Her Cultivation Diary
Chapter 348 - Chapter 348 348. Sour Pickled Green Peaches_1

Chapter 348: 348. Sour Pickled Green Peaches_1 Chapter 348: 348. Sour Pickled Green Peaches_1 Zhang Yanping quickly sucked in another mouthful of saliva and then, with a devil-may-care attitude, stuffed the entire green peach into his mouth!

Believe it or not, it was sour and astringent, but as he chewed slowly, his eyes squinted so tightly he could barely keep them open, yet he still managed to detect a hint of sweet aftertaste from chewing on the pit…

Weird, but pretty good.

Let’s have another one!

Seventh Uncle, watching him, felt his teeth tingle with sourness, and then he also took one, carefully tasting it.

Despite having tasted all kinds of flavors, he couldn’t help but grimace. Everyone’s hearts shivered and they all swallowed saliva in unison–

It wasn’t out of craving, rather an involuntary physiological reaction to seeing someone else eat something sour.

And at that moment, Seventh Uncle waved his hand decisively:

“These peaches are really good! Qiaoqiao, later on, slice a cross on each green peach in that basin, and then soak them in brine. Once they’ve soaked enough, throw in a generous amount of sugar, mix well, and put them in jars.”

This truly wasn’t a difficult technique.

Qiaoqiao picked up the knife and readily agreed to do it.

As for Seventh Uncle, he simply stared at the green peaches that were drying on this side, thought for a moment, and without slicing a cross, directly soaked them in brine.

The tartness of these little green peaches was quite strong, which made sugar absolutely essential.

But the amount of sugar also determined whether it turned into a blend of sour and sweet or remained predominantly sour.

Seventh Uncle, having been a chef for many years, now had a rough idea of how much sugar was needed. Under his guidance, people in the courtyard were scrubbing the green peaches, drying them, wiping off excess water, and sterilizing jars on this side…

The assembly line operation was particularly smooth.

Since green peaches had a long shelf life, the timing was just right and the work wasn’t tiring. Everyone didn’t even bother calling for help, they just did it all at home, taking it as a way to pass the time.

Seeing the pile of green peaches in front of her, Song Tan couldn’t help but salivate and then quietly swallowed a gulp of water: “Seventh Uncle, how long will it take for these pickled green peaches to be ready to eat?”

Seventh Uncle, without looking up, said, “If you want to eat them now, you can, just dip them in a mix of salt, sugar, and chili powder, whichever way you prefer.”

“If you want a better and simpler taste, try them before jarring later on, they should be pretty good too.”

“If you want the flavors to develop longer, then cover the jar and refrigerate it. Two to three months should be no problem.”

“Great, great, great!”

Song Tan was indeed overjoyed, now viewing the courtyard full of green peaches as if they were gold–her little shop loved such long-lasting, easily transported goods!

However, there were just too many peaches picked, and with stacks of jars, they wouldn’t fit in the fridge. So she simply discussed with Seventh Uncle, “Let’s not rush Qiaoqiao for now; have him start a live stream to sell some. Once people show up in the live room, he can go back to work.”

Seventh Uncle nodded, “Okay. Look at how skilled he’s become at slicing those crosses!”

…

Teacher Qiaoqiao’s mini-classroom was back in session!

With the suddenness everyone was familiar with, he had already started the live stream, aiming the camera at the stove right before him, pulling back a bit to capture the entire process in view.

Zhang Yanping also pulled out his phone to check–well, look at that!

It seemed like everyone had set up notifications; in just a few minutes, over 100 people had joined in.

He counted the jars that had just been boiled and prepared in the yard–only 500 jars were ready; would that be enough? But they couldn’t store more at home!

Meanwhile, Song Tan called Brother Xiaozhang, “We’re about to sell goods in the live stream room. If you have time, could you come over and help handle some packages?”

While collecting packages was the ostensible task, he was actually going to help with packing. Brother Xiaozhang was thrilled to agree right away, promising his wife as he left, “Don’t worry, if there’s anything tasty today, I’ll definitely bring some back for you to try! Don’t fret over the money, your health is what matters.”

His wife shooed him away, “Hurry up, you simply must secure our only major customer.”

Then she thumped her chest with bravado, “Don’t worry, I’ve got this little shop under control.”

This made Brother Xiaozhang’s heart skip a beat: “Take it easy, you’re barely pregnant!”

That’s right, if his wife wasn’t pregnant, Brother Xiaozhang wouldn’t dare to make such a lavish promise about bringing goods back given the prices at Song Tan’s place!

…

Meanwhile, Teacher Qiaoqiao’s lesson had just begun.

“Kids, today I’m going to teach you how to pickle green peaches, which is very simple because everyone has green peaches!”

Teacher Qiaoqiao’s words made a lot of sense. Whose front yard in the village didn’t have a peach tree? It’s not rare at all. The only thing special about theirs is the variety.

But the bullet screen comments started to come to life.

[Teacher, my house doesn’t have one]

[Teacher, my house doesn’t have one either]

[Teacher, can you send one over?]

[Great, skill level today +1, more competitive in the workplace now!]

[Hahaha, I’m different, just happens to be at my hometown, any size of green peach you want, I can pick it right now.]

[Damn! Why doesn’t the supermarket sell these small peaches?]

[Teacher Qiaoqiao said not to use ripe ones, not red ones, not soft ones, but green, hard, sour ones.]

[Am I the only one who thinks Teacher Qiao looks good while cooking?]

Absolutely not!

Qiaoqiao’s fair and slender fingers pressed down on a green peach, the hefty cleaver in his hand appeared weightless, then with a smooth and fluid motion, two slices made a perfect crosscut through the fruit.

Then he tossed it into a basin of saltwater beside him to soak, creating a rather extraordinary rhythm.

The insomniac tycoons of the live-streaming room indeed showed up again–

[Keep slicing and keep tossing]

[Don’t stop your hands, I’m about to fall asleep]

[It’s really relaxing to watch]

[Right, even such small peaches can be used. How come I didn’t know all these ways to eat them when I was young]

[Teacher Qiaoqiao, how should I proportion the saltwater?]

But incompetent Teacher Qiaoqiao wasn’t looking at the bullet screen at all, so no one was answering at the moment.

Soon, a basin of saltwater-soaked green peaches was almost full.

Aunt Lianhua, who knew the ropes well, quickly switched out the basin for him, and a bag of salt poured in with a whoosh, urgently causing everyone in the bullet screen to speak up in unison–

[Weigh it first]

[Mention the weight first]

[Talk about the saltwater ratio first, the ratio!]

If it had just been a bag of salt poured out, that would have been it, but since it wasn’t finished, everyone with green peaches at hand felt utterly frustrated.

And at that moment, a voice of longing emerged from the bullet screen–

[Slurp]

[Am I the only one whose mouth is watering just looking at this?]

[Me too…]

[Actually, I don’t like sour things, but for some reason, I really want to try this right now…]

[Definitely extra crunchy, super sour, just one bite and my mouth’s watering… Slurp!]

[Stop it, stop it. I’m drooling already]

[Post the link, post the link]

At that time, Seventh Uncle picked one of the earliest batch of green peaches soaked in the saltwater, tried it, and put it in his mouth.

In an instant, the grimace he made caused everyone in the live stream to involuntarily grimace too.

[Is it a fail? Looks so sour]

[Shouldn’t be, pickled green peaches are supposed to be sour]

[But that expression doesn’t look just ordinarily sour; if this goes on sale, I’m not buying it–]