The whole family travels through time: escape from famine! No cheat codes yet!

Chapter 287 Shen Youyou's plan is thwarted

It was almost noon and the sun was scorching. Although there was a slight breeze because we were on the side of the mountain, it was still hot on my face.

The surrounding leaves were rustling in the wind, and even the leaves of the agar-agar grass were swaying from side to side like green waves.

"Hey, what's going on?"

Grandpa Shen’s granddaughter, Shen Yaya, was born. She is the aunt of Shen Youyou, but she is only sixteen years old.

Shen Youyou was wearing a large hat, and a few strands of hair playfully brushed the corners of her face. Her big eyes were smiling, and there were two deep dimples on her face.

But what was not in harmony with this face was that he was wearing a coarse green shorts and standing on the hillside, bending over and cutting jelly grass with a sickle.

I brought a sickle with me from the beginning. I originally planned to cut wild vegetables, but I didn't use it because I first picked ground vegetables and then picked goat milkweed.

The golden sunlight shone through the leaves on her body, forming spots of light. She turned around when she heard the noise, her eyebrows and eyes flying with a smile:

"This grass can be used to make a delicious jelly. It goes really well with the jam made from the goat milk we picked. Hahaha! When we set up a stall in the county town tomorrow, we will definitely be able to make a lot of money."

Before, Shen Youyou was thinking about making jam to sell, but now, why make jam? Wouldn’t it be better to make jelly?

The chewy jelly paired with sweet and sour jam will definitely sell better than the steamed cake.

In particular, jelly can be made salty, so you can have whatever flavor you want.

The piece of jelly grass in front of her really came at the perfect time. She even felt that there was no need to sell fried noodles. After all, she had to cook the noodles on the spot, which was troublesome!

Although we didn’t know what the jelly that Yoyo was talking about was, but seeing the excited expression on her face, we knew it was a good thing.

But Shen Erya was curious. Although she didn't delay her work and was ready to pick up the sickle to cut the crops, she still asked:

"What is jelly? Aren't these leaves mint? Why don't you use mint leaves to make jelly?"

Shen Youyou explained to her sisters, brothers, and aunts how to distinguish between mint and jelly. Everyone followed Shen Youyou's instructions and rubbed the leaves of the jelly grass with their hands. Their hands were indeed sticky.

No mint flavor either.

"This grass often grows on roadsides, valleys, and slopes. It is a highly adaptable plant. Originally, this grass was more common in our hometown, but I didn't expect it to be found in Fangshan as well."

Shen Yingzi listened to Shen Youyou's story and felt that she had missed a lot of money: "Oh, I've really seen this grass in my hometown. I thought it was mint before!"

Shen Youyou laughed: "Don't be angry, many people can confuse these two plants."

She was in such a good mood, and felt like a lot of small coins were waving at her. This was a large area of ​​jelly grass,

And even if this piece is used up, you can still look for it somewhere else. If it's here, it must be somewhere else too.

In the 1970s and 1980s, there were not as many kinds of cold drinks in the summer as there are now. The jelly made from agar-agar grass was an indispensable summer product for cooling off.

Especially in Guangzhou, Guangxi and other places, some people have started to grow agar-agar grass, which is specifically used to make agar-agar.

Some places have even made it into a specialty snack that many people love. It can also be said to carry the common memories of several generations.

And because it is purely handmade, it has a light grass aroma and is smooth and delicious, not inferior to the cold drinks and desserts of later generations.

Even in many cold drink shops, the "grass jelly" added to milk tea or fruit tea actually has grass agar as one of its main ingredients.

However, the black grass jelly is made by drying the agar grass, boiling it in water and adding some other ingredients.

It also has high medicinal value and has the effects of relieving heat, clearing away heat, cooling blood, and detoxifying.

In fact, it is recorded in the "Supplement to Compendium of Materia Medica":

"Xianrendong, also known as Liangfencao, is native to Guangdong. Its stems and leaves are beautiful and its fragrance is like that of sandalwood. You can eat it with juice mixed with rice flour to relieve hunger. Mountain people grow acres of it and sell it in summer."

Now people may not know the use of jelly grass, or maybe it was because transportation was slow in ancient times and information was not widely disseminated, so even if someone discovered the use of this grass, it would not spread.

But no matter what, it’s really a good deal for their nine clans.

Moreover, it is very simple to make jelly, and many women in the past knew how to make it.

Many families in rural areas will plant some agar-agar grass beside their farmland, so they don’t have to buy it in summer.

How to do it? First, remove the weeds, old leaves and rotten leaves from the picked jelly grass, and clean it.

Use a knife to chop it into small pieces and put it into the pot. Add appropriate amount of alkaline water and salt. You can now use alkaline water made from wood ash.

However, most people in later generations directly used mint or baking soda.

Then boil it all together, pour out the impurities and residue, and let the water and grass dry for later use.

In order to get more jelly, you need to rub the jelly grass back and forth like rubbing clothes.

Then filter out the residue, pour the filtered jelly water back into the pot and simmer over medium heat.

When the agar-agar grass turns dark green, you will smell a refreshing scent of traditional Chinese medicine.

At this time, you should open the lid and cook slowly over low heat, and remember to stir constantly.

The last step is to pour the starch water or rice flour water into the pot while continuing to stir, and simmer over low heat until the entire pot of water becomes completely smooth and rich, and becomes thick and crystal clear.

At this time, pour it into a basin, let it cool naturally, and then cut it into small pieces with a knife.

According to people with experience, one pound of agar-agar grass can produce an average of five to six pounds of agar-agar.

The jelly made in this way looks very similar to tortoise jelly. It is mainly dark green in color, crystal clear, elastic, and extremely smooth when touched with fingers.

When you want to eat it, put a bowl in it and add honey or brown sugar water for a better taste.

It is simply pure natural jelly, which melts in your mouth, is cool, sweet, icy and refreshing, leaving you with an endless aftertaste.

The group of people were very skillful and soon cut a lot of jelly grass, which weighed about 100 kilograms when piled together.

Dabao said, "Oh, that's enough, right? Didn't you say that one pound can make more? We don't need so much."

Although Shen Youyou was sweating profusely, she was humming a little tune happily, holding a handful of jelly grass in her left hand and a sickle in her right hand.

"Spike, spike!"

The movements are so intense that afterimages are almost left. The more I do it, the more excited I become.

"Brother, both wet and dry jelly grass can be used, and each has its own flavor. Let's cut all of it today. If we can't use it, we can dry it. It won't go bad even if we keep it for a year or two."

In terms of appearance: Fresh grass jelly refers to directly picked grass jelly leaves, which are emerald green in appearance, soft in texture, and thin and soft in waist.

The dried grass is made by picking fresh grass jelly and drying it in the sun, so its color will be yellowish and its leaves will be hard.

As for the difference in taste between the two, fresh grass jelly tastes very tender and smooth, and can bring a more refreshing taste experience.

The dried grass has a relatively obvious granular feel, and it feels a bit like coconut when you bite it.

However, in comparison of nutritional components, the water content in fresh grass jelly is higher than that in dried grass, so the taste and refreshing feeling of fresh grass jelly is stronger.

Grass hay is relatively more concentrated and contains higher levels of nutrients such as sugar, fiber and amino acids.

Shen Youyou obviously wanted to dry this piece first, and then go back to find new ones to make fresh ones. She even thought about saving some seeds and planting some agar-agar grass in the fields.

I can sell it for a long time in the future, selling jelly in the summer and milk tea in the winter, but I don’t know where to find the cows.