Chapter 163, picking tea leaves before Qingming

The next day, Li Ya sent Luo Yang away, and when he came back, he went to the nursery to take a look, Uncle Mingcheng was checking whether he was dead, Li Ya said: "It's only been a few days, and I can't tell if I'm dead or not." "The seedlings are all covered with plastic film, and the temperature and humidity inside are appropriate, so you can't see if they are dead for the time being, and you can't see clearly through the film. "After a while, you will know if it sprouts or not, as long as the tea leaves on the tea mountain have sprouted, it must have sprouted here. ”

"The tea trees on the tea mountain have cut more (so many) branches this year, and this year's tea must have sprouted well. Uncle Mingcheng said, "While you are at home, pick some good ones and drink them." ”

"Well, just pruned this year, the tea buds must have developed well. Li Ya said, "I want to pick some good tea to drink." "After pruning, the nutrients that should have been delivered to the pruned branches are delivered to the unpruned branches, and the tea buds will definitely grow better when the nutrition is sufficient. In addition, cutting off the excess branches, with sufficient light, is also conducive to the growth of tea buds.

"Uncle, our tea roots are very small, those that are more than 300 years old don't look much bigger. Li Ya said, "I heard that there are tea trees in Houhe that can grow elders, is it true?"

"Yes. I heard that there are more than 30 big ones, and the largest one is in Zhonghou River, I have seen it, and I can't hold it. Uncle Mingcheng said. The back river is divided into upper, middle and lower, and there are three small villages along a small river ditch.

"That's what you call a tea tree. He said, "It seems that I have to dig a tree and plant it in the next few days, or find some tea seeds to come back to the seedlings." ”

"Forget the big ones, it's a pity to dig them up and plant them. Tomorrow I will ask your aunt to ask if there are any tea seeds. Uncle Mingcheng said. Those who can grow into trees have grown for hundreds of years, and it is a pity to die.

"Be careful when digging, and you can plant live. Li Ya said, "I'll go and see if there are any tea trees that are a little smaller and easier to dig, dig one or two and plant them again." "Tea seeds may not be available yet, just like Li Ya and their village, no one will pick them back and collect them if they are useless.

Li Ya called to find a truck, and went to Zhonghou River with his aunt the next day.

When he arrived at Zhonghou River, Li Ya followed his aunt to her brother's house. When it came to looking for tea seeds, the uncle's nephew asked his children to take the children in the village to look under the tea trees.

"There is another one, which of the families in your village have bigger tea trees, and do you want to sell them?" Li Ya said.

"Big tea trees, which of our houses doesn't have two or three here?" said the old watch, "what?

"Buy one or two and plant them back. Li Ya said, "You are a relatively primitive tree-type tea tree, there are very few, and the tea buds are large, which is very special." It's different from the shrub-type Longjing tea we have there, so let's dig two and plant them back. ”

"You want it, I'll take you to see the three trees in my house. The old watch said. You can't eat much tea in a year, you can keep one tea tree, and sell two to make some money.

Li Ya followed to see the three tea trees and said, "Old watch, the big two are too big to dig, and the smaller one is okay." "The big two grow on the flat ground, which is a big tree, and it takes a lot of effort to dig it out, and the smaller one grows on the edge of the ridge and is easy to dig.

"Which one is over there?" asked Li Ya, pointing to a tea tree not far from the side.

Lao Biao looked in the direction pointed by Li Ya and said, "That's the Wang family." ”

"That one is also easy to dig, go and ask his family if it sells it. Li Ya said.

"Which one won't sell it?" said the old watch, "it's useless to keep it, it's better to sell it for some money." ”

"I don't care about the money now (it's not expensive), I'll take care of the money later. Li Ya said, "Twenty years later, when everyone has money, they like to buy something rare, and the price will be expensive at that time." ”

"That's how many years later, who can wait?" said Lao Biao, "The important thing is the present, to be able to live the days in front of you." ”

Lao Biao took Li Ya to Wang's house and asked, of course they were willing to sell if someone bought it: "You pay a lot of money (how much do you bid)?"

Li Ya thought for a while and said, "Dig out the tea tree, two thousand yuan." ”

"Two thousand yuan?" The other party thought about it, two thousand yuan is indeed a lot, even if they go out to work, many families can't earn two thousand yuan a year.

"Good. Two thousand is two thousand, and it was sold. The old man of the Wang family said.

The location where the tea trees grow is easy to dig, and you can dig the soil directly into the ground, and before the afternoon, the two tea trees were dug up and loaded into the car, and hurriedly drove back.

Li Ya sold two tea trees for 4,000 yuan and came back, and the people in the village came to see the excitement. "Two tea trees of such a size should also cost 4,000 yuan. The uncle said, "Look at the tea mountains, there are no four or one for more than 300 years, and this is not a thousand years." ”

"What a thousand years. Uncle Mingcheng said, "The varieties are different, this kind of tea tree grows fast and tall, and I think it is only two or three hundred years." ”

"Help carry it down, you have to plant it quickly. Father Li Ya was very distressed, and hurriedly planted it to see if he would live, and if he died, he lost 4,000 yuan. 4,000 yuan, he has to grow cigarettes for a few years before he can earn it back! Young people just can't calculate money, they make a lot of money, but they spend money quickly, and they don't understand the principle of being diligent and thrifty.

