“Really?”
Lee Jang-woo jumped out of bed.
I told Lee Jang-woo what happened to Kim Do-gi.
“Captain Kim Do-gi’s personality is very strange. I would just say it.”
“I think my personality is a bit eccentric.”
“Anyway, it went well. Because we have a great opportunity.”
“It could be a good opportunity, like you said. But the base thing comes first. You have to get the job done perfectly and use the remaining time.”
“Of course. I also think that the salad container at the base in Daehan is the top priority.”
Lee Jang-woo raised his voice and said.
I thought the work at the Chilean base was a bonus. Bonuses are rewards for completing tasks properly.
The salad container at the Daehan base had to be perfect.
The bonus will come after that.
christmas gift
Chef Eun Jae-min was bustling in the kitchen.
I didn’t even see myself in the kitchen.
“Chief Eun Jae-min!”
“What’s going on in Deokmyung-san’s kitchen?”
“I have a present for the chef.”
“A gift?”
I headed with him to the salad container. Jang-Woo Lee was checking the machine inside the container.
The chef raised his voice when he saw the salad growing in the container.
“The salad is all grown!”
As he said, the salad had grown enough to be harvested.
“Cook Eun Jae-min became the main character of the first harvest~!”
Eun Jae-min immediately ran to the kitchen and brought a basket for vegetables.
A basket of butterheads with round leaves and wavy caipira.
I took a leaf of butterhead and recommended it to him.
“Try one.”
“It can’t be. We should all eat together.”
Chef Eun Jae-min answered with a face as cute as Butterhead. He didn’t eat a single salad leaf first.
The basket is full of salad.
“Today’s lunch should be prepared with a very special dish.”
Lee Jang-woo asked when he said that he would make special food.
“You mean it’s not just a salad, right?”
“You can look forward to it.”
Chef Eun Jae-min smiled with a smile of conversion.
At lunchtime, the crew shouted at the food on the table.
“Isn’t this a sandwich?”
“It’s a sandwich with plenty of salad too!!”
The crew took large bites of the sandwich. The crunch of the salad sounded delicious.
“Best sandwich I’ve ever had!”
“The combination is perfect.”
Sandwiches weren’t just fresh salads.
Salami imported from Chile also added flavor to the sandwich.
It was the best salami. Salami is homemade ham made with salted pork and various spices. It had an incomparable taste to pepperoni, which is added as a topping to pizza.
Fresh salad and salami added to make the best sandwich ever.
Even Captain Kim Do-gi, known as a newscaster, eats two sandwiches.
Chef Eun Jae-min gave a happy expression to the crew members who enjoyed the sandwiches.
* * *
Salad container training started the next day.
The successful cultivation of salads did not end there.
I needed to know how to manage a salad container.
The training was divided into two parts.
The part that grows crops and the part that maintains the salad container.
I was in charge of growing the crops, and Jangwoo Lee was in charge of maintenance.
While Jang-Woo Lee passed the technology on to the engineers, I taught crop cultivation.
I told Captain Dogi Kim that we needed at least two people. That way, when a problem arises, you can respond.
The people who participated in the crop cultivation training were Vice Manager Do Sang-hyeon and Chef Eun Jae-min.
“Starting today, I will show you how to grow crops in salad containers. It’s easier than you think, so there’s nothing to be nervous about.”
In Korea, I was able to check the inside of the salad container using the application.
The Internet environment at the Antarctic base was not good. Rather than using an application, I was thinking of using a monitor to check the status of the salad container.
The monitor inside the salad container turned on.
[Light 8,500lux]
[Temperature 16 degrees]
[70% relative humidity range]
[Concentration of carbon dioxide 380ppm]
[Normal water flow]
[Nutrition fluid normal]
Do Sang-hyun and Eun Jae-min’s eyes widened.
“Can you see the cultivation environment at a glance?”
Do Sang-hyun said. He couldn’t take his eyes off the monitor.
“The temperature inside the container is set at 15-20 degrees. Relative humidity is set at 50-80%. Temperature and humidity are automatically controlled.”
“You mean the environment inside the salad container is automatically controlled, right?”
“Yes, it is automatically controlled. When the concentration of carbon dioxide is lower than 350 ppm, the proper concentration is maintained by introducing external air.”
“Then there is nothing we can touch?”
“Sometimes you need a human hand. Because the machine doesn’t give the culture fluid.”
It wasn’t just the culture broth. There was quite a lot of manual labor from seedling work.
I meticulously explained how to grow crops.
Do Sang-hyeon and Eun Jae-min recorded what I said in a notebook.
It was not an education that could be completed in one day.
It was held for at least two weeks.
“We plan to install monitors in the kitchen and office buildings in the next few days. You will be able to monitor the condition of the salad container through the monitor.”
* * *
A week passed like that.
Do Sang-hyeon and Eun Jae-min have already reached the level of knowing how to make a culture solution.
They absorbed knowledge as quickly as a sponge drinks water.
Today, there was a request for an interview with Captain Kim Do-gi.
After I finished my education, I went to the office of Captain Kim Do-gi.
Captain Dogi Kim was drinking tea.
“How is the salad container training going?”
He was receiving daily reports from Vice Commander Doh Sang-hyeon. I think it’s time for me to check it out.
I have detailed the progress so far.
Captain Kim Do-gi listened to the explanation and asked carefully.
“Then the Chilean base would be okay?”
“If things go on as they are now, it might be possible.”
