She could think of a few pumpkin recipes but four things kept going through her mind, pumpkin pie,porridge, soup and pumpkin spice. She would have to do a live broadcast before locking herself away to go for that mission.
"Lady Scarlet." soone called.
She turned her head and her gaze collided with that of a skinny young man who was seriously blushing. His cheeks were as red as a tomato and he appeared to be very much aware of his shy condition because his fingers were fidgeting with his white overalls. His white outfit ant that he was one of the agriculture experts from the capital.
"Hello there." she said with a teasing smile.
It should have been impossible but his entire face turned even redder as if a fla had been lit up within his skin.
"Oh wow!" she exclaid in shock. "Are you okay?" He was breathing rather rapidly suddenly. The poor man looked like he was about to faint.
"Leave poor Crowley alone, he has a serious case of the shyness." Bell told her. Then, he said to the young man, "Crowley, you don’t work in this departnt. You should return to your station or I will deduct your salary for the month."
Crowley looked at the exit and then at Scarlet, he raised his hand, opened his mouth as if he was about to say sothing and he turned around and run away.
Scarlet laughed and shook her head. What was all that about? she asked herself.
"The boy has the most unnatural crush on you." Oak told her.
She glared at him and asked, "What is unnatural about it? I am a beautiful woman, it’s only natural that a beautiful woman has admirers."
"I didn’t take you for a narcissist." Oak said sarcastically.
"You don’t know well enough." she told him. "Anyway, pumpkins, what can you tell about them?"
Oak and Bell, followed by three other agricultural experts led the way through the large green house. The workers were already separating pumpkins from vines.
"We have cultivated three green houses full of pumpkins. We successfully grew these round ones and the weird ones." Oak told her. He pointed to so of the pumpkins that hanging down on vines.
"Butternut squash." she said.
"Yes, butternut, butternut." Oak said with a sigh. "I keep forgetting what it is because it has the word nut in it and the nuts we have grown are not that big. I need to write it down so that I don’t forget it again."
He fumbled around the pockets on his white overalls looking for sothing to use to take so notes but he ca up empty handed.
"I have already recorded it." Bell told him. "I am recording our conversation just in case we need to reference back to so of your teachings for advice. I hope you don’t mind governor, the recordings are stored in our database for reference and school education. We also preserve so so of the seeds after successful cultivation in case humanity ever experiences such a calamity again. We have been toying around with the idea of building a new seed bank here on the Blue star. We would have to discuss the idea with the royal family of course but I believe that they will give us their full support because this concerns the well being of our future generations."
She nodded and said, "You can record but rember to edit and remove anything unrelated to food."
With her assurances, they continued moving forward.
"We planted the seeds at around the sa ti but so of the pumpkins have remained green. We are using other ans to determine readiness of the pumpkins. I know that you said if it’s yellow it’s ripe but so of the green pumpkins are displaying signs of readiness as well. We have also opened one of each variety and I am pleased to inform you that they all bear seeds inside. We will not have to worry about seeds for re-planting as long as we sell the pumpkin at but retain all the seeds." Oak inford her about his brilliant idea with a grin on his face.
She touched one of the pumpkins and nodded. Then she said, "Actually we don’t have to use all the seeds for replanting because they can also be eaten. They are highly nutritious and can be used for many other things. the shoots, leaves, flowers, skin and the vines can be used to make mulch. Every part of the pumpkin can be used for sothing so we are going to reap big from this harvest. It’s a brilliant idea to sell the pumpkin flesh rather than the entire pumpkin. This will enable us to sell other things like seeds, vines and flesh separately. Great thinking Mr. Oak, I believe that you would have made an excellent business man."
Oak blushed slightly and looked away from her but on his face was a proud look.
She touched a large round orange pumpkin and slapped it three tis. "I will be taking two pumpkins and one butternut squash, I need to do a live broadcast imdiately. Make proper arrangents with the relevant departnts to start slicing and packaging pumpkins for sale. Use the containers which preserve the freshness for a month and they should do different quantities so that we price them differently. Do the sa for the seeds and the leaves and flowers. Also, uhm.....what else is ripe? How is the progress with the pineapples and waterlons, isn’t it about ti for them to ripen as well?"
"We will need an extra week for the pineapples." Bell told her.
"The waterlons will be ripe in three days I believe. But, we planted different varieties and one waterlon exploded yesterday." As Oak explained this, he licked his lips.
I bet he ate it, she thought. He did not seem to be so heartbroken about it’s explosion. She rolled her eyes and thought about the waterlon seeds, two types from different worlds and she had bought a few seeds from another reaper for exploration. If they were delicious, she would purchase more.
"Which variety is that?"
"The pink one with green stripes. It’s also pink on the inside." he answered. "We did not want it to go to waste so a few of us shared it. Anyway, I wanted to ask you if now is the appropriate ti to harvest that type."
Pink waterlon was not new to her, she had eaten it before on earth. It was not pink on the outside like he described perhaps it also tasted different. The good thing with people who had not seen edible food for many generations, nobody would question why a certain food looked a certain way as compared to what they knew.
"Give one of that as well." She commanded. If it was delicious then perhaps you should harvest the rest of that variety just in case others are headed towards explosion." she told him.
"Should we save the seeds as well?" he asked her.
"No." she shook her head and said. "Don’t do that unless you have a way of sucking the seeds out without damaging the flesh of the lon." Those were the cheapest seeds in the underworld.
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