The tea tree is big and heavy, so it saves time and effort to plant it nearby, and it is planted in the vegetable field in front of Li Ya's house.

It took a lot of effort to dig a pit and plant it, and to set up the tea. Pulled with a rope from three directions, the rest lifted up, stood up little by little, then watered, covered with mud.

"It's too laborious, and it's convenient to plant seedlings. Uncle Mingcheng said, "This is planted to dig up the tall mud, and the roots of the tree are buried deep, which is not conducive to the growth of tea trees." ”

At night, Li Ya poured a lot of water from the space on the two tea trees. "Then you shouldn't die, right?" Li Ya thought.

Time passed day by day, the two tea trees did not roll their leaves, looking still like that, the people in the village said that it seemed to be alive. Father Li Ya went to observe every day, but he didn't see any signs of death, and his heart was finally much more comfortable.

Twenty days before the Qingming Festival, Li Ya found that the tea leaves were sprouting, so he took a small basket and took a straw hat to pick tea leaves.

At this time, the sprouts of tea have just grown, and there is still a period of time for discrete leaves, and the tea leaves at this time are the best.

Before the Qingming Festival, there are not many scattered leaves, and the tea is the best, called Ming Qian tea. After the Qingming Festival, the tea leaves grow fast, and it is the time when a large amount of tea is produced in a year. The quantity is large and the quality is not bad, and this period is the most profitable time for tea.

Pick it back in the morning and put it at home to dry, continue in the afternoon, and at the end of the day, you can't pick a pound of raw tea leaves, which shows that the tea is expensive before the Ming Dynasty is reasonable.

In the evening, I asked my grandfather to fry, and Li Ya continued the next day. The children in elementary school in the village wanted to help Li Ya pick tea leaves, but Li Ya drove them to do their homework. They just want to help, they just want to play, they don't do their homework. "The day after tomorrow on Saturday, you don't study, and if you want to pick tea, you can pick it. Pick it and sell it to me, five dollars a tael. The older children happily agreed when they heard that it was five yuan a tael, which was much more expensive than last year. But they don't want to think about it, this has to be picked one bud at a time, how many buds do it take to make up one or two? Those children who are a little bit smaller, it would be good to be able to pick two taels a day.

There are more children who come to pick tea on Saturday, in addition to the village, there are other villages in the village, it seems that the children in the village got the news of picking tea and selling it for money, and ran over to earn some pocket money. For children in rural areas, adults hardly give pocket money, and the children find their own way, and the biggest input is to dig herbs. There are people in the town who collect herbs, and when they see what they collect, they go to dig what they want.

With the help of the child, Li Ya doesn't have to pick it, how much can he pick alone?

As soon as the children went up the mountain, they parted ways, and the birds flew away in fright. However, those with loud voices are obviously distracted to speak, and picking tea leaves is certainly not as fast as those who do not speak and concentrate on picking tea leaves.

Collect it once at noon, it is good to have more children, especially half-grown girls, who are very fast, and all of them have three or four taels.

Li Ya took the scale and weighed a person's money for a person. If the money were to sell herbs, it would be enough for them to find it for a long time. One by one, they took the money, they were very excited, asked how much the others had paid, and then happily went home for dinner. After receiving Li Ya, he said that there were more than seven catties.

When she went back, Shu Yue asked how much she received, and Li Ya replied happily: "It's more than seven catties, or how fast it is." ”

In the afternoon, it was longer, Li Ya collected more than nine catties, and took it to his grandfather to fry it at night. "Grandpa, do you want to keep something to eat?"

"Don't stay. Grandpa said, "It will take a long time (and a while) for the leaves to be scattered, and it is enough to eat for a year if you pick them casually for one day." "The point that Li Ya received was not enough for Li Ya to give away, so he didn't want it.

In two days, there were more than ten catties of dried tea leaves, and Li Ya packed them in a tin box and mailed them to Shu's father.

It is close to Qingming, the tea grows fast, and the village begins to pick tea. It doesn't take long to pick tea every year, but it can bring a lot of income, which is more cost-effective than growing tobacco. Although a family can sell more than 1,000 or 2,000 yuan a year, it takes more than half a year to grow tobacco, and after removing investment in chemical fertilizers, pesticides, coal, etc., it is still very hard to earn a few dollars a day after planting a season.

A few days after Qingming, Li Ya found that two tea trees had sprouted. It seems that it has come back to life, and if it looks good, you will be able to pick tea in the year after tomorrow.

Two tea trees here have sprouted, and Li Ya went to Houhe to collect some tea leaves to fry.

"This tea sprouts late, and it will take a while. The old watch said, "Come back in a few days." ”

"Otherwise, you can take it and send it over. Li Ya said, "You don't have to run back and forth with me, it's very troublesome." "It's too troublesome to run over every day to eat some tea.

"Good. I'll take it and send it to you. The old watch said.