Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

Not to mention the triangular slave trade and Southern plantations that the Americans engaged in in order to grow sugarcane and spices, and the European colonial system was almost entirely built on the sugar, coffee and spice trade.

Therefore, if his annual sugar production of more than 10,000 tons were to be exposed, he would really have to face a joint attack from all factions in Ursus.

Therefore, this sugar must be disposed of through other channels, and at least it cannot be sold directly in such a straightforward manner.

Fortunately, cloudberries have also entered their ripening period, and cloudberry jam will be the main source of sugar consumption. Cloudberries are a type of berry with a sweet and sour taste similar to yogurt, and high-sugar berries are not uncommon in Ursus. However, berry plants are characterized by slow growth and difficulty in artificial cultivation.

Golden cloudberries, like tiny specks of gold, dotted the green leaves of the bushes. Women and girls wearing gloves lined up in sparse rows, carefully harvesting them on the mountainside, as if pulling a net.

The standard for ripe cloudberries is that the skin softens and the juice is plentiful. If the skin is still hard, it means that the fruit is not fully ripe. In medieval Northern Europe, picking cloudberries was one of the main tribal activities of Viking girls, who stored them for use as medicine and food reserves.

Fully ripe cloudberries are very plump and juicy, with thin and soft skin, so they are said to break easily. They must be picked very gently and placed in a basket, with each layer not piled up in large quantities to avoid crushing and breaking.

Considering that the cloudberries Xia Lin grows are for jam rather than for refrigerating fruit, there's no need to strictly adhere to the Star Alliance's harvesting standards. Even if there are minor cracks, it doesn't matter, as long as a large number of cloudberries aren't crushed.

Xia Lin's cloudberry jam is made to an extreme degree, with sugar added to the point of being almost cloyingly sweet. Of course, it might be very popular in the Ursus winter.

This cloyingly sweet jam with a slightly sour and milky flavor spread on rye bread can greatly improve its rough texture and bland taste. In the winter in Ursus, sugar is the lifeline, sugar is life!

Cloudberry jam is very easy to make and can be made at home. Because cloudberries have very fragile skins that are easy to break and contain natural antibiotics that can prevent the jam from spoiling, it is generally not necessary to use a blender to crush them.

After washing the cloudberries picked by the girls, they poured them directly into a small pot and added 250 grams of sugar for each batch of about 300-500 grams. In fact, even proper cloudberry jam requires about half a bag of sugar.

Next, add a small amount of water and start simmering until it turns a light golden color...

Ugh, it's a slightly disgusting, sticky, and grainy sauce-like substance. To thicken it, you can add a little edible gelatin sheets, and you'll end up with a big jar of cloudberry jam.

Cloudberry jam isn't pretty at all, and after cooking it, it tastes like... the excrement of someone with diarrhea...

Half of these cloudberry jams are packaged and sold, and can be eaten as a topping for waffles or muffins, or as a bread accompaniment.

Cloudberries are one of the high-sugar berries used to make top-quality ice cream and desserts, and Xia Lin's cloudberries are even more luxurious, with an even more outstanding flavor and a rich, creamy aroma.

Using cloudberry jam solely for making Crazy Sugar was a last resort. Of course, Xia Lin still had Yelena take Talulah and the others to pick cloudberries by hand, partly to practice their berry-harvesting skills.

Because he plans to plant more berries, such as cranberries and blueberries.

Forget about strawberries; they're too delicate. In the wilds of Ursus, a cold snap would likely kill them all. It's better to grow these hardy and resilient crops.

Another purpose is to produce a small batch of high-quality cloudberry jam and cloudberry ice cream for internal consumption as luxury goods. He is not farming here to help the locals get out of poverty; that is just a side effect. His main purpose is to restore his own level of enjoyment as much as possible.

It's perfectly normal to withhold a batch of cloudberries with the best flavor, sweetness, and aroma for personal enjoyment as a special supply, and no one has complained—

The entire farm belongs to him; breeding, seedling cultivation, and fertilizer are all his. As a farm owner, it's perfectly normal for him to keep the best quality crops for himself.

