Chapter Eleven: Roasting Tobacco (Seeking Collection)

  After a night of wind drying and sun exposure, the color of the entire outer wall of the tobacco house has changed from deep to light and has gradually solidified.

  Today's main task is to complete all the preparatory work, and curing tobacco is not only physical labor but also endurance labor. More importantly, it requires mental labor, that is, accurately calculating the temperature inside the curing barn. This is a significant challenge for Zhang Lei, who has no thermometer and cannot see the situation inside the curing barn.

  "Our task today isn't very heavy, just going to the town to buy some firewood back, formally preparing to roast tobacco, so as long as I go it's fine. You all were busy for a whole day yesterday, today you can just rest at home." Facing the enthusiastic faces, Zhang Lei had an indescribable feeling.

  People are like this, when you give them a hope, a goal, a promise and action that can bring them benefits, they will follow you wholeheartedly and willingly.

  "Hey, do we need to go to town to buy firewood? Nephew, save your money for us to buy wine instead. We can get the firewood ourselves from the mountain. And look at all the discarded materials on the dock, they were just taking up space before, now they're finally useful." As soon as Zhang Lei mentioned buying firewood, everyone immediately stopped him.

  "It's all right, you can keep the money to buy wine for my old man. Fellow villagers, let's contribute our own firewood and let the young master take charge. Once things are done, we'll have a comfortable New Year." Chen Lao Tuo urged.

  "Lao Tuo is right, who hasn't prepared some firewood at home? Just take it out and there's enough to use. Let's go, go back home and prepare the firewood."

  These people came and went quickly, only to return home in a short while to prepare firewood, their enthusiasm made Zhang Lei feel somewhat unexpected.

  "Son, go take a look at those tools we made, see if they can be used."

  Yesterday, he and several carpenters were making the racks that Zhang Lei needed to hang tobacco, and now they have made enough to meet the requirements.

  Such a rack consists of two parts, one is a smooth and round wooden stick, as thick as an infant's arm, with a recessed groove carved every foot or so on the surface according to Zhang Lei's requirements, which is used to hang the tobacco leaves.

  These wooden sticks are all made roughly the same size, and once assembled, they will be erected into a three-tiered T-shaped frame inside the tobacco house, which can hold about one basket of tobacco leaves.

  "Indeed, the old carpenter is quite skilled. The things he made are even better than I expected. After I burn a fire to dry out the entire smoking room later, I'll install these brackets. Of course, when installing, first put the four horizontal beams that need to be fixed in place at the top, playing a fixed role, and then hang the tobacco leaves on the remaining wooden sticks before sending them in."

  After busy for a short period of time, I finally got everything done. The next problem is the tobacco leaves, which can't be simply matched up. They must be classified according to their texture, color and so on.

  "Dad, I want to invite a few aunties over to help me select the tobacco leaves." For this meticulous work, there is no one more suitable than rural women. If Zhang Lei were to do it, he would collapse in no time. This step is the first difficult point in the entire tobacco processing process. If the selection is not good, it's impossible to produce qualified tobacco leaves.

  Chen Lao Chui wielded his large iron hammer, forging the bellows Zhang Lei needed. After hearing Zhang Lei's words, he grinned and said: "Big nephew, this job my wife can do. Son, go call him over, and also call over Zhang Shu and a few others, whoever is free."

  Chen Dayong ran away in a puff of smoke, and after half a minute, he brought three women over. Zhang Lei and Zhang Chen took out all the tobacco leaves from their homes and put them in the courtyard.

  "A few of you, I'll tell you how to do it first. In the process of tobacco leaf growth and development, due to the influence of various factors such as soil, climate, pests and diseases, and cultivation management, the quality of tobacco leaves has a relatively large difference. At the same time, the current judgment of tobacco leaf maturity is mainly based on visual inspection, and the understanding of tobacco leaf maturity among farmers is not uniform. The harvested tobacco leaves have differences in maturity, if they are not classified and bundled, it will bring certain losses to the curing quality. In addition, the curing houses currently used have temperature and humidity differences between the upper and lower layers as well as on the plane, when loading tobacco, according to the spatial distribution of temperature and humidity inside the curing house, the fresh tobacco leaves should be reasonably arranged and paired to improve the curing quality."

  "First, the collected tobacco leaves are categorized by different colors. Leaves with similar colors are grouped together, and they can be divided into two to three categories." Zhang Lei said while selecting a few tobacco leaves as examples, and he continued only after several women had understood him.

  "Then, based on the color classification, further classify according to the degree of pest damage, usually divided into three levels: mild or light, general, and severe. This is also a way to distinguish the grade of tobacco." Zhang Lei explained while demonstrating.

