My village can't be like this

Chapter 617: Garlic Harvest
"Xiao An, go wash your face and come over to eat. Come with me to the market to buy garlic seeds later."

Zhang An had just gotten up early in the morning when Wang Fang, who was wearing an apron and cooking noodles, spoke to him.

Wang Fang is the type of person who does what she says. She just decided to plant garlic in winter last night and will go buy garlic seeds today.

"Okay, Mom."

Zhang An didn't exercise as usual, he just went to the yard with the basin to wash.

In fact, it’s no wonder that Wang Fang is anxious. The Double Ninth Festival has passed for several days now, and the next solar term is Frost Descent.

The best time to plant garlic is before the Descent of Frost.

Moreover, today happens to be the weekend, and there is a big market in Hongyan Town. Many villagers nearby will go to the market to sell agricultural products, so today is the best time to buy garlic seeds.

If you want to buy garlic seeds during off-season and no market day, you have to go to the farmers' market in the city.

Also, Su Ying doesn't have to go to school today, so the lawless little kid has someone watching him.

After breakfast, Wang Fang had searched a nylon bag and found about a dozen of them.

Zhang An's family has a total of six acres of land. If they plant garlic on all of it, they will definitely need a lot of garlic seeds. Even if they are not planted too densely, they will still need at least a thousand kilograms of garlic seeds.

Although it was still early, the road to the market was very busy.

There are a lot more cars on the road to Hongyan Town than in the previous two years, but they are all horse-drawn carriages used by nearby villagers to carry passengers.

Compared with previous years, there are now many more people willing to spend money to take a horse-drawn carriage to the market.

Unlike before, few people were willing to spend the money, and there were only a few people driving horse-drawn carriages back and forth on the road.

Of course, there are many pedestrians on both sides of the road. In villages such as Changqing, which is not far from Hongyan Town, many people still choose to take the No. 11 bicycle.

Zhang An and Wang Fang, mother and son, had a very clear purpose today, which was to buy garlic.

So after arriving at Hongyan Market, I didn’t look at anything and went straight to the basketball court in Hongyan Town.

Because the place here is relatively spacious and not as narrow as the streets on both sides, families have long used this place as a place to sell agricultural and sideline products.

However, no matter how big this basketball court is, every time there is a big market, the place is always full of people.

Entering the basketball court, Zhang An found that there were quite a lot of people selling garlic today. It might be because it was the garlic planting season recently and everyone wanted to take advantage of this period to sell more.

Although there were many people selling garlic, it seemed that each of them did not bring much garlic, only one or two bags of several hundred kilograms.

This is all normal. After all, garlic is not a major crop nowadays. Although many families grow it, they will not grow too much.

The task of picking garlic seeds naturally fell on Wang Fang, because Zhang An had no idea how to pick them. He just thought that the bigger the garlic cloves, the better.

But sometimes garlic cloves that look big may not be suitable for planting, and vice versa.

Although the stall owners were very enthusiastic in promoting their garlic, saying it was of the highest quality and unique, Wang Fang was not satisfied with any of them after visiting several of them.

Garlic seeds are not the same as the ones you buy home to eat, so Wang Fang didn't intend to settle for it. Feeling dissatisfied, she simply walked to the next store without even asking the price.

If Zhang An came here himself, he would probably just buy the garlic from the store that had bigger and better-looking cloves.

"Old man, how much do you sell this garlic for? How much is one pound?"

Finally, they came to an old man’s stall. Wang Fang looked carefully for a while before asking.

"My garlic is good garlic. You see, the cloves are almost the same size. The flavor is very strong and delicious. I want to sell it for 45 cents, but I haven't opened yet. If you want it, it's 40 cents."

When the old man saw that someone was interested in his garlic, he quickly responded enthusiastically, first talking about the advantages of his garlic and then talking about the price.

I’m afraid that if I tell you the price directly, others won’t want to buy it anymore.

However, this old man did not exaggerate like the others. Zhang An took a look and found that the garlic in his pocket were of uniform size and quite big.

"I can smell this. It's our local garlic. You have a lot of it. We'll take it all."

Wang Fang can easily distinguish local garlic from foreign garlic.

Local garlic is not very big, but it is very stable to grow and has a strong flavor.

