Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 527 526 Hawthorn is not selling well

Tang Zhitong got off the car and squeezed into the grocery store to look at the fruits.

It's not for buying, it's mainly to see what's on sale, and it would be even better if I could hear the price at the same time.

Various fruits are placed in baskets. Customers tell the salesperson what they want to buy and how much they want. The salesperson picks and weighs the fruits one by one inside the counter. Customers cannot choose by themselves. The salesperson will match the fruits according to quality.

Of course, very rotten fruits will not be sold. They will be picked out and thrown into the basket at the bottom. Either the salesperson will buy them at a low price and eat them, or they will be sent to the preserve factory, just like the low-quality fruits will be sent to the juice factory decades later.

Tang Zhitong took advantage of his height and stood aside to look inside. The largest number of fruits were red.

Red fruit is also called mountain red, which is the local name in Sijiucheng. It looks like hawthorn, but is a circle larger than hawthorn. However, locals often mix them up and no one cares.

Hawthorn is small in size, with a large core, many seeds, little flesh, thick skin, many pockmarks on the skin, and a very sour taste. The old people in Sijiucheng call it "dregs". Most of it is used as medicine. Things like Hawthorn Pills and Jiao Sanxian are all made from hawthorn.

Shanlihong is the product of grafting hawthorn tree and sand apple. It has a small core, few seeds, thick flesh, thin and smooth skin, and sparse golden spots can be seen on the surface.

Shanlihong is produced in various places in Beijing, such as Miyun, Fangshan, Yanqing, Mentougou, Huairou, Changping, Pinggu, etc. The output is large, and it is used to make candied haws at temple fairs.

Due to its high output, it can not only meet local demand, but also be exported. For example, Tianjin’s “Tangzhan’er” is made with the mountain reds from the old city of Sijiu.

"Comrade, how much are these hawthorns?" Tang Zhitong asked.

"One cent." The salesperson looked up at Tang Zhitong while picking apples for other customers. He replied because Tang Zhitong looked handsome and was wearing a uniform, and reminded them, "Go back and queue up to buy fruit."

"Okay, let me check the price first and see if I need a ticket. If I do, then my queue will be in vain since I didn't bring any today." Tang Zhitong replied kindly.

"Young man, you have to use your food supplement book to buy it, and you can buy no more than two kilograms at a time. Hawthorn is cheap at this price, but the more you eat, the hungrier you get. If it were replaced with sorghum flour, it would be sold out in half a day." An old lady next to her continued.

"Thank you, who said it wasn't?" Tang Zhitong echoed.

"You want hawthorn? Hawthorn is not sold at cost. If you want, I can sell you more. It's been a day, and we haven't sold a few kilograms." The salesperson weighed the apples, collected the money, poured them into the customer's basket, and said to Tang Zhitong.

"Thank you. I want to buy some pears. I'll go home and get my food order." Tang Zhitong smiled and nodded at the man, then squeezed out of the line.

In previous years, there was no limit on food, and every household had greedy children. Many people bought hawthorns or mountain reds and went home to eat them raw or stew them in soup. But this year, there is not enough food, so why buy more to whet your appetite? It doesn't make sense logically.

Apart from the mountain amaranth, the most abundant fruits on the counter are pears and apples, which are also the most popular fruits.

Although there are only two kinds of fruits, there are many varieties.

The pears are mainly Yali and Yaguangli from Daxing and Hongxiaoli from Miyun. Last year, Tang Zhitong had seen even more varieties, such as Xuehua pear, Jingbai pear, Sugar pear, Honey pear, Qiubai pear, Mali, Zimu pear, Jinba pear, Green pear, Shuibai pear, etc. There are easily twenty or thirty varieties.

Tang Zhitong's favorite is the Beijing white pear.

Beijing white pears are round, thin-skinned, light yellow in color, and covered with dense small spots. They are not big in size, but have soft flesh, are juicy, and are almost residue-free.

Because it leaves a lingering fragrance on the lips and teeth after eating, it is also called perfume pear.

Beijing white pear is a specialty of Beijing. It was cultivated and evolved from a wild pear tree in Dongshan Village, Mentougou District more than 400 years ago. It has pure and authentic quality and clean and beautiful fruit shape. It is the only fruit named with the word "Beijing".

Beijing white pears are delicious, but they are easily bruised and difficult to store, so they were not selected as a promoted variety.

In addition, Beijing white pear is a type of elm pear, which is somewhat similar to the frozen pear in Northeast China. Tang Zhitong plans to collect some and make frozen pears at home!
Compared with pears, Tang Zhitong did not intercept many apples at that time, because Sijiucheng was not the main apple producing area at that time. Most of the apples eaten by the people of Sijiucheng were shipped from other places, and there were many varieties, such as Red Star, Golden Crown, Red Jade, Green Banana, Zhuguang, etc.

