The educated youth was reborn and wanted to disappear, but he was locked into a military marriage.

The next day happened to be Friday, and Chen Xudong wanted to deliver eggs. Lu Mingzheng took a ride, and Zhu Xiaomin took two bottles of hawthorn sauce that she had made, and the three of them went to the county together.

Lu Mingzheng was suffering from horse hoof disease. Although he couldn't bear to leave Zhu Xiaomin, he wanted to get things done as soon as possible, so he got off the bus and went straight to the long-distance station.

After entering the supply and marketing cooperative, it was still Chen Xudong who settled the eggs and dates, while Zhu Xiaomin went directly to Yan Yimin with the hawthorn sauce.

Following her suggestion, Yan Yimin invited the saleswoman in front of him to taste the hawthorn sauce, and decided to give it a try. However, glass bottles cost a lot of money, so he finally decided to use barrels for bulk packaging like soy sauce and vinegar.

After ordering the hawthorn sauce, Zhu Xiaomin smiled again: "Actually, hawthorn can also be made into candied haws and hawthorn cake. Children like to eat it."

No one is unfamiliar with candied haws. Yan Yimin asked carefully about how to make hawthorn cake and decided to try it.

It was just a matter of making candied haws, which required washing and skewering in the early stage, which was relatively labor-intensive. In the later stage, rock sugar was needed, and the village was short of materials. In the end, the team decided to make semi-finished products and send them to the county. The supply and marketing cooperative would process the final step themselves.

When Chen Xudong came in, the matter had been finished. Zhu Xiaomin asked him to help and got on the tractor together with several large wooden barrels for food given by Yan Yimin.

After the tractor left the county town, Chen Xudong listened to her talk about candied haws with admiration on his face: "Hawthorns are only 2 cents per pound. According to the purchase price, we can only earn 10 cents. Now we just make a bunch of effort and get 2 cents per pound." Five cents."

Zhu Xiaomin was amused: "We can't settle the accounts like this. The hawthorns have to be cut into bamboo sticks and strung together. Labor is also expensive."

However, adding bamboo sticks manually is more expensive than hawthorn itself.

Chen Xudong touched his nose and felt that Yan Yimin had not turned a corner.

Zhu Xiaomin continued to guide: "What's more, a bunch of candied haws costs a dime now. Even if the cost of the rock sugar is added, they only sell three bunches. A pound of hawthorn can be made into four or five bunches."

Chen Xudong nodded repeatedly after hearing this. Anyway, the price of candied haws on a stick was fair, and they and the supply and marketing cooperative both made money, and everyone was happy.

The job of stringing hawthorns was simple but time-consuming. Zhu Xiaomin didn't want to leave it to the educated youth, so he went directly to Gumancang.

When Gu Mancang heard that there was money to be made, he naturally did not reject it and immediately called Xia Dongliang. Together, the two of them found a man in the team who knew some craftsmanship to break the bamboo sticks, and the other two people smoothed the bamboo sticks, and then notified The women who peeled the sunflower seeds before divided the work among everyone. Two were responsible for cleaning the hawthorns, four were responsible for removing the stems and tails from the outside of the hawthorns, and the remaining eight were strung on bamboo sticks.

Make an agreement with these people in advance that if you complete the task, you will be credited with the base's work points.

The work points at the base are as valuable as the work points in the team, and there are additional benefits. When everyone heard this, they were naturally very happy.

We were mobilized on the same day and started work the next day. The venue was in the yard of the brigade headquarters. Aunts and sisters-in-law came over with benches and sat in the yard, rolled up their sleeves and started working.

Zhu Xiaomin borrowed the stove from the brigade headquarters and brought over a bucket of processed hawthorns. He cooked the hawthorns, removed the seeds and ground them into a puree. Then he added sugar in proportion. While boiling the hawthorn sauce, he taught the cooking sister-in-law the steps. Then let them look at the fire and think about the hawthorn cake by themselves.

