The Evil Mother-in-law: Torment Children, Work Hard, Be Rich!-Chapter 199: Solving the Corn Ear Rot Disease
After telling the Gu Family about the secret of holding space, Tong Huaqiong felt much more relieved.
No longer did Man Er have to sneak into the space to fetch ice cream, potato chips, nuts, and other assorted delicacies to eat like a thief.
Now she could openly take things out of the space without having to rack her brains to deal with the family.
That night, Tong Huaqiong had Man Er go into the space to take out various flavored ice creams stored in the fridge and various cookies and snacks she bought for everyone to taste.
Tong Huaqiong peeled open her favorite chocolate and vanilla flavored ice creams, took a bite, and smiled with satisfaction.
Gu Jingzhe asked, "Mother, the dessert recipes you came up with, were they all derived from the flavors of these things?"
Tong Huaqiong smiled and said, "That’s right."
It seemed that no matter how smart Gu Jingzhe was, he didn’t see that she wasn’t the original Tong Dajiao.
Liu Yueer opened a package of cookies and handed it to Chen Sufen, and the two sisters-in-law started eating together.
Liu Yueer said, "I have to say, these cookies are even tastier than our Taohua Desserts."
Gu Dashu chimed in, "Exactly, several of these taste better than what we have in our shop."
Tong Huaqiong thought to herself, of course, modern food industry production is the result of countless researchers’ efforts, and its flavors have been tested by many people. Why wouldn’t they taste good?
Chen Sufen slowly finished a cookie and said, "The cookies taste good, but they’re not hard to make."
Tong Huaqiong knew that Chen Sufen had a high talent for baking.
Initially, after following Tong Huaqiong to make pastries twice, she could operate independently, and now she was increasingly mastering the ability to create new recipes from the ingredients.
And indeed, the recipes she came up with were very popular once launched.
Tong Huaqiong felt that Chen Sufen was better at baking than she was. After all, the recipes she developed were based on things she had seen and tasted in her past life, which was kind of cheating.
While Chen Sufen could come up with delicious pastries purely by intuition.
Tong Huaqiong planned to utilize Chen Sufen’s innate skill and had already assigned her to be specifically responsible for the development of Taohua Dessert’s pastries.
Initially, Chen Sufen refused, fearing she wouldn’t be able to bear such a big responsibility.
Later, under Tong Huaqiong’s encouragement and even anger, she managed to accept it.
Tong Huaqiong said, "Sufen, you can focus on creating more pastry recipes. Let Man Er bring out the pastries from the space for you to taste and then come up with new recipes."
After thinking about it, she added, "Take Xiu Xiu along with you, bring out Xiu Xiu." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎
Chen Sufen said, "Don’t worry, mother, Xiu Xiu will definitely come out."
After a few months of practice at the Taohua Dessert Bakery, Tong Huaqiong discovered that Liu Xiuxiu had the same talent for baking as Chen Sufen.
Tong Huaqiong hoped that Chen Sufen would bring out Liu Xiuxiu.
Not just Liu Xiuxiu, Tong Huaqiong also planned to recruit more skilled girls to work in the bakery.
Girls of this era were not lacking in skills or talent; they just lacked a platform, so they were trapped at home.
Tong Huaqiong was willing to give those skilled girls an opportunity.
...
Ever since He Chao came to Yan Guan Town and got rid of the burden of his reputation, he gained Tong Huaqiong’s trust and started to expand his efforts, successfully managing the two shops.
Tong Huaqiong didn’t have to go to Yan Guan Town every day; she could oversee Taohua Desserts by looking at the account books Gu Taohua brought.
Nowadays, Tong Huaqiong focused more of her energy on her own fields and pig farm.
After entering autumn, the corn began to fill out.
Last time, Tong Huaqiong noticed some of the corn cobs had pink and black-gray mold spots at the tips in her cornfield.
Gu Dahuan noted that this happened every year, not only in her cornfield; most of the cornfields in Qinghe Bay had this issue.
Because Tong Huaqiong was busy going to Pingchuan County to have He Chao oversee Taohua Desserts, she couldn’t take care of the cornfield in time.
But that didn’t mean she didn’t care about her cornfield.
Besides the corn cobs in the village having mold spots, several acres of corn planted in the newly bought land at West Mountain Foot also showed the same problem.
Tong Huaqiong felt this must be a common issue in Qinghe Bay cornfields, similar to her wheat field turning yellow due to nitrogen deficiency. Could it be that the soil also lacked some element that caused the corn to sicken?
Tong Huaqiong delved into the space to research for a few days and finally understood that the pink or black-gray mold spots on the corn cobs were symptoms of corn ear rot, which not only affected corn yield but also impacted humans and livestock.
She was reminded of the carcinogenic aflatoxin found in the grains of her time, which was essentially similar.
Corn was an important staple food of this era. The Gu Family not only ate corn porridge and cornmeal but also used corn syrup in desserts, and even Gu Family’s pig feed was primarily corn-based.
Even for the sake of her own health and the development of the pig farming business, Tong Huaqiong had to eradicate corn ear rot.
This time, her goal was not only to solve her problem but also to share the solution with the villagers.
The reason being, if other families’ corn diseases weren’t addressed, it would affect hers.
First, the fungus would be blown into the soil by wind, making other families’ cornfields a source of contamination for hers.
Second, her pig feed was sourced from the village’s corn, and the mold on the corn would affect her pigs.
Tong Huaqiong had witnessed aflatoxin’s power in her past life and specifically instructed Gu Dahuan to maintain quality control when purchasing corn from the village, rejecting any with mold spots or growth.
If the villagers couldn’t get rid of corn ear rot, it would worsen the condition of the corn annually. If yield dropped to a certain level, they would have to buy corn from outside, significantly increasing costs.
Therefore, for the sake of her own health and the robust growth of the pigs, Tong Huaqiong decided to act selflessly.
Actually, treating corn ear rot wasn’t difficult; it relied on prevention and land maintenance.
If she were in her past life, she would have chosen seeds resistant to corn ear rot to solve the problem from the root. But her corn was about to be harvested now, and even if she used a cheat in the space to buy quality seeds, they could only be used next year.
She couldn’t ignore this year’s cornfield, right?
So now the only way to deal with her corn’s ear rot was to use fungicides.
Tong Huaqiong bought carbendazim and thiophanate-methyl, which Man Er took out of the space to initiate a wave of sterilization in her cornfield.
Now, Tong Huaqiong didn’t have to rack her brains to explain the origin of these disinfectants to her family, nor did she have to fib when encountered by officials from the Ministry of Agriculture.
She directly told her family that she found these disinfectants in the space.
Gu Dahuan, in charge of farming and pig raising at home, initially had some doubts about these disinfectants. He worried that if they didn’t work well and ruined the healthy corn cobs, it would spell disaster.
But Tong Huaqiong pointed out that the corn cobs in her field developed mold spots every year for so many years, and rather than wait for the mold spots to disappear on their own, it would be better to take a chance.
Once Tong Huaqiong spoke, Gu Dahuan wouldn’t dare to argue, considering the reason their wheat harvested successfully this year was thanks to the fertilizers Tong Huaqiong brought from the space.
Apart from removing mold, Tong Huaqiong also noticed some corn cobs had bollworms, and she also took out bollworm insecticide, planning to tackle it altogether.
The specific application of fertilizers and pesticides was controlled by Gu Dahuan.
Gu Dahuan, not trusting anyone else, personally managed pest and mold control in the fields.
Of course, to be on the safe side, he selected one acre for experimentation.
As Tong Huaqiong expected, just three days later, the acre treated with fungicide showed results.