But it’s not necessarily the case with garlic from other places. Garlic grown in the same field may grow big while others may be small.

This is the same principle as the orange tree in the south growing in the north, which may not be able to adapt to the local soil conditions.

Moreover, although many foreign garlic cloves look larger, they are just for show. When you really eat them, the garlic flavor is very light.

Therefore, Wang Fang still prefers to grow local garlic seeds. Firstly, her family is used to eating it, and secondly, the garlic quality is guaranteed.

"I only brought one load today, less than 100 kilograms."

When the old man heard Wang Fang say she wanted them all, a smile immediately broke out on his wrinkled face.

"Then go out with my son and weigh it. He will give you the money after it's weighed."

Wang Fang wanted to continue watching, so she asked the old man to take his garlic and Zhang An to the car to weigh it, and then put it in the car after weighing.

The old man immediately tied up the bag of garlic and prepared to carry it out to the street with Zhang An.

His goal today was to sell garlic, and now that he had sold all of it, his mission was accomplished.

"Uncle, there are too many people on this street. It's hard for you to carry it. Let me take it. Just follow me."

The streets are so crowded now that if the old man were to find his way out by himself, it would take him a long time.

So Zhang An said something to the old man, holding a bag of garlic in one hand, and led the old man through the crowd.

The old man was worried that Zhang An would run away with his two bags of garlic, but he finally found that Zhang An would stop and wait for him from time to time while he was walking, so he felt relieved.

"Young man, you are very strong."

Although he hadn't weighed them, he estimated that the two bags of garlic were more than 40 kilograms. When the old man saw that Zhang An was carrying them without any effort, he couldn't help but praise him.

If it were someone else, even if they could lift 40 or 50 kilograms with one hand, it would not be so easy.

"Haha, that's what people in our village say too. Uncle, just follow me. If we get separated, you can find me at the pickup truck parked at the street corner."

Walking out of the basketball court, it was the most crowded place on the street. Zhang An was worried that the old man would be squeezed away, so he spoke in advance.

Normally, there was hardly any distance to walk, and it took Zhang An five minutes to finally lead the old man out of the street.

After the final weighing, the old man had a total of 93 kilograms of garlic. After pouring the money into his own pocket, Zhang An took out the money and handed it to the old man.

Because it sold so quickly, the old man was so happy that he gave me two cents.

"Young man, how much do you want to buy? I still have more than 200 kilograms at home." When he saw the pickup truck, the old man already knew that Zhang An's family must not be an ordinary family, so he tried to ask. If Zhang An wanted more, he wanted to take the opportunity to sell his family's goods as well.

"My family needs to plant six mu of land, which will produce at least a thousand kilograms of crops. If you still have some, can you leave a place for me? If it's nearby, I'll go over and take a look. But I have to make it clear that I don't want anything that's too bad."

It doesn't matter who you buy it for, and since the old man has some left at home, as long as they are similar to these two bags, Zhang An is willing to take them from him.

"My home is in Yangliu Village. You can see a big apricot tree when you enter the village. That's my home. If you really can't find a suitable place, you can ask Old Man Liu's home. I'm the only one with the surname Liu in the village."

When the old man heard what Zhang An said, he quickly introduced himself, then patted his chest and made a promise.

"And don't worry, young man. I still have at least 200 kilograms of the bad ones after picking out the bad ones. We will keep the bad ones for ourselves when the time comes."

"Yangliu Village isn't far away. I'll go take a look when I get back from the market today."

When Zhang An heard that the distance was not too far, he agreed immediately.

"That's fine. I'll pick them out when I get home."

After getting Zhang An's reply, the old man was very happy. He took his shoulder pole and bag, turned around and went home without even going to the street.

When Zhang An went back to look for his mother Wang Fang, he was halfway there when he found that his mother was already walking towards him with five or six people carrying several large bags of garlic.

Upon asking, she found out that these people were all from the same village and were growing local garlic. Wang Fang thought the food was good, so she simply called them all over.

Although they came together, they were not a family, so they were weighed separately.

Zhang An weighed them one by one, then poured the money into his own pocket before letting Wang Fang pay.

