Reborn as a Landlord-Chapter 692 - 354: Baked Sweet Potatoes _2

Diligent farmers often see it this way: in their eyes, there is always work to be done everywhere and at all times.

When the master returned to the shop with the others, Lady Zhang, Lian Zhizhi, and Wu Lang saw the sweet potatoes and knew that this was the harvest from digging up just three sweet potato vines, they were pleasantly surprised.

"So, we’re having sweet potatoes tonight?" Lady Zhang asked.

"Mm-hmm," Xiao Qi nodded vigorously. Since getting the sweet potatoes from Wang Youheng, Xiao Qi had been thinking about eating them. But initially, all the sweet potatoes had been used to cultivate slips, so Xiao Qi had been waiting for over three months.

Of course, Lian Manman had also been waiting for over three months; now, looking at the sweet potatoes, she also felt her mouth water.

"Okay, I’ll go scrub the pot," said Lady Zhang with a smile.

"Then we’ll wash the sweet potatoes," Lian Manman said.

Sweet potatoes were covered in soil and needed a thorough rinse before they could be cooked. They brought the basket of sweet potatoes into the courtyard by the well, and Wu Lang and Lian Zhizhi drew water from the well. The children squatted by the well and began to wash the sweet potatoes. They couldn’t finish two baskets in one meal, so they only washed more than half, leaving the rest unwashed and stored in a cool place.

They brought the washed sweet potatoes back inside. Lady Zhang had already scrubbed the pot clean, placing the sweet potatoes one by one into the pot, neatly arranged with the larger ones at the bottom and the smaller ones on top. Then she poured in clean water, immersing the sweet potatoes. The especially small sweet potatoes could not be boiled with the rest, as they would become too mushy, which would not taste good. These very small sweet potatoes needed to be placed on a strainer to steam above the water. This way, both boiled and steamed sweet potatoes could be prepared in one pot.

Boiling sweet potatoes was as much about controlling the heat as boiling rice. It was Lady Zhang’s first time boiling sweet potatoes, and she had received advice from the skilled hands of the house and had also inquired in advance from Lin Ahshui, making her very good at managing the fire.

She brought the pot to a boil over a high flame, then added more fuel to the fire. After about a quarter of an hour, she opened the lid, and the sweet potatoes in the pot were cooked, and all the water had dried up. Cooked this way, the sweet potatoes tasted the best.

In Thirty Mile Camp, they rarely used the word "boil," preferring "hu," which refers to this particular method of cooking.

The sweet potatoes prepared this way were not only cooked just right, but those at the bottom of the pot would become slightly crusty from the dried water, being toasted by the hot pot, creating a tempting sweet potato oil very similar to roasted sweet potatoes.

Lian Manman enjoyed the crust from a pot, and she also liked this kind of hu sweet potatoes that oozed oil.

For dinner, the family ate in the shop. Alongside a big bowl of sweet potatoes, Lady Zhang also cooked several salted duck eggs and a bowl of cucumber slice soup.

"Don’t just eat sweet potatoes, drink more soup," Lady Zhang said, seeing the children devouring the sweet potatoes with relish.

"Right, don’t eat too many sweet potatoes in one meal. Lao Lin said that this stuff can cause heartburn if eaten in excess," Lian Shouxin said. Lao Lin, of course, referred to Lin Ahshui. The so-called heartburn did not mean that one’s heart would feel uncomfortable after eating, but rather that it would upset the stomach.

This was the local dialect of Thirty Mile Camp. Heartburn and heart here referred to the stomach. Why there was such a strange saying, no one could explain, and Lian Manman herself couldn’t figure out the reason.

"Should we send some of these sweet potatoes to his grandpa and grandma?" Lian Shouxin asked while eating. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"I think it’s better not to," Lady Zhang pondered and then said, "It’s not that I’m reluctant to share with the elderly."

"I was thinking the same. The Upper Room is full of people who talk too much. Since this is something new for us, it’s better to keep it a secret for now. Come harvest time, we’ll send some to his grandpa and his grandma," Lian Shouxin said.

Lian Manman and the others kept silent. In fact, they didn’t need to discuss it; they naturally left it in the shop to eat sweet potatoes and have dinner, as if they all had an unspoken agreement.

"Manman, you said earlier that sweet potatoes have a higher yield than corn," Wu Lang said after dinner.

The yield of sweet potatoes was indeed higher than that of corn. Lian Manman remembered from her previous life that in some places where high-quality sweet potato varieties were used, the yields could reach over 5,000 kilograms per acre, even ordinary sweet potatoes yielded at least two to three thousand catties per acre.

And judging by their harvest today, the yield per acre of these sweet potatoes was also over a thousand catties.

This yield was quite astonishing for that era.

"If we could promote sweet potatoes widely, there would be no regions suffering from famine or people dying of starvation," Lian Shouxin said slowly.

"Aren’t more and more people growing sweet potatoes in Prefecture of Fuzhou? But I don’t know about other places," Wu Lang said. "Even around here, I haven’t heard of anyone growing them."

"Our county definitely doesn’t have any," Lian Manman said. Otherwise, no one would have sent sweet potatoes all the way to Imperial Doctor Wang as a rarity.

"Then we should help promote sweet potatoes," Wu Lang said.

"That would be a good thing to do," Lian Shouxin said.

To promote it meant that most of the harvest would have to be kept as seed, leaving less for eating. Xiao Qi sighed softly, then grabbed a tender young sweet potato, put it in his mouth, and continued eating.

"The last time Sixth Master came, we forgot to mention the sweet potatoes," Lady Zhang said.

"It wasn’t forgotten," Lian Manman said.

"Should we keep this matter a secret from the Shen Family?" Lian Shouxin asked, somewhat surprised.

"No, not exactly," Lian Manman shook her head.

They had been the first to introduce corn, while sweet potatoes had already been grown by others in the Prefecture of Fuzhou; the two crops held different significance. Additionally, although she knew that sweet potatoes had a higher yield, Lian Manman didn’t have tangible proof when Shen Liu visited, so it wasn’t appropriate to discuss it. Furthermore, the sweet potatoes were initially obtained from Wang Youheng. Even though Wang Youheng had given them the sweet potatoes with no conditions attached, Lian Manman still wanted to consult with Wang Youheng about the matter first.

"That’s a good idea."

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