Furthermore, if Lao Xia were to turn these cloudberries into commodities and provide them with goods, the others would be flattered and feel that this had gone beyond the bounds of goodwill and that there was some ulterior motive.

"Old Xia! Look what I picked!" The white rabbit hopped over, carrying a wicker basket full of cloudberries. Talulah, standing nearby, blushed and held a jar. Why a jar? Because most of the berries were broken, and Alina had found her a jar to put them in.

"Look, I always pick the biggest ones with the prettiest colors..."

"Hmm, not bad." These are all fully ripe cloudberries, and they are right at the end of their short ripening period, which is the best time to enjoy them. They are the best material to make cakes, desserts and ice cream.

“Talulah, well… never mind, you should go help everyone with paving the floor. This delicate work isn’t suitable for you.” Old Xia hesitated for a moment, but didn’t directly tell her, “You shouldn’t waste my precious cloudberries.”

Soil preparation refers to the process of breaking up and turning over soil that has become severely compacted and sandy after planting sugar beets, and which has suffered heavy loss of organic matter, and mixing it with Xia Lin's synthetic soil humus to create new soil.

Expecting crops to absorb fertilizer without secreting humic acid to promote humic mineralization and release nutrients is wishful thinking.

After all, long before humans learned to use chemical and organic fertilizers, various crops, including sugar beets, were already being cultivated on a large scale, directly leading to phenomena such as soil degradation in the Guanzhong Plain region of China.

If plants truly never plunder soil organic matter, then agricultural development would be incredibly smooth and stress-free.

If that's the case, then perhaps only God providing fertilizer can explain where the protein raw materials needed for plant growth come from.

The second crop was wheat. Unfortunately, the original plan was soybeans, but all the soybean seedlings were killed by a catastrophic ice storm. After all, temperatures below -100 degrees Celsius are a burden that plants cannot withstand.

The new soybeans are still in the breeding stage, so it's unlikely that a sufficient quantity will be planted in the short term.

The number of wheat seeds is sufficient after two rounds of breeding, and there are also enough rice seeds to sow next spring.

The wheat, modified to cope with the harsh alien environment, has a low yield, approximately 650 kilograms per mu (a Chinese unit of area, approximately 0.165 acres).

However, the advantage is that it can still be planted normally even in the bizarre frozen soil and low temperatures of Ursus, and it can guarantee a high growth rate.

However, Xia Lin's rice is the other extreme. It has harsh conditions and can only be planted in the hottest spring and summer in Ursus. It is then harvested quickly. Its advantage is that the yield is extremely high, making it an extreme type of rice that pursues high yields.

Fast-growing wheat was planted by fertilizing the soil, sowing seeds, and closing the canopy in the shortest possible time and at the fastest speed, using an extremely rough and crude method to complete the rush planting.

After all, it was designed for emergency planting under such extensive conditions.

Cloudberry cake, cloudberry ice cream, and cloudberry jam jars were placed on the table under the white rabbit's expectant gaze. The cake and ice cream were prizes for her help, while the jam jars were for tasting.

The cake, about 6 inches in size, covered with a layer of golden cloudberry sauce, was cut into eight pieces with a cake knife. Each person who tried it received one piece, while the ice cream was kept in the refrigerator to be eaten when they finished work and wanted to cool off.

"Mmm, delicious—" Amiya was too young to give a coherent evaluation, but that didn't stop her from thinking it was the best thing she had ever eaten.

The sweet and sour cloudberry jam paired with a cake made with milk, honey, eggs, and fermented with barley flowers was a luxury only an emperor could afford. In fact, it was certain that the Emperor of Ursus would get to eat it, but whether he would be willing to do so was another matter entirely.

“This thing can’t be sold, so we can’t set a price…” Kal’tsit said, spoon in her mouth. “If we were talking about the standard Ursus desserts, this would be a royal wedding special, and the Treasury would be chasing after it and yelling at us.”

“That’s right, let me correct you on one point, Lord. There won’t be such luxuries at His Majesty’s wedding banquet. The Empire’s finances are not… ideal.” Patriot shook his head in a muffled voice.

