Traveling through the famine, I stockpiled supplies like crazy

Chapter 123 Making Sweet Potato Starch

Lu Chuan ate the new dishes. It wasn’t that they were unpalatable, but he obviously didn’t eat as much as he did other meats.

"What's wrong? Doesn't it taste good?" Xu Han asked.

"It's delicious! But I may be used to eating heavy-flavored dishes. This sweet dish is more suitable for you girls." Lu Chuan said.

Xu Han just smiled and said nothing. She actually liked it very much. So she took out some boiled fish from the space and gave it to Lu Chuan to eat with rice.

After dinner, Lu Chuan said, "I will go chop trees tomorrow, and then I will deal with the remaining bison and sheep. You are afraid of the cold, so you'd better burn the charcoal early. In case the temperature drops suddenly, there will be no charcoal fire at home."

"Okay, there's no rush for the things in the space. After all, the potatoes and sweet potatoes won't go bad for a while. We're not going far away recently, so we won't need them." Xu Han also said.

Then he added, "Tomorrow I will wash the sweet potatoes and then start grinding them to make sweet potato starch."

"Can you wash it yourself? The river water is getting colder and colder. Don't get frozen. Let me wash it for you! After washing, we can go cut trees."

"No, I'll put the sweet potatoes in a bamboo basket and take it to the stream to wash off the big dirt. When I come back, I'll add some hot water and wash it slowly. It's fine."

"Okay, I'll take the sweet potatoes to the river to wash them for you tomorrow. It won't take much time to chop down the trees then."

"That's okay too!"

Another good dream...

The next day, when Xu Han got up, it was already 7:30. When she came to the yard, she saw Lu Chuan had already washed two baskets of sweet potatoes and was looking at them! Lu Chuan picked up two more baskets of washed sweet potatoes and came in.

"You're up. Breakfast is in the pot. Go have breakfast first! I'll go wash two more baskets."

"Do you want me to send it to you?" Xu Han asked.

"No need. It's not far. We can get there in a few steps." After saying that, he packed up the sweet potatoes and went to the stream.

After Xu Han finished her breakfast, she thought about boiling some hot water. She opened the big pot outside and saw that it was already full of hot water and had boiled.

Xu Han carried a bucket of hot water to the backyard pool, added some cold water to the pot, and continued to boil water. She planned to wash sweet potatoes in the backyard later, so pouring water would be very convenient.

Pour hot water into a large wooden basin, add some cold water, and then pour the sweet potatoes in. Xu Han moved a chair and started washing the sweet potatoes.

Peel off the head, tail and some roots of the sweet potato, brush off the remaining mud on the surface with a brush, then put it in another wooden basin and rinse it with hot water.

Put the rinsed sweet potatoes in the backpack temporarily and deal with them after all are washed.

Xu Han had just washed one basket of sweet potatoes when Lu Chuan came in carrying two baskets of sweet potatoes. Seeing Xu Han brought hot water, he didn't say anything.

"I'm going to chop trees and won't be back for lunch." Lu Chuan said to Xu Han.

"Wait a minute, take the meal with you." Xu Han took out a lunch box from the space. This was the one she bought before, but she had always forgotten to give it to Lu Chuan. She only found it when she was looking for something a few days ago.

Lu Chuan looked at Xu Han in confusion and asked, "What is this?"

"This is a lunch box. It can keep food warm. The food inside won't get cold and you can eat the hot food directly. I forgot to give it to you before." Xu Han scratched the back of his head embarrassedly after saying this.

"Oh, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. I didn't have anything to eat when I was hunting in the mountains before! Since I married you, my clothes are no longer tattered. You cook three meals a day for me. If it weren't for you, I would be living a much worse life!"

After saying that, he was about to kiss Xu Han, but Xu Han quickly dodged him and urged him, "Go chop down the tree! It's almost noon."

Seeing this, Lu Chuan stopped teasing him and went to chop down the tree with his lunch box and tools.

Xu Han sat down and continued to wash the sweet potatoes. She would change the water when it got dirty or cold, until she had washed all six baskets of sweet potatoes.

Then he moved a chair and took a clean wooden basin to the front yard.

The sweet potatoes are too big now and cannot be put directly into the millstone. They need to be chopped up.

Pour the sweet potatoes into a wooden basin, then use a kitchen knife to start chopping them until they are about two to one centimeter in size. Then put them into a wooden barrel and continue chopping for the next basin.

This is not easy and is very tiring, but it is much faster than grinding with stone.

After chopping off a part of it, Xu Han went to the backyard to lead the donkey over and blindfolded the donkey. The donkey could not see the road and would keep pulling the mill without feeling dizzy.

After covering it, tie the donkey and pour the sweet potatoes onto the millstone.

Xu Han also used a small wooden barrel, drilled a hole in it, and placed it on the millstone. This way, the water would flow continuously, and there was no need for people to add water or sweet potatoes.

You just need to check on them regularly to make sure the sweet potatoes don't fall off.

I have to say that being extremely lazy is actually smart. Xu Han thought about this many times and conducted repeated experiments to control the size of the water flow before he made it.

In this way, Xu Han can do other things while taking care of the mill. After the wooden basin below is filled with water, she just needs to pour it out in time to prevent it from flowing out.

The donkey was pulling the mill while Xu Han continued to chop sweet potatoes.

When the water in the wooden basin is full, change to the next one.

Then Xu Han took out the large bathtub that she had bought before, put a wooden board on it, and then put a large colander on it.

Put the cotton cloth prepared by Xu Han inside the colander, spread the cotton cloth on the colander, and cover the colander to prevent the sweet potato residue from leaking out.

After pouring the sweet potato pulp into the cotton cloth colander, you can start filtering the sweet potato residue.

After filtering the sweet potato residue, rinse it repeatedly with water several times until the water that flows out is no longer turbid.

Squeeze out the water from the rinsed sweet potato residue and put it on the ground to dry. You can then use it to feed chickens, ducks, geese or corn.

In this way, Xu Han did these tasks by herself all day long.

It was not until Lu Chuan came back that Xu Han had finally filtered all the sweet potatoes. All that was left was to cover the opening of the bathtub with a wooden board to prevent any dirt from falling in.

Pour out the water tomorrow morning and what settles down is the sweet potato starch.

But the sweet potato starch is not white enough at this time and needs to be washed.

Rinse off the black starch on the sweet potato starch. Then put all the sweet potato starch into a bucket, add water, stir evenly, and let it settle again.

Repeat this process twice and the resulting starch will be very white.

At this time, you can take it out directly, put it into a gauze, hang it up to drain the water inside, then cut the starch balls into pieces and dry them in the sun. After they are dry, you can put them away.

When controlling the water, you also need to beat the starch lump into a funnel shape, which makes it easier to control the water.

When drying, use a knife to cut off the impurities at the bottom, then cut into pieces and dry in the sun. This step is the most stress-relieving. Xu Han likes to cut starch balls the most, it is very fun.