novelraw Chapter 167: Sweet Potato Leaves and Flour-based Food
Chapter 167: Sweet Potato Leaves and Flour-based Food
Evelyn Ford was a woman of action. The very next day, she took two potatoes and two sweet potatoes to find Quincy.
Potatoes could be cut into pieces for planting. If you coated them in wood ash, the yield would be very high.
"Holy crap, you really have potatoes and sweet potatoes?"
Evelyn Ford nodded. "I found them in The Undercity a while back. They’re yours. Go ahead and plant them."
Quincy looked at Evelyn Ford as if she were his own ancestor. "Evelyn, I feel like I should be calling you Grandma."
Evelyn... ’I really want to punch him.’
"Your grandfather wouldn’t be happy about that. Alright, stop with the smart mouth. I’m leaving."
Quincy nodded. "Walk slow, be careful, don’t you trip now."
Evelyn really wanted to smack him one. The guy was great in every way, except for that mouth of his. It was just too damn cheeky.
After returning home, Evelyn also planted a small patch of sweet potatoes and potatoes in her own vegetable garden.
In the afternoon, Evelyn took Ronan Kendrick to harvest pine cones.
If you wanted to save the seeds, you couldn’t use fire on the pine cones. You had to cut them down and leave them to bake in the sun. Once the scales burst open, you could knock the nuts out.
Evelyn decided to cut them down and sun-dry them. She’d save the seeds; they might be useful later.
Ronan Kendrick pushed a wheelbarrow while Evelyn Ford carried two sickles. When they got to the forest, Evelyn saw Mina and Lola. The two little ones ran over to play with her for a bit before running off again.
"Such carefree little things."
"They’re much happier now that they have the forest," Ronan Kendrick said, taking a sickle and climbing a pine tree.
He quickly started cutting down pine cones. Evelyn picked them up from the ground below, gathering them in the wheelbarrow.
Quite a few people had come to harvest pine cones. Evelyn even saw Quincy and Wyatt Vaughn.
When Wyatt Vaughn learned that Evelyn had given them potatoes and sweet potatoes, he ditched Quincy and came over to help her harvest. In less than half an hour, the wheelbarrow was full.
Half a month later, the fact that Quincy was growing potatoes and sweet potatoes became common knowledge. It all started when someone tried to steal watermelons from his garden and discovered the potato sprouts.
Taylor Vance and the others also went to have a look. After all, potatoes and sweet potatoes had high yields, were very filling, and could be stored for a long time.
Quincy used the same story Evelyn had given him: he had found the potatoes and sweet potatoes in The Undercity. Overnight, Quincy became the safe zone’s good-luck charm.
Taylor Vance told him to cultivate them well. Once the sweet potato leaves grew larger, everyone could come and pick some. The vines could be planted, so everyone could take some back and plant them immediately.
With potatoes and sweet potatoes, everyone’s minds were finally at ease. They no longer had to fear famine.
Once the sweet potato leaves were ready for harvesting, Evelyn couldn’t wait to pick a small basinful. She planned to make stir-fried sweet potato leaves with garlic and chili.
’That poor thing, Ronan, has probably never eaten this dish either.’
After the two of them moved out, they not only had the freedom to grow vegetables but also the freedom to cook. They could eat whatever they wanted without worrying about neighbors smelling the food.
Evelyn sighed. ’It hasn’t been easy.’
Thankfully, she had met Ronan Kendrick. He was diligent, obedient, and didn’t have a shred of male chauvinism. Evelyn had never thought she would get along with him so well.
"I’m thinking of steaming some more steamed buns, flower rolls, and silver thread rolls. What do you think?" It was mainly because Evelyn loved eating them. Even though she was from the south, she had a particular fondness for wheat-based foods.
"Are we starting tomorrow?"
Evelyn nodded. "Mhm, I’ll prepare the dough tonight so we can get started tomorrow. I’m planning to steam three hundred pounds of flour this time. It’ll probably take three or four days."
