Chapter 57: The Vegetable Selling Craze

Chapter 57: Chapter 57: The Vegetable Selling Craze

Considering most of them had housework to do or children to look after, a full-time schedule was clearly unsuitable. So, she adopted a half-day work model.

In other words, they only needed to come in for half a day, and they could decide whether to work in the morning or the afternoon based on their own situations.

As for wages, Widow Xie’s initial thought was that the women would be willing to help even without pay. At most, they could be provided with a meal.

In the past, whenever other families needed help, Widow Xie had always lent a hand, so this kind of neighborly exchange seemed perfectly natural to her.

But Ji Huan didn’t adopt her suggestion.

When many people work together, the biggest taboo is mixing business with personal matters. If she didn’t pay them, not only would she owe them a favor, but it would also be difficult to set strict requirements. If they were slow or didn’t do something properly, she wouldn’t be able to bring it up.

The others would also feel unhappy: ’Oh, so I come to help you, and you’re going to be picky and complain about this and that?’

It was better to directly link labor to compensation. Compared to helping out of a sense of obligation, people’s motivation would be worlds apart when faced with work that was directly tied to their own interests.

Besides, they were already busy, so providing meals wasn’t realistic. Therefore, Ji Huan set the wage at six cents per person for half a day’s work. As far as she knew, this wage shouldn’t be considered low for the area.

It wasn’t just "not low"!

When they first heard Ji Huan say she would pay them, the women waved their hands in refusal. They were all fellow villagers; accepting money for a little help? If word got out, wouldn’t they be criticized to death?

But when they heard the specific amount, every one of them was stunned.

You had to understand, when their husbands went out for odd jobs, they’d work themselves to the bone all day just to earn a dozen or so cents. Once winter set in and work was harder to find, they earned even less—it was hard to make even seven or eight cents a day.

But now, they could earn six cents in just half a day! And it wouldn’t even interfere with their own chores.

Who would refuse such a good offer?

But they had just refused, so how could they have the face to go back on their word?

"Aunts, sisters, you don’t have to be so quick to refuse. The work I need you to do is no small task. Not only does it have to be fast, but it also has to be clean, and there are requirements for knife skills..." Ji Huan was overtly stating her requirements, but in reality, she was giving them a way out of their predicament.

"Ha!" Aunt Gao slapped her thigh upon hearing this. "Wuan, you can ask around the whole village. When it comes to speed, which wife can compare to me! And I’m no slob, either. I guarantee you won’t be able to find a single fault."

Second Sister-in-law Xu chimed in, "I don’t have much else to boast about, but I’ve been practicing my knife skills since I was a child. Take shredding this radish, for example. I can’t guarantee exactly how fine they’ll be, but I can make them thin enough to thread a needle."

With the two of them having spoken up first, the others all started chiming in, which served as a roundabout way of introducing themselves.

And so, the matter was settled.

Ji Huan assigned tasks based on each person’s strengths and divided them into morning and afternoon shifts. Next came the introduction of the work process.

The dehydrated vegetables she had made before used the simplest method, without many particular steps. Mass production, however, was different. The requirements were higher, the steps were distinct, and not a single one could be skipped.

The first step was selecting the raw ingredients.

Vegetables suitable for dehydration should have a rich, fleshy texture, such as cowpeas, green peppers, celery, and garlic scapes. Before dehydration, they had to be strictly sorted, removing any parts that were diseased, pest-ridden, yellowed, rotten, or shriveled.

The second step was cleaning and preparing.

After the strict selection process, the vegetables had to be rinsed clean with fresh water to remove surface dirt and other impurities. Gourds had to have their seeds and pulp removed before washing, after which they were left to dry in a cool, shaded place.

There was no pesticide residue in this era, which saved a lot of trouble during washing.

The third step was cutting and blanching.

The cleaned vegetable ingredients were to be cut into various shapes—slices, shreds, or strips—using different methods according to their variety and characteristics. Root vegetables had to be peeled before processing.

Blanching also varied depending on the ingredient. Those that cooked through easily were blanched in boiling water until cooked, while those that didn’t were boiled for a short while. During the process, substances like salt or sugar could be added to the water to alter the vegetables’ color and increase their firmness.

