kscans

Chapter 21 - I Want to Eat Wheat, Wheat Straw

Putting aside the husking and winnowing of the naked barley for later, what to do with the other resource obtained from the harvest, namely, the wheat straw...

In this life of scarcity in an abandoned village, even wheat straw was a valuable resource. It could be spread on the fields as a substitute for mulch to prevent weeds, used for compost, used as fuel, as material for ropes or mats, or... stuffed into a burlap sack to serve as a bed.

"A bed, huh. For now it's fine, but when it gets colder, I'll need a warm bed and a futon. I should probably think about using straw and hay as stuffing for the bed, so it's better not to waste it..."

Dry wheat straw catches fire easily, but it's lacking in terms of heat output anyway. Since he used Fire Magic for ignition, regular firewood would probably be sufficient as fuel. Although, even that 'regular firewood' was currently in short supply.

"It was lucky that there were a few bundles of firewood left in one of the sheds. I need to replenish that as soon as possible too..."

As for light, he had the Light spell from Life Magic and the Dark Sight spell from Dark Magic, so he didn't feel a sense of urgency about it at the moment. However, for firewood as fuel, he should probably gather some whenever he had the chance.

Setting that aside, there was the straw.

"Straw rope is appealing, but in terms of simple strength, using vines or plant fibers would be stronger than straw..."

A book he read in his previous life mentioned something like that. To be precise, it didn't say that straw rope was inferior, but he knew that there were plants stronger than straw. Also, his Rural Life Guide had instructions on how to make strong rope from plant fibers. The advantage of straw, then, would be that the material could be obtained in large quantities and stably.

"I could make some of it into straw rope, but it doesn't seem like straw is a must-have material for rope..."

If there were alternative materials, there should be no need to insist on straw rope. The same would probably apply to compost and mulch materials.

"Mats... they would probably be convenient for farm work. But..."

Saying they would be convenient also means that he could manage somehow without them. They would certainly have their uses, and they weren't something he could prepare in a pinch. That was true, but it seemed like it would take a lot of straw to weave a single mat, and with the current shortage of straw, it was hard to choose to weave one casually.

In that case...

"By process of elimination, stuffing for a bed, huh..."

He couldn't help but feel a sense of surprise that a use he hadn't initially expected had been picked up.

"In that case, I'll need something like a burlap sack to put the stuffing in..."

There was no such thing.

And the basic principle of rural life was...

"If you don't have it, make it, I guess..."

In that case, what he needed to check for the time being was the existence of hemp or a similar fiber plant that could be used as a substitute.

"I'd better check tomorrow..."