Chapter 160. Doing the farming right (2)- Oil Before Night

Chapter 160: 160. Doing the farming right (2)- Oil Before Night

Mira was ready before the Sunseed crop was.

She had two baskets beside her, one lined with cloth and the other empty.

A Hearthkeeper waited near the path with a small board, while Sela stood by the last marker and checked the timer every few minutes.

Carlos watched them from the edge of the field. Yesterday, most of these people had been afraid Rowan might explode something else.

Now they were waiting for him to harvest cooking oil.

The last few minutes seemed slower than the whole afternoon.

"Can we cut it now?" Carlos asked.

"We waited eight hours," Mira said. "You can wait four more minutes."

Rowan bent over the nearest plant. The white cloth around him brushed above the leaves without touching them. He examined the heads, then let his fingers rest near the thickest stalk.

"These are healthy. Better than the first batch."

"Does that mean more oil?" Carlos asked.

"We will know when they press it," Mira replied. "But I would rather send good seeds than damaged ones."

Carlos knew nothing about pressing them. He had seen the rough oil that came back after their first harvest, but the work itself had happened outside Ironroot.

He would have liked to keep that part here too, one day. For now, a service was enough if it returned something they could actually use.

When the timer ended, the System recorded the crop as mature. Rowan cut the first head and handed it to Sela. She held it over the cloth basket while he showed her where to separate the seeds.

Carlos watched for a while before offering his hands.

"Give me something simple."

Mira pushed the empty basket toward him.

"Hold this steady. Do not mix what Rowan gives Sela with the ones I put here."

He did as he was told. The heads were heavier than they looked, and small seeds rubbed loose while Sela worked.

Rowan stopped her once to change the angle of her hand. After that, she moved faster without crushing any.

They kept the best seed heads aside for replanting. Mira counted the rest with the Hearthkeeper, checked the trade quantity, and had Carlos read it before he opened his panel.

--

[Carlos Goldwin]- The Sunseed harvest is ready. Can the pressing service you used before take another batch tonight? My Mira has separated our planting seeds already.

[Cosmic Merchant]- Tonight? I thought it would take longer.

[Carlos Goldwin]- It has grown. I am standing beside it.

[Cosmic Merchant]- Wait. Send me the quantity. I will ask them now.

--

Carlos gave him the listed seed amount without sending the growth panel.

Cosmic could know about their progress later, when Carlos had time to explain it. A trader buying oil did not need Rowan’s new abilities attached to the listing.

Mira waited while the answer came. She checked the remaining seeds again, then asked Sela which section would be planted next.

"Some here, some in the next converted field," Sela said. "Rowan marked it this afternoon."

"How much are you keeping?"

Sela showed her the labels. Mira followed the count with her finger and finally nodded.

Carlos liked seeing them agree without needing him in between. His people had been doing that more often lately.

At first, most decisions had reached him because nobody knew what the others could handle.

Now Mira could ask Sela about a field and get an answer that was worth listening to.

Cosmic replied before they finished clearing the row.

--

[Cosmic Merchant]- Same service. They have room for a small batch tonight. Their charge comes out of the processed oil, like last time. They sent the terms.

--

Carlos let Mira read the terms before accepting. There was no guaranteed yield written there, only the amount of Sunseed received, the pressing charge, and the oil that would be returned after processing.

She remembered the previous batch and accepted the same charge.

The seeds left through the trade transfer. The protected planting basket stayed on the grass beside Sela.

"Now we wait again," Carlos said.

"Now you eat," Mira replied. "You have been here since before the timer finished."

Carlos went with her to the kitchen. The smell reached him before the doorway did, and Brann was already seated outside with a bowl in both hands. Two other Bearkin waited beside him, speaking quietly while one watched the cooking entrance.

"You harvested?" Brann asked when Carlos passed.

"Yeah. We are getting oil tonight."

Brann looked at Mira instead, as if she would tell him something more useful.

"For cooking," she said. "You will notice when I use it."

That satisfied him. Carlos sat nearby while a Hearthkeeper brought his food, and Mira went back inside to finish serving.

The kitchen could not stop making dinner because a trade batch might arrive later.

He ate slowly for once. There was wheat in storage, vegetables growing faster, and more Rare land ready for planting. He wanted to summon again.

He had wanted it for days, especially when he passed the barracks and saw the options waiting there.

But he remembered promising that everyone already here would be fed before he added more.

He would ask Mira after the new harvests had been counted. If she gave him a real number, he could make a real decision.

The oil came back while the Hearthkeepers were cleaning the last cooking pots.

Carlos opened the transfer and placed the sealed containers on the table beside Mira.

She took one, checked its smell, and poured a little into a shallow bowl.

It was clearer than the previous rough batch, though still far from something a rich Earth restaurant would put on its tables.

To Carlos, it looked excellent.

Before closing the pressing record, Mira asked Carlos to keep the quantity returned from this batch beside the first one.

The seed count alone would not tell her what she could promise a buyer.

"Two baskets can look the same and give different amounts," she said. "If we sell by jars, I need to know how much goes in each jar."

Carlos gave the record to the Hearthkeeper holding her board. The worker copied the received amount, the service charge, and the batch date before tying a label around the protected seeds.

"We should ask the service to keep our batches separate" Carlos asked.

"We should. I want oil from our crop coming back, not whatever they have left in a pot."

He sent the request through Cosmic, who confirmed it with the presser.

Mira seemed satisfied by that and put the record away. Carlos had thought getting oil meant finishing the problem. She was already making sure they could buy the same work again and recognise what returned.

Mira rubbed a little between two fingers, then checked the returned record. She showed it to the Hearthkeeper before opening another container.

"This is enough to use," she said.

"How much of it can we trade?"

Mira looked at him. Carlos understood her expression before she spoke.

"I am asking, not selling it already."

"Good. This batch goes to the kitchen. When the next ones arrive, I will count a surplus. I want us to have oil when the crop is being replanted too."

"It grows in eight hours now."

"And someone still has to harvest it, separate it, send it, and cook with it. We do not have another kitchen hiding behind this one."

At that mention, Carlos looked at the tired Hearthkeeper washing a pot.

He had spent the whole evening staring at a plant while this person served dinner and cleaned afterward. Eight hours was useful, but Mira was right about the rest of it.

"Then we build around it," he said. "Tell me where the extra work is going. I can help arrange it."

Mira nodded and put one container near the stove. She had kept a little food back to test the oil, and Carlos stayed while she heated the pan.

The fresh smell changed when the vegetables touched it. He felt hungry again even though he had already eaten.

She gave him a small portion and watched his face after he tasted it.

"Better?"

"A lot better. Give Brann some before he hears about it from somebody else and makes a fit."

"Tomorrow. Tonight he has already eaten enough."

Carlos smiled into the bowl and finished it. Mira wrote the oil count into her board, then added the next planting beside it.

The ten protected seeds had done their job. They would not have to keep buying jars in a panic whenever her kitchen ran low.

He went outside with the empty bowl when Kaia approached from the southern path.

Dust covered one side of her boots, and she had a strip of cloth folded around her hand.

"The enclosure is ready," she said. "We cleared the ground and put the stones where Rowan asked. The approach is marked too."

Carlos looked toward the fence. He could see the Militia finishing their work in the fading light.

"Tomorrow, then."

Kaia unfolded the cloth. Inside it was a piece of stone from yesterday’s explosion. One edge had been broken sharply enough that Carlos held it carefully.

"I want to know how far these can fly," she said. "Before I give a tomato to someone standing above the gate."