Ch 207: Pickling Duck Eggs

“Dad! What are you doing here?!” Bai Yi looked surprised at his father, who was holding a pillow.

Bai Jianjun threw the pillow onto the bed Bai Yi had just made, saying, “Your mother said that you can’t live together before marriage; it’s easy to cause gossip.”

After saying that, Dad lay down.

And Bai Yi: “.”

Well, there’s nothing I can do. My mother’s thoughts are too conservative, even more so than Aunt Du Zhu.

Helpless, Bai Yi also lay down, and soon fell asleep after closing his eyes.

Nothing happened overnight. The next morning, Bai Yi got up early to wash up as usual, except this time there was a Chu Tingting beside him.

One fetched water, the other washed their face. If you were to look from outside the gate, you wouldn’t know, you’d think they were a newly married couple.

“Bai Yi, that, uh, Manager Xia and the village head are looking for you. They want you to go to Manager Xia’s office.” Uncle Wu from next door shouted from the entrance of Bai Yi’s house while riding his motorcycle.

“Ah, I understand.” Bai Yi replied.

Vroom vroom.

Uncle Wu sped off.

“Sigh! These young people nowadays, really, living together before marriage!”

Bai Yi said to Chu Tingting, who was washing her hair, “I’ll go for a bit, I’ll be right back.”

Chu Tingting, wearing her pajamas and washing her hair, quickly nodded.

Soon Bai Yi arrived at Xia Wanqing’s office.

Xia Wanqing and the village head were already waiting inside. Not only that, but in front of them were baskets of chicken eggs, duck eggs, and goose eggs.

“What’s this? Whose gift is this?” Bai Yi looked at the eggs, they looked pretty good.

Xia Wanqing smiled and said, “Whose gift? These are eggs some employees picked up on the mountain this morning.”

Picked up on the mountain!

Could it be! Oh my god.

Bai Yi understood, the chickens, ducks, and geese on the mountain had laid eggs!

Normally, chickens and ducks lay eggs after about four months of raising, and geese take even longer, usually about five months.

Bai Yi really didn’t expect that after these chickens, ducks, and geese ate his spiritual rain, not only did they grow quickly, but their egg-laying speed also increased significantly. It’s only been how long since the farm started! To have such an unexpected harvest!

“Xiaoyi, I think these eggs are of good quality. I think we can hatch the young ones ourselves, which will save us money from selling them.” The village head picked up a chicken egg and examined it carefully.

Bai Yi knew that the chickens, ducks, and geese on the mountain often drank his spiritual rain, so the quality of their eggs certainly couldn’t be bad.

Xia Wanqing also agreed with the village head’s suggestion: “This method is feasible, but based on the number of chickens, ducks, and geese on our mountain, after deducting those for hatching, we’ll probably still have a lot left.”

Bai Yi directly said, “Simple, sell them!”

Xia Wanqing and the village head also smiled slightly. The village head hurriedly said, “Aren’t we asking you to discuss how to handle this?”

Although it was decided that the chicken, duck, and goose eggs should be sold, everyone didn’t know about it on the first day. In the end, everyone took the eggs they picked up on the mountain home.

This time the village head didn’t pursue it, and warned everyone that they couldn’t take the eggs home in the future.

Under the organization of the village head, the farm also specially organized an egg-collecting department, responsible for collecting these chicken, duck, and goose eggs every day.

The person in charge of this egg-collecting team is Bai Yi’s mother.

However, the next day, after hastily prohibiting taking the eggs home, within just one day, each villager had collected more than ten jin （approximately 5kg）.

The three baskets of chicken, duck, and goose eggs left in the office were eventually taken home by Bai Yi.

So many, now there’s no other choice besides pickling them.

Now, not only Bai Yi’s family, but every household in Bai Qingzhai Village was busy pickling salted duck eggs because of the excessive number of chicken, duck, and goose eggs.

Because chicken eggs taste good whether fried or boiled, only the duck eggs are difficult to handle. They are unsuitable for frying or making egg custards because they have a fishy smell, so pickling them is the best.

Moreover, these ducks were raised on his spiritual water, so the duck eggs they produced would certainly be much tastier than other duck eggs. Bai Yi didn’t doubt this at all.

Rural people have the habit of pickling salted duck eggs, and there’s a strange principle: everyone uses the same duck eggs and the same method, but the taste of the salted duck eggs from each household is different?

Although the tastes are different, it cannot be denied that they are all delicious.

Moreover, if the salted duck eggs are well pickled, the yolks will ooze oil, making them incredibly fragrant. If used with alcohol, it’s a perfect match.

Thinking of those oily duck eggs, Bai Yi couldn’t help but drool.

So, after putting the duck eggs at home, he hurriedly carried his hoe and bucket to the field and dug up a large bucket of yellow clay.

Using yellow clay to pickle duck eggs is a relatively common traditional method. Bai Yi specifically came to his own rice paddy to dig yellow clay, so that the pickled salted duck eggs would taste even more delicious, after all, this soil had been irrigated with his spiritual light.

After bringing the yellow clay home, Bai Yi found a large wooden basin.

“Mom, I’ve got the yellow clay, what do we do next?”

Hehe

Although Bai Yi knew about pickling salted duck eggs with yellow clay, he didn’t really know the specifics. This would have to rely on his mother.

The most crucial part of pickling salted duck eggs is how many duck eggs and how much salt to use; this is a real technical skill that Bai Yi couldn’t handle.

But this was a piece of cake for Bai Yi’s mother, after all, Bai Yi’s mother pickled some salted duck eggs every year.

After hearing Bai Yi’s call, his mother came out of the room carrying several bags of salt and some oil.

Squatting down, after estimating the number of duck eggs, Mother sprinkled two and a half bags of salt into the yellow clay, then added some cooking oil and water to stir the yellow clay into a thick paste.

After doing this, Mother hurriedly shouted to Bai Yi, “Go wash all those duck eggs with clean water.”

Got it!

Bai Yi quickly took out all the duck eggs, drew some well water, and washed each of the duck eggs clean.

Finally, the clean duck eggs were coated with the yellow clay mixture. He found several large jars, neatly placed the eggs in the jars, and sealed the jars.

The rest is left to time. In about 20 days, they’ll be ready.

The salt in the yellow clay will gradually settle into the duck eggs over time, thus producing a series of chemical changes with the duck eggs. This is the scientific explanation for salted duck eggs.

Bai Yi roughly counted them. This time, Mother pickled about 200 duck eggs.

That’s no small number; it filled three large jars.

Because all the villagers were basically in the same situation as Bai Yi’s family, everyone thought that chicken eggs could be fried or boiled, but duck eggs now only had the option of being pickled.

So, these two days, the villagers were also busy digging yellow clay and pickling duck eggs, having a lot of fun.

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