"This? This isn't for sale. It's for Yelena, just for everyone to try," Xia Lin scratched his head. "I'm not planning on opening a pastry factory, and it's inconvenient to transport the pastries..."

"Yes, yes, yes!" The white rabbit hugged a big piece of cake, her face covered in jam.

"Jam—" Patriot tasted a little. "It's very sweet, it should sell well." Sweets always sell well when productivity is low, especially in winter.

"So what price would be best?"

“5000 LMD. Any less and people will be suspicious.” Kal’tsit and Talulah agreed that 5,000 LMD per can was a reasonable price, or more accurately, a “reasonably low price”, rather than something that would make people suspect where your candy and fruit came from, or whether you stole them without spending any money.

"I understand." Xia Lin nodded. He still owed Rhodes Island a large sum of money for purchasing services, so selling the goods would help him recoup his losses. However, the problem was how to ship the goods south to make money.

“I can handle part of the transportation issue. It’s… hard currency, so you don’t really need to worry about it so much.”

Kal'tsit said she could solve part of the problem. The troops in General Hrag's territory were often short of pay because they were too disciplined, so having them take on the transportation work shouldn't be a problem.

Given that farms were simply not capable of organizing large-scale transportation, relying on partners and having the nobility profit from it was inevitable. Since this was bound to happen, it was crucial to decide which noble to profit from.

Clearly, both Patriot and Kal'tsit believed that Hrag could be trusted, after all, some of Patriot's supplies had previously come from his territory, but the general chose to turn a blind eye.

Soon after the brutal rush to plant fast-growing wheat, Amiya Logistics, a subsidiary of Reunion Movement, transported tons of cloudberry jam and boxes of sugary cookies made from tsampa flour to a hidden camp on the edge of the blockade.

Even with Kel'Thuzad's backing, local officers forcefully took control of a significant portion of the transport routes and demanded a 20% cut.

If tons of high-sugar jam, such a luxury item, were to pass through, without Hrag's protection, he would have had the audacity to confiscate it all.

"Lord, you're causing me trouble again." Hrag, who had just returned to the garrison, met Kal'tsit, who had arrived with the convoy, looking exhausted. "Using the army's transport convoy to help you move things... you're making things difficult for me. I can only help you once at most; it's not possible in the long run."

"Don't be so sure, General. This isn't something troublesome. Even if someone reports it to His Majesty the Emperor, I think he'll understand..."

"What is it? Pure Originium? Weapons you got from the mine raid? Or truckloads of infected? Or perhaps Crimson Gold?" Hrag didn't actually look at what it was, because he wouldn't have bothered with such "help" in the past.

If he knew, not reporting it to the empire would be disloyal, while reporting it would be betraying his colleagues, so he was happy to keep quiet.

"It's food..."

"Food? Are you crazy?" The Ursus snowfields are desperately short of food. Winter is just around the corner, and that will be the most terrifying time for Ursus. Food is life at that time, so who would want to transport food out at this time?

“These are luxury foods. We need to turn them into money, and then into regular food and seeds. General, we're not trying to cause trouble or sabotage…”

"Yes, if you are that kind of people, even for your sake, Lord, I will not help you in any way."

"what exactly is it?"

"Jam and biscuits, I promise you a 20% cut as long as they're shipped to the border of Victoria. Compared to that, your soldiers must be having a tough time in the winter."

"You've convinced me." Hrag was actually very curious as to why they would do such a thing, and he also wanted to refuse, because using the army's transport convoy to transport supplies to the nominal enemy was too outrageous.

However, he did need money and food, and his men did too, so he was forced to choose his men over personal honor.

"Five thousand Lungmen Dollars? Are you guys crazy, or am I crazy?!" Kroos, who was on the Victoria border and entering Ursus along the Casimir Corridor, was shocked.

Kal'tsit instructed her to leave behind some skilled logistics personnel to begin selling a batch of supplies under the name of the White Rabbit Confectionery Company.

