After the meal, Eric ground all the wheat he had originally intended to save for seeds into flour.
Michael and the others had also brought food from their homes for him, so he now had quite a bit of wheat. Even grinding it all into flour resulted in a considerable amount.
The dough he had left to ferment earlier had been forgotten and had over-fermented, which was now perfect to be used as an old starter.
After grinding all the flour, Eric took some out and kneaded it into a large ball of dough, leaving it to rise.
Originally, he wanted to save all this wheat for seeds, but on second thought, getting the tribe members to farm based solely on Thomas Uncle's orders would likely meet with some internal resistance. After all, they had lived by hunting for so many years; a sudden switch to an agricultural life would certainly feel unfamiliar.
It was better to first make some dishes from the flour to win them over, to let them know that if they wanted to eat well, they had to put in the effort. Therefore, Eric reluctantly ground the wheat into flour.
Just as he finished these tasks, he saw a dense crowd of Snow Wolf people walking towards him. Eric was a bit stunned. He knew that many people would want to learn how to prepare fish from him, but he never expected there would be so many!
The allure of delicious food was just too powerful.
Yesterday, Luci had eaten the shrimp meat brought by Leo. Hearing from Leo that Eric would be teaching the tribe how to make delicious fish today, she brought everyone from the gathering team with her.
They would just skip gathering for today. If this fish dish could truly make everyone accept its taste, then they would have one more food source for the winter.
Eric was a bit stunned. With so many people, the vines he had prepared would likely not be enough.
The Snow Wolf tribe had nearly a hundred people. Aside from those in the patrol and hunting teams, most of the others were here. Even the few young beastmen had all come.
But Eric was overjoyed that so many Snow Wolf people were willing to learn fishing and fish preparation from him. This represented that these people trusted him and were willing to accept new foods. This would be very beneficial for him to slowly change everyone's lifestyle later on.
In reality, it was mainly because the impact of the dishes Eric had made in the past two days was too great. These Snow Wolf people had been craving it for days just by smelling the aroma. The moment they heard he would be teaching how to make food, they came eagerly, even if it was fish.
Luci heard from Eric that making fishing nets required a lot of vines and told some of the Snow Wolf people to go gather them first.
There were still a lot of fish heads left. Since they wouldn't last long in this weather anyway, Eric started a fire and cooked them into fish head soup. This time, there was no tofu, so Eric added some shrimp shell powder to enhance the sweetness and shared it for everyone to taste.
Seeing that Eric's ceramic pot was not big enough, Luci even brought two of her own family's ceramic pots for him.
Her family's pots were much larger than Eric's. With three pots on the fire at once, the fish head pieces were quickly cooked into soup.
By the time the Snow Wolf people who went to gather vines returned, the first three pots of fish head soup had been completely distributed. Eric had just finished cooking the second batch.
As they drank the hot, fresh, and delicious fish head soup, they were a bit incredulous. Michael mumbled, "Is this really made from fish?"
The pot of fish head soup before them was as thick and white as beast milk, with green flecks of wild vegetables on top. It looked completely different from the stinky and ugly fish they usually saw.
The Snow Wolf people didn't have the habit of eating breakfast. After Eric gave them each some fish head soup, they began to learn from him how to make fishing nets.
Eric himself had only made his first-ever fishing net yesterday. Fortunately, he had fumbled through it many times, gaining some methods and skills, and began to teach them.
There were several deft-handed Snow Wolf people in the tribe who learned very quickly, among them an elderly Snow Wolf woman, Mrs. Jessica, who did it even better than Eric.
There were also clumsy Snow Wolf people like Sam, who gave up after trying several times and wasting a lot of vines.
Mrs. Jessica was overjoyed; she could contribute to the tribe again. Originally, Grass had been a bit unwilling for her to come today. But now it seemed that coming just for this fishing net had been worthwhile.
Eric thought that if the Snow Wolf people were in the modern era, with so many ways to gather information, they would surely be much better than him.
This world was not just the Fantasy Dream Continent. No matter the human or any other race, they all guarded their secrets, hiding what they were good at. The development of civilization requires mutual learning and integration to promote the progress of society as a whole.
The Snow Wolf people who had learned how to make nets worked together to create several large fishing nets. Eric told them they had to tie some wood on top for floats and some stones at the bottom for sinkers.
Those who couldn't learn didn't force it. As long as someone in the tribe knew how, they could provide for the tribe's use.
Bringing the newly made large fishing nets to the riverbank, Eric had them spread out at a distance from each other and cast the nets into the river one by one.
The bait was also prepared; they put the stinky entrails that no one ate into the fishing nets.
After so many fish were caught by Eric yesterday, the fish in the river had not become wary at all. They swam one after another towards the source of the smelly odor.
Eric estimated a slightly longer time than yesterday. After waiting a while and seeing the wooden floats on the water shaking violently, he told the Snow Wolf people who could swim to collect the nets from the other side of the river, while those on the bank were responsible for pulling them up.
He shouted, and at the several net-casting spots in the distance, the waiting Snow Wolf people also began to retrieve their nets.
The strength of an adult Snow Wolf was measured in tons. With many of them pulling together, no matter how big the fish, it couldn't escape. With calm expressions, they pulled all the nets up.
In that instant, it was as if Eric saw a rain of fish. The fishing nets prepared today were a size larger than yesterday's, and the harvest of fish and shrimp was several times greater. With all the nets gathered, it could be called a mountain of fish, a sea of fish.
Countless large fish, along with numerous large shrimp, flopped restlessly on the ground, unwilling to be caught.
Eric released the relatively small, immature fish back into the river. If everyone was going to eat fish in the future, sustainable development was more important.
Seeing such a large harvest with such ease, the Snow Wolf people were incredibly amazed and praised him:
"This method is great. We caught so many in just a short while. Eric is so smart."
When he came, Eric had already prepared the scales he had taken from the large fish yesterday, which were perfect for scaling the new fish.
He stood in the middle, demonstrating for the Snow Wolf people. Remembering the shock of Sam sifting the earth, he had warned everyone beforehand to control their strength. But his worry was somewhat unnecessary; crude Snow Wolf people like Sam were rare in the tribe.
He chose a fish of a similar size to yesterday's to use for his demonstration.
The Snow Wolf people disliked the slimy feeling of the fish, so they had to force themselves to scale them.