After entering the isolation cabin, pressurizing it, and taking off his space suit, Zhao Changxing finally saw the vegetables he had longed for.
At this moment, these spinach have only grown about a hand high, green and green, and are obviously still in their early stages. If you are pursuing high yields, it is obviously inappropriate to harvest and eat them right now. But Zhao Changxing couldn't wait any longer.
He was fed up with eating starch all day long.
Originally, the soilless cultivation workshop was equipped with supporting automatic harvesting equipment, but Zhao Changxing did not install them. Temporary buildings can be built as quickly and easily as possible.
Now, it can only be harvested manually.
Using a small sickle, Zhao Changxing carefully cut off a small handful of spinach. After thinking about it, he tried to cut off a few more spinach, but when he stretched out the sickle, he hesitated and finally gave up the plan.
At this moment, he has about five or six young spinach plants in his hand, which only weigh about one kilogram. Carefully putting it into a portable incubator, Zhao Changxing put on his spacesuit in the isolation capsule, carried the box to the Falcon 1 spacecraft.
The spacecraft took off and carried him back to the Spark spacecraft.
After taking the starch generated in the reactor, he quickly came to the kitchen. First wash the spinach, then throw it into boiling water and blanch it once, then take it out and cut it into sections. Mix the starch into a paste and pour it into a pot of boiling water. After boiling, add the spinach cut into sections.
After taking it out of the pot and adding salt, soy sauce, sesame oil, etc., Zhao Changxing couldn't wait to bring it to the table.
At this moment, a few segments of green spinach floated in the monotonous starch porridge. The style immediately improved a lot and it looked much more delicious.
He carefully scooped up a spoonful and put it into his mouth. The familiar taste of vegetable fiber spread to his brain, filling his mind with pleasure.
The spinach weighing a pound before blanching was paired with starch porridge, and he swallowed it in his stomach.
This is the most satisfying meal Zhao Changxing has had in this period of time.
The only pity is that there is no oil, otherwise these baby spinach would taste better if stir-fried.
"The planting of soybeans must be accelerated." Zhao Changxing thought secretly.
Thinking of the delicious textures of bean sprouts, tofu, yuba, and even fermented bean curd and stinky tofu, his mouth began to secrete saliva again unconsciously.
With soybeans, he can make all these things. Don't forget, the Fire spaceship also has corresponding strains of bacteria stored in it. You can take them out when the time comes and ferment the raw materials to make it.
During the following period, he began to frantically collect various compounds and prepare nutrient solutions. Finally, after more than ten days, he prepared all the nutrient solutions needed for the rice, millet, and soybeans to be planted later. The substrate used to fix the root system was also collected, so he carefully sowed the seeds of these crops.
Thinking that it would take three months for these crops to mature, he felt impatient.
Stir-fry spinach, bean sprouts, and tofu in oil, and pair it with a big bowl of steaming rice or rice porridge. Just thinking about it makes people fascinated by the enjoyment.
The spinach is now fully grown and ready to be harvested. He spent a day harvesting it completely and temporarily stored it in the living area. Anyway, there is a lot of space here, and the temperature can be lowered just enough to keep it fresh.
The harvest of spinach this season was a little less than expected, only about 120 kilograms. Except for those that were harvested early because I couldn't control it, the yield was still a little less. This may be a slight error in the preparation of the nutrient solution, but it does not matter and can be adjusted slowly later.
120 kilograms of spinach, and more than 150 kilograms can be produced every month in the future. It is obviously impossible to eat it all by yourself. But Zhao Changxing already had plans for this.
In the following time, he began to devote all his energy to building the third building of Humanity Base No. 1.
Livestock breeding workshop.
It still had an area of about one hundred square meters, and it took him about twenty days to complete the construction, including internal partitions, shelves, etc.
The livestock breeding workshop has only been divided into one partition for the time being, with an area of about 18 square meters, two meters wide and nine meters long. A row of shelves 0.6 meters wide and four floors high are placed at both ends of the wall. Each floor was divided into 15 parts, totaling 60 cages. Each cage can hold one chicken, and a total of 60 chickens can be raised.
That's right, Zhao Changxing plans to start raising chickens. The extra spinach that I can't finish is just used to feed the chickens. Although eating spinach alone is definitely not nutritionally balanced, you can add some calcium tablets and the like to help it grow bigger. Even if the meat quality is worse, it is still meat.
God knows how long I haven't eaten meat.
Zhao Changxing was tired of eating starchy spinach porridge every day and was in urgent need of new food.
