As the small group of five wandered the forest, they took careful note of their surroundings. Any food sources they could find would be seen as a treasure to Iris and would easily gain the young beastmen praise.
Many oak trees could be found together in some places while others would be found alone. While the forest was home to many types of trees and plants, this forest was still home to numerous oak trees. The far bigger problem was that the wild beasts had already gotten to many of the acorns that fell from the trees.
Thus, it was a very slow process as the group crouched around each new oak tree, sorting the acorns. A small pile of broken acorn leftovers would be left at the base of the oak trees while any usable ones were stored in an animal skin tied with another strip of animal skin.
After a few rounds of gathering acorns, they came across a dense, short field full of watercress. While the watercress would not last very long, it would still be a waste not to take advantage of the opportunity to gather some. As such, the group stopped and slowly gathered up the tiny leafy greens.
While Iris was busy working on neatly organizing the watercress into a new animal skin, Quentin came over holding a bunch of plants. Iris smiled up at him gratefully as she accepted them. She was preparing to sort them, as some of the plants picked by the beast men were not actually watercress. It was important to sort out those that did not belong. Suddenly, Iris gasped in excitement.
"What? What is it?"
Caspian immediately went into high alert and the other three beast men got into defensive positions around them.
"Quick Quentin, show me where you plucked your watercress from!"
Quentin was filled with confusion but quickly led Iris over to one edge of the field of watercress. Looking around, Iris quickly found what she was looking for. She walked over and crouched down beside a green plant with dark violet flowers growing from their tops. The leaves were a bit different from the watercress as this plant had a pointed edge and grew taller than the rounded short watercress plant.
"This is a potato plant! Quick, someone. Dig up what's underneath this plant!"
Quentin, who was closest to Iris, quickly scrambled to dig up the one she was pointing at while the other two searched for a similar-looking plant to try digging up. Once the mother tuber was dug up, several other connected tubers followed suit.
Henry came back over with a similar plant while Daniel returned with a weed. Iris praised Henry for finding a similar plant so quickly, then explained to the others in more detail what they were looking for.
As there was still plenty of watercress to harvest, Iris let Quentin and Henry look for more potato plants while the rest harvested watercress for the time being. Iris sat beside Caspian and quickly pulled out a new animal skin to use for carrying the potatoes.
By this point, Caspian had seen Iris cook and describe many dishes. With a new plant on the menu, he felt his curiosity bubble up and decided to ask Iris about it.
"So what are potatoes used for? Which parts are edible?"
Iris was happy to have such a curious and handsome husband to impart her knowledge to.
"These tubers here are the part of the potato plant that is generally eaten. This larger tuber here directly under the plant is the mother tuber while these other ones branch off of it. These are the ones you want to harvest for eating. Surprisingly, as many as two tens of potatoes can come from a single potato plant. You can easily grow new potato plants by saving a few from each harvest for planting the next year.
Potatoes require very little effort to prepare for consumption, and are easily stored. As long as they are kept in a dry, dark, and cool environment they can be stored for most of the year without going bad. Previously, where I lived, we would store these in a barrel with dry grass in between the potatoes. We just fished them out for cooking when it was necessary."
Caspian looked thoughtful at the information. He had never imagined there was a food that could be stored even longer than meat. While beastmen did not often farm unless they were from larger herbivorous tribes, it almost sounded like something worth giving a try himself.
"Unlike the acorns, these potatoes are safe to eat raw right away. However, they are much more delicious when eaten after cooking them. There are so many different ways to cook them too. You can boil, bake, roast, or even steam them. They can also be crushed after cooking to make mashed potatoes, which can then even be made into potato pancakes."
Iris was practically drooling as she described the many ways to eat potatoes. Caspian had no clue what most of the cooking methods meant but smiled indulgently down at his mate all the same. As long as Iris was happy, Caspian was happy too.
After collecting a single large bag’s worth of watercress and nearly a hundred pounds of potatoes, the group of five decided to call it a day. The sun would be setting soon and they needed to get back home.
However, seeing that there were still many acorns and potatoes left to gather, the three volunteers agreed to come back to help the next morning.
Caspian quickly got Iris settled in at home before bringing their bags back to the house. They now had three large bags of grass, three large bags of cattails, one large bag of watercress, two large bags of potatoes, and one large bag of acorns to sort out. Sadly, if they wanted to safely store these things for the cold season, they would need to be sorted out immediately.
"Alright, well, I'll start with setting all of the grass, cattails, and potatoes out to dry. You can get us another large basin or two filled with water for the new acorns and tend to the older batch of acorns. When that's done, I'll need your help sorting out new containers for storage in the cellar."
Caspian was more than fine with this arrangement since Iris would not have to leave the house to dry anything. He already knew how to tend to the acorns. With their teamwork, all the tasks were quickly completed. Caspian also carved out a few more containers for acorn flour and cattail pollen.
With all the work done, Iris was unfortunately too exhausted to help with dinner. Thus, Caspian allowed her to relax while he put some soup together. Under Iris's directions, he carefully cut up some potatoes and meat before adding watercress and seasonings to a pot of water.
The soup would take nearly an hour to prepare with occasional stirring, so Caspian kept Iris company while they waited.
"Has there been any word from the Beast Deity? We've collected quite a bit of plants already and we are at the point where we could feed a family five times our size."
Iris sighed, feeling dejected. She was really beginning to feel like her system was broken. There wasn't even any hint of what more it wanted from her. The only thing she could think of was that there wasn't enough food for the tribe.
"No, there isn't. It's honestly a bit of a sore point to think that so much food still isn't enough. All I can think is that we haven't reached those that need to be reached in the tribe. There are nearly three sets of ten tens of males and ten and five females in this tribe. We have no way of knowing just who needs help and the tribe leader isn't willing to cooperate."
Caspian nodded, feeling dejected. The only thing they could do was to continue to collect food and promote the weekly communal dinner. Maybe if they got enough people to attend, they could hear news of who was struggling and help them. After all, cooked food was a novelty in the beast world and Iris could cook very delicious food. Surely many beasts would want to join in?
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This series is now complete on Patreon!
- 5 PDF copies of completed volumes
- 3 side stories
- End of chapter shout-out
- Exclusive Discord role
A special thanks to the following Patreon subscribers:
Discontinued: Ann, Argon, Austin J., Byloderus, Care, Catherine W., Cheyenne O., Chong Y., Christen F., Cindy S., Clara, CooCoo C., Courtney H., Dagoon320, David Z., Denise G., Doc., Dreamer, Emma B., Fictional F., GeminiDragon, Gracie, InjaP., Izzzy B., Jasmine H., Jenn L., Juha, Kayla N., Kelly, Killer K., Lisa C., Martina I., Merveille L., Michelle S., Michelle W., Miranda M., Myungjun R., Nick T., Nova H., Nyrobi J., Nyxie N., Parul N., Quince, Red, Reyanne B., Rochelle N., Ryanna B., Satya P., Sboss678, ScorpioPerk, Shaunna H., Shawna B., Steven B., Travis S., 9Please respect copyright.PENANACQIRjw0sQc
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Her Beasts: Alison S., Becca S., Isabel P., Ja’sonsra P., Kaleaha C., Keiber A., Miranda S., Ren, Sha C.,
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