It's really hard to just farm peacefully.

Chapter 317

Under the hazy moonlight, Li Hao and Jiang Yan re-sorted the cliff fruit leaves in the basket according to size and age.

Jiang Fazhe sat on a small stool and carefully cleaned his small bamboo steamer that had not been used for a long time.

After a while, the water in the pottery pot began to boil. Jiang Fa spread one of the leaves evenly in the steamer and steamed it.

When I took it off not long after, the leaves had turned darker in color and their texture had become softer.

Jiang Fa picked up one of them and put it to his nose to smell it, then suddenly put it down and asked Jiang Yan, "This thing should be drinkable if soaked in water, right?"

"It's drinkable." Jiang Yan said affirmatively, but then she thought of her previous experience with diarrhea and felt a little worried. "I'll try it after I'm done." What if... the old lady can't bear this pain.

Jiang Fa and Li Hao knew that Jiang Yan was also feeling insecure when they heard it.

Jiang Fa placed the leaves in the basket upside down on the burlap, rubbing and squeezing them repeatedly while they were still hot, while correcting him, "We can't make all the leaf tea tonight. If you want to drink it, wait a couple of days."

The rolled leaves are spread on a bamboo sieve and then taken indoors to a bamboo rack to dry naturally.

Jiang Fa packed up another pile of older leaves and repeated the process, but this time the steaming time seemed to be a little longer.

Jiang Yan asked Jiang Fa, "Isn't this leaf tea made by roasting?"

In her impression, tea leaves were constantly stir-fried and kneaded by hand in a huge iron pot, and then dried.

Jiang Fa laughed and said, "You can fry it dry, but it's such a small amount, I'm afraid I'll burn my hands."

Considering that Jiang Yan might want to make her own leaf tea in the future, he added, "Steaming is easier. Even if the steaming time is too long and the leaves are overcooked, at most they will rot and look ugly.

But if you use a pot to fry, it's hard to control the heat, and it's not worth it if the pot gets cracked, even if it burns."

……

A basket of cliff fruit leaves only needed two sieves of drying. Seeing that Jiang Yan was looking forward to it, he took it to the yard to turn over and dry it at noon the next day.

Finally, the finished product is assembled before nightfall, barely filling a wooden jar the size of an adult man's fist.

Jiang Yan ran back home and brought boiling water and a ceramic bowl. He picked up a handful... a small handful of dry leaves, added water and waited for them to soak.

She looked at Jiang Fa and Li Hao, the two elders, and said with a smile: "I'll try it first. If it's okay, you two can drink it later."

"What are you talking about!" Jiang Fa snorted heavily, "I made this myself. I haven't even tasted it yet, so how can it be your turn?"

After saying that, he took the bowl of water in front of Jiang Yan and moved it in front of him. Then he felt the old flesh on his back being pinched.

Jiang Fa paused, pushed the bowl back, stood up, went back to the house, fetched another cup, made some new tea, and said, "Let's both drink it."

Li Hao pinched her hard with a smile on his face.

……

After some trouble, when the three of them actually started to taste it, the water in Jiang Yan's bowl was no longer too hot.

Taking a sip and savoring it carefully, Jiang Yan said happily, "That guy really didn't scare me. I can taste the sweetness."

"Really?" Jiang Fa and Li Hao were old and their sense of taste had deteriorated. They took a few sips but couldn't taste much, so they added a few more pinches.

When the tea was brewed strong, it tasted sweet indeed. Li Hao was very satisfied: "This leaf tastes better than the others, not bitter. Next time we will pick more."

Sweets were hard to come by, so the three of them finished the tea in their bowls and added several more glasses of water until they could no longer taste it and then they dispersed to rest.

On the second day, the villagers agreed to go to the fields to sow millet.

Jiang Wang looked at the three men in front of him, young and old, who looked energetic despite having dark circles under their eyes and heavy bags under their eyes, and asked hesitantly, "Did you three...stay awake last night and go out to steal?"