Spring Potatoes: Food, the Ultimate Necessity
Spring potatoes are delicious. 'Clothing, food, and shelter'—the basic essentials for human survival. They say you can't live without any one of them, but is that really true? Clothing? If you're living in a place with the right temperature, you might not even need it. Ah, sure, society might shun you to death, but still.
Early humans had no concept of clothes, and even today, some indigenous tribes live nearly naked. Same goes for shelter. It's a bit of a stretch, but if the weather and environment are decent, sleeping on the bare ground shouldn't be a problem for survival, in my opinion.
But food? Food is an irreplaceable necessity for life. You've heard of people living without clothes or homes, but without eating? Food provides the most essential energy source for humans. It's not a choice—it's a must.
Above all, humanity doesn't just treat food as a means of survival; we've pioneered an entire new realm called 'gastronomy.' And here I am, a researcher pursuing that gastronomy, rolling around diligently in the fields.
"Whoa, look at how sturdy this is. Must be thanks to the great fertilizer, right?"
The potato I just dug up from the field was bigger than the fist of an average woman. I was aiming for clipbait with a string of them, but this traitor soaked up every blessing from the soil, grew massive, and snapped right off from its own weight.
"Normally I'd ban you without mercy, but that was funny, so you're spared. Be grateful."
"Yeah, no~ No more mercy from now on~ Straight-up bans, no takebacks~"
If I keep letting funny stuff slide, we'll get endless sexual harassment posts. Most viewers are guys, so it's predictable, but my stream's concept is a healing broadcast showcasing the beautiful rural life of a mountain girl. Lowbrow, lust-filled comments don't belong there... but since my body's the one stirring up their desires, I can't just blame them unilaterally.
Still, I'm aiming for wholesome, family-friendly content, so I try to avoid vulgar words and profanity as much as possible.
"Unni!! Look at this, it's freaking huge!!"
What good are my efforts when the people around me ruin it?
"Ra-yoon, didn't unni tell you to speak nicely during the stream?"
"Oops! Sorry, but check this out!"
Her voice bubbly with excitement, like she'd found something amazing, made me turn around.
"...What is that? A rock?"
"Would I brag to unni about a rock? It's a potato! A potato! Biggest one I've ever seen in my life!"
"Holy... "
What she held out, insisting it was a potato, was a brown lump the size of an ostrich egg. It looked like a rock at first glance, but up close, yeah, definitely a potato—just an absurdly huge one.
The chat was exploding with question marks, on the verge of meltdown.
AntWaistSawLegsStinkbug has donated 1,000 won.
"From what I see, that field might be contaminated with radiation. Gotta investigate."
That's so unfair. Anyone would think I live in Chernobyl or something.
A normal person might think I'd grown some genetically modified freak plant, but all I did was grind up skeleton bones finely and scatter them to infuse mana into the soil. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less.
"Hmm... maybe the fertilizer was too potent? From now on, only use it on the alchemy crop fields."
"Huh? For real? I like it like this though..."
"We'll just mash this one up for potato pancakes."
"Mash it?! Doesn't unni have any romance? Can't we do whole baked potato or steamed instead? Perfect thumbnail bait!"
"Romance my ass. No way the inside of that monster cooks through. And how would you even bake it?"
"Wrap it in aluminum foil and roast it right over the fire?"
"Bet: outside burns, inside raw."
"Grr... Baked potato would've been better... Fine, boiled it is!"
With that, Ra-yoon bolted off somewhere. I stared after her blankly.
She's definitely a good kid... but sometimes, you see these shortcomings. Yeah, let's call it pure innocence!
As Ra-yoon dashed away, a brown-haired girl approached me from the other side, as if on cue.
"Unni, where's Ra-yoon running off to all of a sudden?"
She carried a basket full of harvested potatoes from the field, tilting her head at Ra-yoon's retreating figure.
"Who knows. She'll be back before lunch, probably. Let's wrap up here and prep some food."
"But unni, are we really using all these today? Even if we eat a ton, it's way too much..."
"Not all—just half for us, and the rest to Ga-eul's uncle."
"Half is still too much..."
It's barely 10 kilos? Perfect for three people, no?
"So? You gonna eat or not?"
"...I'll eat."
She says that after playing hard to get. With the first harvest of the year, I'm planning a table so loaded it might collapse.
The first Earth spring I'd seen in 200 years was incredibly warm.