I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 101: Thorn Tree

The whole winter is short and long.

After several inspections of the livestock in the livestock areas and the safety of the grain in the fields, and after regular military training, spring finally arrived.

The ice water of the Agate River slowly melted, and the branches sprouted.

The whole forest gradually woke up.

The people who had been living in cramped quarters for more than two months in winter were once again scattered around the corners of the manor.

Looking at Luc who was directing the men to till the land in the northern part of the forest, Old Eike came over with a slightly puzzled expression: "Sir, didn't you say you wanted to plant apple trees?"

After a winter, old Eike is more energetic than last year. It seems that this tenacious old man is bursting with vitality again.

"It's an apple tree, what's wrong?"

Hearing Luc's nonchalant reply, his wrinkles knitted together, and he asked in confusion: "Sir, why don't you use apple seeds, but instead plant these wild fruits?"

The orchard in the north is not very large, only about half an acre.

Everyone broke through the frozen soil, and Luc bent down to fiddle with the pots of plants with young seedlings. The reddish-brown roots and oval green leaves complemented each other, and it looked like they were growing well.

Old Ek was not mistaken. The sapling in front of him, which had been cultivated for more than two months, was not an apple tree at all.

Instead, it was the sapling of a red fruit tree that Luc obtained from the mouths of a herd of red deer when he first arrived!

Luc poured some water into the tub as usual, then straightened up and didn't reply immediately. Instead, he answered the question irrelevantly:

"Old Eike, how do you like apples?"

"not bad"

Old Eike's eyes were lost in memories. "It's sour, but a little bit sweet."

"Hmm," Luc narrowed his eyes, "and what about cider? How about sweet?"

He didn't keep his cider to himself, but gave some to Ryan and Old Eike at Christmas.

He smacked his cracked lips. "Certainly, the cider isn't very sweet."

"My Lord, why do you ask this?"

The original wild apples were not sweet enough, so the cider made from them was naturally less sweet, but this seemed normal to old Eck. He had drunk cider from the Duchy of Brittany when he was young, and it tasted basically the same.

“So, that’s why I want to plant thorn bushes.”

Luc's eyes narrowed slightly, and he smiled at Old Eike and said, "Because I can make apples and cider sweeter, do you believe it?"

The tree that bears red fruits is the jujube tree that Luckou is growing on. They were inevitably present among the wild fruits picked last year. In addition to most of the fruits that were dried, some of the seeds left after being eaten on the spot were carefully collected by Luc, who peeled off the shells, soaked them in water for two days to dry them, and then stored them in the cellar.

This is not a special case for the hawthorn species. All the mountain products he picked were collected one by one by him, and they can all be grown as food in the future.

Another thing Luc often did in winter was to observe whether various seeds were damaged. After discovering that the hawthorn seeds were not only well preserved but had even begun to germinate, he took them out, soaked them in warm water to activate them, and then planted them indoors.

These pots of thriving ash seedlings are the basis for Luc's improvement of apple trees.

Hearing that Luc had a way to sweeten apples, Old Eck's eyes widened. Sweetness had always been a luxury, even for Luc, who had never had a truly sweetened glass of water. But Old Eck was only slightly surprised. Ever since he was taught Arabic numerals, his views had converged with Ryan's. Aside from a sigh of gratitude, he wasn't overly shocked.

Perhaps he didn't realize that this gradual unconditional trust in Luc was actually very terrifying.
"Of course you said that, so of course I believe it."

After saying this, Old Eike didn't ask Luc how he did it, but turned around and devoted himself to the land reclamation.

Letting old Eike go away, he lowered his head to check the hawthorn seedlings. Seeing that there was no big problem, he waved his hand and asked Miller to move back to the house. It was still cold in early spring. Seeing Miller who did not go to the lookout tower, Luke pulled his deerskin coat tighter. The technology to make apples sweet is nothing else but - grafting!
Since he had the idea of ​​planting apple trees, Luc looked for various trees in the mountains and finally confirmed that the hawthorn tree was the best grafting rootstock.

Only with it can you successfully graft and grow high-quality new apples in a few years!

Yes, it will take a few years.

An orchard cannot be built overnight, but thinking that there might be sweeter cider in a few years, Luc is willing to wait.

"The fruit fields can be tilled in a day, but the thorn bushes need to be transplanted in March. Ryan, while you can, tear down the shack and build your house first."

"Okay sir!"

Ryan is a lucky guy. He never has to eat badly throughout the year. Basically, he eats whatever Luc eats. He is already seventeen years old, but he has grown a lot taller. If he continues like this, he will probably grow taller by the time he is in his twenties. In the end, he might be only slightly shorter than Hans.

Dismantling the shacks was as easy as building them. It didn't even take the next day. Hans was called over, and the two of them spent the afternoon turning the shacks into rows of wooden stakes and straw, neatly stacked on one side, which would be used later.

Luc looked at the wooden house. Du Si would arrive at Cooper Castle in June. It was already mid-February. Excluding the spring harvest in May, there were still about two and a half months left for the expansion.

Two and a half months is not a long time. If we speed up and catch up, it will not be difficult to build a three-story wooden fort.

But it would take no time to add Ryan's house. However, once the expansion was completed, Luc naturally could no longer live in the wooden house. After much thought, he decided to build a temporary residence for himself and Ryan first, and then convert the temporary residence into Ryan's house in the future.

The black donkey that had been raised for a winter was paired with a curved plow that could control the depth. The reclamation of half an acre was simply a warm-up for everyone.

The winter spent in the mountains was the best and most filling time for everyone except Luc. At dawn the next day, Ryan led the energetic group to start digging the foundation.

Ryan's house is only one story high, and its area is equivalent to the area of ​​Luc's house minus Ryan's bed. The construction style is consistent with that of the wooden house. According to Luc's idea, it will also adopt a half-timber structure, but that is a matter for the future. For now, they just compact the foundation, build a house large enough to accommodate a fireplace and two beds, and then simply cover a flat roof.

With more than ten people working together, the construction speed was amazing. From digging the pit to cutting wood to building the fireplace, it was all completed by the end of February.

In order to reward everyone, Luke specially grabbed a boar that had been raised for almost half a year from the pigsty and slaughtered it in public.

Luc made a mistake in his calculations. Because people stayed in the house during the winter and did not do any physical labor, the food was consumed much slower than he had imagined. The flour, vegetables and the meat from a slaughtered ram were enough to last them two months.

This is the first time to slaughter a pig so far.

There is also one male and three females.

The screaming pig was stabbed to death and bled amid everyone's cheers. The pig's heart was left, and the rest of the pork offal was divided up as usual. As the days gradually warmed up, everyone held a bowl of pig offal and devoured it with relish.

The next morning, in early March, two teams were divided into groups to take turns going to the forest to search for early-ripening vegetables and fruits, and two teams took turns going to the fields to fertilize, weed, repel insects, and irrigate.

Thanks to the heavy snow, there are few pests in the fields this year and they are not too busy.

All the remaining people officially started building the wooden fort.

(End of this chapter)