Gasp! She's a Time Traveler Using Modern Tech to Improve Ancient Life-Chapter 445 - 443: Harvesting the Seawater Rice
When the first warehouse of the workshop was half-filled with cotton fabric, the late rice in Lin Wanwan’s field was also ready for harvest.
The twenty acres of Permanent Land she was allocated earlier couldn’t grow cotton or other crops due to its salt-alkali nature, so she planted all seawater rice bought from modern times.
The first wild seawater rice was discovered by researcher Chen Risheng, and later developed collaboratively by Grandpa Yuan Longping’s team and Chen Risheng.
Seawater rice is a type of rice between wild and cultivated rice, with resistance to saline-alkaline soils, pests, and floods, making it very suitable for Mao County, where the Ta Mountain Dam is not yet completed and most fields have excessive salinity.
However, Lin Wanwan did not recommend it to Xiao Chong, primarily because Xiao Chong is already constructing the Ta Mountain Dam. Once this project, beneficial to contemporary people and a lasting legacy, is completed, there will immediately be more fertile land in Mao County.
After all, seawater rice’s yield is particularly dependent on modern fertilizers, making it not worth promoting in Mao County.
To be honest, even in modern times, seawater rice is mostly grown in demonstration planting areas, and not much is promoted to the public.
Lin Wanwan was allocated only twenty acres of Permanent Land, all of which is salt-alkali land useless to the Great Tang, plus ten acres of distributive fields she needed to plant with cotton and sweet potatoes.
If not for the Wang Family’s collapse at the beginning of the year, allowing Lin Wanwan to seize the opportunity to buy thirty acres of fertile land on the edge of Xiaoxi Town, her planting plans would be even tighter.
Cultivating ordinary rice on salt-alkali land requires too much effort, so it’s better to switch to seawater rice.
The yield of seawater rice is not high even in modern times, with an average of 400 kilograms per acre. In the Great Tang, lacking mechanized assistance, the yield naturally drops by thirty to forty percent, translating to a little more than four dan in Great Tang’s measurement units.
Compared to last year’s yield of hybrid rice on which Lin Wanwan heavily invested in fertilizer, this is vastly different.
It’s said that just a year ago, everyone would be cheering and celebrating if they could gather 2 dan of rice from their fields.
But after experiencing the baptism of fifteen dan per acre last year, the Manor Guests in Lin Wanwan’s field were greatly disappointed with this year’s late rice yield, even not daring to report to Lin Wanwan.
Fortunately, Lin Wanwan acknowledged their labor achievements with rewards, boosting the spirits of this group of Manor Guests who thought they had made a mistake.
The clan had little land; last year, the clansmen who received Lin Wanwan’s hybrid rice seed didn’t have the cheat of using fertilizer like Lin Wanwan, so their per acre yield wasn’t as high as hers last year, but it still reached eight or nine dan.
For the farmers of the Great Tang, this was already worth celebrating with an ancestral worship ceremony in the ancestral hall.
After rejoicing over the clan’s harvest, the Clan Leader of the Lin Clan was immediately displeased upon learning about Lin Wanwan’s late rice per acre yield in her Permanent Land this year.
He was very angry for Lin Wanwan, even suggesting to her that all those lazy, deceptive Manor Guests should be dismissed.
Why was it that with all the rice seeds provided by Lin Wanwan, only her own field had the lowest per-acre yield? If it wasn’t because her Manor Guests were inattentive, who would believe it?
"Uncle Clan Leader, the Manor Guests are not to blame. You forgot that my Permanent Land is salty and alkaline," Lin Wanwan said.
Clan Leader Lin replied angrily, "But didn’t you plant there last year? Wasn’t it fine last year, with a yield of fifteen dan per acre!"
Could Lin Wanwan say that last year was because she bought a lot of fertilizers to improve the salt-alkali condition of the land from modern times? She could only tell a half-true, half-false story.
"Uncle Clan Leader, you don’t know, the batch of rice I planted this year is different from the variety given to you. The seeds given to you have a high yield but poor taste. The ones in my field, though lower in yield, taste great; you’d know if you take some to try."
The Clan Leader waved his hand: "Why would I need your rice? Oh, child, you’re such a spendthrift, willing to exchange high-yield seeds for something tasty."
After hearing Lin Wanwan’s explanation, the Clan Leader felt so heartbroken that he almost fell ill.
Although it’s not his land or his grain, he feels very empathetic! Grain is the lifeline for the common people, how could anyone give up high yield just for the taste!
Not understanding, the Clan Leader left Lin Wanwan’s home with a heart full of pain and frustration, shaking his head.
As for the two斗 of seawater rice Lin Wanwan sent to the Clan Leader’s home through Hong Yan to taste, they were naturally returned intact.
The steadfast Clan Leader would never take advantage of Lin Wanwan.
This so-called tasty rice was exchanged for the amount of normal rice, doubled, and just thinking about it made him feel so heartbroken he couldn’t breathe; how could he possibly find it delicious?
The Clan Leader had enough self-awareness to know that he didn’t deserve to eat this kind of rice that even the heavens would frown upon.
For Lin Wanwan, a little less yield wasn’t an issue. Her grain warehouse was connected to the modern warehouse and would never be empty. Planting some "crimson" seawater rice with good taste and high quality also suited Lin Wanwan’s heart, spoiled by Xiao Chong as a foodie.
The differences between seawater rice and ordinary rice weren’t just in its soft and chewy texture but also in its higher nutritional value.
Seawater rice is rich in selenium, with grain color turning crimson after threshing, making it visually pleasing. In addition, the protein content in seawater rice is twice that of ordinary rice, and its fat, calcium, magnesium, and other contents far exceed those of ordinary rice. As for sodium content, ordinary rice has virtually none, whereas seawater rice contains 17.6 mg per 100 grams.
After harvesting this batch of rice into the warehouse, Lin Wanwan took out a sack on the same day and had the new servants thresh and mill it into rice.
When Xiao Chong brought several Store Managers from the Silk Shop to Lin Family Manor, he arrived just in time for the first pot of crimson rice to be served at Lin Wanwan’s house.
The Store Manager from the Silk Shop naturally came to purchase the newly woven cotton fabric from Lin Family Manor. This was something agreed upon before Lin Wanwan started planting cotton; she would plant and weave while Xiao Chong would handle sales.
As for the price of the cotton fabric, it was naturally handled by Lin Wanwan’s outer courtyard steward, Sun Chuyao, along with the workshop accountants and Lin Mengbo, without Lin Wanwan needing to show up personally. She only set a price range with Sun Chuyao and let them negotiate the rest on their own.
Lin Wanwan’s primary task was to entertain the distinguished guest, Xiao Chong.
In addition to crimson rice, there were many wild dishes from the ditches beside the rice fields on the dining table today.
Sauerkraut fish and stir-fried river shrimp, along with the fragrant crimson rice, made a meal that filled the guests to the brim.
Without a second thought, Xiao Chong asked Lin Wanwan to prepare a sack of crimson rice for him to take away.
It was just that he came on horseback today, making it inconvenient to carry cargo, otherwise, he would have wanted more.
"Cousin, why are you in such a hurry? I’ve already prepared it for you. In a few days, I’ll have it sent to you by boat."
"Thank you, cousin," the foodie Xiao Chong said with a carefree smile, "The remaining rice can be sent to me later. I’ll take this sack today, so the two brothers at the mansion can also taste it."
