Banished Prince Charming

Chapter 16 - Prepare To Cultivate!

At the break of dawn, the sleepy atmosphere around GraceHaven was broken by the repeated crows of a rooster. That rooster had been tamed enough due to its recent captivity and had perched itself on top of my shelter's roof and was crowing its head off.

Everyone stirred from their slumber and slowly ambled down to the riverbank for a quick wash. I slowly opened up my eyes and rubbed my eyes to shake the weariness off when I suddenly touched something soft beside me. Surprised, I turned and look and noticed that Heather had somehow scooted close to me during our sleep and our bodied nearly touched one another.

Did anything happen last night? What I could remember we were talking about the things we had planned for the future and I went to sleep first. Heather had stirred from her slumber and wished me a good morning which I replied to her amicably.

I peered outside and saw a slight mist over the surface of the river and the sight of it was beautiful. I saw Crystal lifting up the hens' coops and it quickly ambled out and started to flap its wings as if preparing to take flight. "Good morning Sir Blackie" I greeted the dog as I walked out from the shelter oblivious to the looks of the rest of the settlers and reached down to pat its head.

"Good morning, young master. Did you have a good night rest last night? Did you... Err..." Jack approached me and asked me before he fiddled his fingers together. "Hahaha... No, Heather and I were just talking last night. Nothing of the sort happened and once we have breakfast, we would gather around for the morning briefing."

I replied to Jack and since he was the eldest, he was unofficially chosen to be my spokesperson ever since last night. He gladly took up the position as he voiced out to everyone to gather around after breakfast.

"What are your plans for breakfast, young master?" asked Kayla as she was preparing the fireplace to boil some water for our morning tea. "We could have gruel at a 4+2 ratio. Don't worry, it would be enough for everyone to last the whole day today."

"Besides, in between, we would be able to munch on the fruits that we may find along the way in the forest," I replied as Kayla took the queue that the morning breakfast would be slightly less thicket than last night.

There was a sack of potatoes and these would be able to compensate for the fillings for today's meal. Kayla nodded in agreement as at least we would still be able to find alternative sources of food.

"Kayla, you need not ask me about what meals we would be having from now on. Use your wise decision to prepare then according." I advised as she simply nodded in apprehension.

"We would sift through the various seeds that had been purchased. I am sure you would be able to identify them, am I right?" Kayla replied that she would attend to the matter right after she had prepared breakfast for everyone.

Morning tea was simple. With Kayla's expertise, she would be able to identify the types of plants suitable to be made into tea leaves. Even the dried mulberry tea leaves could be made into a tea and not only other types of flowering plants as well.

The gruel was ready and an aromatic scent wafted through sleepy GraceHaven as the children were the last to get out from their slumber. After everyone had performed their morning task, we proceeded with our breakfast before we embarked for the day's task.

After a short briefing in the morning, as announced by Jack for the rest to gather, we then proceeded for our current tasks at hand. Heather had joined the ladies to lend a hand at most of the job she could possibly handle.

I looked at the bustling crowd in the morning and was met with a pleasant feeling of accomplishment. Even though it may not be significant to others, at least there's a good start now.

Everyone was hoping for miracles and what we need to do is to have a structured schedule for everyone if there's any project that needs to be accomplished. Other than that, they would be left to their own tasks whenever they deemed fit.

Since I was left with Jack, I decided to roll up my sleeves and tend to the small vegetable garden and make more rows of planting garden instead. Jack had gone to the reed overgrowth and had carried an armful of reed plants back several trips and he was whittling away the leaves, leaving the reed by itself.

I had no experience before all this and since I was guided once, it didn't take me long to set up another 5 rows of plantation beds of equal length and spaces. The red jungle fowls that were released from their coop were looking at me curiously as I loosened the soil and it pecked and scratched to look for grubs.

By midday, everyone had gathered around once again as the children held a bunch of fishes with them. There was enough gruel to go around for everyone so we decided to have roasted fish to as an accompaniment for our lunch instead.

