Chapter Fifty-Four: Sprouts

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  "Brother Yang, look, the beans have sprouted. Does that mean spring has arrived?" The kids were like this in his room, once they entered, they would search everywhere like little dogs, not even leaving out the corners and crevices, as if Brother Yang was hiding something. This was actually one of the kids' habits, being curious about everything.

  "It's still early in the spring, and if we're talking about the beginning of spring, it may have already passed, but the real spring that makes all things sprout has not yet arrived." Yang Heng said with a smile.

  "That's strange, brother.

  "Oh no, I forgot about this matter, little girl, where did you find it?" Yang Heng suddenly exclaimed. Just now, he was thinking about how to eat some green vegetables in winter, but he had forgotten such an important thing - the sprouts. In the era without greenhouses, in winter, people could only eat those easy-to-store vegetables and these sprouts. As for building a greenhouse, Yang Heng wasn't opposed to it, but at this time, even if he wanted to plant one, he might only be able to grow scallions, garlic chives, and mushrooms. He had arrived in this era not long ago, and this family was just starting out, so how could they possibly find all the seeds at once? So they had to take it slow, but now, little girl reminded him of something."

  "Ah, isn't it found here?" The little girl pointed to the gap between the stove and the water tank. This little girl is really like a mouse, she can find things in every nook and cranny. It seems that this soybean was dropped by Yang Heng at some point, and this place just happened to meet the conditions for the soybean to sprout, with the right humidity and temperature. And then it sprouted, but how did the little girl manage to see it? This winter they will have a few more vegetables to eat."

  "Come, Da Ge, come here for a moment, I have something to entrust to you." Yang Heng had originally thought of doing it himself, but thinking about it again, he felt that as someone with subordinates, how could he do everything by himself? Moreover, in this winter season, there was nothing much to do. Feng Bo and Da Ge were both feeling quite embarrassed, how could they let the master's household support them for free? And besides, they usually ate the same food as the master's family, three meals a day. To know that even in the big household where Lian Jie used to be, they only had two meals a day, it wasn't that they couldn't afford to eat, but rather that they believed in living frugally. Looking at their usual extravagance, it was hard to say whether having one less meal a day was being frugal or extravagant, and who knows how these people calculated things.

  "Here, here, young master, there's work to be done." Da Ge heard Yang Heng's call and rushed in excitedly. The three servants that Lao Die had bought were all restless types, as soon as they heard there was something to do, they would rush over faster than rabbits.

  "There's something, Da Ge, you go get two catties of soybeans and I'll teach you a method to grow bean sprouts. Then we can have bean sprout dishes to eat." "Bean sprouts? I've heard my mother mention it before, but our family has never grown them, nor did my previous neighbors. I didn't expect Young Master to know about this, I'll go get them right away!"

  The bean sprouts are easy to grow, just soak the beans in water, remove some bad beans, filter out the water, put the beans in a bowl, cover them with something, and then put them in a warm place. Just pay attention to sprinkle some water or filter with warm water, and the beans will germinate within three to five days. After that, wait for a few more days and they can be eaten.

  "Little Lord, Little Lord, it's sprouting, it's sprouting!" A few days later, Da Ge came running over, shouting loudly, "Hey, Da Ge, be serious, this is what I asked you to do. If you say it won't sprout, are you not giving me face or did you not put in enough effort?"

  "Alright, alright, Da Ge, let's go take a look at how long this sprout has grown. You little girls come along too, I can see the eager looks on your faces."

  Here is the translation:

  As expected, these soybeans have all sprouted, each one plump and with shiny bright shoots, although they are a bit short, only about three to five millimeters. "Hmm, good, Da Ge, let them continue to grow their shoots until they reach an inch long, or else we can stir-fry some of the shoots today. At this length, they will have a natural flavor." "Oh, great! We get to eat sprouts!" Yang Heng didn't show any excitement, but the children did. There were so few vegetables to eat during the winter, and those dried vegetables had all been eaten long ago. To know that Yang Heng had only experimented with drying some vegetables, if there was someone who could accurately predict the weather, he might have dried a large quantity of them. But at this time, such people were really hard to find, even if they existed, would they be willing to serve Yang Heng specifically for drying vegetables? They had all gone to work in the imperial court long ago.

  "Brother, I think this way. In the future, we should grow more of these sprouts. Also, you can soak some green beans and they will sprout too. The bean sprouts are even longer and the beans are smaller. And I remember last year, didn't I collect a lot of radish seeds? You can also soak some of those, but not to make them sprout like this. Instead, we need to put them in a shallow container... no, you should go ask my little uncle to make a wooden tray for us. We'll grow the radish sprouts on that tray and cover it with a layer of coarse hemp cloth. The radish sprouts will then poke out through the holes in the cloth. When they grow to over half an inch tall with two small green leaves, we can eat them raw as a dish."

  "Alright, alright, I'll go and do it right away." This is the advantage of having servants - whatever task you assign to them, they will carry out meticulously.

  When Yang Heng was confessing to Da Ge, the children were all staring at him with eager eyes, waiting to eat the sprouts. This was a fresh food that they had never eaten before.

  "Alright, alright, you greedy cats. Today we'll just have a small meal," The vegetables are still too few, even if the children eat, it's just to taste the freshness, but for the old lady, they're not enough. Yang Heng doesn't dare let the old lady come and try the dishes.

  "A little bit of bean oil, a few slices of cured meat, then add the bean sprouts and stir-fry. Add some salt and it's done. If it doesn't taste good, wait until the bean sprouts are fully grown and let the aunties figure out how to cook them properly, don't eat too much or you'll get indigestion."

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