Chapter 292: Seeking Nettle Leaves
Manager Ye looked at the “weed” that Xiang Chuan was pointing to, and his face couldn’t help but twitch.
“Um, Classmate Xiang Chuan, do you have any other plants you’re looking for?”
The implication: Little girl, you didn’t come all the way here just for this one weed, did you?
Xiang Chuan didn’t notice Manager Ye’s suggestive look. She stood in front of the glass display case, rubbing her chin.
“Hmm, it’s this one, but one plant definitely isn’t enough. I need more nettle… Does the Botanical Garden collect nettle here? Just the leaves are fine.”
“……What a coincidence.”
Which Botanical Garden would be so bored as to collect weed leaves!
Manager Ye screamed silently in his heart, but on the surface, he could only give a dry laugh.
“So what do we do? We can’t really go poking into a calf’s stomach, can we?”
Xiang Chuan frowned.
After that yesterday, she looked it up. The cheese that was successfully made belonged to things that could be normally cooked or used as salad, unlike the stringy cheese they usually saw in Western restaurants.
And for making pizza, the most ideal was still mozzarella cheese.
Making mozzarella cheese required rennet. This thing was industrially produced in the 21st Century using fungal fermentation. Given modern agriculture’s development level for edible fungi, by the time they got into the fungal field, Xiang Chuan could probably make snail noodles.
So she could only seek another way. Fortunately, the magical Geegle always came up with some magical “substitutes.” Homemade rennet for home use could consider animal-derived or plant-derived methods.
The animal-derived one was what Xiang Chuan had just mentioned, extracting it from a calf’s stomach. This would be quite difficult in the 21st Century, but in the modern era, the calf probably wouldn’t even notice a tube piercing its internal organs when extracting those things.
But even the three A Bite of China Club members who had overcome the hurdle of eating internal organs were very resistant when they heard it required cow stomach secretions.
Ainuo even said outright: “What’s the difference between this and eating cow stomach acid directly!”
He almost got a beating from Ouyang Yating, who was enjoying post-meal desserts of french fries and cake at the time.
So Xiang Chuan could only settle for the next best thing and come looking for nettle.
——
Hearing that if they couldn’t find enough nettle leaves, some calf’s stomach might suffer, Manager Ye, who had been disinterested before, perked up. She opened the contact group exclusive to the Botanical Garden management level and began asking other zone supervisors if they had ways to get large amounts of nettle.
Looking at the flustered Manager Ye and then at the entangled Xiang Chuan, Ouyang Yating just shook her head and sighed.
“I hope we can get nettle leaves. Otherwise, our remaining feasible path will be poking into a calf’s stomach or spending a month or so applying to use Material Conversion Technology.”
Hearing this, Xiang Chuan could only shrug helplessly.
Applying for Material Conversion Technology was, for her, the final method when it was determined that batch production of a certain agricultural or sideline product was completely impossible.
The main reason was that the cost was too high. Once they had to apply for Material Conversion Technology, it basically stamped that the new seasoning or new agricultural or sideline product they came up with in the modern era couldn’t appear on the market at affordable prices.
To Xiang Chuan, this was very unreasonable. If it were things from her previous life like wagyu or purely handmade high-end material desserts, that would be one thing, but cheese could sell for a few cents a slice on online shopping apps, yet in the modern era, they had to spend a few hundred or even thousands of Star Yuan for a fist-sized piece of cheese.
This was completely upside down.
So Xiang Chuan still hoped to find nettle leaves suitable for small-batch production as soon as possible.
As long as mozzarella cheese could be made, there would be a reason to bring in the Production Escort Ship. Then, extracting rennet from calf stomachs or growing small amounts of nettle to supply the cheese Production Department could serve as a transition before achieving microbial fermentation enzyme production.
But… in this modern natural environment where not even a single roadside weed grows, where to find so much nettle?
——
“No matter how you look at it, this thing is just a weed, right?”
While Xiang Chuan was lost in thought, Ainuo, Liang Gong, Nancy, and Li Wei had gathered in front of the glass display case and begun critiquing the unremarkable nettle.
“Before their uses are developed, all plants are weeds to us. Did you forget? During the field training before, the wild vegetables I picked were almost treated as weeds by you.”
Xiang Chuan mercilessly exposed Ainuo’s past.
“It wasn’t just me saying that back then.” Ainuo immediately shot back without hesitation. “And you didn’t explain beforehand when you brought those wild vegetables back. They looked no different from the wild grass in the Nature Reserve. If we could recognize them as vegetables, we should be at the Historical Research Institute now, not here accompanying you to find weeds… Hey!”
As soon as he finished speaking, he was immediately given a hard smack on the head by Nancy and Ouyang Yating.
Nancy looked at him with an expression of “incorrigible youth.”
“Say less, your mother specifically told me yesterday when she knew I was coming over to keep an eye on you and not let you talk nonsense. I even said you’d improved a lot after joining A Bite of China Club, but it’s only been a few hours?”
Ouyang Yating completely ignored Ainuo’s subsequent complaints and looked directly at Xiang Chuan.
“What he just said is actually a good idea. Maybe some nettle grows in the Nature Reserve treated as wild grass. How about having Manager Ye contact the Nature Reserve Administration Bureau and ask them to help look?”
“That’s a good idea!”
As soon as she finished speaking, a voice of praise suddenly came from behind her.
Manager Ye had somehow moved behind her and was now looking at Ouyang Yating with bright eyes.
“The Nature Reserve has plenty of nothing but animals and weeds. We might actually find some. Everyone, wait a moment. I’ll go ask right now. If they can find it, I’ll have them send it over urgently!”
After saying that, Manager Ye rushed toward the elevator reserved for management in the Botanical Garden like her soles were oiled, leaving the five standing there dumbfounded.
Xiang Chuan: ……No need to be in such a hurry. At least do sterilization first. The wild grass there has been trampled and crawled over by many animals and insects. I really wouldn’t dare to use it if sent directly.
——
Since this involved cross-department contact, Manager Ye wouldn’t be back for a while. After discussing, everyone decided to continue visiting the Botanical Garden.
“How about checking out the legume plants? Maybe we can find some that slipped through the net.”
Nancy pointed to the nearest rose plants visit zone.
“The most widely used soybean, red bean, mung beans, and black bean have already been taken over by the Agriculture Bureau. Looking further would just be finding beans with other uses.”
Xiang Chuan really couldn’t muster much enthusiasm right now.
Beans with other uses?
This instead piqued everyone’s curiosity, so Ouyang Yating and Ainuo very tacitly flanked her on both sides, directly dragging Xiang Chuan toward the rose family area.
Xiang Chuan with a deadpan face: Where is human rights? Where is democracy? Where is the club president’s decision-making power?