The Red Star Apple is a domestically produced variety of the Delicious Apple from across the ocean. The reason why the Delicious Apple is called Delicious Apple is because when Hong Kong County imported it from there, it transliterated "delicious apple" into "Dili Deli Apple", and when it arrived in China, it was shortened to just two words: Deli Apple.

The Golden Crown apple is also called Huang Yuanshuai, Jin Shuai, and Banana Apple. It has a golden appearance, juicy flesh, sweet and crispy taste, and is the taste of many people's childhood.

Tang Zhitong returned home and went to the front door again. In addition to half a bag of corn, Tang Zhitong also stuffed some apples, pears, and mountain reds into his bag. It was not much. Since the grocery store had increased the quantity, it was impossible that it would only be for one day, and he would bring more tomorrow.

"Did you buy apples? I bought some too." Zhang Guifang said when she saw her son taking fruits out of his bag.

"Well, it's a holiday, and the higher-ups gave some portions to the young people who eat in the canteen at work. I asked the canteen chef to bring it back because he's familiar with the people there." Tang Zhitong lied in his mind.

"And there are pears. If I had known you were going to buy them, I wouldn't have bought them." Zhang Guifang looked at the fruits displayed by Tang Zhitong and felt that she had spent a bit too much.

"Didn't you say last time that frozen pears are delicious? So I bought some. Now that it's cold, let's try freezing a few ourselves." Tang Zhitong said cheerfully. Considering the weather in the old city, it should be possible to make frozen pears, but no one had ever eaten them this way before and no one had done it.

"Brother, can I have an apple later?" Fengzhi drooled as she looked at the table full of fruits, but she didn't touch them.

"Okay, let's wait for your sister-in-law and your sister to come back and eat together. First, take a basin and pick out five apples and wash them." Tang Zhitong packed his things while arranging his sister to work.

"Understood, sir!" With food hanging in front of her, Fengzhi still had a strong ability to execute.

Fengzhi was busy washing apples, and Beibei ran to Tang Zhitong's feet and meowed, as if complaining to her male owner about Fengzhi's ruthless abuse of her.

"Do you want to go to the bathroom? Let's go outside." Tang Zhitong couldn't guess what Beibei wanted to do. It was winter and the door was closed most of the time.

After saying that, Tang Zhitong pushed open the door, and Beibei slipped out through the crack of the door and squatted in the sand pit to take a bath, but it was a bit difficult to dig in the sand.

It was cold outside, Beibei didn't want to stay any longer, and stood at the door and meowed. Tang Zhitong didn't open the door, but pulled out a small silver fish from the space, dangling it in front of Beibei's eyes, and then led him to the vacant space on the east side of the main house and put it on the ground. This should be Beibei's first time to eat fresh fish, and he ate it very deliciously. While eating, he didn't mind the cold outside. Although the silver fish was not big, Beibei still held it in his mouth, with his back to Tang Zhitong, and then pressed the fish with his little claws, biting it with his little milk teeth.

Tang Zhitong stood aside, watching with a smile. It was quite interesting to watch a cat eat. Cats rarely eat in a hurry and they always eat in a very polite manner. It would be perfect if he could make a bowl of rice for Beibei.

After eating one, Beibei was still not satisfied. He turned around, squatted at Tang Zhitong's feet, and acted cute, making a baby "meow" sound.

Tang Zhitong had no choice but to pull out another one. Beibei put it in his mouth and turned around.

"What are you doing? Aren't you afraid it's cold outside?" After Xiao Wang came back, she saw her husband standing in the corner like a fool, with his head down and grinning foolishly, so she asked.

"Oh, Beibei just caught a little mouse. Let's see how it eats it." Tang Zhitong saw that Beibei was almost done eating, so he made up something. Whether it was a dog or a cat, they could just take the blame since they couldn't talk anyway.

"Meow meow~" After eating, Beibei wiped his face with his paws and trotted to Xiao Wang. I don't know if he was telling Tang Zhitong about it or continuing to ask for more food.

"Oh! I just ate a mouse. It's dirty. Go away." When Xiao Wang heard this, he frowned.

Humans are very strange animals. Some people like cats and can accept cats eating mice, but they just can't accept a cat that has just eaten a mouse, even if it is a kitten.

"It's very cold, please come in." Tang Zhitong didn't feel guilty at all about doing anything wrong, and walked over to open the door for his wife and sister.

"The grocery store is supplying fruits today. I took a break from work and bought some to try later." Xiao Wang handed the net bag in his hand to Tang Zhitong and began to take off his gloves and scarf.

