Traveling through time and space, wanting to lie down, but being forced to move forward

Chapter 179: Soybeans for Tofu

After Uncle Mancang and his companions left, Liu Jingxue gave some pastries to Tiedan and Erzhu and asked them to wait for a while.

Time stands still in the space warehouse. If the sauerkraut is ready, it can be stored there permanently.

But now sauerkraut still needs to ferment in a cool place, and it is obviously not appropriate to put it in the warehouse.

However, the temperature in the space is too high, which is not conducive to pickling sauerkraut and may even go bad.

At present, we can only put them in the cellar, and then move them to the space warehouse after the sauerkraut is made.

Liu Jingxue originally planned to move the sauerkraut jar into the cellar, but then she thought it would be difficult to go down to the cellar while carrying that thing.

I can just put them into the space, go down to the cellar empty-handed, and then release them.

He looked at Tiedan and Erzhu who were eating pastries over there. With these two guys here, it would be difficult for him to use the space. He would have to deal with it later.

Liu Jingxue went into the house and took out a shoulder bag with some candies in it.

After locking the door, he asked Tiedan and Erzhu to take him to find a family that made tofu and brewed wine.

While eating the cake in small bites, Tiedan asked Liu Jingxue, "Sister Xiaoxue, the old Xie family who makes tofu and the second grandfather Erzhu's family are not in the same direction, which one do you plan to go to first?"

Liu Jingxue thought about it. Uncle Mancang had just said that the Xie family had not made tofu these two days, so she couldn't exchange it for tofu if she went there.

I planned to find a place and sneak over here to learn from them later. I didn't have to go in, just knowing the place was enough.

"Then let's go to Old Xie's house first.

Tell me the place, and when they start making tofu, I will go over there to take over." Liu Jingxue replied.

Tiedan said, "Okay, let's go to Old Xie's house first.

Let me tell you, Sister Xiaoxue, the tofu from Old Xie's family is delicious. Mix it with green onions and drizzle it with sesame oil, and it tastes delicious."

"Me too.

As long as that dish is there, I can eat one or two more bowls per meal." Erzhu echoed.

Liu Jingxue teased Erzhu deliberately, "It seems that your mother can't cook that dish often in order to save some food.

Otherwise, if you eat one or two more bowls per meal, there won’t be enough food at home.”

Tiedan also laughed, "Sister Xiaoxue is right.

Erzhu, every family in our production team cooks rice in a fixed quantity, so how can we allow you to eat one or two more bowls?

Did you eat your father and mother's food rations?"

"No, we also have a fixed amount of food at home.

I just wanted to say that Lao Xie’s tofu is delicious, and I didn’t really eat two more bowls of rice.

Besides, even if I want to eat more, I will eat my brother’s rations instead of my parents’.

They have to work in the fields, how can they do it if they are hungry?

I’m not that unfilial.” Erzhu retorted.

Tiedan praised, "Erzhu, you are really a good son to your parents.

However, if your elder brother heard you say this, he would probably beat you up."

"He doesn't know anyway, and you and Sister Xiaoxue won't tell him." Erzhu said indifferently.

After the two men led Liu Jingxue towards the exit of the village for a few minutes, they turned into another road and walked for a while.

Tiedan pointed to a house on the right and said, "Sister Xiaoxue, that's the old Xie family who makes tofu."

Liu Jingxue silently memorized the location.

“Okay, I get it, I’ll come here to exchange for tofu next time.

Uncle Mancang said before that he could exchange soybeans for tofu. How does that work? "

Erzhu answered first, "The villagers go to exchange one pound of soybeans for two pounds of tofu.

If they were to take the soybeans to other villages to exchange, one pound of soybeans would be exchanged for one pound and eight ounces of tofu.”

Liu Jingxue asked quietly, "If there are no soybeans, can we buy them with money?"

"Of course, but it's much more expensive than exchanging it with soybeans.

At the grocery store in town, tofu is 1 cents per pound with tickets, and 2 cents per pound without tickets.

We definitely don’t have tofu tickets, but we are all from the same village, so we can’t exchange them at 2 cents per pound, so we’ll just exchange them at 1 cents per pound.”

Liu Jingxue thought about it and realized that soybeans are only about 1 cents per pound now.

One pound of soybeans can produce more than two pounds of tofu.

It is impossible for the Xie family to make a profit at a loss.

Calculating it this way, it is indeed much more cost-effective to exchange it with soybeans, which is half the price of buying it with money.

But think about it, they make tofu every day and have a huge demand for soybeans, so they must hope that others will exchange soybeans for them so that this business can continue.

If his family ran out of soybeans, the villagers would not be able to buy soybeans from the grain station without food coupons, and this business would be cut off.

If you take the risk of buying it at a high price on the black market, not only will you not make any money, you might even lose money.

Liu Jingxue wanted to come here and learn from others, so she naturally wanted to know when others usually made tofu.

It would definitely be inappropriate to go over and ask someone directly, and it might even arouse suspicion.

So she tentatively asked Tiedan and Erzhu, "The tofu they exchange every day, is it freshly made that day or left over from the previous day?"

“It must be made fresh that day.

If the weather is hot, overnight tofu will go bad. If it is winter, it will become frozen tofu." Tiedan said without hesitation.

"Yes, Sister Xiaoxue, every time we go to their house to exchange tofu, it is still warm when we take it back," Erzhu also said.

"To make tofu, you have to grind soybeans. If you make it fresh on the same day, it will be too late."

Tiedan explained, "This is not that simple.

If the weather is hot, soak the soybeans overnight and get up early the next day to grind and make tofu.

If the weather is cool, soak the beans in the morning, grind them in the evening, and make tofu after getting up the next day.

The Xie family all does this.”

"Sister Xiaoxue, look at Old Xie's house. It's quite a distance away from other people's houses.

This is all intentional.

Their family has been doing this for generations, and when choosing a site for their house, they deliberately chose one that is far away from other people's houses.

Otherwise, if you keep making trouble every day and bothering others, it will lead to conflicts.”

Tiedan wiped his saliva and said, "Being neighbors with the Xie family does have its advantages.

If the weather is hot, I will keep the tofu and not replace it.

In order to avoid waste, the Xie family would give the food to their neighbors or close relatives in the team. "

"There are also bean dregs, which they can't finish at home, so they give them to the villagers.

They have sent it to our house many times." Erzhu said impatiently.

Tiedan also said, "We have eaten a lot of the bean dregs they sent us."

The two children were vying for it, as if being given bean dregs by the Xie family would prove that their family was popular in the village.

"Can bean dregs be eaten?" Liu Jingxue really didn't know.

She previously thought that bean dregs could be used to feed pigs.

"You can make bean dregs cakes by adding some flour, eggs, onions and chili peppers to the bean dregs."

"Scrambled eggs with bean dregs, bean dregs meatballs, and bean dregs steamed bread are also delicious."

Next, the two children had a heated discussion about how to make bean dregs taste best.