Phi-Fic Chapter 216 Harvest
Chapter 216 Harvest
In Su Jinru's space, besides planting ginseng and lingzhi, she also planted some Panax notoginseng.
All three are precious medicinal materials.
The longer ginseng is stored, the more precious it becomes. One month inside the space is equivalent to a year's growth cycle in real life.
The growth cycle of Ganoderma lucidum in real life is six months to one year.
In Su Jinru's space, Ganoderma lucidum can be harvested in a month.
In reality, the growth cycle of Panax notoginseng is three to seven years.
In the space, it only takes three months because Panax notoginseng has very high requirements for temperature and humidity. Therefore, in real life, even in the same region, there are big differences in growth cycle and yield.
The space is ideal for growing Panax notoginseng because the temperature and humidity can be controlled freely.
Therefore, the growth cycle is greatly shortened to three months before harvest.
Su Jinru also planted many fruit tree seedlings in her space. Once those seedlings were old enough to bear fruit, she would transplant them to Qiongzhou Island. In this way, she would only plant these three kinds of medicinal herbs in her space.
In May, someone may have suggested to the Ministry of Health in Beijing that traditional Chinese medicine doctors were having trouble buying medicinal herbs.
This is a matter of public health and a major issue concerning people's livelihood. The Ministry of Health attaches great importance to it and will no longer restrict individuals from selling medicinal materials privately.
However, this medicinal material is purchased by the state, and traditional Chinese medicine hospitals and folk doctors can purchase it from the State Drug Monopoly Administration.
So ordinary people can once again openly go to the mountains to dig for medicinal herbs. They can also openly sell their herbs to medicinal herb purchasing stations.
Of course, most people can only find common medicinal herbs when they go to the mountains; the precious medicinal herbs are still very rare.
Su Jinru sends ten ginseng roots and one hundred catties of Ganoderma lucidum to Elder Hong every month from her space. As for Panax notoginseng, she has just planted it and it is not yet time to harvest it, so it is not for sale for the time being.
Therefore, Su Jinru earns more than 20,000 yuan a month from medicinal herbs.
After the Panax notoginseng was planted, Yuan Wenjie directly helped her find the manufacturer of Yunnan Baiyao, and she sold it directly to them. Selling Panax notoginseng, she earned an average of more than 10,000 yuan a month.
Therefore, Su Jinru earns more than 30,000 yuan a month from selling three kinds of medicinal herbs.
Master Hong has extensive connections in the field of traditional Chinese medicine. Su Jinru mailed him medicinal herbs, but he couldn't consume so many himself, so he shared some with his colleagues.
On the one hand, others simply couldn't find this kind of high-quality medicinal material, so he was providing timely help, earning a little extra for his hard work, and also building up his network of contacts.
This is a mutually beneficial and good thing; everyone benefits from it.
In May, the potatoes and sweet potatoes on Qiongzhou Island were ready for harvest.
That day, the dry field was packed with people. Most of the soldiers and their families came from the countryside, but they had never seen potatoes and sweet potatoes harvested in just two months.
Moreover, the potatoes that were dug up looked like big golden babies, plump and tender, which was very pleasing to the eye.
Potatoes and sweet potatoes are large, free from diseases and pests, and have high yields.
One hundred and fifty acres of potatoes yielded a harvest of more than one and a half million catties of potatoes.
The 48 mu of sweet potatoes yielded a harvest of over 480,000 jin of sweet potatoes.
Everyone cheered with joy at the sight of the mountain of grain.
All soldiers eat for free in the mess hall. They are given a lot of meal tickets every month, which they can use to get food.
Family members who participate in labor can also receive free meal tickets to eat in the canteen.
Military dependents who do not participate in labor do not receive free meal tickets, but they can buy potatoes and sweet potatoes at a low price. They sell for 10 cents a pound outside, but here they are given a discounted price of 5 cents a pound.
If both parents receive free meal tickets, the children will also receive them.
Yuan Wenjie encouraged everyone.
"Our Qiongzhou Island is currently in dire need of development and construction, facing significant challenges and still burdened with a lot of foreign debt! We are temporarily not paying wages, but we can ensure you have enough to eat. Next year, everyone working on the farm, in the vegetable base, or the pig farm will receive wages."
In this day and age, most people are content with being able to live peacefully and have enough to eat.
On Qiongzhou Island, children can go to school for free, see a doctor for free, eat for free, and there are so many seafood products that can be collected, dried, and mailed back to their hometowns. It's much better than back home.
So no one complained about not receiving a salary.
Of course, teachers, doctors, and saltworkers received salaries.
After the potatoes and sweet potatoes were harvested, the land was immediately turned over and left to dry in the sun to prevent the breeding of pests and diseases. The sun on Qiongzhou Island in May is very strong. After only a week of drying, the soil was very dry, and a new round of planting of potatoes and sweet potatoes began.
In May, we were busy harvesting and planting. Just as we finished, the rice ripened in June.
It was another bustling and spectacular harvest.
Originally, Su Jinru had already drawn up the blueprints for the harvester, but Yuan Wenjie took the blueprints to many machinery manufacturers, and none of them dared to accept the order to manufacture it.
Therefore, the rice is still harvested using traditional methods.
Fortunately, on Qiongzhou Island, there was no shortage of labor, and the troops had strong appeal and excellent execution capabilities. The harvest was completed in seven or eight days.
After the rice is harvested, it is threshed into grains, dried thoroughly in the sun on the training ground, and then milled into white rice using a rice milling machine.
The yield is over 3,000 jin of rice per mu. 240 mu of rice yields 720,000 jin.
On Qiongzhou Island, due to the climate, three rice crops can be grown a year. In addition, there are five harvests of potatoes and sweet potatoes each year, vegetable cultivation, and pig farming, which is enough to supply food for more than 10,000 people on the island.
Therefore, with the successive harvests of vegetables, potatoes, and rice, the food problem on Qiongzhou Island has been basically solved.
Moreover, the rice they grow is soft, glutinous, fragrant, and delicious—much better than any rice they've ever eaten before.
Potatoes are also very delicious. Su Jinru even taught the cafeteria how to cook potatoes in various ways. There are seven or eight different ways to cook potatoes.
Sweet potatoes are also very filling.
Although pork may not be available for a while, the seven sows have given birth to 68 piglets in the past three months.
These piglets can be slaughtered and eaten during the Lunar New Year next year.
In other words, pork will be available gradually after six months.
Being able to eat rice, fresh vegetables, and seafood is already a very happy thing for everyone.
Thinking about the future, with pork to eat every day and a salary, everyone was overjoyed and full of hope and anticipation for the future of Qiongzhou Island.
They were especially grateful to Yuan Wenjie for all of this. He was resourceful, good at planning, visionary, capable, and decisive. In less than a year, he transformed a deserted island into a beautiful home that was self-sufficient and did not need to rely on the government for supplies.