Chapter 806: 796. Crispy and Crunchy Radish Tassels

The task of massaging the radish tops never came around for Qiaoqiao.

Her hands were white, and although she was strong, her hands looked tender; not only did Seventh Uncle hate to put her to work, but Aunt Lianhua also couldn’t bear to either!

At this moment, each of them was vigorously messaging their respective basins, leaving Qiaoqiao to enthusiastically chop the radish tops; the three of them divided the labor, and it was quite smooth going.

Once the greens hit the salt, they started to give off water pretty quickly.

Before long, the large basin in front of Seventh Uncle had the radish tops massaged into a peculiar and unattractive dark green color, shrinking from a full basin to about a third of the volume.

Meanwhile, Seventh Grandma had prepared another basin, laying out a large piece of cheesecloth on it.

Handful by handful, the massaged radish tops were placed on top of it, and only then did Seventh Uncle call Qiaoqiao over: “Come here, you are strong, tighten the cheesecloth, and squeeze the juice out of these radish tops.”

Qiaoqiao was a bit hesitant to exert too much force.

The radish tops had already been massaged to that state; if he pressed harder, wouldn’t they just turn into a big vegetable meatball?

But Seventh Uncle said offhandedly, “Use a bit of strength, the drier you squeeze the juice, the crunchier it will be when it’s pickled later.”

Holding the cheesecloth bundle in his hands, Qiaoqiao started to twist forcefully.

The green juice seeped through the layer of white cheesecloth, trickling into the basin below. As he twisted and pressed several times, the juice that seeped out became less and less.

When the cheesecloth bundle was eventually reopened, inside was a genuinely dry vegetable ball.

Fortunately, this vegetable ball was not firm, and it quickly scattered in the basin with just a bit of a tug. Then, the cheesecloth was spread out again, and Aunt Lianhua’s radish tops were also ready.

He gradually stopped paying attention to the live stream.

But the fans in the live stream room had apparently learned to entertain themselves. Now watching Qiaoqiao work, the commentary was quite joyful.

What else could they do? Even urging wouldn’t make anything available for purchase.

It was mainly just a bit of self-deprecation.

For example, at this moment, no one futilely called out for watermelon sauce or to post links; instead, they sighed:

[No wonder he harvested so many radish tops and still said it wasn’t enough; the shrinkage is too severe.]

[Watch with your own eyes as a full basin is cut down to a flat basin, then massaged into less than half a basin, and after squeezing, it’s not even half a basin.]

[I only want to know, how delicious must this be?]

[But thinking is useless, as there’s no chance of getting some; anyway, he doesn’t sell it.]

[I don’t mind; as long as no one else can eat it, I’m at peace.]

They didn’t have any strict assembly line division of labor when massaging radish tops at home; everything was done with a go-with-the-flow approach.

So when Qiaoqiao finished squeezing that basin of radish tops, he once again stopped and went back to cutting peppers. Before that, Aunt Lianhua watched him and made him put on a pair of gloves.

The freshly picked bright red Erjingtiao peppers were so vivid that they nearly scorched the eyes of those in the live stream room.

[You definitely need to wear gloves. The host’s peppers are really spicy.]

[That’s the stuff! The pepper sauce I had before just killed me with its spiciness.]

[Oh my, how fragrant this spicy aroma is! Pity it’s no longer for sale!]

[Spicy food lovers rejoice; they can brag of finishing half a bottle in one go and still eat three bowls of rice with it.]

[This is too spicy for me; I really can’t handle it. The chopped sauce made with thicker fleshed green peppers is tastier.]

A small basin of vivid red Erjingtiao peppers was neatly placed on the chopping board, and Qiaoqiao skillfully de-stemmed and diced them. It didn’t take long for him to fill half a basin.

And this half basin of peppers was quickly poured into the basin with the massaged radish tops, then a large amount of salt was sprinkled on top.

Seventh Uncle’s dark hands dived straight in, meticulously mixing everything until it was evenly distributed. After everything was thoroughly mixed, he took a jar that had been prepared beforehand, stuffed the radish tops inside, and pressed them down firmly to make them even…

Sss–

This process looks rather stress-relieving, but the content of this stress relief inevitably sparks some wild thoughts.

All this salt and chili, an ordinary person’s hands would be aching so badly doing this.

The audience in the live stream grimaced, not daring to imagine.

Yet there were still a few who mumbled some rare complaints.

[Honestly, it’d be better to wear gloves for this, even if the elderly aren’t afraid of the spice, hygiene is important too.]

[That’s right, the ones usually sold, they’re not made this way too, are they?]

[Disposable gloves aren’t even expensive, don’t be so stingy in the broadcast room.]

[???]

[Did I miss something, or has the live stream room attracted such high-class people now?]

[To the one before the last, rest easy, the ones that are sold are made this way too, no need to snatch them away if you don’t like it.]

[Host, don’t mind them, I love the way these are made, that’s how my family did it when I was a kid.]

[Everyone, don’t get heated, it’s not necessarily someone looking for trouble, could be just a suggestion.]

[If you think it’s dirty, you must not be watching the stream attentively, didn’t you see them wash their hands in front of us just now?]

[You gotta listen, seriously listen, if you put down your phone now and check your hands for bacteria, you might just have more than they do while kneading veggies.]

Zhang Yanping saw a great opportunity!

He couldn’t wait to wash away the stain of being labeled a deserter, so he took the chance to come forward and explain:

“Rest assured, everyone, the reason why we haven’t listed the bean paste and watermelon sauce before in our live stream is also due to hygiene considerations.”

He took his phone inside, rummaged out a bunch of permits: “We are officially registered, everything is tested. We haven’t sold the sauces because we haven’t been able to allocate people to handle the packaging.”

“We have the whole set of sterilization equipment and a packaging line, but the villagers aren’t accustomed to using it, and it’s not realistic just relying on those of us at home, so we have to wait a bit longer.”

“Additionally,” he turned around, showing everyone the row of sauce jars in the corner of the yard:

“See? These jars are still down the hill, we haven’t had the chance to transport them up. And it just had to rain, opening jars and packing sauce now isn’t ideal due to the high humidity.”

“So please have a little more patience, after a couple sunny days, once we are freed up from the work up the hill, we will definitely provide the links.”

What else is there to do in the hills?

Planting winter wheat, it is time to irrigate the second-season rice, a bit of tidying up in the vegetable garden, and then there’s Riverside Beach…

There should be nothing more… right?

After Zhang Yanping finished speaking and thought about it, he added:

“If everyone is interested, we could live stream the packaging process, guaranteed to ease any concerns about hygiene.”

With that said, who still cared about hygiene, they just couldn’t help but wish for a time-travel spell to leap to the moment the links were up:

[Ah ah ah, gods of thunder and lightning, heed my command and cease the rain, ah ah ah!]

[Quickly counting my savings, I must claim a jar of that sauce.]

[Radish greens oh radish greens… if it’s not meant to be, I’ll just go to the market tomorrow morning!]

[Host, I don’t mind, can you take a jar now, fill it with sauce, and send it right away?]

Zhang Yanping saw the dense comments finally let out a sigh of relief, now jokingly saying:

“That won’t work, even if I agree, the food permit won’t allow it.”