A Small Farmer Girl 's Story of Making a Fortune by Farming

62

　　The steamed sweet potatoes were made into pancakes and hung on a bamboo curtain, exuding the sweetness of sweet potatoes and the aroma of sesame, which attracted Shen Tian to stumble to the edge of the bamboo curtain.

　　"Eat, second sister, eat!" Shen Tian stretched out his chubby fingers and pointed at the sweet potato pancakes on the bamboo curtain, with saliva dripping from the corners of his mouth.

　　Mrs. Wu glanced at him sideways and called Shen Tian a "glutton", but she still obediently tore off a piece of pancake from the bamboo curtain and handed it to Shen Tian.

　　Shen Tian was sensible. After getting the pancake, he first passed it to Grandma Wu's mouth: "Grandma, eat it!"

　　"I won't eat it, you eat it by yourself!"

　　Seeing that Mrs. Wu refused, Shen Tian handed the pancake to Zhang Chunxiang again: "Mom, eat!"

　　Zhang Chunxiang felt warm in her heart, picked up her daughter, kissed her on the cheek, and said with a smile: "You are so greedy, I don't know who you inherited it from."

　　"It's up to you. Who else can I follow?" Mrs. Wu rolled her eyes at Zhang Chunxiang, and then said, "Go, take the children to the house. It's going to be windy soon and it's freezing. Old wife, come with me to the barn to weigh some wheat."

　　When rolling sweet potato pancakes, Shen Yao said that sweet potatoes and malt can be boiled into syrup, and the syrup can be paired with fried winter rice to make rice candy.

　　There were many sweet potatoes in the cellar, and there was also a lot of wheat and rice in the warehouse, so Shen Yao suggested making some rice candies before the New Year and selling them in the county town.

　　Mrs. Wu weighed ten kilograms of wheat, cleaned it and soaked it in a wooden barrel. On the second day, she took out the slightly swollen wheat, spread it on a sieve, and put it in a dark place to let it germinate naturally. During this period, she sprayed it with clean water three to four times a day to keep the wheat moist and make it germinate. After six or seven days, when the malt grows to half a finger long, it can be used to make syrup.

　　The winter rice used to make rice candy is newly harvested japonica rice, which is steamed in a wooden steamer and then dried in the sun.

　　Besides, there are some rules for steaming japonica rice. The water used for steaming rice should not be too much. If too much water is added, the steamed rice will be soft and sticky, and it cannot be made into winter rice. On the contrary, if too little water is added, the steamed japonica rice will be undercooked and cannot be used to make rice candy.

　　Only when the amount of water and the heat are just right, the steamed rice will not only be cooked thoroughly but also have distinct grains.

　　Spread the steamed glutinous rice on a sieve and dry it until it is completely dry and transparent.

　　On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, the men of the Shen family went to the fish pond to catch fish, while the women stayed at home and began to make syrup.

　　Peel and clean the sweet potatoes and steam them over high heat. Mash the sweet potatoes into a paste while they are still hot. Put the sweet potato paste into a wooden barrel, sprinkle with chopped malt, and stir in a clockwise direction. Repeat this process until the sweet potato paste oozes water.

　　"Haruka, bring the gauze!"

　　Mrs. Wu stopped stirring and put the chopping board on the stove, with one end facing the big iron pot and the other end raised.
Zhang Chunxiang brought clean gauze, and Xu went to the water tank to get a ladle and scooped the sweet potato paste in the bucket into the gauze.