Chapter 9 - Fooood

They were exhausted. For them walking for one hour one way then the other way and then in between...As soon they came near the stream they took their shoes of, rolled pants up and put the feet in water to cool them down.

After Kendra cooled down a bit she took out vegetables for wash and went home with grains, flour, and fat. Then she took the basket to put washed vegetables in and some clean clothes and cloth to dry.

She is planning to wash as she felt all sticky. She saw that Isaa was waiting for her. First, they put the basket in water and vegetables in the basket in corner of the stream. Then she and Isaa took of their dirty and sweaty clothes and plunged themselves into the smaller hole of the stream.

It is summer and stream is not strong so the two children played in water without worries. But soon they felt a bit hungry. They washed their clothes and vegetables quickly and went back home.

Kendra put the clothes on a stick near the house as they didn't have much to dry and taught what to eat today. She chooses to make pancakes as they had now fast. She would prefer olive oil but it was almost 5 times as expensive as the common fat.

The funny thing people here do not have fork ..everyone is using a spoon for everything and the knife is just to cut...She slowly carved a few forks to eat, but the funny things she liked Asian food. She didn't know how to cook it but liked the taste. She looked at some videos and gave up...But as she carved forks she made a pair of long chopsticks for cooking food. And something like a ladle.

She can use here only what she could find. So she cooked only food from local produce for now. If there is harbor there must be more things. She was determined to see what they had and how big harbor is. But now she scrambled eggs, put a bit of salt and water inside and put some maslin flour.

As it seems there are many different kinds of flour. The most expensive is wheat, the muslin, rye, and barley. Maslin is a crossbreed between wheat and barley as she got explained. The wheat is sold only to the nobles. So she got maslin from the first day. With it, she will later make bread. Or try at least.

She put some fat in the metal pot and buy medium fire started making smaller pancakes. The smell was so amazing that Isaa's stomach started grumbling. They started laughing and then Kendra's stomach started grumbling as well.

The pancakes were done fast. She flipped them with chopsticks. Soon she was done and had a full plate of these. The metal pot was still hot and had still some fat on it so she put a few more eggs and scrambled it. She put some dry seasonings in it and some salt.

The smell of food was so appetizing that they ate so much that their stomach bulged. She was afraid that Isaa would get indigestion so she stopped her and let her go with pot and two plates to wash.

She turned around and checked the fish. She saw some of the fishes already completely dry and put them into one of the pots she prepared.

She put a layer of salt layer of fish. And closed it. She hoped that it will not turn bad if it's pickled like this. When they made her house she asked them to make the deep hole on the shadow side of the house and put the draining sticks out so there wouldn't be any water acc.u.mulating in it, in case of rain. It's simple but inside its cool enough. She put the pot inside and closed it.

Then she saw Isaa coming. They put on the stone the dishes to dry on Sun and they went to the stream again. She planned to change the spot for the traps. She took two traps and Isaa got one. They got dry in between time as it was summer, so they were not that heavy.

They walked for 10 min and saw a few holes in the stream. They slowly put in each hole one of the traps and left toward the forest. Isaa had now the shoes that protected her feet so she hopped happily. The birds in background sang, a little bit of wind made day bit cooler and they just felt happy.

As they walked Kendra looked at the floor with care. She was afraid more of snakes but Isaa didn't know that as she taught it was some kind of new game.

They looked around and they found some wild chives. She could see as well few mushrooms but she will gather them after rain. Then there will be more. She went to her animal traps and saw peasant in one. She let it go in fear of punishment. Usually, those are birds that those nobles and with money ate. She better just let it go.

She went to another place and found two more rabbits. This time she chooses to leave it at home. She will make a cage for them and let them for Isaa to play with and let them grow bigger as they were tiny. Kendra gave one of the rabbits to Isaa as she took the other and they left for home.

As she turned around she saw red on the floor. She gave carefully the little rabbit to Isaa and went down to see and was stunned. Wild strawberries? Wait then it's not summer yet? When is the season of strawberries? There are many kinds and there is one that ripe through the summer.

They finally found something they can use.

She looked around to remember the place. They went fast home and took their baskets, Kendra took a big one and Isaa small one. They can eat some, dry some or make delicious jam.

When they came back the sun shone onto the strawberries and they could now clearly see them on the meadow. They slowly started collecting them. A little bit in basket little bit in a mouth. The sweetness of these was amazing. They were neither small or big. But they are children for them these are just fine.

They gathered the strawberries for an afternoon and when they saw that they gathered full baskets they went back home.

Kendra had planned to make some jam as it would last them longer. Unfortunately, she didn't find the sugar, so they will cook it as it is. On the way home, they continued to eat these. So addictive.

When they came home it was already late. They didn't feel any hunger as they ate too much. If they feel hungry they will eat some pancakes from lunch.

Kendra looked at the sheer amount of it and choose to dry on sun some to have some snack later on.

She washed the strawberries and then put the big earthen pot on the fire. She filled pot 3/4 and let it simmer slowly. Then she took 3 small earthen pots and let them heat up next to the fire.

It was already evening when she finished the jam. She took the ladle and with the ladle, she slowly put the jam into preheated pots and closed it lids. Then she took some clay that she found near a stream and tucked it around the lid so no air comes in. She hoped that this jam will survive that way.

She put dry hay on it to slowly cool down and went to the pot. She chooses to use the pancake to clean the pot. Why wasting it. Isaa was delighted. And the jam had sweet sour not.Perfect.Then she washed it as it will get a crust that is hard to wash out if she leaves it like that.

She looked at leftover strawberries. Not many left so she chooses to leave them for drying. They could as well gather more and make some for sale. She had to wait tomorrow anyway so he could just go gather fishes first then go with Isaa gather strawberries while is cool and make more jam...She needs more pots.

Sigh. She can as well wait a bit. In three days will be market so she will go sell some fish and will take one jam. Who knows. Maybe one more thing that could be profitable. She still was worried about the child's body. She was worried when the soul comes back that the child won't have food and money to survive.

She needs to find a home for these two children and she can do that if she has something to show.

Let's hope we meet some kind people that would adopt both of them. She is strong now and Isaa is cute. It is possible. Right?

But till that happens, she needs to survive and live good enough. She will need to survive.

She needs strength to grow up. Kendra taught deep about growing up problems. Maybe at the next market, she could buy some dairy products. She saw some last time but she didn't have space to buy it.

After all, she is a small child so she has a small basket. And Isaa's was even smaller. So, for now, she knew what she needs. Some grain and brown flour, she needs greens(are there any cuc.u.mbers?) cabbage and garlic. She will buy just a bit as she wants some milk or cheese. And she needs to take the tea set and bowls as well. So much to do...

They washed up and went to sleep. But this time Kendra had a strange dream...