Traveling through the mountains and farming

Chapter 107: Can the demon taro and pig vine grass be eaten?

After hearing this, everyone was anxious to set out to dig for food. Lin Wan quickly asked everyone to prepare tools and baskets and set off immediately.

Except for the people patrolling and guarding the cave, everyone else came out in full force and headed towards the place where the food was.

Lin Wan asked Li Chongwu to lead the way, and the first place they arrived at was a konjac field.

When everyone heard Lin Wan say that they wanted to dig the fields of konjac in front of them, they were as disappointed and frustrated as they were excited before setting off.

Seeing everyone's disappointed expressions, Aunt Li was the first to ask, "Wan'er, the new food you mentioned is this demon taro? Is there any special way to eat it?"

She knew that Lin Wan was always reliable, and if she wasn't sure it was edible, she wouldn't have brought everyone here to dig.

When Lin Wan heard the word "demon taro", she remembered that konjac had not yet been found to be eaten in ancient times. Because the whole plant is poisonous, people stayed away from it.

Lin Wan immediately smiled and reassured everyone, "Don't worry, everyone. Although this konjac is poisonous, it can be a new food if it is handled properly. I learned the method of handling it in an ancient book before, so you can rest assured that you can eat it."

Everyone was skeptical, but seeing Lin Wan was so confident, they listened to her explanation patiently.

Lin Wan immediately explained in detail the steps of processing konjac to everyone. The processed konjac is non-toxic and can be a new food.

After hearing Lin Wan's detailed explanation and the fact that she had always been interested in food, most of the doubts in their hearts disappeared immediately, and they started to act according to what Lin Wan said.

The men were responsible for digging the konjac, while the women assisted in the processing and the children helped in carrying the food.

Although the scene was busy, it was orderly.

Konjacs are all very big, usually weighing more than ten or twenty kilograms, and are piled up like a small hill.

If it is really edible as Lin Wan said, their food reserves will have to increase a lot.

After the konjac is dug, some people are responsible for transporting it back, while the rest continue to the next destination.

I didn’t expect that the second kind of food would also be so surprising!

When they saw the "pig vine grass" in front of them, they couldn't help but feel confused again.

"Can this pig vine grass be eaten?"

"Yes, it can be seen everywhere in this village, on the ridges of fields, on the sides of small roads, and on the hillsides. We have removed a lot of them before. Its young vines can be eaten by pigs, but I have never heard that humans can eat it."

Lin Wan pulled a leaf over and explained with a smile:

"This is not pigweed, it's Pueraria lobata. Look carefully at its leaves. They are trident-shaped, while the leaves of pigweed are round. It's also called Pueraria lobata."

When the two siblings saw this scene, it was so similar to what they were experiencing back then!

They immediately pulled some kudzu leaves and handed them to the adults, so that they could check that the kudzu leaves were different from the pigweed leaves.

After everyone had seen it, Lin Wan continued, "What we want to eat is the rhizome, which is its fruit. The pig vine grass you have seen before is also called Pueraria root. Its rhizome is a traditional Chinese medicine. It is also edible, but it just doesn't taste good."

"Wan'er, is this kudzu vine fruit the same white fruit pulp syrup you gave us last time?" Second Aunt Wang Yu Niang suddenly asked.

"Yes, it's made of kudzu. The kudzu was not fully mature at that time, so I only dug a little. Now is the season for digging kudzu. One fruit can grow to more than 20 kilograms, just like the monster taro." Lin Wan replied.

Aunt Luo quickly replied, "My family has eaten it too. This kudzu root is delicious, soft and sticky."

"Yes, Grandma Luo, we sent it to your house before. It was made by my brother and I." Li Ke said with a smile.

When everyone heard this, they thought this was more convenient to eat than konjac.

Not only is it large, it also does not require any special processing and can be eaten directly.

And some people have tried it, and it seems that everyone who has eaten it says it is delicious.

Suddenly they felt full of energy and were ready to start digging kudzu.

Lin Wan quickly explained how to dig correctly so as to ensure the integrity of the kudzu without damaging the rhizomes.

