Chapter 53 Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice
And just like that, the month of May had finally come to an end.
May was a very fulfilling month to Landon. He had successfully made heavy machines, oil and also rubber...
Finally, he felt like he was going somewhere with his mission..
Today was the first day of June.
Although Santa didn't come personally, he had still sent his Subordinates to bring 4,619 people to Baymard.
Again, there were 254 children between ages 0-14, and 413 people who volunteered to be soldiers. There were also 16 senior citizens amongst the group.
Now, Landon was left with 3,936 able workers.
He then selected 536 people out of the group, and appointed them as cooks.
They were to be added, to all cooking sectors within Baymard. From the school to the industries, army,castle... in short, everywhere within Baymard.
Landon also sent 900 workers to the construction industry, 1500 to the Alchemy/Chemical industry, and another 1000 to the Food industry.
Landon received money for his mineral ores, and also bought more planting seeds.
Landon made 419,000 gold coins from Santa's Subordinates, minus the cost for the slaves and the seeds.
This time Landon was happy with the seeds he got.
There were cocoa beans and sugarcane seeds among the bags... Great... soon he would be able to make chocolate and granulated sugar.
.
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Now, it was time to make spices, seasonings, cooking oil and vinegar.
Out of the 1,000 workers given to the food industry, Landon allocated:
•Department 1 (Working on the farms): 300
•Department 2 (Storage +Distribution): 100
•Department 3 (Spice making): 200
•Department 4 (Cooking oil): 200
•Department 5 (Vinegar): 200
For the 3 new departments, Lyore appointed 3 farmers from department 1 as the supervisors.
Today, Landon had decided to start making various kinds of spices.
Landon had the workers tie their hair with rubber bands and hair wraps. As well as wear gloves, safety shoes, mouth & nose masks, eye goggles and clean aprons.
They started by cutting the peppers, garlics, gingers, onions, turmeric and so on, into tiny pieces.
When they were done, they opened up the kiln and filled all 20 layers, with 13 trays of the all cut pieces in each layer.
A kiln was just a giant industrial oven.
Since there were over 5 Kilns available, Landon asked the workers to continue cutting, until they fill the other kilns.
"Your highness, so one batch would take 2 days to dry on low heat?" Lyore asked while looking at all the papers that Landon had given him.
They showed the detailed procedures for making different spices. As well as how to mix and create the seasonings, vinegar and cooking oil.
"Correct.... You and the workers would have to continue the process, 3 days later... As well as creating different seasonings, vinegar and cooking oil... If you come accross any issues, you can always look for me."
"Rest assured hour highness, it shall be done" Lyore said while nodding his head proudly.
"I trust your capabilities" Landon said with a smile.
Lyore pursed his lips and looked at Landon eagerly.
"Your highness, I just have one question" Lyore said.
Landon was also curious as to what could have brought about the immediate change to his personality.
"Chief Lyore... you can ask me anything... No matter what it is..." Landon said with a reassuring smile.
"Do you know how to build a house made entirely of food?"
Landon was taken aback and didn't know whether to laugh or to cry.
Actually, Lyore was a simple man.
At the age of 7, he had always been dedicated to helping his father out in the farms. He would always dream of building huts made of corn, bread, honey and other delicacies. He even dreamt about using wine as his daily water supply.
He was a farmer... and all he really thought about was how to make food grow and taste better... If he ever built a house of food, he could die happily.
Landon looked at his enlivened overseer and sighed.
Landon could literally see the happiness and rainbows all over him.
Why were all his overseers like this?
He smiled and shook his head... Better like this than greedy
He too couldn't wait to finally season his food.
The food in this era was disgusting to Landon. No spices.. nothing.. except pepper, some vegetable leaves and salt.
Cooking oil was also super expensive, so people usually boiled or roasted food over large fires.. It looked like a witche's concoction.
It was terrible... No ketchup, no mayonnaise, no dressings, no seasonings... what kind of life was this!!
Plus he really missed burgers, fries and a well grilled and seasoned juicy stake... As well as pizza....
Just thinking about it made him salivate.
'What a sad life', he thought.
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Landon sat across mother Kim, Lucy, Grace and Beri's mother Winnie and 6 other teachers.
Since mother Winnie already knew Mathematics like addition and subtraction, she volunteered to teach alongside with mother Kim.
During May, she tagged along Mother Kim and learned how the students were being taught in Baymard.
He had also given her a mathematics textbook and guidelines on how to test and teach the students effectively.
Today, she had her first class. She and Mother Kim both taught Math 2 in separate classes.
The other 6 teachers who came with Mother Winnie in May, also began teaching as well.
The first 2 teachers taught Pyron 1 (language class), the other 2 taught Math 1, while the rest taught Math 2.
Landon wanted to know their feedback from their first day of teaching. So he held a teacher conference meeting to discuss about the possible issues they might have faced today.
"Your highness, the timetable method is truly genius... On my first day, there was already a girl who could say the entire 2 timestable off by heart." One said.
"I agree... I this way, they should learn faster".
The conversations went on and everyone raised their opinions and points... Mother Winnie and the girls also gave their take on the matter.
Once the meeting was over, the 6 teachers left, leaving only Landon, Grace, Lucy, Mother Kim and Mother Winnie in the room.
"Aunty Winnie, did you like your first day?" Landon asked cheekily...
Winnie looked at the little cheeky brat and pinched his nose. In her eyes, Landon was still a baby. (naturally, he's just 15 years old)
"Of course I did silly.... It was so exciting..... and that chalkboard method was great as well... People right at the back of the class could see what I was doing.... teaching is really exhilarating.... There was even this one student who came late, and tried to sneak into the class....you should have seen the look on his face when I caught him.." Winnie replied excitedly.
"Hahaha" everyone laughed.
"Sister, I also faced some of them as well... The students are really funny sometimes." Mother Kim as she started recalling another funny incident in her class.
"Aunty Winnie, come on..tell us in detail what happened"..Lucy said while anxiously waiting for the story.
"Yeah yeah aunty.. tell us..".. Grace added.
Landon smiled as he watched and listened to Winnie's hilarious narration.
As he looked at all the women laughing and sharing their stories, he truly felt blessed. From an orphan to a man with a loving family.. Now he understood what Drake meant.
Started from the Bottom, now we're here.