"Hey, what a coincidence, we all thought of the same thing, my mom bought some, and I bought some too." Tang Zhitong closed the door and put the fruits bought by Xiao Wang on the table. All of a sudden, not only did the table become beautiful, but the house was also filled with the fragrance of fruit.

"It's okay, just eat it slowly after you buy it. It's cold and you can keep it." Student Wang didn't feel sorry at all.

"Brother, I don't want to eat apples for a while. Can I have a banana?" Fengzhi had already washed the apples. When she saw bananas among the fruits her sister-in-law bought, she bit her fingers and felt very conflicted.

"Okay, finish your homework first. I'll cook a dish and we'll eat." Tang Zhitong rubbed his sister's head and continued to be his own chef.

Eat it, eat it. Although bananas are seasonal fruits, due to well-known reasons, the supply to the city of Beijing will decrease year by year starting this year, and there will only be a few hundred tons throughout the next two years.

Last year, the supply of bananas was still considerable, but they were also a rare commodity for the Tang family. In fact, before this year, the Tang family seldom ate fruit, not because they didn't want to eat it, but because they were poor, just like the mooncakes that were not selling well in a certain year.

In order to survive, people have no choice but to reduce consumption. So no matter how they promote "reduced production" of hairy crabs and try to increase profits by reducing quantity, it may not be possible given their consumption capacity.

Mooncakes at least have the halo of the "Mid-Autumn Festival", but what about hairy crabs? Hairy crabs are unsalable, can crab farmers be saved?

There are also those who sell duck offal. Just grabbing a few of them can earn thirty or fifty yuan, which is a family’s daily food expenses!
This way of selling will end sooner or later. Isn’t it better to buy three Quzhou duck necks for ten yuan and get one free?

All day long, there are reports about rising residents' savings rate, falling interest rates, and news about "large-denomination certificates of deposit have to be snatched up." Ordinary people just sit aside and watch the fun. Anyway, they have no money to save, so there is no need to snatch them.

After dinner, Tang Zhitong washed some hawthorns. While packing the hawthorns, he told his family that he would participate in the drills the next two days, so that Zhang Guifang would not have to worry about her lunch.

Since there is a chance to fill yourself up, you naturally want to eat more. Washing hawthorns is for making something digestible, such as "quinces".

It is said that Quince means "sour and sweet" in Manchu. It is said that the name was given by Cixi. This name can be summed up in two words: simple!

Quince is not the fruit pear or papaya. It is said that it was a palace snack in the past, only consumed by the royal family. It was spread to the common people after the fall of the Qing Dynasty.

Tang Zhitong had no way of telling whether this statement was true or not, he only knew that some people in the folk liked to eat this thing.

"Quince juice mixed with cabbage hearts" was specifically mentioned in the TV series "Four Generations Under One Roof". Even under the Japanese artillery fire, this was still a delicacy that the people of Beijing yearned for.

Mr. Liang Shiqiu also mentioned in his work the story of running for an hour in the wind and snow just to make a dish of "Quince and Shredded Pear".

This snack is not difficult to make. Wash and core the hawthorns, add water and sugar to the pot (make sure you have more sugar). After the water boils, throw the prepared hawthorns in and cook for three to five minutes. Remove from the pot and let it sit in a cool place overnight. You can eat it tomorrow.

Shredded pears, shredded cabbage cores, and even shredded radishes can all be poured with quince juice and eaten. It tastes sour and sweet and is especially appetizing.

Of course, you can also drink the soup directly. The soup that has been soaked overnight is red, sweet and sour, and icy. It is so addictive, a bit like canned hawthorn.

The reason why hawthorn is unsalable is that there are not enough ways to eat it and the food supply is difficult. It would be great if the unsalable hawthorn could be sold and exchanged for food. You know, there are hundreds of tons of hawthorn in the old city alone, and if you look at the whole country, there will be even more.

"Why cook so much? Are you going to eat it as a meal?" Smelling the sour and sweet aroma, Xiao Wang couldn't help drooling. She looked at her mother-in-law and opened her mouth several times, probably because she disliked her son for wasting sugar.

"Well, when I went to buy fruit today, I heard that no one wanted hawthorns, so I thought about developing a new way to eat them and see if I could sell them." Tang Zhitong said shamelessly.

"Here, your banana." Student Xiao Wang peeled a banana and handed it to Tang Zhitong.

"I ate one at work today. You can have it." Tang Zhitong shook his head and refused. Ma Wei at least bought the bananas yesterday, and Xiao Wang bought the bananas today, but he did not see any bananas in the grocery store after get off work this afternoon.

A small detail can reveal a lot.

Not only fruits, but many other things will also be supplied with a focus in accordance with the principle of "guaranteeing special needs, focusing on care, and arranging general needs" in the next few years.

(End of this chapter)