fine Grade+" before, and they are still "Fine Grade+".

It's possible that because seeds need to accumulate more substances to advance to a higher grade, the residual medicinal properties of the Seed Gene Agent are insufficient.

They can only put more effort into the planting process and see if they can make a breakthrough.

Qing Mengzhu: "I want to plant chili peppers here, and one or two acres of tomatoes for breeding purposes. The rest of the tomatoes will be moved to the border region. It's quite suitable for growing tomatoes there. Maybe in a couple of years, we can establish a tomato base."

Ming Chunxi had no objection. "I'll make the arrangements. We'll go on a business trip after New Year's Day."

Author's Note:

See you tonight!

Chapter 219

Early that morning, Qing Mengzhu brought tea and fermented bamboo leaves to feed the cattle.

He rode his tricycle there.

Their family owns two mountains, both covered with bamboo, and roads need to be built on both mountains.

The construction team started building the road from the mountain near their home, and now the road has been built halfway up the mountain. He can drive his tricycle directly up to the halfway point, which greatly saves time and energy.

Soon, Qing Mengzhu arrived at the cowshed, carrying fermented bamboo leaves in his left hand and tea in his right.

The cattle were waiting for him in the cowshed. When they saw him, they all looked up at him, their big, round eyes shining with a gentle light.

After Qing Mengzhu placed the bamboo leaves and tea, she went to check on the cattle.

The cows are all pregnant, and their bellies are bigger than before, but they are in good health.

Qing Mengzhu checked each of the cows one by one, and only after confirming that there were no problems did he open the cowshed to let them roam freely, and then went to check on the hazel grouse.

Their family has been catching large hazel grouse to eat and also replenishing their stock with chicks. Now, the number of hazel grouse has not only not decreased, but has actually increased, with a total of more than 13,000.

They live in the bamboo forest, running from one mountain to another every day. Whenever Qing Mengzhu goes up the mountain, she can see them no matter which mountain she goes to.

When Qing Mengzhu went to see the hazel grouse, snowflakes began to fall from the gloomy sky.

Despite the cold weather, the hazel grouse are full of energy and show no signs of being cold.

They still roam the mountains, scratching at the bamboo forest floor with their claws, searching for earthworms and grass seeds to eat.

There was no problem with the hazel grouse, Qing Mengzhu went up to the top of the mountain to check on the mother bamboo.

Perhaps because the weather is relatively cold and it is not the season for bamboo to grow, the mother bamboo does not change much. Only two thin branches still grow from the bamboo nodes, and the branches do not change much either.

However, on his way down the mountain, he went to see the original location of the mother bamboo and saw that new bamboo shoots had grown in the clearing left when the mother bamboo was dug up.

Perhaps the surrounding bamboo rhizomes have grown over, because the new bamboo shoots, which are clearly winter bamboo shoots, have sprouted from the ground and grown thick and strong, showing a very tenacious vitality.

Qing Mengzhu inspected the large winter bamboo shoot, which was rated "Superior Grade+", but did not dig it up.

Presumably, by summer, when it grows into a tall and slender bamboo, it will replace the mother bamboo and become the king bamboo in this small bamboo grove.

Of course, the mother bamboo soaked in Seed Gene Agent will also grow into large bamboo on the mountaintop, firmly occupying the position of the highest quality bamboo in the bamboo forests of both mountains.

As Qing Mengzhu pondered this, she walked briskly down the mountain.

As he walked down the mountain, he happened to run into Zhao Hexi was there to check on the progress of the mountain road construction project.

Zhao Hexi looked at him and said, "What are you thinking about? You have such a smiling face."

Qing Mengzhu: "Thinking about the bamboo on the mountain, what else could I be thinking about?"

Zhao Hexi laughed, "That's hard to say."

Qing Mengzhu: "Are you going down the mountain? Will you take a tricycle down?"

Zhao Hexi squeezed onto the small stool next to the tricycle without any hesitation. "Get off! I want to go check on the fields."

Qing Mengzhu: "I want to go to the field too; the radishes look ready to eat."

