After the cargo from salt camp finish unloaded from the carriage, I go to the storage room to see how they arranged in there. I haven't see the storage room somehow, so I need to see it with my own eyes and know what things stored in there.
When I arrive in the storage room, I quite amused by the size of the storage room. It's quite huge and has several rooms to keep the things inside. I ask one servant who carries the goods there to accompany me inspecting the storage room.
"I see there're some rooms in this storage room, is it to keep different things there?"
I ask the servant who walks behind me
"Yes, young master. Each room has its own usage, such as this first room, the biggest room, it used to keep staple food for the castle daily meal like wheat, grain, potatoes"
"Let me see what inside the room"
"Yes, young master"
The servant opens the first room's door on my left and shows me the content of the room. In there, like what he said, food ingredients like wheat, grain, potato stored inside the sacks. And there are many sacks of those ingredients, kept inside the room. I try to open some of the sacks and see what inside the sack. It contains potato.
"How do you arrange the usage of this food inside the room?"
"We use the longest goods stored in here, young master. The new stock usually placed in the most rear side of the room"
I nodded hearing the explanation from the servant. So, this castle is using 'first in first out' in managing the storage. That's good because can prevent the goods that already being kept for long from being rotten.
"What's kept in the next room?"
"Next room used to keep spices young master"
"Let's go there. I want to see it too"
We move to the next room, the second door from the left side and I checked the content of the room like the previous room. There are many earth wares jars placed in the wooden rack with a label on each rack. I can read the names of spices that kept in here. I can see some jars of salt that just arrive from salt camp already placed in one of those racks. I try to remember what spices that stored in here, remember what not available in here, so I can buy it from the online shop to make my cooking ingredient more complete. I see spices like pepper is available in here, also cumin, ginger, sugar, honey, and some other ingredients that can be kept in dried form.
Next room is a door that on the opposite from the entrance door. It looks different from the other room's door.
"What is behind this door? The door seems different from the rest"
"Yes, young master, it's a wine cellar. It has stairs to underground storage where we kept the wine in this castle"
The servant opens the door using keys that hanging near the door. When the door opened, there are stairs that heading downward. I don't think I will inspect this wine cellar this time and decide to skip it and do the inspection on the other time. Maybe when I have time to make Japanese sake, I will use this wine cellar as fermentation place, but that will be done in the future. I'm pointing the second door on the right side of the storage.
"Next room, what is kept in there?"
"It's army provision, young master. Only use for army expedition or if we have war with enemies"
"I want to see it too"
I follow the servant to the next room. In that room, I see dried meat and the staple food in form of powder like wheat flour. It is a good choice to make the wheat into flour form since it easier to carry and can be made into porridge or bread. I check the dried meat that kept in that room before ask the servant question.
"How long this dried meat can be kept in here?"
"Only a month, young master. New stock added every week, and the old stock replaced, it used to cook for the meal to castle residence"
"I see"
I ask that question because the quality of dried meat in there is poor, maybe they only dried it under the sun or grill it over the fire in a short time. No wonder they must replace it every week. It seems I must introduce a new technique to make dried meat that lasts longer and taste nice. Maybe a beef jerky recipe or smoked beef recipe will do the trick here.
"What is stored in the next room?"
"It's the fresh ingredient, young master"
The next room also the last room used to keep the fresh ingredient like vegetables and fruits. In this room, I also try to remember what kind of vegetables and fruits that available here. I see usual vegetables like carrot, cabbage, radish, leek and fruits like melon, apple, orange, lime, and some other fruits and vegetables. I see my seaweeds, barrel with fishes, and my other things from salt camp also stored in here. Ugh, I must tell the cook in the kitchen about this ingredient, especially the seaweed. If they think this is garbage and throw it out, I will be in trouble. I'm already planning to make wakame or pudding with that seaweed.
"Alright, I have seen enough. You can back to your post and continue your work. Thank you"
"My pleasure, young master"
The servant leaves the storage room while I go to the castle kitchen to get one or two cooks in there and tell them about the new ingredients in the storage room.