“That’s good.”
Captain Kim Do-gi’s face opened wide.
he asked with a relaxed expression.
“How long will it take from the Chilean base?”
I was staying in Antarctica for 3 months. It has been almost two months since I came to Antarctica.
The remaining time was a little over a month.
“We expect about two weeks.”
“Is that long enough?”
“I want to save time as much as possible. I have work to do even after I finish working at the Chilean base.”
“Is there any work left? Isn’t the salad container work over now?”
“It is also important to observe the growth of the crop. You can’t rest assured that you’ve succeeded in cultivating it once. We will continue to observe after the Chilean base is finished.”
“You are strict in everything. I look forward to a perfect finish.”
After meeting with Captain Kim Do-gi, he returned to his dormitory.
Lee Jang-woo was lying on the bed. The tired look was evident.
“Did you look hard today?”
“I don’t think I’m the educator type.”
Jang-Woo Lee was educating engineers on the maintenance of salad containers.
Education is not easy.
Jang-woo Lee complained.
“Education is difficult, so can you meet the promised time?”
“The time will be right. But that doesn’t mean that we’re going to be sloppy about education.”
Jang-Woo Lee got up from the bed and suddenly started to warm up.
“Are you doing gymnastics on the moonlit night?”
“I feel like my stamina is getting weaker, so I have to move my body like this. You do it too.”
“I will decline.”
I informed Lee Jang-woo of the approximate schedule. He said that he had few days left to go to the Chilean base.
Lee Jang-woo turned around and asked.
“But what should I make when I go to the Chilean base?”
“We need to build a hydroponics facility.”
“Aren’t there more salad containers? Are you thinking of making a bean sprout growing machine again?”
“Bean sprouts are vegetables that only Koreans eat.”
“Then what are you planning to make?”
“Now is the time to think. I’ll let you know when my thoughts are sorted out. Equipment to bring.”
As Lee Jang-woo said, there was no other salad container.
Butterhead and Kaypira could only be grown with proper facilities.
I took out the notebook I had left under the pillow.
I opened a page with a list of seeds.
When I came to Antarctica, I brought a variety of seeds besides butterhead and kaipira.
These are the seeds of crops kept in case of emergencies.
I plan to choose one of them.
* * *
It’s Christmas Eve in Antarctica.
A tree-shaped light hung in the break room.
The faces of the crew also shone brightly like lights.
A special guest was scheduled to come today.
Chileans who helped with the rescue operation.
Chef Eun Jae-min was also busy with the Christmas dinner.
I handed the items I brought from Korea to Eun Jae-min.
“what is this?”
“It’s persimmon vinegar.”
“Persimmon vinegar?”
“I think I will need it to make a salad.”
“I was still preparing to make the dressing.”
Chef Eun Jae-min tasted watch vinegar.
“Wow, this vinegar tastes so good. It has more flavor than balsamic. Did Deokmyung make it?”
“No, it is an item made by a master.”
“Are you famous?”
It was the persimmon vinegar that Mr. Hwang Yu-shin gave me the day before leaving for Antarctica.
Eun Jae-min made dressing by adding olive oil and honey to persimmon vinegar.
Salad made with butterhead and kaipira, sprinkled with persimmon vinegar dressing.
It looked pretty reasonable.
“Can I have a taste?”
Chef Eun Jae-min nodded.
The tangy taste turns your taste buds.
It is also Hwang Yu-shin’s persimmon vinegar.
“Is that the main dish?”
“Yeah, I did care.”
The main dish was T-bone steak.
It was consideration for the Chilean crew. T-bone steak and salad were placed on the table.
Soon the guests arrived.
As the Chilean crew gathered together, it felt like the base was full.
“Thank you for inviting me like this. Feliz Navidad! (Merry Christmas!)”
Captain Benjamin greeted him in Spanish with a cheerful face. The Chileans behind him were holding gift boxes.
“This is a gift we have prepared for you.”
Benjamin handed the prepared gift to Captain Kim Do-gi.
“I begged you to come only with your body… … .”
“It can’t be.”
What they prepared was Chilean wine and homemade cheese.
“We also prepared a present.”
Captain Kim Do-gi also brought out a gift he had prepared.
It was a gift carefully prepared by the Korean crew.
A variety of gifts were presented, from traditional Korean alcohol to lucky bags.
Before leaving for Antarctica, Captain Kim Do-gi asked to prepare a gift for the crew of other countries.
It was his foresight. Of course, he wouldn’t have known that it would be used like this.
The gift I prepared was dried persimmons and yakgwa made by farmers in Jirisan.
“what is this?”
Benjamin showed interest in dried persimmons.
“This is a traditional Korean dessert.”
“I wonder how it tastes.”
“Eat and have a drink. It goes well with wine.”
“good!”
It was a Christmas party in the polar region.
A T-bone steak prepared by Chef Eun Jae-min and a salad with persimmon vinegar dressing came out.
“Is this the salad you grew on the base?”
Benjamin and the Chilean crew salivated at the fresh salad.
“It’s a salad grown in Antarctica. Enjoy your meal.”
The steak just melted in your mouth.
The taste of the salad is also excellent.
I don’t think a hotel could have this kind of taste.
“I think the Korean base chef did some magic on the food.”
Benjamin said while eating steak and salad.
“Food is food, but wine tastes good too. After all, the wine from Chile is the best!”
Captain Kim Do-gi answered.
The Christmas party continued in a friendly atmosphere.