I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 16 The Causal Relationship between Air-Dried Meat and Sowing

After resting for only a short while, Luc woke up immediately. As soon as he stood up, he felt a tearing pain in his arms, thighs and waist, and he couldn't help but grimace.

It's a muscle strain.

But Luc ignored the pain and pushed the door open. The body of the elk covered with wet thatch was lying there quietly. Little Charlie was sleeping beside the body, as if he was guarding it.

The temperature in Burgundy in September was not as high as before, but it was still hot. If the red deer carcass was left overnight, it might go bad and stink. Luc only slept for a while, and the moonlight was still bright.

Luc pushed aside the thatch, took out the knife and began to cut up the body. It turned out that Luc had slaughtered animals before, but this was his first time to cut up a red deer.

"Benefiting" from the custom in the northwestern Duchy of Normandy that only allowed nobles to hunt, the lords of the County of Auvergne also began to enclose land for hunting.

Luc found some thin canes and inserted the knife into the anus of the red deer.

After slightly widening the opening, Luc pulled out the intestines and tied the tail end tightly with a vine.

Then he turned the sika deer over and cut open its belly along the tail. The venison was firm, so Luc used both his hands and a knife to open the belly. Then he felt his way along the esophagus and tied another vine around the deer's neck.

Cutting the esophagus, Luc picked up the internal organs and pulled them out.
The esophagus and intestines were tied with vines, and no feces or food residues were discharged, leaving only a clean and neat body of a red deer.

After cutting off the heart and liver, Luc picked out some of the other internal organs and threw them to little Charlie, and buried the rest. For example, the large intestine was not inedible, but Luc was too lazy to clean it. Fortunately, he used the method just now to solve the problem once and for all.

After finishing all this, Luc will start skinning.

This deerskin was several times wider than his previous one. The previous one had rotted so much that only enough was left for Luc to use as a blanket. But now with this one, not only could he upgrade the blanket into a quilt, he could also make some into a deerskin coat and deerskin boots. Even so, he could still have a good life.
Luc has improved his tanning skills a lot, and with the deer brain, he is confident that he can make it perfectly.

After completely skinning the deer, all that remains is to cut the meat.

The process was relatively simple. After cutting off the large pieces of meat such as the deer legs, Luc used an axe to cut open the parts with more ribs, preparing to stew them the next morning.

After pulling out the deer tendons and putting them away, and sawing off the antlers, it was already daybreak.
Flies attracted by the smell of blood were flying around everywhere, which was annoying. Luke took out the coarse salt, cut a part of the venison, sprinkled coarse salt on it, and prepared to air-dry it.

Luc didn't have much salt. A few days ago, he went to the salt stone and couldn't find any stones that could be used to refine coarse salt. Luc believed that there must be a salt mine in the mountain, but it was really not something that Luc could accomplish alone.

Luc still has about ten pounds of salt, which is enough to last for a long time. He is willing to set aside some of it to make bacon, but most of the remaining venison will be smoked and air-dried.

Both smoking and pickling take a lot of time. In the next few days, Luc spent the rest of his time processing venison and deerskin, except for occasionally turning the fertilizer and weeding the fields.

Finally, halfway through September, Luc looked at the wooden house in front of him, feeling a sense of accomplishment.

The square fence surrounds an entire piece of land. The sharpened wooden stakes and strong vines all reveal its solidity. A pair of more domineering antlers hang on both sides of the fence gate, as if showing the bravery of the owner of this place.

Walking into the fenced yard, there is a chicken coop on the left side of the fence and a cool wooden shed on the right side - this is a new building built by Luc. Inside the shed, countless dried meats are hung in the air by vines. From time to time, the wind blows, and the dried meats sway slightly.
The gorgeous wildflowers are a delight to the eyes, but this scene is even more thrilling. But what makes us even more excited is that today, it’s finally time to plant seeds!
No matter how much meat there is, grain crops are still the staple food of humans.

God have mercy on me, Luke hasn’t had a single staple meal so far!
Every day is fish and wild fruits.
It looks good, but in fact the nutrition is not balanced. Only when bread is truly made can we truly have no worries about food and clothing.

Luc took the seeds to the carefully cultivated land and started working.

Land is sacred, at all times.

Luc's Baron fought to the death with the enemy, and what he was fighting for was nothing more than more land.

Luc sowed the seeds with a solemn expression, taking every step seriously and solemnly. The dark clouds had dispersed and the sun was shining again.

Luc has become accustomed to the stickiness of sweat. During the sowing process, Luc planted wheat and rye separately. Although the two are similar varieties, they are actually very different.

Of course, it is not the difference in planting, but the difference in eating.

Rye is coarser and is also the food eaten by serfs. Unlike white bread made from wheat, black bread made from rye is often mixed with impurities such as sawdust by serfs. This is a last resort for serfs when food is scarce.

But it was different for the nobility. How could they mix anything else into their soft and fragrant white bread? Even if they did, it should be honey.

Thus, rye and wheat also had classes under the division of people.

Luc didn't have much to say, he just wanted to see the difference in output between the two.

Evenly spread the seeds in the field. Before that, Luc had applied a little fertilizer to the soil, not a large amount. He waited for three or five days until the seeds germinated, and then a few more days before he officially applied fertilizer.

It is not the case that the more fertilizer the better. Everything has a limit, and too much is as bad as too little. Luke used the cart that he used to tow the elk a few days ago to transport fertilizer.

It's not that Luc hadn't thought about making a wheelbarrow or other more labor-saving tools, but the main problem was that he didn't know how to make a round wheel with just an axe and a knife.
Looking at the thriving seedlings, Luc's heart was full of hope, but the next second he pounded his temples in frustration.

I was so stupid. I only thought about building a fence to protect my own safety, but forgot to protect the safety of the fields!
In order to save trouble, Luc even moved the fields outside the fence. Only then did Luc remember that there were a lot of rabbits, pheasants and deer here, and these were all creatures that would eat the grains!
Thinking of this, Luc immediately started a new round of fence work.
It took another half a month for Luc to enclose the fields with a fence that was slightly inferior to the fence of the wooden house. During this period, Luc took little Charlie to scare the surrounding animals during the day, and at night he hung the deer heads and antlers, which had turned into bones, on erected wooden stakes to intimidate the animals.

During this period, birds continued to come. Luc captured and killed a few of them and made scarecrows. In this way, the intrusion from the outside world was basically eliminated.

The rest is internal care.

Farming has never been easy, but for the sake of his own stomach, Luc was not bothered.

(End of this chapter)