  Classified tobacco leaves are bundled according to the same pole, color and degree of pest damage. During the bundling process, attention should be paid to the density of the bundle, generally four feet long tobacco pole, middle and lower leaves are bundled about 40 bundles, upper leaves are bundled about 45 bundles. At the same time, it is necessary to achieve light holding, even bundling and tight bundling.

  After saying so much, the tobacco leaf sorting and shelving part has already been completed. Zhang Lei's words were a bit dry and he drank some water to moisten his throat before clapping his hands and summarizing: "Alright, the work you need to do is all this, I've also demonstrated it earlier, I believe everyone understands now, so the next thing will be up to you."

  A woman laughed and said: "Alright, alright, this matter is very simple, let us handle it, you go do men's things."

  Zhang Lei said to Zhang Baosheng: "After they have arranged all the tobacco leaves, Father will take people to put them all in the smokehouse."

  "Arrange different types of tobacco leaves in order according to the temperature and humidity distribution rules of the drying room. The temperature and humidity distribution rule of the drying room is: on the plane space of the drying room, the areas near the entrance, near the fire source, and near the wall have lower temperatures and higher humidity, while the areas opposite the entrance, near the chimney, and far from the wall have higher temperatures and lower humidity."

  "When loading tobacco, the moderately ripe leaves are placed on the fifth and second to third layers of the drying room, the slightly ripe leaves are placed on the fourth layer, and the overripe leaves are placed on the bottom layer. The better matured leaves are placed in the middle layer of the drying room, the less matured leaves are placed near the door side and the fire side, and the overripe leaves are placed on the opposite side of the door and near the chimney."

  "There's no need for me to say more about the distance issue, these cigarette holders have evenly spaced grooves on them, just put them in according to that."

  Everyone's work is now clear, and they are busy getting started. It's still early in the morning, and Zhang Lei estimates that he can start the first batch of baking. Although the procedures above are a bit cumbersome, they can be carried out step by step as long as there is enough patience. The only thing that troubles him is the control of temperature.

  For Zhang Lei, who was used to using thermometers, apart from this tool, he really couldn't think of any other way to control the temperature. After thinking for a while and still unable to come up with a solution, Zhang Lei felt depressed and sat down on a rock with his legs crossed, staring blankly at the mountains in front of him.

  "Brother, what's wrong with you? Aren't things going according to your plan? But it seems like you're looking quite worried." After a while, Zhang Chen noticed that Zhang Lei seemed unhappy and walked over to ask with concern.

  Zhang Lei shook his head and said: "The temperature of the roasted tobacco is very important, but I can't think of a way to monitor the temperature inside the roasting room."

  After listening to Zhang Lei's words, Zhang Chen smiled and said: "Brother, you are really clever for a moment and foolish for a lifetime. How could you not think of this? Cold, cool, warm, hot, scalding, can't these be used to measure temperature? The 'Lv Shi Chun Qiu - Shen Da Lan - Cha Jin' records: 'Seeing the ice in the bottle, one knows the coldness of the world.' In the Song Dynasty, Chen Tong said when discussing the water temperature for washing silkworms: 'Adjusting the warm water bath, the water should not be too cold or too hot, just like the human body is fine.' In the Yuan Dynasty, Wang Zhen pointed out when discussing the best room temperature for raising silkworms, sericulture people 'wear single clothes to test their body: if they feel cold, the silkworms must be cold, and add fire; if they feel hot, the silkworms must also be hot, and reduce the fire.' We can use this method too."

  Zhang Lei's eyes lit up, and the gloom was swept away. He laughed loudly: "Good brother is really clever! After hearing your words, I suddenly felt enlightened."

  "Brother, you're overpraising me. I'm impressed that you can come up with such a complex process to make roasted tobacco." Zhang Chen was naturally delighted by his brother's praise, but he remained humble in his words.

  Two people were talking about this when Chen Lao Chui walked over, laughing and saying: "What's the difficulty? When I was forging iron, I also had a set of methods, don't know if it can be used or not."

  "What? What's up? Old Hammer Uncle, come and tell me." Zhang Lei was still thinking about the possibility of using human body as a thermometer, but after hearing Chen Lao Tui's words, he suddenly became spirited.

  Chen Lao said: "Our ancestors, the blacksmiths, wrote a book called 'Examination of Works', which has temperature measurements. For casting gold and tin, when the black smoke disappears, the yellow and white smoke appears next; when the yellow and white smoke disappears, the blue smoke appears next; when the blue and white smoke disappears, the blue smoke appears next. Then it can be cast. I don't know if this method works?"