Sisters in the Deep Forest Valley: Many Fun Things

Chapter 52 Crude Salt Purification

If you dry it and soak it in water in the summer, it can clear heat and detoxify, and dispel wind-heat.

Peaches symbolize reunion and peace, while the Lin sisters pick flowers.

Lin Lanshan picked flowers, saying with some regret:

"Sister, where are the ginseng and the lingzhi? We haven't even seen a single leaf."

"Ginseng and Ganoderma lucidum aren't so easy to find; they're still far from being fully mature. Take your time looking, there's no rush."

"Why is all this silver hidden away and not being brought out..."

After picking the honeysuckle, the two sisters found a lawn with large rocks and had lunch.

We continued with the peaches and the others, walking and stopping in the mountains for over an hour.

We discovered another cluster of red acacia fruits, which look like hearts or underwear, hence the name "underwear fruit."

Pick all the edible and sweet ones!

The sun was about to set, and Tuanyuan Ankang started to walk with a limp.

The two sisters, still wanting more, headed towards the valley and went home.

Upon reaching the outer courtyard, Lin Lanshan suddenly stopped.

"what happened?"

She turned a corner and walked to the blueberry patch, then put her hands on her hips and counted the last six blueberry seedlings.

Lin Lanshan said smugly:

"Hmph, starting tonight, we'll never have to beg you to live again. Because we've found your brothers and sisters who have been lost in the wild for many years, hahaha! Hurry up and kill them, I'll dig them up right away and use them as fertilizer for the strawberry seedlings."

Lin Chunyi: "..."

Seriously, if those blueberry seedlings could do anything, or even talk, you'd be in for a beating today.

Six blueberry seedlings:

We can't handle any excitement, so don't push us. Believe it or not, we'll produce a fruit tomorrow that will scare you to death!

Lin Lanshan felt a sense of relief and went home with her head held high.

After arriving home, Lin Chunyi boiled water to prepare bathwater for everyone.

Lin Lanshan poured all the fruit they had picked into a wooden bucket, added salt, and rinsed it.

"Sister, we're running low on fine salt, aren't we? Let's get rid of the coarse salt tomorrow if we have time."

The two sisters bought fine salt and coarse salt in town once and felt that the price difference was too big, so they decided to buy coarse salt from now on.

Then I bought thirty catties of coarse salt from two stores in the county, intending to purify it myself when I got back.

"Okay, we'll cook it tomorrow, and we'll also dry the honeysuckle while we're at it."

The two sisters washed the peaches and the others clean, then took a shower themselves, ate some food from the space, and went to sleep.

……

The sun is shining brightly, and a gentle breeze is blowing; today is the perfect day to dry honeysuckle.

The two sisters brought over a drying rack and bamboo winnowing basket, spread honeysuckle on it, and placed it in the sun to dry.

The next step is to purify the crude salt.

They can only perform simple dissolving, filtering, and evaporation processes now.

On the stone table under the osmanthus tree, there was a plate of wild fruit, a plate of spicy dried wild boar, two cups of osmanthus tea, and two books.

Lin Chunyi brought over the small stove and earthenware pot and placed them on the ground, then went to fetch a lot of small pieces of firewood.

Lin Lanshan carried over thirty pounds of salt lumps, crushed them, and poured them into an earthenware pot. She added an appropriate amount of water and dissolved them.

Then light the fire, add firewood, and start cooking.

Lin Lanshan fanned the fire and said:

"Sister, what kind of crime would you be charged with making salt illegally here...?"

"We're just using this for ourselves, not selling it, so it's not illegal, right? But I suddenly feel like we should learn about the laws here."

Lin Lanshan's eyes suddenly lit up, and she said:

"Sister, coarse salt is twenty coins a pound, and fine salt is eighty coins a pound. We can buy coarse salt and refine it ourselves; it feels like we're making a huge profit!"

Lin Chunyi flipped through "The Complete Guide to Wild Fruits" and said:

"Actually, there's something even more profitable..."

"What's more profitable? Salt extraction from seawater? We're still far from the sea here."

Lin Chunyi pointed to a page in the book and asked her younger sister to come and look at it.

She walked over with a puzzled look, glanced at it for a couple of seconds, and then excitedly said:

"Salted bran? If we find it, will we never have to buy salt again? If we can get our hands on it and sell it, wouldn't we be richer than a country? Hahaha."

Salt bran wood: known as the saltiest tree in the world.

It absorbs salt from the soil, and the fruit and bark secrete a layer of white, salt-like crystalline substance that tastes salty and sour.

Its leaves are parasitized by gall aphids, which will form a rare Chinese medicinal material called gallnut.

Lin Chunyi looked at her younger sister's silly grin and said:

"Salted bran is full of organic acids and does not provide the minerals that humans need. It can only be used as a special seasoning and cannot replace table salt for a long time."

"If you use this to make salt and then sell it, although I'm not familiar with the laws here, it should be enough for you to get a set of guillotines... You should stop thinking about such unrealistic things, or you'll easily become stupid."

"Oh."

Alright, let's just quietly and discreetly boil the salt.

Heaven knows, earth knows, you know, I know. Even the peaches were released early this morning. What's with all this talk of dogs being beheaded?

What an unlucky thing to say!

The water in the pot boiled, and Lin Lanshan stirred it every now and then.

"I'll go get some gauze. Stir it again and see if there are any clumps left."

Lin Chunyi went back to her room and brought back a fine gauze and a clean large basin.

Once the salt blocks had completely dissolved, someone remarked, "Sis, this coarse salt is so dirty!"

"It's fine if you don't look, but after seeing it, I'll never dare to use coarse salt directly again." Lin Chunyi also expressed some disgust.

A lot of dark gray floating objects can be clearly seen on the water surface, and a lot of mud and debris have settled at the bottom of the water.

Lin Chunyi spread the gauze on the large basin, and Lin Lanshan picked up the handles of the earthenware pot and poured salt water into the basin.

Then the two sisters each grabbed one edge of the gauze and pulled it up.

The salt water remained in the basin, while the dirt and dust remained on the gauze.

Not wanting to waste it, the two sisters wrung out the gauze vigorously, squeezing all the salt water from the cloth into the basin.

Wash the earthenware pot, then pour in salt water and simmer slowly.

The two sisters sat on the stone bench, eating, drinking, and reading. Every now and then they would stir the food and add some firewood.

Once salt crystals appear on the edge of the pot, start stirring constantly.

The two sisters took turns cooking until the water was almost gone and a lot of crystals appeared, then they put out the fire.

Continue frying using the residual heat of the pan.

Once all the moisture has evaporated, stir-fry the white crystals until dry. The small white granules that remain are salt.

"Sis, from now on we'll only buy coarse salt! We'll buy the maximum amount each time, and then refine it ourselves when we get back!"

Thirty catties of coarse salt can be refined to obtain about ten catties of fine salt.

Although it was time-consuming and used a lot of firewood, they felt they had made a profit!

Store the dried salt, then turn over the honeysuckle and continue drying it.

The two sisters sat leisurely under the osmanthus tree for an entire afternoon.

The next day, they sowed pumpkin seeds, cucumber seeds, and scallion seeds, and also built a trellis for the little winter melon.

By the end of June, the tomatoes had blossomed, and they had put up trellises for them.

After finishing her work, Lin Chunyi went to check on the strawberry and blueberry seedlings and was shocked.

"Lanshan, come here, look at these blueberry seedlings..."

The six blueberry seedlings have all sprouted seven or eight true leaves. They look completely different from how lifeless they were before.

Is there such a mysterious thing in the planting industry, where you can make crops grow well just by scolding them?