Yunding Ranch

Chapter 63 On the Right Track
Although the day's fishing was interrupted by the unexpected appearance of a squirrel, Lu Li and Kele returned to the lake.

In the end, Brandon had a great harvest and caught a total of three fish, two of which were truly spectacular in size; Randy also caught two, and Jessica and Lu Li each caught one.

As for Cole... yes, he ended up walking away empty-handed, and was taunted by the rest of the group for a long time afterwards.After that, Cole would sit by the lake every afternoon with a fishing rod, but unfortunately, after trying for five days in a row, there was still nothing to gain.His attempts will continue.

That night, Lu Li showed off his culinary skills again and cooked a whole fish feast.

First of all, Lu Li made a pot of fish head soup with grass carp fish head. The milky white fish soup made everyone exclaim in disbelief, but Lu Li hated it very much - because there was no tofu!There was no tofu in the fish head soup. This was unbearable. You couldn't buy tofu in the small town. In the end, you could only use RB tofu instead, but Lu Li still felt that this dish failed.

Then, Lu Li used the carp he caught to make sweet and sour fish. Originally, he wanted to make squirrel fish, but it was too difficult. He had never tried it before, and his knife skills were really not good enough. Well, in the end we had to settle for the next best thing and made sweet and sour fish.Unexpectedly, according to Liu Xiaoyan's instructions, Lu Li bought the mature vinegar from a Chinese supermarket of very good quality, and when paired with sugar and tomato sauce, the color and luster of the product was very satisfactory.

After that, I took out the huge sea bass, cleaned it, sprinkled ginger and green onion, without tofu, put ham slices on it, and put it on the steamer to make the simplest steamed sea bass.

Immediately afterwards, looking at the grass carp left after making the fish head soup, Lu Li originally planned to make a fish with sauerkraut, but unfortunately there was no sauerkraut here, so he simply made a stewed fish with beer.

Finally, I plucked lettuce from the vegetable garden and fried a vegetable to neutralize my appetite, and the table was considered complete.

This was Lu Li's first time cooking after Brandon and Randy joined Yunding Ranch. He was too busy a while ago, so he almost always ordered takeout, either pizza or sandwiches, or Chinese/Chinese dishes.Even the breakfast plan was suspended, Lu Li just insisted on using fresh milk with toast, or making a simple sandwich.

In other words, Brandon and Randy haven't tasted any dishes made by Lu Li yet.

Watching Lu Li's cooking process, Brandon and Randy seemed a little hesitant. Those weird things looked completely different from the things in Chinese restaurants, full of indescribable mystery.Especially when Lu Li was making sweet and sour fish, the pungent vinegar smell really made people shy away. Even after retreating outside the door, the sour smell was still unbearable, even Cole and Jessica couldn't bear it. , Randy exclaimed again and again that this is a "biological/chemical/weapon", which made everyone laugh.

Looking at the dishes on the table, there was no pork or beef, no bread or potatoes, even Cole and Jessica didn’t know what to do. In Jessica’s words, “I haven’t eaten since I was born. So many fish." Not to mention Brandon and Randy.

In fact, Americans do not like to eat fish, especially freshwater fish.Firstly, the taste is not what they like, and they are not very good at dealing with the fishy smell, which naturally affects eating; secondly, the freshwater fish has too many spines, which makes it troublesome to eat—this is why they like fried fish; thirdly. Come on, compared to seafood and river seafood, they still serve meat pies.Therefore, every year you can see news reports that there is a carp tide in the United States again-carps that no one eats have blocked the river, and everyone is helpless.

Strictly speaking, they not only do not dislike, but even dislike.Therefore, in Lu Li's whole fish feast today, each dish was carefully conceived, avoiding the pitfalls that Americans hate as much as possible, and bringing out the advantages of river seafood.In fact, after the food was served on the table, Lu Li was still a little worried - what if everyone was hungry?
Two hours later, the mess on the dining table looked like a typhoon had passed.

The sweet-and-sour fish that everyone detested was left with only a poor skeleton. Brandon silently poured the soup into the white rice and ate it all in one go—it was his fourth bowl of rice. Later, Brandon actually took out a pack of raw toast from the refrigerator, tore it open and ate it with juice.

The fish head soup was completely eaten, and there was not even a little scum left. Randy almost picked up the basin and licked it directly, holding his stomach and full of praise, "I know for the first time, it turns out that the soup How delicious!" Compared with the thick soup used as an appetizer in the West, the soup of Chinese cuisine is really very different.However, as a southerner, Lu Li is best at cooking soup.

Not to mention other dishes, the most rare thing is that even the stir-fried lettuce was eaten up—this is too unusual for them, and many times, they even have to remove the lettuce from the burger. "Training with you, eating vegetables will not be a problem at all in the future." Jessica sighed.

As expected, the sea bass was left over. After all, they still don't like this kind of cuisine, especially the fishbone is too troublesome, which makes them very disgusted.