These guys were all young and strong men. The garlic they picked were all carried in big bags. They carried a lot more garlic than the old man just now, and each bag weighed about 130 to 140 kilograms.

But it’s a good thing this way. The more they sell, the sooner Zhang An’s family can buy everything.

It wasn't until the last person that Zhang An found something wrong when he weighed him.

The two bags of garlic this man brought looked similar, but one bag weighed several kilograms more.

"It's weighed. Please check the scale and help me change the pockets."

There was no doubt that there must be something else in there, but Zhang An didn't say anything.

"It's so troublesome to pour it back and forth. You bought so much garlic from me. These are just two nylon bags. I'll give them to you as a gift."

Seeing Zhang An taking out his pocket to change his clothes, the last man pretended to be very generous and said to Zhang An.

This was a man with a pointed chin and a small mustache. As he spoke, he picked up his two bags of garlic and loaded them into Zhang An's truck.

Seeing him like this, Zhang An became even more certain that there was something wrong.

"We don't need this. We brought our own. Let's repack some. You can just take your own."

So when he picked him up, Zhang An pressed with one hand, and the garlic bag, which had just been lifted into the air, was immediately pressed back to the ground.

Seeing that Zhang An's tone was very firm and full of unquestionable tone, the man with a pointed chin and monkey face had no choice but to do as he was told.

But at this moment his eyes kept rolling around, probably looking for other excuses.

As a result, the problem occurred before Zhang An got his turn to take the package that he thought had problems.

Because when he poured the first bag, Zhang An found that there was a lot of mud mixed at the bottom of the pocket.

"You didn't harvest the garlic cleanly. There's at least several kilograms of mud here. Forget it. Just throw it back. I can't harvest your garlic."

Zhang An found it a little funny. If there was no problem before, there would be a problem now. So the problem that was considered a problem just now might be quite serious.

There were so many people in front, including the old man at the beginning. He had harvested more than 700 kilograms of garlic in total, and they were all clean. I have never seen anything so exaggerated.

The reason why they carry their own bags is to prevent this kind of situation.

The garlic is indeed good, but the mud is a bit disgusting.

Which good family’s mud is so precious, worth only 40 cents per pound?

"Oops, this may be because when I was peeling garlic at home, I didn't notice that there was mud inside. Please forgive me. I will shake off the mud and weigh it again."

When the man with a mustache heard Zhang An say that he would not accept their family's property, he became anxious and quickly apologized with a smile.

"Yes, maybe he didn't pay attention when he was installing it. Let him shake off the mud and weigh it again. It's not easy to carry it all the way here. Boss, please help collect it."

The other people who were traveling with him seemed unaware of the situation and were helping him to plead with Zhang An.

"Well, if you say so, as long as he shakes out the mud inside, I'll pretend that nothing happened."

Don't hit a smiling person. Seeing so many people smiling, Zhang An decided to give them some face.

"But I will check the next package carefully. If it's still not clean, I'll be sorry."

Then when the man with a mustache went to shake off the mud in his bag, Zhang An went straight to the other bag and spoke.

"No, no, no."

The man with a mustache wanted to say something, but before he could open his mouth he was interrupted by several people from his village.

As they spoke, they took the initiative to help by using their pockets to pad the ground, and then poured another bag of garlic on the ground.

But the next second, they couldn't even smile.

Because in the bag of garlic that was poured out, there was not only mud, but also a whole large stone.

"I'm sorry, you'd better take the garlic back. We can't collect it here."

As soon as Zhang An saw the stone, he shook his head and refused it directly.

He felt something was wrong just now. They were of the same size but not symmetrical in weight.

As a result, there is such a big stone inside, it would be weird if it didn't fit.

Zhang An actually didn't understand why he did this. It wasn't like anyone was coming to collect the things. Why would they come all the way here to pick them up and do all this nonsense?

At this moment, even if the other people wanted to say something, they were too embarrassed to speak. They could only silently help to put the garlic that had spilled on the ground back in its original place.

After sending those people away, Zhang An followed his mother around and collected a few hundred kilograms. At this time, his car had collected more than a thousand kilograms, but it was still a little short of the estimated amount.

But there are still some at the old man's house, so he doesn't plan to collect any more, even if he is short of them in the end.

(End of this chapter)