The main raw material of hawthorn cake is hawthorn. The lotus root starch is mainly used to solidify the hawthorn cake and increase the elastic taste. There is no such thing in Yunzhong area, so starch can be used instead, but some of the lotus root starch flavor is missing.

Fortunately, people in this area have never tasted that taste, so there is no need to worry about not being able to sell it if it is slightly worse.

Now, she would try to add the ratio of lotus root starch. She took a small amount first and tried it slowly.

The first cage looked good, but it couldn't be cut into shape. It looked like jelly, which was obviously due to the lack of starch.

Well, put it aside and take it back to Luo Ye to eat.

In the second cage, when it was cut and shaped, the color was lighter and the taste was not strong enough. That means too much starch was added.

Well, put it aside and take it back to Luo Ye to eat.

The third cage is crystal clear, QQ bouncy and has a good taste.

That’s it!

Zhu Xiaomin immediately called the sister-in-law who cooked over, told her the ratio and taught her the step-by-step operation.

After such a fuss, the courtyard of the brigade headquarters immediately became a lively scene.

Seeing that several people had taken advantage of it, Zhu Xiaomin gave instructions to Sister Cai, who was in charge of the big kitchen room, about the follow-up matters, and then went to see the situation of the hawthorn stringers in front.

Seeing Zhu Xiaomin coming, the aunts and sisters-in-law said hello one after another, all with smiles on their faces.

Although I don’t know how long this job will last, as long as the work points are recorded, there will be money and things to divide, which can support the family.

Zhu Xiaomin agreed one by one, chatted with everyone for a while, looked at the hawthorns everyone had strung together, and warned: "When you see the bad ones, be sure to pick them out. We would rather make less money than ruin our livelihood." "

They earn work points, but the money they sell goes to the collective and everyone has a share.

After hearing everyone's agreement, Zhu Xiaomin went to the front to find a few bamboo sticks that had just been broken but not yet peeled, and took the hawthorn cake that had not been made the first two times back to the educated youth point.

It was only mid-afternoon at this time, and school was still in session. Wang Xiaoya, the mobile crew member, was taking a break and was sitting alone sewing cotton clothes. When he saw her coming back, he immediately said hello with a smile. He saw her holding two aluminum lunch boxes and a few bamboo sticks. He was curious. asked: "Sister Xiaomin, what did you get?"

Zhu Xiaomin smiled and opened the lunch box to show her: "Take a spoon and have a taste."

When Wang Xiaoya heard that there was something to eat, she hurriedly threw down her cotton-padded clothes, ran to get a spoon, dug out a spoonful of brightly colored ones, pursed her lips, and the stuff slipped into her mouth, sour and sweet, her eyes lit up and she asked :"What's this?"

Zhu Xiaomin smiled: "I tried making hawthorn cake at the brigade headquarters. It turned out that there was too little starch in the cake, and it was incomplete when cut and held. However, it tasted good."

Wang Xiaoya looked at the other box and saw that a neat piece was missing. She also dug out a piece and ate it. She nodded and said, "This one is more chewy, but the taste is not as good as that one."

Zhu Xiaomin nodded: "Well, these two are considered failures. Don't waste them. Take them back and give them to Luo Ye as snacks."

Wang Xiaoya pursed her lips and smiled: "You are too partial. I want to take a few more bites before Luo Ye comes back." As she spoke, she took another spoonful of jelly, took a lick, and closed her eyes to taste the taste, with a look of satisfaction on her face.

Zhu Xiaomin smiled and shook her head, found a small bowl, gave her some of each, and put the rest in the granary.

Strictly speaking, Wang Xiaoya is not much older than Luo Ye.

When work was about to end in the evening, Zhu Xiaomin returned to the team headquarters. The hawthorn sauce had been boiled. Zhu Xiaomin tasted the taste and stirred it up again to see that there were no remaining impurities. Then she felt relieved and asked her sister-in-law to put it into the bucket and close the lid.

The hawthorn cakes have all come out of the basket. Zhu Xiaomin checked them over and kept all the ones that were obviously out of proportion. Those that were perfectly fine were left in the lunch box.