"Sweet and tart, a bit like little fruits."
After trying the novel tomatillos, the two little ones lit up their eyes and continued munching, their brows curving.
Gu Jinchen tried them too and nodded, agreeing that they were quite tasty.
"How do we make a cold dish with them? Do we dress them with chili peppers like with smashed cucumbers?"
Gu Jinchen asked as he munched on the tomatillos, about to go wash and prepare the ingredients.
Luo Ge stopped him with her hand, "No need, you just slice them and toss with sugar. I'll make a stir-fried tomato and egg dish."
"I'll help out."
Hearing Gu Jinchen, the two little ones quickly followed.
A simple tossed tomatillo salad, along with stir-fried tomatillos and eggs, plus some stir-fried cured pork, made up their homemade dinner, nice and simple.
Gu Jinchen used to cure the small game he caught into cured pork whenever there were leftovers that he couldn't sell.
After dinner, they made some pear paste and candies before resting.
Li Shopkeeper had sent over about four bushels of pears, more or less.
They had just weighed them - each bushel seemed to be around 200 pounds of pears. About 5 pounds of fresh pears could produce 1 pound of candied pear paste, with the pear candies being roughly the same.
Using too large of a pot made it hard to control, so they processed one bushel at a time at most. The extracted pear juice could only yield about 2 pounds of candy and 2 pounds of candied pear paste.
In other words, 200 pounds of pears could yield 20 pounds of dried fruit, but at most only 8 pounds combined of candied pear paste and candy.
Factoring in the added lotus seeds, monk fruits, and other ingredients, making the pear paste and candy had much higher costs than the dried fruit.
"Wife, how much silver should we sell this candied pear paste and pear candy for?"
After calculating it out, Gu Jinchen turned to ask, as the costs were right there.
Luo Ge shook her head, "I haven't decided yet, but I want to discuss trying a profit-sharing arrangement with Big Brother Li."
The intrinsic value of the candied pear paste wasn't low, so profit-sharing would be more suitable.
Plus they had brought up cooperation based on profit-sharing very early on. Li Shopkeeper had shown some inclination at the time, but there had been no movement on that side for a while now, so she needed to bring it up again.
Though they had become familiar through frequent dealings, at the end of the day they were all in business, right?
"Alright, sounds good."
...The next morning, the helpers who had come to assist the day before arrived to call on Gu Jinchen.
"Jinchen, let's go!"
Everyone was waiting outside, and Big Brother Wang came in to call out to him.
Gu Jinchen had actually wanted to wait for Li Shopkeeper to arrive so he and Luo Ge could discuss things with him together.
But he was most familiar with the mountain, and with him there, everyone would feel more at ease and safe. If he didn't go along, that wouldn't work.
"Wife, will you be all right on your own?" Seeing Big Brother Wang, he turned to Luo Ge with some concern.
Luo Ge was stunned when she heard this, then nodded.
"It's fine, I can manage on my own. You go take care of your business."
Sheesh, she wasn't a little kid.
Hearing Luo Ge's words, Gu Jinchen looked at her for a moment, then at Big Brother Wang.
"I'll be back soon. If the discussion goes well, you rest first, and leave the remaining fruit for when I return."
That was all he said in the end.
Listening to him, Luo Ge felt a bit exasperated, but seeing his expression, she could only obediently nod.
"Alright, be careful out there."
"Mmm."
Not long after Gu Jinchen and the others left, Li Shopkeeper also arrived.
"Sister-in-law, how about that paste you mentioned yesterday?" He went straight to the point as soon as he saw Luo Ge.
With Gu Jinchen gone to avoid idle chatter, Luo Ge opened the courtyard gate and set up a simple table outside, quickly brewing two cups of candied pear paste tea for him to try.
"It's ready. Big Brother Li can give it a try first. This candied pear paste tea goes quite nicely with pastries as well."
