PFC Chapter 307 Return to the Village
Chapter 307 Return to the Village
As the battery factory got on track, time quickly moved to the autumn of 1982.
Just after the Frost Descent, Lin Shu and Lin Dashan took a train back to their hometown in the small county town. The medicinal herbs planted last autumn and this spring can be harvested.
This is the first time to plant medicinal herbs. The villagers in my hometown are naturally most concerned about the profits. If the medicinal herbs can bring considerable profits, I believe that the villagers will actively plant them next year without any mobilization.
"Dad, look at these fields by the roadside, they are all planted with pinellia."
Lin Shu and Lin Dashan just entered the village on their bicycles. The several plots of land on the roadside were full of Pinellia ternata seedlings. They were planted densely and the yield should be good.
"These pinellia were planted this spring. The codonopsis planted last fall grew well. In the spring, the captain and your brother mobilized the villagers to plant a lot of pinellia."
Of course, the land used to grow Pinellia ternata is newly reclaimed wasteland.
There are great obstacles for villagers to use cultivated land to grow medicinal herbs with uncertain returns before they see the benefits.
If it is to use their spare time to open up wasteland and plant medicinal herbs, the villagers are still willing to try.
There is no cost, just a little extra effort, and they are willing to try.
To be honest, the villagers who farm in rural areas have nothing more than endless energy.
Similarly, manual labor is the cheapest in this era.
"Dad, you see those plants are also medicinal herbs, right? Are those villagers digging them?"
Lin Dashan looked in the direction Lin Shu pointed, and saw a dozen villagers waving three-toothed rakes and digging the soil on the distant slope. He wondered if they were harvesting sweet potatoes or other medicinal herbs.
"I remember that the sloping land belonged to Yuan Chao's family, and the land next to it also belonged to his brother. They planted a lot of salvia miltiorrhiza this year. If I'm not mistaken, they should be digging salvia miltiorrhiza."
When they passed by the bottom of the slope on their bicycles, they might be the Yuan Chao family. The adults were digging salvia miltiorrhiza and the children were cleaning the dirt off the salvia miltiorrhiza and putting it into a basket.
Lin Dashan and Lin Shu stopped and propped their bicycles on the side of the road.
As Lin Dashan climbed up the slope, he called out to Lin Yuanchao, "Yuanchao, your salvia miltiorrhiza is growing well this year. How many kilograms do you think this acre of land can produce?"
Lin Yuanchao was waving a three-toothed rake to dig up a salvia miltiorrhiza in front of him. When he heard a familiar shout and wanted to look back, he almost sprained his waist.
"Oh, it's uncle who's back." Lin Yuanchao put the rake aside, clapped his hands and walked over to greet him.
"Uncle, you and Lin Shu are finally back. Why didn't you notify us in advance so that I could pick you up in the county?"
"We are uncle and nephew within five generations of mourning. There's no need to be so polite. The youngest and I just rode back on our bikes. Why would we ask you to pick us up? We are family and there's no need to make things so complicated."
Lin Yuanchao is a man in charge of the family. Now is not the time to establish a collectivist system. The property should be distributed to each household and everyone should cultivate their own land. Otherwise, who will help you?
This is the season for harvesting medicinal herbs. How could Lin Dashan possibly notify Lin Yuanchao in advance and let him run around for them?
He walked to the front of the harvested herbs and picked up a salvia miltiorrhiza plant. Its dark red rhizome was very thick and sturdy. "Yuan Chao, you must have spent a lot of time and effort on growing these herbs this year. The rhizomes are so thick, how many kilograms can one acre of land produce?"
"We dug for a whole day yesterday and weighed about 4,000 kilograms. This piece of land is similar to the one we dug yesterday, so the yield should be similar."
Now Lin Yuanchao has a good idea of the production volume, but he is most concerned about the price. "Uncle, Lin Shu, what is the current purchase price of Danshen?"
