PCJ – Chapter 209 Stir-fried Tea

“Bang, bang, bang…”

Everyone was picking tea leaves in the horticultural field, while over at the pig farm, there were banging sounds. Zhang Jiwang was knocking around with tools on the pig farm buildings.

“This pig farm has been abandoned for too long. The rafters are almost rotted. If this continues, the pigpens will collapse. This place is big enough to raise dozens of pigs. Don’t underestimate this pig farm. In the past, the pigs handed over from Meizi’ao Village were all from the brigade’s pigpen. Other brigades had to divide the task among the production teams. Dechun was very effective in this regard. But back then, the gaps in our horticultural field were planted with milkweed to feed the pigs. Otherwise, how could the pig farm have met the pork handover tasks every year? Meizi’ao Village not only didn’t need contributions from the production teams but also overfulfilled the tasks and was rated as advanced every year. Dechun has made a great contribution to the villagers just with this,” Zhang Jiwang reminisced and praised Zhang Dechun.

“Alas. It’s a pity that in 1980, no one believed me and insisted on contracting out the horticultural field. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have fallen into such a state. Some things are better done on a large scale. Take the tea field, for example. If it was centralized in the village, we’d produce more annually, and tea merchants would come to our village every year to buy tea. Now the tea factory is closed, and finding tea merchants is very difficult,” Zhang Dechun laughed.

“Jiaohua, I can’t help with picking tea leaves, but I can come here every day to repair the pigpens. You just need to buy some tiles later. That way, you don’t have to worry about the pigpens collapsing. Who knows, you might want to raise pigs in the future, and these pigpens will be ready-made,” Zhang Jiwang climbed onto the pigpen and knocked on a beam with a hammer.

The beam made a thudding sound, indicating it was still in good condition. Meizi’ao Village was not short of wood, and the pigpens were built with good materials. After ten or so years of exposure to the elements, the beams hadn’t completely rotted.

“This material is good. Once you put on new tiles, it’ll be like new,” Zhang Jiwang said to Zhang Jiaohua and Zhang Dechun standing below.

“Grandpa Jiwang, even if you fix the pigpens, I don’t have the money to buy piglets to raise,” Zhang Jiaohua admitted.

“If you can’t raise pigs, you can use the pigpens to store things. With such a large horticultural field, you’ll need a place to store stuff when you harvest navel oranges in the future. Before, when this was a horticultural field, there wasn’t much need for storage. Tea leaves were sent directly to the agricultural supply company. But your navel oranges won’t be sold immediately after picking. Have you thought about where to store them? These pigpens are ready-made,” Zhang Jiwang pointed to the pigpens.

Zhang Jiaohua realized it was indeed useful.

Meanwhile, Zhong Jinxiang was leading the villagers in picking tea leaves in the horticultural field.

“The quality of the tea leaves affects not only the quality of the tea but also the growth and lifespan of the tea trees. Your tea trees were overharvested before, and they are almost dead. When picking tea, use the hand-lifting method, picking individual leaves, and avoid stripping the leaves all at once. This way, the picked tea leaves are uniform in standard and don’t damage the trees,” Zhong Jinxiang, an expert in both tea frying and picking, instructed.

“No wonder. Our tea trees used to belong to the brigade, and everyone was careful when picking. In recent years, the horticultural field was contracted out, and everything went haywire. Workers were paid by the pound, so they picked all the leaves, old and young, damaging the roots of the tea trees. By the time Jiaohua contracted the field, the tea trees were nearly dead. I don’t know how he managed to save them,” Zhang Qigao imitated Zhong Jinxiang’s method of picking a tea tip with two leaves. In the past, he would have stripped all the leaves off the branch.

In fact, the tea Zhong Jinxiang planned to fry for Zhang Jiaohua was bulk tea, which didn’t require the highest quality leaves. But Zhong Jinxiang wanted to improve the quality and allow the recovering tea trees to rest.

Zhang Jiaohua, after checking the pigpens with Zhang Jiwang and Zhang Dechun, hurried to the horticultural field.

“Master Zhong, how are the tea leaves?” Zhang Jiaohua asked.

“The tea leaves are excellent, of superior quality. Unfortunately, my skills are limited, and I might waste such good tea leaves,” Zhong Jinxiang said sincerely.

“Master Zhong, what are you saying? Can you find a better tea master in Xintian County? If you didn’t come, these tea leaves would just wither away,” Zhang Jiaohua quickly replied.

“Alright, no need for courtesy. You want to learn how to fry tea, right? I’ve prepared the pots. Let’s start frying the tea. But make sure your villagers pick the tea leaves according to my requirements. Otherwise, the quality will be very different,” Zhong Jinxiang worried that once he left, the villagers would revert to their old ways of picking tea.

“Master Zhong, don’t worry! Our villagers won’t do things half-heartedly,” Zhang Jiaohua assured him.

Zhang Qigao laughed too, “Master Zhong, I’ll be watching. Anyone who slacks off will have to deal with me first.”

The villagers all pledged to follow Master Zhong’s instructions. For them, an extra income was already satisfying. They believed in doing the job well if they accepted someone’s money. People in those days were still very honest.

In another empty warehouse, Zhong Jinxiang had set up three military stoves made from modified diesel barrels, each with a large pot on top.

Without Zhang Jiaohua asking, Zhong Jinxiang explained, “Frying tea involves three steps: raw pot, first green pot, and cooked pot, done in succession. The first pot involves rotating the tea leaves to kill the green. The leaves must rotate quickly and evenly to be heated uniformly. When the leaves become soft and dark green, they move to the green pot…” Zhong Jinxiang explained each step of the tea frying process in detail, ensuring Zhang Jiaohua quickly grasped the key points. However, mastering tea frying like Zhong Jinxiang would require countless practice and experience.

After watching Zhong Jinxiang fry a batch of tea leaves, Zhang Jiaohua began to have other thoughts.