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Upon landing on an unchartered Island, Sir James and his man encountered some rather ingenious natives. The hillsides of the islands had been carved up into magnificent terraces, hundreds of terraces that stretched skywards towards the heavens. Each terrace bearing a different crop, and such variety of produce that Sir James had ever seen in his life. He met with the chief and expressed a desire a to be taken on a tour of the terraces, being a man of science he wished to observe their practices up close. Both men and women worked the land; everyone seemed to have a role in the process. Though it was thoroughly unclear to Sir James who actually owned what (he’d sort that bit out later). TerraceFarmingIslanders, on Flickr Later that evening, back on the ship, Sir James wrote in his journal, a slightly pompous account of the techniques he had seen that day… “In many ways the simple technology of these rather primitive natives is superior to our own horticultural practices. I discussed at length the method for creating terraces with chief’s son. At first glance the sheer size of each stone block is impressive, it’s a wonder that they can be moved at all. I am told that the entire village is required to move a single block up the slope to build the new terrace. The precision at which they are carved is impeccable; the chiefs son told me the blocks must fit together with a precision of two micrometres (their measurement system is very foreign to me) But there is more to intrigue than simple master masonry, once constructed each terrace is filled with no less than four different materials: · At the base are large boulders, placed to reinforce the walls · Next is a layer of gravels to increase drainage, · Above this lie silts brought up from the river valley bottom, these are a lighter brown colour · Finally a layer of nutrient rich humus from the inner jungle, a much darker brown than the river silts. Each terrace has its own micro-climate. And how this is possible without the use of glass? I must admit, I can consider myself somewhat of an expect on the matter, having personally overseen the construction of my own hot-houses back in Corrington’s fair homeland, in anticipation of the obtaining many unique plant specimens from these voyages. The temperature varies because of the aspect of the terrace, the different amount of sunlight each terrace receives. And most ingeniously the width of the terrace itself controls the soil temperature. The stone walls that form the terraces heat up during the day and this in turn heats the soil in the terrace. The smaller the terrace the warmer the soil becomes. The larger the terrace the less impact the heat from the walls has and they remain cooler. Although these people lack the skills to work glass, they have managed remarkably well to work around their shortcomings and have build hundreds of these terraces in the jungle hillsides.”
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This was part one of my 10th entry into the CCC XVI, for the From Field to Goblet category. This entry focused on the production of apple cider, so of course the first scene shows an orchard. When researching the process for making medieval cider (not much different than today’s process actually) I found it interesting that they often used long poles to whack the tree’s branches and cause any apples to fall to the ground where they could then be easily picked. So I included that in my rendition of a medieval apple harvest, as well as stone walls making terraces in the orchard. In the fall Eryl and Elise have a grand time helping with the apple harvest. Plenty of wildlife is always present around the fruit trees, and apple picking is one of the twin’s favorite harvest activities. Find more pictures on Brickbuilt. Thanks for looking, C&C welcome