Zhao Hexi: "It's ready. The day before yesterday, Brother Zhou and I picked some radishes to make pickled radishes. The pickled radishes were sweet and crisp, and they tasted great even before we added any seasoning."

Qing Mengzhu suddenly felt a bit hungry. "Then I'll pick a few to take back and stew with beef brisket later."

Zhao Hexi looked at the sky. "Want some beef brisket? It's snowing, how about braised goose in an iron pot?"

Qing Mengzhu remembered that she hadn't eaten goose in a long time, and changed her mind. "Stewed goose is fine too, we can put radishes in it."

Qing Mengzhu and the others no longer raise geese; they've handed them over to the company. The geese roam freely in the fields, eating all sorts of weeds and vegetable leaves. They're free-range all year round, so the taste should be even better than last year. It's definitely worth slaughtering a goose to try.

Qing Mengzhu drove the tricycle directly to the edge of the flock of geese, and together with Zhao Hexi, they flanked the flock from two directions and caught the biggest and fattest goose in the group.

The goose was chased and flew around wildly. The goose that was caught was flapping its wings frantically in Zhao Hexi's arms, forcing Zhao Hexi to lean back to avoid being slapped in the face. People working nearby laughed at the sight.

Zhao Hexi: "Mengzhu, are you done yet?!"

Qing Mengzhu held up her phone to take pictures of Zhao Hexi and the goose, soothingly saying, "Okay, okay, I got the picture."

After taking the photos, Qing Mengzhu sent them to the company's finance department, telling them that she had taken a goose and asking them to do the accounting.

That's the downside of running a company; if you want vegetables from your own garden and poultry from your own farm, you have to go through many more steps.

However, if he didn't start a company and let Qing Mengzhu raise the geese herself, he wouldn't be able to spare that much time and energy to do so.

Nowadays, when raising geese, the company only needs to put the geese in the field, and employees working nearby can easily help take care of them, which can save a lot of costs.

If you raise them yourself, you'll have to devote a lot of energy to them every day, which isn't cost-effective.

After taking the photos, Qing Mengzhu notified Zhou Yan to come over for stewed goose in the evening.

Zhou Yan quickly called, "We're having stewed goose again this year. Don't you want something else?"

Qing Mengzhu and said, "Brother Zhou, do you have any other suggestions? If you do, we can eat something else."

Zhou Yan: "Recently, our kitchen has been exchanging ideas with braised food chefs from the southern provinces and learned a few tips for braising goose. If you're interested, I'll bring the ingredients over at noon, braise it for the afternoon, and it'll be ready to eat in the evening."

Qing Mengzhu had no objections. "That's good, I think it's a good idea. Can we also braise vegetables while we're making braised goose? Should we prepare some vegetables?"

Zhou Yan: "Sure, the braising liquid from the goose is great for braising vegetables—vegetables, tofu, eggs, whatever you like."

Qing Mengzhu: "Okay, I'll take the vegetables back with me on my way home."

After hanging up the phone, Qing Mengzhu looked up and called to Zhao Hexi, who was not far away, "Brother Zhou said we won't have stewed goose tonight, we'll have braised goose instead. Braised goose is delicious too, and we can also braise the vegetables we like."

Zhao Hexi: "If it tastes good, I have no problem with it! Do you want to take some shrimp home to braise?"

Qing Mengzhu: "Go get it! I'll go get it, and I'll dig up a lotus root while I'm at it."

Their lotus roots haven't been harvested yet this year. Qing Mengzhu plans to harvest them one day in the spring, and while he's at it, he'll take out the lotus sprouts and transplant them to another place.

That way they wouldn't have to go into the pond twice in a short period of time.

It was cold, Qing Mengzhu specially rode her tricycle home to get waterproof pants before going down to the pond to dig lotus roots and catch shrimp.

The shrimp have grown even bigger now, each one longer than his palm, almost as long as his forearm. And that's without even counting their whiskers; if you did, they'd be even longer.

The lotus roots in the pond are also growing well; every single one is thick, long, fresh, and white.

Qing Mengzhu probed the mud with his foot to check the situation below, and soon pulled out a tender lotus root that was almost as thick as his thigh.