The pine cones they had harvested earlier had already burst open after baking in the sun. The two of them spent a day processing all of them.
There were about a hundred pounds of nuts. Evelyn kept ten pounds out and stored the rest in her space to use as seeds later.
That evening, they had stir-fried sweet potato leaves, and Ronan Kendrick’s culinary world was once again expanded. Besides "delicious," he couldn’t think of any better words to praise Evelyn’s cooking.
Evelyn discovered she had developed a wicked pleasure in feeding Ronan Kendrick. It always felt like feeding a ruffled kitten.
After dinner, Ronan Kendrick washed the dishes while Evelyn took out a bag of flour to prepare the dough. Luckily, she had several steamers and could steam ten tiers at once.
Ronan Kendrick had gotten some bamboo. He had learned basket-weaving techniques from Zion Lowell and had made several large baskets.
After the steamed buns and flower rolls were ready, they would line the baskets with gauze, place the buns and rolls inside, stack them neatly, and only then store them in the space.
Neither of them was a neat freak, but they both had a serious case of OCD.
After four busy days, Evelyn and Ronan were exhausted. Every couple of months, they did a massive stock-up. The space was now filled with all sorts of cooked food, enough to last them for three or four years.
"Tomorrow, we’re eating crayfish."
"I don’t want to peel them."
Ronan Kendrick had a love-hate relationship with crayfish. They were delicious, but you had to peel them, which he found troublesome. Yet, whenever Evelyn made them, he couldn’t control himself.
"You can watch me eat them."
Ronan Kendrick chuckled softly. "I don’t think I could do that."
The two of them watched an episode of a TV show together before Evelyn went to her room to sleep. Ronan went outside to do another patrol, only coming back to sleep after confirming there were no dangers.
The next day, something major happened in the safe zone. Someone found a lot of tracks on the periphery. Taylor Vance and a few others went out to look and concluded they were wolf tracks.
Only then did Evelyn remember that she still had a lot of wolf meat in her space.
"Generally speaking, wolves don’t readily approach human settlements. I don’t think it’s them."
’Unless they’re here for revenge.’
Evelyn recalled the sight of Ronan Kendrick slaughtering the wolf pack. Every time she thought about it, it sent a fresh shock through her.
Filthy from head to toe, he had fought among the wolves, his crimson eyes filled with killing intent.
In that moment, Evelyn had truly felt his power and mystery.
To this day, there were still many secrets left unconfessed between them, but it didn’t matter. More than secrets, Evelyn was willing to trust him. In this world, Ronan was probably the only person she could trust with her back.
Whether it was really a wolf pack remained to be seen. Evelyn took Ronan to have a look, and he also thought they were wolf tracks.
"They might just be curious. No need to pay them any mind or drive them away. As long as we don’t provoke them, the pack won’t come near humans."
Hearing Ronan say this, everyone felt a bit more relieved. However, starting that day, patrols in the safe zone were strengthened.
Back home, Evelyn took out a large basin of crayfish and also prepared a lot of Sichuan peppercorns and chilies.
Ronan Kendrick loved spicy food. When it came to eating, the two had no disagreements whatsoever.
"Can crayfish be farmed?"
"Yes, but I don’t have any live ones in my space."
The pond in their yard had many fish. At first, there were only a dozen or so, but now there were over a hundred.
And every one of them was huge. That morning, Evelyn had weighed herself and found she had gained a kilogram this month. She was even getting her baby fat back. It seemed the food had been too good lately.
While stir-frying the crayfish, Evelyn was sent into a sneezing fit by the chilies. Ronan wanted to help, but Evelyn refused, politely declining the kitchen disaster’s offer to cause more chaos.
"The crayfish I bought are the largest kind. With the smaller ones, you only get a piece of meat the size of a fingernail from each."
Ronan’s eyes sparkled as he looked at Evelyn, making her feel a little shy.
"Alright, let’s dig in."