CH 151

「It has become quite cool recently」

Saying such, my gaze nailed down at my feet.

A bristly lump was rolling near my feet. Right, it’s a chestnut.

During one of my strolls, I discovered a chestnut tree and waited for the favorable time for harvest.

Therefore, the time to pick the chestnuts has finally arrived.

「The chestnut inside, like this… with your feet…」

Of course, you can’t pick chestnuts in a lady-like dress and delicate boots, so I’m wearing a men’s shirt, trousers, and boots. I pry open the hard lumps with the splintered part of my boots, and take out the chestnut inside with leather gloves. It might look like bad manners when seen from the sidelines, but it’s chestnut picking so it can’t be helped. Yeah.

「Cristea, like this?」

「Yup, yup. You are doing well, Mashiro」

… Mashiro who turned into his human form is helping me out, but doesn’t his feet hurt? He’s wearing boots, but he’s a bit physical… what a mystery~

「… It’s a minute, troublesome work, isn’t it?」

Said Kurogane who was skillfully working while grumbling.

Although he’s saying that, he takes care of people and he’s quite dextrous, his specs are fundamentally high, aren’t they… it’s a bit regrettable.

「Even more troublesome work is waiting for us after this, so you mustn’t raise the bar this high, okay?」

「Troublesome work?」

Yes, after picking the chestnuts, the penance that is the peeling off the skins awaits us.

In my past life, I had to endure the pain in my arms from the peeling every single year…

In a certain year, I was introduced to a convenient tool that made the peeling so simple I ended up thinking what the hardships I endured until that time were for…

I don’t have that tool now, so I can only earnestly peel. Painful.

But, I intend to have the chefs help me with the hard shell peeling this time, so I’m feeling good. I have to make sure that these young lady hands won’t have to peel the chestnut skins for the eternity…

Since we have picked enough to form a small mountain, avoiding the hallow chestnuts, I cleaned them with water and removed the worm-eaten ones. After that, I lightly boiled them for easier skin peeling. If you aren’t planning on using them for a while, you have to put them in a freezing compartment to avoid insects, so be careful… as for me, just lightly freezing and storing them in the inventory is enough.

To eat chestnuts deliciously, the spade work is the most important.

The chestnuts the chefs have managed to peel off with my encouragement are going to be made into chestnuts meals or candied chestnuts.

I plan to use these candied chestnuts to make Kuri Kinton sometimes soon.

「Ojou’s chestnut peeling looks rough. Should I do it?」

Shin reached out his hand as if trying to say can’t be helped, I will help you. No, no, this is different.

「This will be used as it is, so it’s fine」

「Eh? But it won’t be good like this, you know?」

Fu, fu, fu. This will become delicious.

I put chestnuts with their inner, astringent skin in a pot, boil them with a plenty of water, skim the scum that forms at the top and wait until the water gets dark. Replace the water in the pot with a new, fresh water and boil it again, skim the scum and then lightly scrape off the extra skin. I repeat the process until the water becomes nicely reddish-brown, then I mix it with sugar, water, and red wine and boil it for the last time.

The process would be much easier if I had baking soda…

I would like to use rum or brandy if I had some… red wine when you don’t have either. You don’t have to use alcohol if you are bad with it. Hmm, as I thought, I would like brandy after all… would it be better to ask the dwarf Galvano Ojisama about alcohol?

In the meantime, the red wine Shibukawa-ni have been completed.

I just can’t get enough of the Shibukawa-ni’s sticky flavor… they can be stored for a long time, but not happening, not happening. I have a confidence to eat them all in no time, so…

That being the case, I intended to make a lots.

But it was delicious. Way better than candied.

The chefs have eaten nearly everything in close to a half-minute.

「Aaah… my snacks have…」

I stored the rest in my inventory with teary eyes.

Everyone, you have already eaten plenty, so you mustn’t look at me with such expressions of greed!

After I informed the chefs that other liquors than red wine can be used to make this, I was able to see the off duty chefs picking chestnuts the next day.

Awawa… I have to get some chestnuts for myself…!

Of course, I don’t forget to have everyone pay me back the amount they ate during the sampling. When I declared that I will make Shibukawa-ni sweets to the person with the tastiest Shibukawa-ni, various flavors of Shibukawa-ni showed up in no time, and I have immediately become a〈Shibukawa-ni millionaire〉. Fufufu…

And as for the results of the Shibukawa-ni ranking, our chefs made delicacies that were difficult to say which were better. In the end, I decided to treat everyone to the sweets.