Chapter 579: Chapter 12: Miyun Crabs? They’re Sweet
Autumn came quickly, and as the first chrysanthemums in the nursing home turned yellow at the tips of their branches, the Agricultural Specialty Store gradually moved from a cold start to having its own customers, and then to a stable operation.
The main product of the Agricultural Specialty Store, the distinctive sweet potatoes, were affected slightly in sales after the substantial harvest, as local and non-local varieties began appearing on the market.
Fortunately, Zhuo Feng and his wife adjusted their strategy in time by processing the unsold sweet potatoes into sweet potato flour and also pickling small cans of sweet potato leaves.
The customer base of the Agricultural Specialty Store also changed slightly, even some nearby restaurants started using their sweet potato flour, saying it was great for thickening sauces or making dumplings.
The only downside was that the variety of products in the Agricultural Specialty Store was too few, customers kept buying the same items, occasionally asking when the store would have new and better specialty products.
One weekend, as Zhuo Feng thought about how Xiao Xian had been at Huake Institute for almost two weeks, and apart from Yu Gang informing him that all was well, there had been no other news.
Just as Zhuo Feng planned to personally visit Huake Institute to check on Xiao Xian’s academic and campus life, Xiao Xian called back, saying she would return home with Zhang Yiyi next Wednesday.
Early Wednesday morning, Zhuo Feng specifically drove to Jingxi Agricultural Market, not to buy sweet potatoes this time, but to purchase good vegetables to take home.
The vegetable market at Jingxi Agricultural Market, like Jingxi itself, was bustling with people selling fish and chickens. Autumn was the harvesting season for various crops, a streak of red, yellow and green, making Zhuo Feng’s eyes spin.
"Selling Hairy Crabs, top-quality Mi Yun Crab, heavy and large," came the shout of selling crabs, not very loud, lacking firmness.
If Zhuo Feng hadn’t walked close to that stall, he might not have even heard the vendor’s call.
Indeed, as the saying ’chrysanthemums yellow, crabs are fat’ goes, it is the season for eating crabs.
Xiao Xian loves eating crabs, but the sea crabs from the north, all shipped from Shandong, are not very fresh. As for river and lake crabs, he heard that in recent years there were farms outside the city, but he wasn’t sure how they tasted.
Zhuo Feng approached the crab-selling stall, and before even starting to sell crabs, was amused by the vendor’s setup.
A cargo truck and a few foam boxes for crabs, the scenario vividly reminded him of the old days when he and Xiao Xian used to sell crabs themselves, clearly amateurs.
"Uncle, is this your first time selling crabs? You can’t just shout like that. You need to call out loudly, and highlight the specialty. But I don’t understand, since when did Mi Yun in Beijing also start breeding Hairy Crabs?" Zhuo Feng saw that the crab seller was a somewhat naive-looking middle-aged man under fifty, obviously a novice. Recalling his own embarrassing moments from earlier days, he felt compelled to give some pointers.
Taking another look at the Hairy Crabs in the vendor’s foam boxes, Zhuo Feng was surprised. His hometown in Zhejiang is also known for its seafood, and although his home town isn’t directly by the sea, he grew up eating all kinds of river and sea delicacies.
Having eaten quite a few crabs, he had also gained some experience in evaluating them.
The crabs for sale were discreetly packed in foam boxes, covered with a green net, with only two or three placed on top of the box.
Each Hairy Crab weighed about three to four taels, some with elongated and some with round bellies. Their eight legs were wrapped with a piece of plastic rope, and the two big pincers had grown a black furry ring.
"Uncle, these Hairy Crabs are really good," Zhuo Feng loudly said, picking up a few crabs. Indeed, unlike the disreputable crab dealers who would commonly use thick ropes, this vendor had used only hair-thin ropes to tie the crabs.
Weighing them, each crab was precisely three taels and five coins, almost like twins.
"Hey, young lady, you really know your crabs. These are good crabs, individually picked out," Uncle Lu reacted just as Zhuo Feng had anticipated. He had only previously managed a breeding farm, never having been a crab dealer before.
Recently, as the Hairy Crabs from Huang’s Breeding went on the market, Yezi and Uncle Lu thought about it; instead of transporting the crabs out of the area, which would just exhaust the crabs alongside the people, they decided to sell the crabs locally at various vegetable markets.