This is normal. They had just sold a batch of honey in Longmen through Xiaolu Bee Industry. If the tonnage hadn't been insufficient, it would have almost driven two bee farms in Longmen out of business.

While it's unclear why there are so many subsidiaries under the Rhodes Island brand, and Rhodes Island itself has reached a series of complex business agreements with a strange agricultural products group, selling things shouldn't be too difficult.

Especially when it's time to stock up on food for winter, there's absolutely no worry about selling food. Terra's industrial products may have sufficient output and productivity, but agricultural products are definitely the weakest link. Mobile cities are fundamentally unsuitable for agricultural production—just like European nomadic agriculture.

Without fertilizers and improved seeds, even a harvest of five times the yield from one planted crop would be considered a bumper harvest. Under such circumstances, it would be strange to expect Terra to have no food shortages.

From Talulah's recollections, it's clear that the Ursus Inspectors used both soft and hard tactics to extort even a small amount of sedge from farmers, and their blackmail over sedge and raspberries showed that even low-ranking officials like the Inspectors in Ursus were short of food.

Either the price of wheat was high, so extorting wheat was a significant source of income, or it was extorted to eat—either way, it indicates that grain was scarce and the price was high.

"There's nothing we can do; this is the price set by higher-ups. We're just deliverymen..."

The Reunion Movement escorts in front of them claimed they knew nothing; they were simply people who brought military supply ships with containers to a temporary logistics hub on the border, where goods were piled up for sale in Victoria's mobile city warehouses by the Kroos organization's Rhodes Island transport teams.

"The price cannot be reduced by even a penny."

"No... I mean, does five thousand Lungmen Dollars mean one jar or a little bit?" Kroos looked at the "kilogram" biscuit tin and jam jar in front of her.

A kilogram of ordinary biscuits at 5,000 LMT might be considered a luxury item. Of course, considering that their biscuits contain honey, eggs, and a lot of sugar, 5,000 LMT is just a reasonable and economical price. Victorian nobles wouldn't mind having a serving with black tea during afternoon tea.

But this jam of yours, especially cloudberry jam, contains a lot of sugar. It costs 5,000 Lungmen dollars per jar, and it's sold in kilograms. Are you planning to bankrupt all the jam factories in Victoria?

"Five thousand per can, that's what they said. We have a large supply here. More transport teams will be coming to pick up supplies later." Of course, these are military transport ships heading to Ursus.

As for where these goods came from, no one will ask. The warlords of Ursus won't ask. If they did, everyone would have something to hide.

The nobles of Victoria wouldn't ask, and apart from a few knights, no one in Kazimierz cared. Everyone understood the unspoken agreement, just like Amiya Logistics was still supplying small batches of Originium and sugar to Lungmen.

No one would reveal this money-making channel, and without control of all the channels, it's impossible to estimate how much sugar there is. To control all the channel information, one would have to blast all the nobles into a frenzy, something even Black Serpent couldn't do.

The downside is that the losses are excessive. The losses on the Hrag side are relatively good, with the losses at 40%-45% including the checkpoints on the blockade line. However, the losses on the Black Serpent side are as high as 55% or even 75%. One ton of sugar goes out, and only 250 kilograms are left by the time it reaches Lungmen. Along the way, Ursus nobles, officers, and checkpoints all get their hands covered in oil, and everyone knows it.

Even with such high losses, the result of 14,000 tons of sugar being processed into sugar products and then flooding the market was that the stock prices of sugar companies on the food section of the Longmen Stock Exchange plummeted.

Meanwhile, Victoria's jam and sugar factories were also hit by the biting cold snap from the north. However, the various bakeries and bakers' unions, with their superior social standing and influence, firmly suppressed all dissenting opinions.

Notification and rant

I've moved the science popularization content to the new volume: Science Popularization, so you don't have to worry about seeing science popularization content while reading the main content.

Also, I've banned that dog-head-something who's selectively blind.

After all, my response to his question about organic matter in the post was:

The answer is: Absorb them all.

Then came the criticism of himself for mindlessly copying and pasting without reading the information: "In your own information, which plant doesn't absorb P, K, and N?"