Chapter 28 Grapes
"My lord, I picked some wild fruits for you. Would you like to eat some?" At this moment, the guard who was responsible for shouting along the way came to Gervis with a few bunches of purple fruits and asked Gervis in a flattering manner.
"Huh? What kind of fruit is this?" Gervis was a little dazed looking at the fruit in the guard's hand. He just saw the guard walk behind the bushes next to him and thought he was going to the toilet, so he didn't care. He never thought that he was going to pick fruit.
"My Lord, these are wild fruits on the roadside. We used to pick them and eat them when we were out on patrol. They are sour and sweet and delicious."
Isn't this grapes? Gervis was a little confused. What happened today? First there were oysters, then garlic, and now there are grapes. Did I not travel to another world, but to the ancient times of the West?
But think about it, it's impossible. This world has fighting spirit, magical beasts, and most importantly, strange elf insects.
Gervis took the bunch of grapes from the guard, picked one and put it in his mouth to taste it, and found that it tasted exactly the same as grapes, but a little more sour than the improved varieties on Earth.
"Take me to see what the branches of this fruit look like?" Gervis didn't even bother to taste the grapes. He stood up quickly and said to the guard.
"Yes, sir." Now it was the guard's turn to be a little confused. He was just picking some wild fruits on the roadside and wanted to flatter the lord, but he didn't expect the lord to have such a big reaction.
When Laurie and Audrey saw Gervais stand up, they immediately stood up and followed Gervais to check.
"Sir, this is it." The guard took Gervis to an open space behind the bushes, where five or six wild grapes grew. When he was on Earth, Gervis had only seen grape vines in farmhouses, where they grew neatly along the racks made by farmers.
But now these grape vines were crawling everywhere, climbing trees if there were any, and growing randomly on the ground if there were no trees. Gervis walked closer to identify them carefully, and they were indeed similar to the grape vines he had seen in the farm house, whether it was the leaves, fruits, or rhizomes, they were exactly the same, but these wild grape vines had been growing for who knows how many years, and the rhizome of one of them was almost as thick as an adult's wrist.
"What good stuff!" Gervis was happier to see these grape vines than to see oysters and garlic, because oysters could not be preserved and sold far away, so they had no value and could only fill his appetite. Garlic leaves were similar. Although he might earn some gold coins, they were all one-time deals. There were only a few nobles along the coast, and they would eventually run out of money.
But the grapes in front of him were different. In the past, grapes formed a global industry, that is, wine. As long as Gervis made wine, I believe that gold coins would roll in. Moreover, this thing was a consumable like food. As long as it was promoted, there would be no worries about not being able to sell it.
There is no wine in this world. Whether in Gandalf's Castle or the Rose Castle, Gervase has only seen beer brewed from wheat. He has never seen other kinds of alcohol. The others can be called fruit juice at most. After Gervase tasted it, he found that it had no taste of alcohol at all.
Looking at these grape vines, Gervis wanted to dig these treasures back immediately, but he saw that many grapes on the vines were not ripe yet, so he suppressed his thought. If he dug these grape vines now, the unripe grapes on the vines would rot, and he would have to wait until next year for them to mature. At present, these grapes will all be ripe in ten days or half a month at most.
Besides, these grape vines have been here for who knows how many years and no one cares about them. They won’t run away if we wait for another ten days. And since this variety of grapes exists in this world, there must be more than just a few of them.
The grape vines will not be dug up for the time being, but when I go back later, I will definitely pick some ripe grapes and take them back for testing.
When Ye Feng was a child, he saw his grandmother making wine. It seemed simple. Wash the grapes and dry them. After drying, crush them and put them in a sealed container. Then wait for them to ferment. When they are almost fermented, filter out the grape residue and the grape juice will continue to ferment until it becomes wine. Gervis even remembered that his grandmother said that adding some egg white during the second fermentation can improve the transparency of the wine.
However, this was also because Ye Feng was curious about everything when he was a child, and he always had a million questions. His grandmother explained everything to him, and he himself had never tried it himself.