"What's those things? It looked like some kind of branches or roots." I queried to Kayla and Heather as they were sorting the 3 types of roots from their baskets while another basket was filled with fruits.

"These are tubers, young master. It may look like dug up branches at first and according to Kayla, it could be boiled after removing its outer skin. The leaves here could be made into a salad after frying them with a bit of animal fat.

"These are another kind of potatoes too. After some scrubbing, it could be boiled and eaten as well. It looked smaller than this but much sweeter than the normal potatoes."

"To prepare the slips for planting would be similar and harvest that yields from a single 10-foot row would be approximately 8 to 10 pounds between 90 to 150 days. The longer it is, the more sweet potatoes we would be having." Heather explained as she sets aside those sweet potatoes for curing so I would be able to last longer.

She explained that she and Kayla would be a king another trip together with the twins so that they would be able to harvest the remaining sweet potatoes that were growing in abundance. I nodded as I picked up the weird branch-like root and asked if this tastes good.

"Hahaha... Young Master. Trust me, once we had boiled them and pound them up, it could be made into a kind of treat after being pan-fried. I'm sure by the end you would be able to know what treat this is."

"Since you do not always end up in the Royal kitchen, you might be curious where all these treats originally come from. "Kayla chuckled as she wiped her hands on her frock as she had completed arranging the bunch of branches that was dark purple in colour with a weird looking rings on it.

"Jack, help out our young master here to make 10 rows of 10-foot long planting beds. These would be used for the tapioca that we intend to grow. Young Master, you may pull out the mulberry stalks first and plant these according to the manner of the mulberries."

"Don't worry, mulberries are a very hardy plant. You may replant them somewhere else." I looked at Kayla and replied affirmatively while Jack just gave his wife a snort as a sign of acknowledgement.

The area around my shelter was b.a.r.e and have some spaces to grow these mulberries so I've decided to plant them beside the shelter instead. Although the plant was considered as a hobby to cultivate, nevertheless it would be able to sort of beautify the place abit. That's what I was thinking about.

Curious on how these tubers taste like, the ladies prepared a pot to boil the tapioca into smaller pieces after removing the thin bark-like skin around it. The sweet potatoes were then placed near the edges of the fireplace so it would be gradually roasted gradually until its skin was charred.

A bunch of bananas were singled out from the bunch and placed inside the pot to boil too. I didn't know that banana could be prepared in that way and soon I was given a share of a boiled banana with its skin totally blanched and a piece of tapioca.

I didn't know that such simple foods cooked out here was simply delish!

Everyone joined in for that particular lunch break and was thoroughly satisfied after eating them. The fishes that were earlier brought in by the children had been cleaned and left to dry under the sun. This could be eaten roasted or added to the gruel for taste.

After we had our fill, we set out to the remaining tasks at hand and by evening time, there was an addition of 4 more fowls, a few rabbits and 4 baskets of tapioca, sweet potatoes and the stalks of tapioca.

Several bananas combs were also being brought in along with several banana shoots that would be planted by the river bank to be constantly moisturised by the water.

Jack and I had also completed the preparation for the planting beds for the tapiocas and had planted them in an alternate manner.

After that, the rest of us had gone through the seeds that the previous duo had initially bought and was surprised that there are more than 5 types of vegetables and fruits what could be made into crops. There were pumpkin seeds, watermelon seeds, cuc.u.mber seeds and tomato seeds.

In a small pouch, there were some seeds that resembled chilli seeds and Kayla identified them as ball pepper seeds. Only the yield would indicate whether they would either be a green, red or yellow one. There were some seeds that looked like black-eyed peas and it could be either string or long beans.

Kayla and the ladies carved a very wide smile just by looking at the bunch of seeds in their hands and they knew for an instant that their lives would leap to a better one in a matter of 45 days onwards during the harvest.

After discussing how many rows of plantation beds that need to be prepared over the next few days, we left the plans for tomorrow morning as we gathered around and had some gruel and roasted sweet potatoes.