"The current market purchase price is between 5 cents and 8 cents. Salvia miltiorrhiza of your quality can be sold for 8 cents per pound. Based on the yield you mentioned, the gross income per mu of land can reach about 200 yuan per mu."
"Brother Yuanchao, how much did you plant this year?"
When Lin Yuanchao heard that it was eight cents per acre and that Lin Shu gave him the highest price, he was very excited.
He calculated in his mind and it was about the price Lin Shu mentioned.
"We don't plant much Salvia miltiorrhiza, probably just over two acres. Last year, my uncle came back temporarily and suggested that we plant medicinal herbs, so I thought of planting this sloping land far from the village. This spring, we reclaimed land and planted another five acres of Pinellia ternata. Lin Shu, can I ask what the purchase price of Pinellia ternata is now?"
"The purchase price of Pinellia is a little higher than that of Salvia miltiorrhiza, ranging from 0.2 to 0.28 yuan. It mainly depends on the quality. The better the quality, the higher the price."
Lin Shu knew that it would take time to get the villagers to give up food and grow medicinal herbs. Now was the first year. As long as the villagers saw the benefits, there would definitely be a few villagers who would take the initiative to ask to plant them next year without any publicity from them.
Lin Yuanchao and his wife looked at each other and felt a little regretful that they had not planted enough Pinellia ternata, as the purchase price was several times higher than that of Salvia miltiorrhiza.
"I planted less pinellia this year. If the purchase price remains so high, I will plant a few more acres of pinellia next year."
"Brother, that's not how you calculate it. Salvia miltiorrhiza has a low purchase price, but its yield is high, with an output of 4,000 to 5,000 kilograms per mu, so you can make a lot of money. Pinellia ternata has a high purchase price, but its yield is only about 1,000 kilograms per mu, and it's more troublesome to harvest than Salvia miltiorrhiza. In fact, the profits from the two herbs are about the same."
Pinellia ternata has small grains, and harvesting it is troublesome, time-consuming, and requires patience.
Lin Yuanchao was the village accountant. After hearing Lin Shuyi's reminder, he suddenly realized what was going on.
As to which medicinal herbs are most cost-effective to grow, that is a matter of personal opinion.
"Yuan Chao, you guys start digging first, we'll go back to the village and clean up the house." Seeing that they still had a lot of medicinal herbs that they hadn't dug, Lin Dashan said goodbye to them and went back to the village first.
Lin Yuanchao glanced at the half-dug land, nodded and said, "Uncle, you guys can go back and clean up the house. Don't cook lunch, come to my house for lunch."
"No need to go to so much trouble, we can just make some food at home." Lin Dashan said politely.
"It's not a big deal. The kid at home caught some fish in the river yesterday. We can have a drink together at noon."
"There are river fish. We haven't tasted river fish from our hometown river for a long time. OK, then we will go and try the cooking skills of my niece's wife at noon."
After saying goodbye to Lin Yuanchao, Lin Dashan and Lin Shu continued riding their bikes towards the village. When they met villagers on the way, they greeted them with a smile.
Before they entered the village, the people in Xiaohe Village knew that the father and daughter had returned to the village.
The old house had not been occupied for two years and looked a bit run-down, with dust everywhere in the house.
Lin Shu smelled the musty smell in the house, put down his luggage, rolled up his sleeves and started cleaning.
Lin Dashan seldom did housework since he got married. He was not good at housework such as cleaning, so he took the initiative to pick up the shoulder pole to fetch water.
After the water tank was filled, Lin Shu fetched water to wipe the furniture, while Lin Dashan sorted out some gifts and went out with them.
I haven't been back to the village for such a long time. Now that I'm back, I have to go visit some elderly people in the tribe.
Besides, the family house also needs the care of the clan members to prevent it from falling into disrepair too quickly. If there is any happening in the village, the clan members will also send telegrams to the city to inform him.
In short, as a rural person, Xiaohe Village is his roots, and this root cannot be severed no matter how many years he is away.