Leisurely Traveler with Check-in System
Chapter 395 - 197: The Green of the Wilderness
It has been another 6 days since the second medical examination.
During these 6 days, Li Younan certainly didn’t stay idle.
First, there was the work related to food—after completing the construction of the shelter, he had more time to gather food.
Aside from going fishing every day, without fail, he spent the time previously used for building the shelter searching the forest.
Due to the prior extensive search, he had already collected all the easily found food nearby, but luckily it was now July, and many new berries had ripened.
In addition to the previous blackberries, Li Younan found quite a few blueberries and cloudberries.
The quantity of these berries was immense; he collected a basket full.
However, compared to edible tubers, these berries don’t last as long when preserved.
Li Younan remembered a show where a contestant stored berries inside a tree trunk, only to find them completely rotten when he went to retrieve them.
For Li Younan, this problem could be solved; once he made pottery, he would turn the berries into jam or directly extract the sugars.
Once purified, the sugars could be stored long-term.
Speaking of extracting sugars, Li Younan extracted starch from all the tubers he gathered.
The process was quite simple, similar to soaking julienned potatoes in a bowl of water, where a white, powdery substance settles at the bottom after some time.
After filtering the water, the starch even sticks to the bowl’s bottom; this is the starch from the potatoes.
These tubers contain as much starch as potatoes, and he could produce starch using a similar method.
However, to ensure more starch is released, this step needed to be more thorough.
Li Younan made a wooden pestle, crushed all the tubers into a paste, and soaked them, extracting over 85% of the starch from the tubers in this way.
The quantity of tubers Li Younan collected was immense, filling three large baskets, conservatively estimated to weigh twenty to thirty kilograms.
This twenty to thirty kilograms of tubers provided him with five to six kilograms of pure starch.
Of course, compared to industrial starch sold in modern society, the purity and taste were lacking, but it was a rare delicacy.
This starch is different from flour; using it directly isn’t very cost-effective.
For Li Younan, this pure starch served two main purposes.
One was to enhance the texture of food. It’s well known that a good chef uses starch’s properties to give food, especially meat, different textures.
With the addition of starch and ghee, Li Younan could already make food comparable to those in modern civilized society.
The other role was to provide the daily required carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates are extremely important for Wilderness Survival.
Many believe that as long as there’s meat, one can survive, which is a misconception.
If a person ingests no carbohydrates, it first leads to difficulty concentrating, fatigue, and worst of all, negative emotions.
Previously, a Wilderness Survival contestant had hunted a large animal, but due to a diet rich in protein, low in fat, and devoid of carbohydrates, his emotions first collapsed, ultimately defeated by a much hungrier opponent surviving on plant roots, a shame indeed.
Li Younan roughly calculated that given his current weight, he needed to consume at least 120 grams of carbohydrates as an energy source to stabilize his weight and emotions.
If using only starch as a carbohydrate source, the five to six kilograms of starch could support him for over 50 days.
However, the 120 grams of starch is just a baseline, so when you think about it, this amount of carbohydrates is somewhat insufficient.
Fortunately, there are still some berries to supplement carbohydrates, so overall, his current carbohydrate reserves should last about two months.
But that’s okay; there’s still plenty of time left for Li Younan to gather carbohydrates from other areas.
Besides food, Li Younan’s shelter has finally reached its final shape over these days.
First is the rammed earth wall, which has basically dried completely.
Due to his previous wooden post structure, this rammed earth wall was extremely solid, with thick walls giving a comforting feeling like a fortress; even if a black bear were outside, it wouldn’t get in.
Moreover, the thick walls are like breathing architecture.
It’s currently summer by Chilco Lake in Canada; the latitude here is relatively high, so despite being summer, the temperature isn’t very high; during the day when the sun is strongest, it’s only around twenty-five or twenty-six degrees, which is quite cool.
At night, the temperature drops to about five or six degrees.
However, with these thick walls, even if the fireplace inside isn’t burning large flames, maintaining some glowing embers can warm the entire house.
After the house was built, it rained twice.
During the rain, Li Younan deliberately observed the roof’s rain protection effect.