During this period, he has eaten 40 kilograms of the 120 kilograms of spinach harvested previously, and the remaining 80 kilograms are stored through low-temperature preservation technology. Although it is no longer fresh, there is still no problem eating it. What's more, in about ten days, the second crop of spinach will be harvested.
After setting up the chicken cages, building water feeding and heat preservation equipment, and installing automatic cleaning equipment, Zhao Changxing placed the 60 chicks that had been bred in advance in the Spark spacecraft into the cages one by one.
The 60 chicks are of two different breeds, 30 of which are broiler chickens, using a breed that can grow quickly. On earth, if professional feed is used and professional large-scale breeding is adopted, the animals can be released from the cage in as fast as 30 days. Of course, it would be nice to be able to eat meat out of the cage within 60 days here.
The other 30 chickens are laying hens, raised specifically for laying eggs. Recalling the delicious taste of fried eggs, Zhao Changxing's mouth began to secrete saliva again.
Eggs are not only needed by Zhao Changxing, but also by children in the future. Just eating rice porridge is definitely not enough. You must have eggs and chicken soup to grow up healthily.
The 60 ignorant chicks were a little frightened when they first entered the cage, but they soon fell in love with the environment here. Seeing the chickens chirping and sticking their heads out to drink water in front of the water pipe, Zhao Changxing nodded with satisfaction.
Chop the spinach, add starch - the chickens are still too young now to eat spinach alone, so Zhao Changxing has to give some of his rations to them - add calcium tablets, vitamins and other things to mix into feed, and pour it into the automatic In the feeder, Zhao Changxing left.
Unlike the plants in the soilless cultivation workshop, Zhao Changxing installed it as completely as possible in the livestock breeding workshop. The main reason is that animals are different from plants. Plants cannot be fully automated, and it won't take long to harvest them by yourself, but animals are different.
The chickens need to be fed every day and the chicken manure needs to be collected every day. If it cannot be highly automated, it will be too troublesome. Now that Humanity Base No. 1 is full of waste, he really doesn't have that much time.
After finishing today's work, Zhao Changxing returned to the Fire spaceship again. After finishing the starchy spinach porridge, he began to plan the next construction task.
Up to now, Humanity Base No. 1 has three buildings with an area of 100 square meters, namely the subsistence area, the soilless cultivation workshop, and the livestock breeding workshop.
The subsistence area provides energy, while the soilless cultivation workshop and livestock breeding workshop are responsible for converting this energy into vegetables, staple food and meat to maintain their own survival.
At this moment, the output of Humanity Base No. 1 is no longer a problem to support one's own survival, which means that the most embarrassing stage has passed. In terms of long-term planning, it is time to carry out the second phase, that is, the construction of the permanent Humanity Base No. 1.
The second phase of construction cannot be as complacent as the first phase of construction. Its construction area will be very large, and it is obvious that the method of supporting columns cannot be used. This means that you need to level the land yourself and do a proper foundation.
Although there will be no spontaneous earthquakes on Sedna, nor are there any natural disasters such as wind and rain, the foundation may seem insignificant, but it must be there anyway.
He has to prepare for some extreme situations, such as an earthquake caused by an asteroid impact.
This means a lot of work and takes a long time. But fortunately, the first phase of construction can provide him with a strong backing and give him enough time to do these things.
“I calculated that it would take about five years to complete the second phase of construction.”
If all twenty astronauts were there, it could be completed in less than a year. But now he is the only one left.
Five years... By then, the children will all be in kindergarten.
Thinking of the children, he ordered Xiao Xi: "Give me the information about the artificial womb."
"Good captain".
Xiao Xi projected a picture again.
At this moment, they have been pregnant for almost three months, their body length is already seven or eight centimeters, and their weight is about 50 grams. At this moment, they can barely look like humans, but they look ugly.
In more than six months, they will be born.
Looking at the children who were still pregnant, Zhao Changxing thought secretly: "The construction time of the second phase of the project is too long, and the children can't wait. In the past few months, I have to take time to find ways to expand some food." type."
After much thought, the first phase of construction still cannot be stopped and two more buildings must be added.
The first is the automated nutrient solution preparation workshop, which is used to automatically produce the nutrient solution required for crop growth - you only need to throw in the materials containing different elements and different compounds collected from the Sedna star. Next, this The smart production line will automatically separate and purify different compounds, and prepare them into nutrient solutions through a series of reactions for final use by crops.
The second is to build a highly intelligent soilless cultivation workshop, which can increase food production and expand food types. In this way, children can grow up as healthily as possible after birth.