It doesn't matter if I think about it. As long as I know the steps, I can take some back later and try brewing some according to the steps I remember. If there are any deficiencies, I can improve them slowly. As for the taste of wine, Gervis believes that it will always be better than the beer in this world. At the banquet in Rose Castle, Gervis also tasted the beer in this world. The taste is like the effect of beer on Earth after it is opened and left for a day or two. Not only is it bitter, but there is basically no foam.
…
Laurie and others stood behind Gervis, not understanding what was wrong with Gervis today. When they were traveling the past two days, Gervis was normal, but today, he became strange whenever he saw these plants.
In their opinion, these plants were very common, not to mention the wild fruit, which was at least edible, and perhaps the Baron liked to eat it, which was easier to understand. However, they could not figure out what the "weeds" loaded on the carriage could do, and what could make their own Baron so happy with such a strange smell.
Gervis certainly didn't know what was bothering Laurie and the others. Even if he knew, he wouldn't explain it to them now. Would he tell them that garlic could be made into minced garlic? What was minced garlic then? It was scary just to think about it.
As a lord, Gervis didn't need to explain anything he did to others, so after looking at the grape vines, he didn't say anything else, but returned to the resting place and continued to sit and eat grapes.
After resting, Gervis and his team started on their journey again, heading towards the buffer zone.
…
Binhai Town was extremely lively at the moment. It was different from the scene when Gervis arrived yesterday. There were about four to five hundred people gathered in the town square, at least half of the town's population.
These people gathered in the square. Although they were dressed in rags, they were talking to each other happily. There were three main topics of their conversation.
The first one, of course, was that they had their lord back. This news had actually spread in a small area last night, spread by 18 serfs who went to clean the castle. However, when they came back yesterday, it was already late, so only their neighbors knew about it. It was not until this morning that people were shocked to find that there was something new in the town square, and they spread the news widely while watching.
The second thing was the extra things in the town square. The town square was located on the main road in the center of the town. Although it was just a dirt field without a floor, it was very wide, at least 600 square meters. At this moment, a wooden stake was erected in the center of the square. A man was hanging on the stake. As the summer breeze blew, the junction of the rope and the stake made a creaking sound. The man hanging was Benny's subordinate who was killed by Ike.
As for the third thing, which is also the most talked about thing, just now, Thomas stood at the front of the square, on a high platform made of huge stones, and announced something that made the serfs excited. That is, the lord wants to recruit male and female servants, and the recruitment will be open tomorrow, and anyone who meets the requirements can participate.
The recruitment requirements are not high. The age range of male and female servants must be between 14 and 25 years old, healthy, with regular facial features and no peculiar smell. The only requirement for female servants is that they must be unmarried. As for male servants, if they meet the above requirements, they can come to participate in the selection tomorrow.
"I heard that our lord is very generous. They only cleaned up for an entire afternoon yesterday and received three copper coins."
"Really? Who told you that? How could a noble lord be so generous?"
"Hush, keep your voice down, do you want to be hanged?"
"It's true. A friend of the son of his second uncle next door went to clean the castle yesterday. I heard he actually received three copper coins."
"Yes, I heard that too. It seems that there are still two people left in the castle as servants!"
"How lucky! Why did I have to work in the fields yesterday? If I had stayed in the town, I might have worked as a servant in the castle."
…
"Why was this guard the only one killed by the Lord? The captain of the guard should be killed even more!"
"That's right. That girl was so pitiful. She was abused by them like this! The captain of the guard should be killed!"
"Shh, be careful not to be heard by the guards, or the captain of the guards will come looking for you!"
"Wow, no way, now we have the Lord who can make the decision for us, why should we be afraid of him?"
"Bah, you know these nobles like villains like the captain of the guard the most. Only in this way can they exploit us as much as possible. If the lord really wants to make the decision for us, why don't you kill the captain of the guard as well?"
…
"Xia, I want to be a maid in the castle. Do you think they will choose me tomorrow?"
"I don't think you'll be selected. You have so many freckles on your face."
"Hmph, I won't pay any attention to you. What if the lord likes girls with freckles?"
"I have to go to the mountain village today and tell Dean the news. If he can be chosen to be the male servant in the castle, the situation of my aunt's family will improve."
Everyone in the town was talking about it, whether it was good or bad, but Gervis's arrival did create a huge stir in this territory.
(End of this chapter)
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