A Slight Interruption
1274 Words
During the morning meeting, the next day, Heather and I noticed there was a slight commotion in the courtyard between some of the Priestesses and the common folks, especially the women.
There were seen giggling and touching their hair as well as bringing it close to their noses to smell. The ladies were basically trying to keep still while not attracting too much unnecessary attention but their actions were could not escape some of the pioneer's eyes too.
When we concluded the morning meeting and wanted to call upon the ladies in the courtyard, Gwen and Crystal got to them first and brought them before me. The first thing I noticed was that they had a faint fragrance as they had let their hair down after the morning shower despite the wintry cold morning.
Oh yeah, I forgot that their privvy had a personal heating system in their water vat, courtesy of Farah and Walter...
"It seems that you were fidgeting around during the morning meeting, looking all happy after a morning shower?" I approached them as Wendy and some of the women folk were profusely asking for forgiveness.
I waved my hand off and got them to explain because the ladies before us smelled like as if they had dipped themselves in fruit jam or something.
"It's this, Your Majesty, our gatherers here had been concocting a kind of mixture that would be used in showers for the hair and body. We had a share of the mixture during today's shower and it had a kind of slippery, bubbly feeling to it."
"Furthermore, we felt much fresher and invigorating after the use of the mixture. The gatherers called it "Hair and Body Wash". "
Wendy explained and the womenfolk with her all nodded in agreement. Gwen and Crystal were intrigued with the freshness of the Fruity smell that emanates from their freshly washed hair.
"Our friends said that we would normally wash our hair weekly and instead of using the normal lye and hot water, this new Hair and Body Wash eliminates a helper to get our hair done. Besides, it's an all in one wash and it comes in many assorted fragrances."
One of the gatherers explained to us and this new product sparked Marcel's interest very much as he would treat it as a product that could be marketed through those 15 towns.
I could see a big thought bubble over Marcel's head and I can't help to ask those ladies on how they would be able to produce them in a large quantity.
"That's easy, Your Majesty. What we need is a large boiler to boil and evaporate the flowers or fruits mixture down to be a thick paste."
"Then you need a large portion of animal fat, lye and water which comes from the fruits or flower mixture. The proportion for our personal portion would be ¼ cup of liquidised animal fat, ⅛ cup of fine lye and some drops of the essence of flowers of fruits."
"Mix them well together and store them into some earthen bowls as these could be worked up into a lather in hand before applying to the hair or body. A dollop of this could be enough for the whole head and body for a single wash."
"Your Majesty, you could even turn this into small palm-sized hard blocks like the clay bricks and this could be used as a face wash, hand wash or even as a body wash if they would prefer to use something that they could grip on their hands and wash."
Marcel listened intently and suddenly spoke up while he had a piece of paper and quill in his hand. "Ladies, please, if you don't mind, could you tell me how many ingredients you would be able to get from the flowers and fruits?"
"Well, Mister Marcel... You could get more than 20 essences from fruits alone and also another 20 essences from flowers as well. But maybe you could start with one each a flower and a fruit essence. Besides, it's winter and you may start with the fruit one. It's fresh, zesty and it perks your day...!"
"Oh.. What shall you suggest, dear ladies?"
"You could use the lemons instead. The whole lemons could be used, the pulp and the grated skin we called zest except for the seeds. Those could be replanted to make more lemon trees to be harvested in the near future."
"How about the hair wash then? Won't single essence be alright? For me, as men, we won't mind since we could make do with a single essences fragrance."
"Hmm... Well, we could make some Fruity essence for the hair wash and use those any from the Berry class to make them."
Marcel was writing furiously on the piece of paper and the writings looked like as if a chicken had clawed on it searching for earthworms!
It was just like the time when Heather was trying to write using a Reed pen which she was not entirely accustomed to during her uni days.
I laughed at Marcel as he took down all the information that was relayed by the ladies and also worked on the formula for the weight distribution for the process of making them.
Since it was given as a personal portion to make the Hair and Body Wash, it would definitely be multiplied according to if it would be massively manufactured.
"You serious on this, Marcel? Ladies... Do you think it is feasible for distribution?" I asked both Marcel and the ladies that had confirmed with him the details of the Hair and Body Wash which would be a new killer product from GraceHaven.
"Yes, Your Majesty. But we would like to request for a specific holding area to manufacture this. At least the area would be sheltered and covered as well."
I pondered and asked the pioneers around on how and where the processing area would be built as they explained that a holding area next to the stable could be established.
I scratched my head while I pondered or maybe because of the accumulative sebum on my head for not washing my hair for a month or so and recalled Eagle to get some of his men to come forth to give a suggestion.
A few moments later, the familiar faces that helped to design the domain appeared and was eagerly awaiting my requests. When they heard of a holding area for production and manufacturing of a certain product that needs to be in a sheltered, covered and well-ventilated place, the men soon got to work.
The placement of the holding area or factory as we would refer it to now would be of no matter but the size of the interior, as well as its functions, matters most.
Since the last time they used the ground to scratch their ideas, now the men used the paper that was supplied by Marcel and in a short moment, the men had drawn a simple top-down view of the factory.
It was as large as a barn and it would be at the back of the stable since there were only orchard trees growing there that could be relocated.
Same height, same exterior motif and exactly the same size. From the outside, no one would suspect it to be a money-making factory that would soon invade England with its fine product as it looked like another stable for the horses.
"Splendid... We can get on with it, men." I looked at the top-down drawing with full interest as one of them explained to me what the drawings meant.
- Writer
