Chapter 296: Chapter 292 Fish and Chips
For the residents of the Northern Territory, although their days can’t be considered very affluent (after all, everything is starting from scratch, and aside from the little property they brought with them, they have nothing), compared to the state of just barely sustaining themselves amidst hunger and cold in Langton, the life in the Northern Territory now makes them feel immensely satisfied and happy.
At least here, they can earn a house with their own labor, a place that can truly be called a home.
Unlike in Langton, where entire families crammed together in public low-rent housing or illegal structures built with wooden boards and bricks, even if this is just a wooden house, at least it allows everyone in the family to have their own room.
This is considered a luxury for the residents of the Northern Territory.
To know that in Langton, a family of several might have to squeeze into a house no bigger than their current bedroom, with everyone working tirelessly every day just to barely make ends meet.
This isn’t an exaggeration; in Langton, a couple both go out to work, including their children who can work, and the wages they earn, though not small, are just enough to scrape by.
This doesn’t even consider the children who can’t work yet and those growing kids with insatiable stomachs.
The majority of children from ordinary worker families in Langton grew up in a state of undernourishment, with pale, emaciated appearances being their most common trait.
Although with the advancement of the industrial revolution, the material supply of the Empire has reached an exceedingly abundant level, even something the King couldn’t have imagined in Langton’s current luxuriant lifestyle.
For ordinary people, their lives are even more difficult than before.
At least in the past, they could farm; if they had a good harvest this year and the Lord was slightly lenient, they could comfortably enjoy a good year.
Moreover, despite being said, the agricultural productivity level during the feudal era of the old world was low, but at least they could fill their family’s bellies by digging sustenance from the soil, even if it was black bread mixed with sawdust—it still wouldn’t starve them.
However, in the industrial era, even women have to work in factories, and with no one at home to cook, workers typically buy ready-made food from restaurants or bakeries to settle their three meals a day... Oh no, they usually only have two meals a day, breakfast and dinner.
This is because typically, factory owners give them only about fifteen minutes to resolve their lunch, so there’s no formal meal.
Of course, this has given rise to the fast-food industry.
For example, the world-famous fish and chips from the original United Kingdom emerged as a fast-food industry stemming from the development of the industrial revolution.
With low-cost and easily caught coastal cod, paired with potatoes widely grown in Ireland, this national-grade food was thus born, which the British continued eating from the first industrial revolution up until WWII, and it spread worldwide.
In this world, the Victor Empire shares many commonalities with the original United Kingdom in many ways, at least in terms of inexpensive fast food.
At least fish and chips were brought by pioneer immigrants from Langton to the Northern Territory and have become the main food for Northern Territory residents.
Since most of the settlements in the Northern Territory are either coastal or near water sources, various fish are the most easily obtained meat for Northern Territory residents.
And potatoes, well, they are one of the specialties of the New Continent. Most of the food purchased by Perfikot from the New Continent is potatoes, so it’s perfectly understandable why fish and chips became the primary food for Northern Territory residents.
For Perfikot, although she can’t ensure that her subjects have abundant food and meat, she can still guarantee their basic three meals.
Furthermore, the Imperial Center’s emphasis on the Northern Territory has brought adequate food from the New Continent to ensure there is no famine in the Northern Territory, and potatoes, being easy to store, transport, and grow, naturally became a major component.
The potatoes from the southern colonies of the New Continent were transported in large quantities to the Northern Territory, becoming the daily food of the Northern Territory’s residents.
This isn’t considered particularly delicious, but being able to eat a full meal is a luxury for the residents of the Northern Territory—who cares about the taste?
Heaven knows, they couldn’t manage to eat their fill every day back in Langton!
Although the food variety in the Northern Territory certainly isn’t as rich as in Langton, even the meat is visibly scarce, with only fish available.
But to be able to eat their fill is already a great happiness for the residents of the Northern Territory; they don’t have high demands for life.
As for Perfikot, she cannot merely be satisfied with this.
At least within the next three years, she needs to resolve the food source issue for the Northern Territory residents.
After all, in the apocalyptic winter, with temperatures dozens of degrees below zero, it’s impossible to grow any crops outdoors.
Even with the help of alchemy and magic, no crop can still take root and sprout in temperatures dozens of degrees below zero.
This isn’t a high-magic world, nor are there any mighty Druids who can achieve feats defying natural laws and physical principles.
So, to ensure the residents of the Northern Territory have food in the future, the first hurdle is to solve the temperature issue.
Fortunately, Perfikot already has a series of plans. With the use of underground shelters, geothermal pumps, and other means, constructing a greenhouse that can maintain a suitable temperature is no longer an issue.
However, clearly, relying on a single greenhouse to feed a shelter’s population is an unlikely solution.
The planting area in a greenhouse is limited, so the types of crops are naturally limited, and hence the yield is insufficient.
Without increased yield, everything else is moot.
Currently, for Perfikot, two options present themselves to solve this issue.
The first is naturally expanding the greenhouse, enlarging the planting area.
More area means more crops, and yield will increase accordingly.
But doing so requires larger scale investment, and constructing large greenhouses underground, while not impossible, is highly challenging.
Therefore, relatively speaking, improving the yield of crops themselves becomes a simpler option.
At least improving crop varieties to increase yield isn’t as challenging.