vrcanaries Chapter 228 Shen Wanning Returns Hometown
Chapter 228 Shen Wanning Returns Hometown
Shen Wanning planned to make essential oils in her own house; it wouldn't take up much space anyway. Furthermore, according to Aunt Gui, the recipe for making essential oils was a secret and couldn't be passed on to others.
If the products were made in Daqing Village and then shipped to Fuzhou, she was worried that there would be damage along the way.
As for the soap, we recruited villagers from Daqing Village to make it, and separated each step. Since everyone knows each other well, there shouldn't be any problems.
Moreover, the soap will definitely be packed in a wooden box, and it will not be packed in a porcelain bottle like the essential oil, which is easy to break on the road.
After going to the pawnshop and selecting four maids and four servants, Shen Wanning brought them back to the Shen Mansion and handed them over to Nanny Gui, who managed and assigned them tasks.
During this time, Shen Wanning was busy decorating her shop while buying a lot of dried flowers. To her surprise, someone had dried a lot of rose petals, originally intended for sale to wealthy people for bathing, and she happened to buy them.
She bought some tea oil and porcelain bottles, called Bei Luo over, and taught him how to make essential oils using the oil immersion method. From then on, this task would be handed over to Bei Luo.
In addition, they had thinner hollow bamboo poles made specifically for this purpose, which would later serve as glass tubes for distilling essential oils. Later, the distillation process would be handed over to Bai Wei and Bai Zhi, while the final extraction method would be handed over to Bei Dou.
Bei Ji stayed at home to guard the door, Bei Chen was her coachman, while Bai Ying and Bai Su followed Nanny Gui to manage the shop.
Compared to the four maids and four servants she had just bought, Shen Wanning still trusted the few servants bestowed by the emperor more.
The few servants who were just bought today stayed at home to clean the house, and were also responsible for shopping, cooking, laundry and other chores.
After more than half a month, the shop was finally renovated, and she had already collected a lot of dried osmanthus flowers and rose petals.
Generally speaking, distillation is the best method for making rose essential oil, but it is not yet the rose season, so we can only try using dried petals first.
She only made 100 bottles of rose essential oil, and would make the rest later. If there were too much of this stuff, it would lose its value.
After entrusting all matters in the mansion to Nanny Gui, she finally set off to return to Daqing Village.
Before returning to Daqing Village, she went to the county town. The two newly purchased cows had arrived, and she asked Xiaoshu to help deliver the two cows to Daqing Village.
"Wan Ning, you are finally back. Have you finished your work in Fuzhou? Are you too tired and have no time to eat? Why have you lost weight?" Aunt Zhang touched her face, looking distressed.
"Mom, it's only been half a month, how can you have lost weight? I'm still the same as before!" Shen Wanning turned around so that Aunt Zhang could see her more clearly.
Wen came over with Lin Hai in her arms and said with a smile, "It's because I think you've lost weight. I feel bad for you!"
Lin Hai looked at Shen Wanning curiously. Shen Wanning gently pinched his face and said, "What's wrong? It's only been half a month since we last met, and you've already forgotten your aunt?"
As he said that, he took Lin Hai and held him in his arms.
"I have soaked all the dried osmanthus flowers you mentioned last time in tea oil. The bottles are all in your room. I have soaked more than 200 bottles in total." Aunt Zhang said.
"Thank you, Mom. That's great! Once we make some soap, we can open the store in Fuzhou." Shen Wanning happily grabbed Lin Hai's hand and waved.
"Yes, and your father devoted himself to the waterwheel as soon as he came back. I forced him to make a lot of soap molds for you. I guessed you would use them when you came back." Aunt Zhang said, feeling that she was very clever.
"That's great. Now all we need is something to store the soap. I was originally planning to order a batch of wooden boxes, wrap the soap in oil paper, and then pack it in the boxes."
"Sure, your father knows a lot of carpenters. Have him contact them to buy the wooden boxes. Take a look at the dimensions and let your father negotiate the size you want. And the three workshops you mentioned are also completed. You should have seen them when you come back, right?"
"Well, the workshop is well built. I will tell Dad about the wooden box later. By the way, Mom, it's already February, and we can plant peppers. There is also good news. When I purchased dried flowers in Fuzhou, I actually received some pepper seeds." As she spoke, Shen Wanning took out a bag filled with a lot of pepper seeds.
"Oh, why are there so many chili seeds? Could it be that they also know that chili can be used in cooking?" Aunt Zhang exclaimed in surprise when she saw the bag of chili seeds.
Shen Wanning shook her head. "That's not the case. They thought the pepper was an ornamental plant, so they planned to plant it and wait for it to bear fruit."
"That's perfect. Let's plant them all. When we harvest this year, we can eat dishes fried with chili peppers." Aunt Zhang took the chili pepper seeds and prepared to plant them in the next few days.
"Mom, besides peppers, we can also plant the vines of sweet potatoes left over from last year. And haven't we only planted half of the mountain? We can plant some cassava with the rest. Otherwise, I'm afraid we won't be able to rely solely on the wild ones on the mountain this year."
"Okay, I've remembered it all. You just came back, and I thought you came back to rest for a few days, but I didn't expect that you started to worry about the things in the fields as soon as you came back. I'll talk to your eldest brother about the things in the fields later, and then hire some people to take care of them. You should have a good rest for a few days." Aunt Zhang patted her hands.
"I'm not tired. Besides, I enjoy doing business. It feels so good to make money!"
Aunt Zhang shook her head helplessly. "Ah, mother really can't do anything about you. Go back to your room and rest for a while. I still have to go cook with Xu and call you out for dinner later."
Shen Wanning returned Lin Hai to Wen and went into her room to check. Sure enough, there were many small porcelain bottles inside.
Lin Dashan specially made a wooden grid for the small porcelain bottles, and placed the small porcelain bottles in the wooden grid. (Similar to the nine-square grid, please imagine it yourself)
After dinner, she went to the mountain to check on the saplings. In February, the saplings had already grown new leaves, and the tea trees were lush and green.
To her surprise, many of the tea trees had already sprouted, ready for harvest. It wasn't a large quantity, but it should be enough for the milk tea shop to use for a few months.
After returning home and talking to Lin Dashan and the others, he hired some villagers to go up the mountain to pick tea.
They stayed in Daqing Village for another half a month. During this time, they helped every household plant sweet potatoes and planted five acres of cassava on the hilltop.
I've also planted all the pepper seeds. The weather isn't warm yet, so it's not suitable for cotton planting yet. I'll have to wait a while before planting.
In addition, I have made a lot of green tea scented soaps and some milk scented soaps in the past two weeks.
Shen Wanning opened a porcelain bottle and smelled it. The fresh fragrance of osmanthus rushed into her brain, making her feel relaxed and happy.
It seems that these essential oils are ready, and I guess the rose essential oils in Fuzhou are almost ready too.