Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 346 An unexpected surprise

Moreover, the cut grass and flower buds are still useful. Yuanying Manor often uses the feces of chickens, ducks, geese and pigs to replace the hay for kindling.

The hay here can be used to make steamed buns and porridge. Otherwise, you have to send people to chop wood. This is just looking for something to do.

The remaining six groups were divided into three batches of 100 people each, and went to several places marked by Hualei to dig ponds.

Because Hua Lei had discussed this with Rong Jin in advance, Rong Jin also knew Hua Lei's arrangements, so the tools he brought today were farm tools such as iron rakes and shovels used for digging the soil, and of course sickles, bamboo baskets, and shoulder poles were also brought.

Hualei followed the two groups to the top of East Mountain, where the terrain was relatively flat and the area was particularly large. Hualei decided to dig a rectangular stepped pond with an area of ​​about five acres. Hualei also marked the area with colored dye water in advance.

After taking a look, Rong Jin decided to start digging from the four corners, digging a trench along the marks made by the flower buds. From then on, he just had to keep digging inside this area.

There is no need to carry the excavated soil far away, just pour it directly into the bumpy areas nearby. This can also change the bumpy terrain nearby, which is conducive to future renovations.

Because Rong Jin had specially selected the people who came here, all of them were young and strong, so they were quite good at doing the job.

Suddenly, the barren mountain, which was originally sparsely populated, was filled with people coming and going. The originally quiet environment also began to become noisy.

Hualei also led a few female guards and slowly began to walk towards the North Mountain. Although she had been to the barren mountain several times, there were still many places that Hualei had not visited personally.

Unexpectedly, I found something good on this trip. On a hillside on the north side of Beishan Mountain, I found a large area of ​​wild grapes. It may be because it is on the north side of the mountain, the temperature is relatively low, so the wild grapes that were originally ripe in mid-to-late October have just ripened in mid-November. If they are not picked, they will fall off. Some of the grapes have been pecked by birds.

Looking down at the large area of ​​grape vines in front of him, Hualei was very happy. This area of ​​grape vines should be at least more than 20 acres.

I didn't expect that the other mountains had so few trees, but this Beishan not only has many big trees, but there is also a patch of wild grapes behind the mountain. It was really an unexpected surprise.

So, he asked one of the female guards named Zi Yan to go back and bring a group of pioneers and some bamboo baskets, and he and another Zi Yun began to carefully pick grapes. Soon, Zi Yan came with more than 50 people, carrying bamboo baskets, and very cleverly brought sickles and scissors.

So, everyone quickened their pace and began to pick these wild grapes. Before dark, more than 20 baskets of grapes had been delivered to Huaying Manor. These grapes were very sour when eaten directly, so Hualei prepared to use these wild grapes to make wine.

First, rinse the grapes with clean water to remove some dirt on the surface, then separate the grapes from the stems, crush the grapes directly, and put them into the ceramic jar prepared for fermentation.

Clean the pottery jar in advance and scald it with boiling water to kill some bacteria and ensure the wine can be brewed successfully. Fill the pottery jar with grape pulp for three quarters, and leave the rest for fermentation. After five or six hours, add yeast, put a little brown and white sugar in, and stir briefly.

Two days later, bubbles appeared on the surface of the grapes, indicating that fermentation had begun. Because wild grapes are relatively sour, sweet wine yeast was added to the buds. A proper amount of yellow and white sugar was added, which would increase the alcohol content. Stir the grape pulp every day for the next half month.

When there are no more bubbles in the pottery jar and the grape pulp begins to sink, the fermentation of these grapes stops. Then filter out the grape skins with clean white gauze and put the wine into a smaller pottery jar. This time, you must leave as little space as possible, because the more air there is, the easier it is for the wine to oxidize, and the taste will be bad.

After the wine is put into the ceramic jar, the air should be released once a day to wait for the remaining fructose to ferment. After the fermentation of the remaining fructose is completed, the ceramic jar should be sealed and placed in a cool and ventilated place to wait for the wine to clarify naturally.

After two months of clarification, pour out the wine in the pottery jar and clean off the wine mud at the bottom. Then continue to let the wine clarify. After another month and a half, remove the wine mud at the bottom of the pottery jar again, and it will be almost done.

The wine can be drunk after it has settled and cleared. If you can't finish it, you can seal it in a ceramic jar and place it in a cool place. The winemaking process is actually very troublesome, and you need to pay attention to the temperature and time. Fortunately, there are many people on the farm, and they are doing a lot of things. After a period of time, the wine can be drunk.

Hualei packed two jars of wine and sent them to Old Marquis Pei. When he was in Mobei, he often encountered caravans of merchants transporting foreign wine to the Great Sheng Dynasty for sale. The business was still very good. Although the wine was expensive and there were few buyers, there were quite a few people who liked to drink it.

After drinking Hualei's wine, I nodded with satisfaction. Although it was not as mellow as those wines from foreign countries, and the taste was a bit sweet because Hualei put too much yellow and white sugar, it was very good overall.

If it is to be sold in the future, it should be able to be sold, because the wine of the Great Sheng Dynasty was all shipped in from foreign regions. It seems that there is no wine brewing in Shangjing City, but there are many wealthy families in Shangjing City who spend money like water.

Hualei is also very satisfied with the wine he brewed. Since there is such a ready-made wild grape field on the mountain, he must take good care of it so that this vineyard can become his cash cow.

Therefore, Hualei decided to let Uncle Zhao take care of the wild grape trees. Uncle Zhao has more experience with fruit trees and is serious about his work, so Hualei feels relieved to leave the task to him.

Now is the time to prune and clean the grapevines before winter comes. Pruning is mainly to remove diseased and insect-infested branches and weak branches, improve ventilation and light transmission of the tree, and reduce the growth of pathogens.

The purpose of vineyard cleaning is to remove fallen leaves and prune diseased branches in the vineyard to reduce the occurrence of pathogens and pests that affect the growth of grape vines.

Because there were so many weeds under the wild grape trees that people couldn't step on them, they couldn't directly trim the branches of the grape trees. So Uncle Zhao took a few people from the farm and started to clear all the weeds under the grape trees.