Mid Suffolk

[alt_terry]

boot is at a camp at Mid Suffolk. Master brought boot here but boot doesn't see Master much during the day. Master is meeting with the camp headmen and he says he has research to do. boot brings him his meals and waits upon him in the morning and the evening, but otherwise master says there's no reason to have a stupid mudblood underfoot and so boot works in the sugar beet fields.

Today is a free day for boot. well, he does have to serve Master every day, of course, but he doesn't have to work in the fields today. Master says its foolish to give the animals a day off, but the camp headmen said that they found that if they worked the muggles and muggleborns every day without rest that too many got sick or died. and there were a lot of accidents that got peop the animals too injured to work. so there is a rotating schedule that gives everyone one day off a week for rest.

don't know if we will stay here all summer. Master won't say. depends on how his research goes, boot thinks.

Comments

[alt_terry]

I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good

I'd hoped I could work in the infirmary this summer, but I haven't been assigned there. Not yet, anyway. Sugar beets have to be thinned several times before the harvest, so once we got here to the camp I was given a hoe and sent out to the fields to help. I got dizzy the first day. The old woman who was showing me what to do told me it was because I made the mistake of not taking drinks from the water carriers every time they come around. Once I started drinking enough water, things got better, but still, I hurt all over, and I have blisters all over my hands. It's sort of surprising to realise how soft I've gotten at Hogwarts.

At least the food is good, and there's enough of it. No meat, but Suffolk is on the sea and we're near the Broads, so there are lots of rivers, which means plenty of fish. And there is barley and turnips. It's sort of strange: the guards who run the camp sneer at us every time they feed us the barley gruel and bannock, making a big deal of it because we're eating that instead of wheat. Like it just proves that we're animals: barley's supposed to be for animals, I guess, and wheat's for people. But I was talking to a woman last night who was a food scientist before the Troubles. She told me that barley's actually good for you: it has all eight of emino aimino some kind of acid that you need to build protein. I should ask Madam Pomfrey about that, because I didn't quite get everything she was trying to tell me. And the guards may sneer, but they're actually glad to have the barley, too, because it's also used to make beer. You can also use barley to make a sort of coffee substitute. I tried some, and I thought it was sort of nasty, but the adults all drink it.

[alt_hermione]

I Solemnly Swear that I am Up to No Good

Oh Terry I'm so glad you're eating okay. I like barley anyway, and turnips, but coffee is nasty enough that I don't know why you would try a substitute!!

You make me feel awful that I'm standing around in the Lord Protector's house instead of working out with you, because I know I actually am soft, not like you, who are getting callouses and things. The only thing I've learned here is that you oughtn't lock your knees when you're standing for a long time, which I knew anyway, but I forgot once and I only didn't fall down because I was standing behind Harry's chair, and I sort of leaned on him, and he didn't tattle on me.

Are sugar beets like real sugar? We mostly have honey here, and sometimes real sugar, for the Lord Protector's tea, which is real tea and sometimes coffee too. That's how I know about coffee, of course, because they have me eat off the breakfast table after everyone is finished. Aren't they, sugar beets I mean, purple red like regular beets? Beets aren't too sweet... I suppose I ought to look it up instead of asking you only then Harry would ask me where I heard about sugar beets, and I don't think he would tell anyone if I told him, but I promised not to tell anyone, and so I won't.

[alt_terry]

I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good

I asked about how you make the sugar from sugar beets. The beets get harvested in the late autumn or winter. Once they're cleaned, they're cut down into thin chips. They're sloshed around and soaked in hot water, and then the beets are pressed, to get even more sugar out. The beet pulp that's left is used for animal feed, and the beet juice is filtered, eve evapor evaperated (don't know if I spelled that right) and then boiled down until all that's left is the sugar cristals.

The people here in the camps do all that work, but they don't get to eat very much of the sugar, of course. That's mostly just for wizards. (Well, you and me, we're wizards, but you know what I mean.)

The muggles in the camp here work mostly on the farms. They grow beets and barley here, mostly, and some seeds used for oils (linseed, rapeseed), and oats and rye. There are some who do river fishing, too.

(That was nice of that Harry Marvolo not to tattle on you--not that you can really be blamed for getting tired if you're standing up for a long time. I know how hard that can be sometimes. Anyway, I'm glad he's still treating you decent. But I hate to think of you there at Buckingham under the Lord Protector's eye. I hope he never notices you.

[alt_amycus]

I left a couple shirts on the chair by my bed. Do what you can to get the blood out of them.

[alt_terry]

boot already saw them and has them soaking in cold water, sir.

I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To Good

[alt_gredforge]

We hope you get reassigned soon too, we know how much you liked the infirmary.

We wonder if mum would be upset if we tried the sugar beets thing at home. We know she's talked about it before, and with a couple changes, it could become pretty interesting.

For the blisters, see if the infirmary has any essence of murtlap. Soak some gauze in it and wrap your hands with it, and they'll be fine in the morning.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To Good

[alt_terry]

I'll try that, thanks!