“Daisy! Thanks to your garden, I’ve been promoted to sprite!” She was about the size of a human baby now. She grabbed my hand and twirled around in the air, spinning in delight. “Look what else I can do!”
She stopped twirling and pointed at the tomato seedling we planted the day before. A glimmering green light streamed from her fingertips toward the plant…and suddenly it shot up, growing larger until it was bursting with big, bright red tomatoes!
“Wh-what just happened?!” Miina cried, who couldn’t see fairies or spirits. She was so startled that her tail had puffed up. I couldn’t blame her, either; anyone would be shocked to see a seedling suddenly grow to full size and bear fruit in the blink of an eye. Good thing she’d already put that support post in, though—the vine would’ve collapsed under its own weight without it.
I explained that our garden was protected by green nature fairies and spirits, and what she’d just seen was the work of one of those spirits.
“Oh, so this garden is blessed,” she said. “Still, I can’t believe we have ripe tomatoes already and it’s not even summer! I’ll need to make tomato sauce and preserve it. The tomatoes will also need more support posts. The fruit is growing so fast, the stems will snap without them…”
Unfortunately, my thoughtful tomato gift only resulted in more work for Miina.
Now that I had safflower seeds, it was time to get to work on making cheese. I started with the extraction process.
First, I crushed the seeds with a mortar and pestle and soaked them in a bit of milk, then stirred gently while channeling mana into the mixture to draw out the active ingredients.
Once the milk had fully absorbed the essence of the seeds, I strained the mixture through a cloth and set the infused milk aside. The milk we usually drank was so naturally sour that it would turn into yogurt on its own if left in a warm place for a few days, so I decided to use that to my advantage.
I poured fresh milk into a pot and gently heated it until it was warm to the touch, but more lukewarm than bathwater. Then, I added the safflower-infused milk.
I turned off the heat and began the Alchemical fermentation process. Before long, the milk had solidified to a texture somewhere between yogurt and custard. I took a knife and cut through it vertically and horizontally all the way to the bottom, spacing the cuts about a fingertip’s width apart.
After that, liquid began to seep out.
I returned the heat to low and stirred gently from the bottom to make sure nothing burnt as I slowly brought the temperature up to lukewarm again. Once it was warm, I turned off the heat, covered the pot, and then let it rest for about four hours.
By then, the mixture had separated into solid and liquid, which I strained through a sieve to collect the solids. When I strained those solids through cloth, it resulted in something called crumbly cheese. But I didn’t just want crumbly cheese; I wanted to make round cheese, because the book said it was especially delicious. You could eat it raw or melt it onto something else. When Ana mentioned cheese that melted when you baked it, she must have been thinking of round cheese.
But making round cheese took more work.
I heated a pot of water to just below boiling and prepared a separate bowl of ice water. I took the firm curds and shaped them into balls, then dropped the balls into the hot water. Once they floated to the top, I began to knead and stretch them until they were soft and elastic like good cheese needed to be. Since the temperature was very hot, I put on a clean pair of gloves, though mitts would also have worked. I cooled my hands off with the ice water every now and then as I kept going.
Once I managed to get through the heat without burning myself, I tore the cheese into balls, rolled them into smooth shapes, cooled them in the ice water, and then gave them a quick dip in salt water. I patted off the excess moisture with a cloth and wrapped them in a damp towel to prevent them drying out, then let them rest for a day.
My round cheese was finally done!
Crumbly Cheese
Classification: Food
Quality: Good
Status: A fresh, tangy cheese. Delicious when crumbled on salads. Can also be used in cakes. Mix it with cream and knead it to get cream cheese!
Oh? Appraisal suggested another use, so maybe I should try mixing half of it with cream. I used the centrifuge to make some fresh cream, then gently kneaded the crumbly cheese into it.
Cream Cheese
Classification: Food
Quality: Good
Status: Smooth, fresh cream cheese that is perfect to spread on bread. Also works well in desserts.
Wow, I ended up making yet another kind of cheese! And we could use this in desserts! It was so exciting.
Round Cheese
Classification: Food
Quality: Good (-1)
Status: Needs one more day to become rich, milky, fresh cheese. Delicious on its own and wonderful when melted in baked dishes!
Whew! One milestone down. I stood with my hands on my hips triumphantly just as Miina came into the room. Marcus must have been covering for her at the bakery counter.
“Are you finished with your experiment for today, Miss Daisy?” she asked, looking around the lab.
“I made crumbly cheese and cream cheese. The round cheese will be ready tomorrow! It should melt when you bake it.” I showed her a cup of cream cheese and the crumbly cheese, along with the three round cheese balls I’d made.