Looking at the empty dinner plate, Lu Li felt satisfied for a while, but he couldn't laugh or cry, especially when he saw Randy hugging his swollen belly, with a look of lovelessness on his face, he couldn't help laughing, "You guys better go out and exercise Digest your food, or you won’t be able to fall asleep at night.”

Lu Li has been persuading them not to eat too much, even if there are leftovers, it doesn't matter.In fact, some dishes will be more delicious if they are cooked once, because the soup will be richer and the dishes will be more flavorful.But unfortunately, Lu Li's dissuasion was ineffective, and in the end, even Lu Li himself ate a little more than usual.

"Now I finally know why Jessica always complains that you don't cook anymore." Randy sighed while shaking his head.

After the hustle and bustle in the early stage, the work on the ranch is finally on the right track. However, the maintenance work of the sheep pens and cattle pens is still going on one after another, because these spaces are in use, and the working hours are very limited every day. It may be overthrown and rebuilt at once, so the progress is relatively slow.But it is still proceeding in an orderly manner.

At the same time, Lu Li was not idle. He exchanged ideas with Randy about the organic farm, which immediately made Randy excited. With such a condition - at this moment, everyone finally understood that the underlying reason for Lu Li's modernization of sheep pens and cattle pens was that recycling was obviously not for fish fry, it was just incidental, and the real purpose was organic farms; but they Still need to plan well.

What vegetables should be grown?What vegetables are suitable for the climate here?Under the present conditions, how much land should they reclaim?Then divide the area, how to balance the use of land, how to distribute seasonal crops?

These issues need to be discussed in depth, but both Lu Li and Randy have reached a consensus that the land still needs to be cultivated before it can be formally planted.

It’s not that the land was over-cultivated before. In fact, corn and potatoes were planted here before, and Liz also paid great attention to the rotation, so the fertility of the soil was no problem; Haven't grown anything for a year.So, they used the first batch of natural fertilizers from aerobic composting and sprinkled them on the land, not only the land of the organic farm, but also the land of the vineyard.

Among them, Lu Li quietly diluted some spring water and added it. The amount is not much, but the victory is accumulated over time.

In fact, Lu Li did this to cover up the efficacy of the spring water - if the production here is satisfactory in the future, then at least a relatively reasonable explanation can be given, which will not be too eye-catching.

Compared to organic farms, the progress of vineyards is somewhat slow.Because the vineyard needs professionals, from the beginning of grape planting, to the usual maintenance, to picking, not to mention the most critical and most difficult part of winemaking, every link needs to be taken over by professionals.Pinot Noir is such a delicate variety, if outsiders intervene, not to mention making good wine, it is very likely that grapes that can meet the winemaking standards will not be planted.

At first Liz gave up grapes and chose to grow apples.Apart from economic reasons, the most important is that there are no professional winemakers.When Jack was alive, he himself was an excellent winemaker. He had studied winemaking professionally and systematically in France.

Through his contacts in New York, Lu Li tried to find a suitable winemaker to work at Yunding Ranch, and he also got in touch with a local winery in Burgundy, France through his relationship with the newspaper.However, this is not an easy task. Firstly, Yunding Ranch is not well-known now, and this is not a typical Pinot Noir production area; secondly, Lu Li is not an heir to a well-known consortium, hiring a winemaker with a high salary— —The salary will not be sky-high either.Holding a sliver of hope, Lu Li also posted a recruitment notice on Facebook, but it is estimated that it will be more difficult.

Therefore, for the time being, no breakthrough has been made in the vineyard.

However, Lu Li also knew that the vineyard should not be rushed, otherwise it would only be counterproductive.

The development of the ranch was finally on the right track. It was only today that Lu Li had time to buy his own pickup truck—in fact, because of his Mustang, almost everyone wanted to come over to make fun of it.In fact, Lu Li's Mustang is quite popular in New York. The retro style, muscular lines and beautiful engine are not rich luxury cars, but they are enough to attract everyone's attention; but here, it is obvious that people's aesthetic orientation is totally different.

Of course, Lu Li also knew that a pickup truck was a must. Every time he went to the market to buy equipment, it was always a big item, and it was really troublesome without a rear bucket.

Randy sent Lu Li to the door of the car dealership in the town, leaned out from the cab, "Are you sure you don't need me to give you some references?"

"You'd better leave as soon as possible, it's not very polite to miss the appointment time." Lu Li waved his hand, rejecting Randy's "kindness".

Today Randy is going to visit an organic farm in the north of Austin, to learn from other people's experience and model, and see if he can bring some positive things to Yunding Ranch.

Randy shook his head, and said seriously, "You know, professional opinions are very important..." Before he could start talking, he saw Lu Li turn around and walk away. , he could only cut off his words, "Choose a beautiful woman to come back! Remember."

Seeing Lu Li waving his hand as a signal, Randy released the handbrake contentedly, and walked away.

(End of this chapter)