Since none of them had ever grown sugar beets before, and this was their first time, like a young bride taking her first sedan chair ride, they weren't sure if the sugar beets were mature at this time. Everyone was murmuring to themselves in doubt.
Chen Lan suddenly remembered something. When the shopkeeper gave them the sugar beet seeds, there was a piece of paper in the seed bag with planting instructions. It should also have described what mature sugar beets looked like.
So, Chen Lan immediately sent someone to call Lin Mai. Lin Mai hurried over with a piece of paper.
As Lin Mai handed the paper to Chen Lan, she panted and said, "Little Lan jie, here, the instruction manual you wanted."
Because the matter was urgent, Chen Lan didn't stand on ceremony. She thanked Lin Mai, took the manual, and read it carefully. As she read, she also read aloud. The manual stated: "Sugar beets in the Northeast region generally mature from late September to early October. The characteristics of mature sugar beets are that the leaves turn yellow and droop, and the surface of the beet has a bright luster. This indicates that the sugar beet is mature, and the sugar content is highest when harvested at this time!"
Everyone looked at the sugar beets in their hands and then at the ones in the field. They perfectly matched the two points mentioned in the manual, indicating that the sugar beets in the field were fully mature. Harvesting them now would yield high quality!
Since everyone had basically arrived at the sugar beet field, it was time to prepare for the harvest. However, before harvesting the sugar beets, they all had to have a good taste, a feast for their taste buds!
This year, they only raised two pigs in the valley, and the cashmere goats weren't numerous either. The harvested and stored alfalfa was already enough for the cashmere goats and the two pigs. Therefore, Chen Lan decided that they wouldn't keep the sugar beet stems and leaves this year. They would have the machines crush the beet leaves directly to fertilize the field!
Chen Lan saw that everyone had nearly finished eating the sugar beets. She then waved her hand and gave the order: "Begin."
Qian Yingzi drove the multi-functional agricultural tractor into the field. Chen Dasao, who was cooperating with her, also drove a tractor with a rear carriage into the field. Accompanied by the roaring of the tractors, the beets were defoliated, topped, lifted, and loaded all in one go. In a short time, the two of them finished harvesting half a mu of sugar beets.
If they continued harvesting at this pace, Chen Lan estimated that it would take about an hour to harvest all ten mu of sugar beets.
Soon, the beet fruits, filled with hope, piled up in the rear carriage of the tractor, and the air was filled with a sweet aroma.
Seeing that the rear carriage was full, Chen Dasao immediately drove the tractor away to transport the sugar beets to the main kitchen to be processed into sugar. Liu Man'er, seeing that Chen Dasao's tractor was full, immediately drove her tractor to take over Chen Dasao's work.
Chen Lan looked at the full wagon of beet roots and silently estimated in her heart that this wagon load of sugar beets was about four to five thousand catties. One mu would be filled in about two wagons, meaning the yield per mu was around nine thousand catties. Thus, ten mu would yield over ninety thousand catties of sugar beets.
Chen Lan watched for a while and found that everyone else was busy with their own tasks. There was nothing for her to do here, so she quickly left the beet field and went to the main kitchen to watch her mother-in-law and the others make sugar.
Before she even got close to the main kitchen, Chen Lan saw from afar that it was already bustling with activity outside. Her mother-in-law was bending down with the young women, washing the sugar beets. The older women and young wives were heads down, rapidly slicing the beets, the cleavers making crisp sounds on the cutting boards.
They had built two large stoves with red bricks on the side of the main kitchen. Two large iron pots were placed on the stoves. A small amount of clear water had already been added to the pots. Qian Dama and Xiao Zhou Dama were each in charge of a stove, adding corn husks and small branches to the fire chambers to start the sugar-making process.
Chen Lan smiled and greeted everyone. She looked at the shredded beets cut by the older women and felt they weren't fine enough. She immediately ran to the nearby tofu workshop and brought back the grinder used for making tofu.
Her mother-in-law immediately understood Chen Lan's intention and arranged: "Auntie Li, Auntie Xu, let's go! You two hurry and come with me to the tofu workshop. We'll get the tools for making tofu."
With the help of the grinder, they only needed to cut the large pieces of beet into smaller pieces before putting them directly into the grinder. Chen Lan was now responsible for the crushing of the sugar beets.
Once a bucket was filled with crushed beets, her mother-in-law and Aunt Xu would pour the crushed beets, along with their juice, directly into the large pot to boil. The purpose of this was to dissolve the sugar from the beet pulp into the hot water.
Meanwhile, her mother-in-law arranged for people to set up a filtering cloth and start filtering the boiled beet pulp. After repeating this filtering process three or four times, the filtered beet juice was poured into a clean large iron pot.
Then, slaked lime, obtained from an unknown source, was added. Chen Lan was curious and asked, "Mother-in-law, why are you adding slaked lime to the sugar juice? Is this also a secret recipe?"
Her mother-in-law smiled brightly and replied, "Xiao Lan, how did you know I was adding slaked lime to the sugar juice? I do this to remove suspended impurities in the sugar water and also to neutralize the acidity of the sugar water."
Then, her mother-in-law deftly poured the final pure sugar juice into the large pot, and had Qian Dama and Xiao Zhou Dama bring the sugar water to a boil over high heat. They let it simmer slowly. Her mother-in-law skimmed off the foam (impurities) from the sugar water as the moisture evaporated. She also had to constantly stir the pot with a spoon.
Her mother-in-law said this was to prevent the sugar water from sticking to the pot. Until most of the water had evaporated, the sugar water turned into a thick syrup.
Her mother-in-law asked Aunt Xu, who was helping nearby, to ladle the syrup into a large basin. Seeing Chen Lan watching curiously, she smiled and explained, "Leave the basin of syrup in a dry, ventilated place for two to three days."
Chen Lan observed that the syrup at this stage was very similar to maltose.
After another two days, her mother-in-law retrieved a hard sugar crust from the top of the basin. This portion of sugar was small. Her mother-in-law explained, "This sugar crust, when crushed, becomes granulated sugar. This can be used as a starter for further sugar extraction."
Then, they saw her mother-in-law add water to the sugar water, heat it to melt it into saturated sugar water. The saturated sugar water was then filtered multiple times before being poured out. Then, she dipped a chopstick into the previously prepared starter sugar and inserted it into the sugar water.
Her mother-in-law continued to explain with a smile, "Leave it for a few more days, and you'll get rock sugar."