A Single Mother's Farm of the Gods
Chapter 62: Final Verdict to the Experimental Crops

Chapter 62: Final Verdict to the Experimental Crops

The next day arrived much quicker than expected with Elaina. Perhaps because she and Julia worked a lot longer to dispose of most of the carcass of the kobolds, it took some time for them. They haven’t even finished processing all of them since there are a lot so instead of processing all of them in the dead of night, Elaina and Julia just shoved all of them inside the inventory and stored them inside. As for the weapons, Julia kept them. She plans to disassemble and melt some of them to repurpose them as scrap metals and the like that Elaina might be able to use in the future. Elaina has no problem with that as she also wanted to have some usable minerals and materials in the future. Who knows what kind of item they needed to create something like the sprinklers?

After breakfast, Elaina decided to go and check the experimental crops. She has already checked it before but now, she wants to check it again to see if there are any significant changes in the fruits and if they are good or bad. She also will include the other plants that she has already checked before as a post-observation process.

EX01 is the same as always. Except that some fruits of the plant have fallen and are no longer the same as the fruits that are still hanging. It seems that it has undergone the overripe phase. Elaina picked it up and realized that it was much harder now compared to the ripe fruits. Although the ripe fruits are already hard, the ones she is currently holding are much harder. It is like a small pebble that she can’t even squash with her hands.

"This is very strange..." Elaina frowned and pulled out her knife that she usually only uses to cut off stems of plants that have overgrown or leaves that got some bad color or infected by diseases.

She tried to cut the fruit but instead of normal cutting, it broke like it was a candy. It became solid that pieces of the broken fruit were now on her palm. She was so surprised by this development as she never expected the fruit to be like this.

While she is hesitant at first, Elaina steeled herself to try out the fruit. She first smelled it to check if it had a foul smell or not. There was no bad smell, just the fruity smell she remembered. She opened her mouth put the broken fruit in her mouth, and savored it.

"..!" Elaina is surprised as she savors the fruit in her mouth. But she doesn’t seem to think of this fruit anymore as a fruit. It is more like a candy now. She tried to chew it but it was brittle and like a solid candy, it broke as she tried to chew it. Not only that but the small pieces that she swallowed melted and the sweet taste of the fruit made Elaina realize the potential of this fruit.

"This fruit...will be a big hit for the kids who don’t like to eat fruits!" Elaina exclaimed to herself.

Not only the fruit is nice to eat, but it even tastes like candy. Not only does it make the fruit possible to eat during its ripe season, but there is also a merit in harvesting the fruits a little bit later than usual. Elaina had solidified her stance on how she liked the EX01 more after this. She would like her future kids to taste this as well in the future.

Elaina headed to the second plant, EX02. She had a bad experience with the plant due to how it tasted before. The plant remained the same while the overripe plants just turned black. Since Elaina thinks the EX02 would change its properties once it overripes, Elaina thought it would be the same as the EX02. But her expectations were immediately crushed when she opened the black fruit. Not only does it smell so bad, the fruit inside is rotting already.

"Ugh, so much for expectation. Well, I didn’t know how this one works properly so I can’t write it as a useless crop. But until I know anything about this, I don’t think I can keep planting this one over and over.

She turns her attention to the next plant, EX03. She dug up the plant and pulled the fruit up revealing a long root crop hanging. It was only one and it seems to be similar to a radish or parsnip. She inspected it and separated the root crop from the plant itself before washing it with water to get rid of the soil around it. She also removed a few of the roots that were sticking out as well.

While she is cleaning the root crop, Princess Margaux arrives and seems to be ready to observe Elaina’s work once again.

"What are you doing?" Princess Margaux asked.

"Oh, princess. Well, I am cleaning a root crop. I am trying to see how this one works though so I am not sure if this should be eaten raw or should be eaten cooked," Elaina then showed her the root crop before her and Princess Margaux’s eyes sparkled in curiosity about the new root crop.

"Hmmm, you are right. This one is something I haven’t seen before. I heard farmers tend to cultivate root crops like this. Like potato and stuff. Does that mean this one is also like that?" Princess Margaux asked.

"Not sure though. We will have to test it out. Anyways, princess, can you try this out and tell me how it is?" Elaina grabbed one ripe and overripe EX01 fruit and handed it to Princess Margaux.

"Eh? Candy?"

"Haha, no. That’s not a candy. It’s a fruit. Look over there, it’s growing from that plant. Try it out and tell me what you think about it."

Princess Margaux glanced at the plant for a bit and saw the fruits that I had given to her dangling on the leaves.

"Oh, they are indeed fruits," she then glanced at the fruits before she started to taste them. As soon as she eats the fruit, her eyes widen and she is astounded.

"Wow, this is just like candy! But this isn’t candy...and yet it tastes like candy..." She is surprised and confused at the same time.

"So, is it good?" Elaina asked.

"Yeah! I liked it!"

"Try the other one as well. You will be surprised even more."

She nodded and when she did, just like what Elaina suspected, the princess was surprised indeed.

"C-candy?!"

"Haha, no. This is still the same fruit that you have eaten earlier but this one is overripe."

"But this is just candy!"

"Right? But it is still a fruit, just that this was a natural candy fruit."

Princess Margaux is obsessed with it and wants to get more. Elaina gave her a few more but she limits her consumption on it. Since it is still experimental, she didn’t want to risk it causing some poisoning if eaten excessively like how eating some blueberries and strawberries.

With the root crop of the EX03 secured, Elaina will try to see what this root crop can be used for if it is like EX04 as a good vegetable. Elaina didn’t forget to harvest EX04 as well to be consumed later since Julia liked it when they cooked it last time. There’s nothing she can say extra on the EX04. Just like EX02, the overripe fruit of EX04 is not fit for consumption. Although it became dry, inside of it, the seeds became solid and are very similar to the seeds she planted before which means making its fruit overripe is a very viable way to get more seeds for EX04.

The overall result, EX01 gave the most promising out of all 4 like usual. EX03 is still pending and Elaina hopes this one is good. EX04 is the one with an alright result, not bad, not great while EX02 failed. Elaina doesn’t know what this EX02 does and even when she tries to ask the god of farming, the guy just doesn’t say anything at all as he seemed more happy for Elaina to experiment on them rather than he tells her what to do with them.

Elaina and Princess Margaux are about to go back inside the house to prepare for lunch when a few people come knocking on the gate.

"Excuse us, Miss Farmer, we have some business with you. Can you please open the gate?"

Elaina frowned as she didn’t recognize the people at the gate. However, the same cannot be said of Princess Margaux who immediately recognizes the people behind the gate. She immediately hid behind Elaina as she peeked through the people waiting at the gate.

Seeing Princess Margaux’s reaction, Elaina frowned and readied her sword.

"Who are you all, what do you want?"

Then, a young woman steps forward beside a mature guy who still looks handsome despite looking like he is in his thirties.

"Don’t be alarmed. We are just here to check on our dear sister who is currently hiding behind your back. In the name of the kingdom of Darcero’s royalty, we order you to open the gates."