The fourth step was cooling and draining.

After blanching, the vegetables had to be cooled immediately to bring down their temperature quickly. This was generally done by rinsing them with cold water. To shorten the drying time, a simple manual pressing method could also be used to drain them. Once the excess water was gone, they could be spread out to air-dry briefly in preparation for the final drying.

The fifth and most crucial step was dehydration and drying.

Due to limited resources, there was no dehydrator, so they had to rely on drying them in a hot wok. They also had to determine the right temperature, time, color, and post-drying moisture content based on the different types of vegetables.

The final step was inspection and packaging.

After being dehydrated and dried, the vegetables would be inspected. If they passed, they could be packaged and await sale. This era didn’t have vacuum-sealing technology, so she would just use woven wicker baskets, which were sturdy and cheap.

In total, there were six steps. The first four would be carried out at Widow Xie’s house, while the dehydration and drying step would be handled at Ji Huan’s dilapidated shed.

This was Widow Xie’s suggestion. She was still afraid that someone would learn the crucial technique.

Ji Huan considered that it would also be more convenient to air-dry the vegetables behind the dilapidated shed after dehydration, so she agreed.

They say birds of a feather flock together. The people Widow Xie invited had one thing in common with her: they hated leaving work unfinished. That is, whatever task they had, they wished they could finish it all at once, and they especially couldn’t stand laziness or procrastination.

From an employer’s perspective, there were no employees more worry-free than this type.

However, Ji Huan gave special instructions that they must be meticulous when checking for insects. Every fold and crevice of each vegetable leaf had to be inspected. If any signs of pest contamination were found, the bad and rotten leaves had to be completely removed. They couldn’t just pick out the bug and be done with it out of a reluctance to waste food.

In business, you not only had to have integrity, but also a bottom line. This was especially true for food meant for people to eat; you couldn’t be careless.

While things were bustling on their end, Hu Liang’s side was also proceeding exceptionally smoothly.

Ji Huan had given him full responsibility for this procurement trip. Although he felt a bit unconfident, he didn’t want to show his nervousness. At the same time, he knew in his heart that this was a test. If he passed, all future procurement would be his responsibility.

Compared to the carefree Hu Dacheng, who only thought about going to town to buy osmanthus cakes, Hu Liang was silent the whole way, giving himself a continuous pep talk.

Once in town, the two brothers headed straight for the west street entrance. That was where the wholesale markets were, with the cattle market, vegetable market, and the like all clustered in that area.

Just as expected, there were many people selling vegetables at the market, with carts piled high, but there were very few buyers.

The villagers didn’t need to buy vegetables, and the townspeople, who found it convenient to shop, preferred to buy what they needed as they went. They didn’t have the habit of stockpiling vegetables.

Following Ji Huan’s instructions, Hu Liang picked out an old man who looked like a "soft touch" and walked straight over to ask if he was willing to sell his entire cartload.

Although the old man was skeptical, he wasn’t willing to let a major customer go, so of course, he said yes.

Hu Liang then proposed to pay the current retail price, not a wholesale price, but the old man would have to be responsible for delivering the vegetables to their home.

When the old man saw him take out the money, how could he possibly refuse? He grinned and nodded repeatedly.

During his conversation with the old man, Hu Liang spoke very loudly. People who didn’t know better might have thought the old man was hard of hearing, but actually, he was doing it on purpose for what Ji Huan called the "advertising effect."

Sure enough, as soon as the deal was struck, several nearby vendors who had heard everything from start to finish swarmed over, surrounding Hu Liang completely. They all started talking at once, telling him how fresh and cheap their vegetables were and asking him to take a look.

Those eager, attentive faces made Hu Liang’s last trace of nervousness disappear.

He straightened his back and cleared his throat. "Everyone, don’t crowd me! One at a time! As long as the vegetables are good enough... One at a time, don’t push..."

The West Vegetable Market, usually as still as dead water, suddenly came to life that afternoon. Even small-time peddlers from other streets rushed over, and a vegetable-selling frenzy swept through all of Juyong Town.

At dusk, against a sky full of colorful clouds, Hu Liang led a long procession of carts back to Dafeng Village.