After that, everyone started working together to dig kudzu.

The men cut off the vines and then used hoes to dig up the soil. After the kudzu vines were exposed, the women carefully dug them out of the soil, and the children helped to pass them around.

The scene once again presented a busy yet harmonious scene.

After an hour, a large pile of kudzu was dug out, and then another group of people were sent to send it back. The people who had just sent the konjac back came back to take over the digging.

In this way, they spent a whole day harvesting all the konjac and kudzu from the several places that Lin Wan had previously selected.

In the evening, when everyone carried the last batch of kudzu and konjac to the cave, they couldn't wait to ask Lin Wan to teach them how to process the konjac.

Lin Wan first went to see Dr. Zhong to ask if there was any medicine that could be applied to prevent konjac juice from damaging the skin.

Dr. Zhong suggested that she smear lard all over her hands and then wrap them with clean linen or old clothes to minimize the damage of the juice to the skin.

Then she was given a bottle of medicine and asked to apply it whenever her skin felt uncomfortable.

She followed Dr. Zhong's advice, took protective measures, and began to make konjac.

First, peel the washed konjac and put it in a wooden basin for later use.

Then start making wood ash water.

She took a handful of hay from outside, burned it into ash, then boiled a bucket of hot water, put the ash into the hot water and stirred it, and then filtered it to get ash water.

Pour half a bucket of wood ash water into a large wooden basin and the other half into the pot.

Then she put a rough-surfaced stone that she had selected earlier into the large wooden basin filled with wood ash water, placed the peeled konjac on the stone, and began to grind it slowly and patiently.

Under the friction of the stones, the konjac gradually turns into a fine paste and blends into the wood ash water.

After Lin Wan finished grinding the first konjac, she showed the remaining konjac heads to everyone and said, "We can keep these remaining konjac heads and plant them in the ground. New konjac will grow next year."

After the konjac was ground into a fine paste without any grains, she lit the fire and boiled the wood ash water in the pot.

"If there is more water in the ash, the konjac may not be in the form of mud after grinding, but in the form of slurry. Wait for it to stand overnight to solidify. Then proceed to the next step. Now it is in the form of thick mud, so you can cook it directly."

While Lin Wan was explaining, she scooped the sticky konjac paste into the pot piece by piece.

A quarter of an hour later, the konjac paste in the pot began to bubble, and gray-black pieces of konjac could be seen rolling in the pot.

"Just keep cooking it like this for about two hours, and the toxicity of the konjac will be completely removed." Lin Wan said as she held a large spoon and stirred gently.

“Okay, that’s the whole production process.”

Everyone watched the entire production process, and when they saw that it was already dark outside and knew that it would take more than two hours to cook, they did not wait any longer and went home.

Lin Wan asked Li Chongle to tell Doctor Zhong that dinner tonight would be postponed, but there would be two new foods.

Li Chongle took the order and left. Li Ke was responsible for lighting the fire and cooking the konjac, while Lin Wan washed and sliced ​​the kudzu vine next to him.

She planned to eat stir-fried kudzu and spicy konjac in the evening. She had some dried chilies left over from last time, which was just right for her.

Alas, I have collected a lot of pepper seeds now, but I can only plant them in large quantities next year, so I have to be very stingy when eating peppers.

Finally, after more than two hours, the konjac was cooked.

Lin Wan took out the cooked konjac and quickly soaked it in the cold water prepared in advance.

The stimulation of cold and hot makes the konjac taste more chewy and smooth.

Then she started to cook dinner, letting the two siblings cook the rice while she cut the konjac. After the rice was ready, she quickly prepared the kudzu and spicy konjac, both of which were super large portions.

When all the dishes were ready, everyone sat around the table and started eating.

Maybe it was because we had dinner late and everyone was too hungry after a busy day, so even though there were only two vegetarian dishes, everyone ate them with relish.

Doctor Zhong and his colleagues were very satisfied with the two new foods, especially the spicy konjac, which went well with rice and was quite delicious.

Just when Lin Wan was teaching everyone how to make konjac, Luo Dashan, He Lizheng and others had just found someone who knew about the situation in the dark market.