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[Draft] Wonderland Farm
10-17-2008, 12:44 AM
(Before I forget about this again... I've mentioned a few times that Noah's waiting on Rockhounds to deliver a mined-out asteroid to Stellvia. Also, Fenian was wondering what Noah was going to do with two of the Jason's rosebushes. One bush is going into Noah's office, but the other... Well, read for yourselves, and please point out any obvious gaffes.)
====== Wonderland ======
Formerly known as [[gazetteer:companies:Rockhounds]' Space Rock #11, **Wonderland** is the single largest post-[[gazetteer:government:great_justice|OGJ] source of produce for station //[[ships:Stellvia]//.
===== History =====
"Earth is the only place you can get vegetables." - Alice (Arisa) Glennorth, //Uchuu no Stellvia//
As much as Noah Scott likes that particular anime, this one line from it always bothered him. Why not grow vegetables in space? He quickly found out how impractical it was to grow more than a token amount of food crops in the disused nooks and crannies on his station, but he never completely abandoned the idea.
Finally, in October 2013, [[gazetteer:companies  tellvia_corporation#stellvia_trading|Stellvia Trading] took possession of Rockhounds' Space Rock #11. It was fully mined-out, with a maze of twisty little passages (all alike) throughout its body - ideal for widening and turning into huge caverns. His staff have enlarged the various chambers to the point that there are over two hundred acres of land available for cultivation, and handwaved the chambers so that they'd have earth-normal gravity and day-night cycles. Stellvia Trading also purchased topsoil from 'Daneside developers who were turning farmland into suburbs, and used it to turn the asteroid's barren rock into farmland.
In recognition of needing to go down "rabbit holes" to get to the farms and in honour of Alice, Noah re-named the asteroid //Wonderland// when he officially opened it on January 1, 2013.
===== What's Down the Rabbit-Hole? =====
Wonderland's largest chambers are usually devoted to grasses and similar plants; wheat, barley, quinoa, amaranth, rye, and maize are all in the collection to a greater or lesser degree. Smaller chambers hold beans, berries, edible flowers, and other vegetables - especially potatoes, tomatoes, cocoa beans, sugar beets, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and roses. (Although the large chambers sometimes grow beans and the smaller ones sometimes grow grasses; Mr. Freedman knows the importance of crop rotation.) And there's clover and beehives in all the farm chambers.
The smallest chambers are for long-term seed storage, short-term harvested food storage, dedicated agricultural experiments, compost and related storage (Wonderland takes most of //Stellvia//'s organic wastes for fertilizer), and residences.
Chambers with handwaved crops are carefully isolated, with independant life-support systems and no internal access to the rest of Wonderland. One of those carefully-isolated chambers holds a single Soul of the Earth rose bush, one beehive, and a selection of clover, grasses, and ornamental roses. Noah is running an experiment to determine whether, and how quickly, handwavium spreads through pollination from 'waved plants to unwaved plants.
Wonderland's chief agronomist, Jerry Freedman, doesn't believe in using GMOs; he can't bank their seeds and use them the next growing cycle, and the controlled climates of Wonderland don't have any unwanted pests. Some of the staff suggested using "heirloom" breeds of vegetables and berries for their subtly different flavours, so there are a variety of breeds for many of the local plants in the asteroid's seed banks.
The farm does its best to not compete directly with //[[ships:Babylon .5];// since that station is known for growing tropical fruits, Wonderland mostly stays out of that business.
===== Noteworthy Inhabitants =====
**Micheline Rouleau** is Wonderland's chief administrator. Hired away from Air France, she spends her time directing traffic and pushing paper, rarely even visiting the farms.
**Jerry Freedman** is the asteroid's chief agronomist. An old Kentucky boy who was happy to move to space permanently, he puts his agriculture degree to good use, ensuring Wonderland's ecosystems don't go off-kilter.
**Lea Meadows** is Wonderland's chief apiarist. This ex-pat Canadian from southern Ontario keeps the bees happy, and the honey and beeswax supply flowing from Wonderland to //Stellvia.// She's obviously biomodded, with short antenna that pick up subtle changes in wind direction and air pressure (and make it impossible for her to wear a mass-produced spacesuit).
**Sergy Gudanov** is the facility's doctor. He makes his services available to the other L5 habitats when he isn't needed on Wonderland. Born and raised in Moscow, Dr. Gudanov didn't realize the folly of putting a half-acre (the entirety of one of the isolated chambers) of [[gazetteer:handwavium:handwavium_and_medical_technology|Blood Oranges] under cultivation; he's now happy to give them away, making Wonderland the largest supplier of Blood Oranges outside of the Jason himself after Operation Great Justice.
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Nice. I don't know if it's relevant, but the GC sells some produce on the "roadside stand" level. It's not really a competitor for
something on the scale of Wonderland, but it might bear mention as something that Wonderland is displacing by virtue of its far larger production scale.
-- Bob
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Which is an unintended effect... and something I'd best think about how to address in the next draft.
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It's possible that there may be some qualitative difference with Grover's Corners products, though, too.
For one, it's probably fresher to pick it up right there. 
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B.5 probably wouldn't object to some competition. After all there are a lot of Fen in space and shipping this stuff up from Earth is expensive, so the
market is probably fairly open.
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Then, too, the GC's usual customer would be one or two fen in their converted car, not an entire station.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
I'm not sure how big of an effect it will have immediately; between Grover's Corners, Yggdrasil, and Wonderland, we've
got some serious food production in orbit. But there are a LOT of people in Fenspace, too. I think you'll see more impact on stuff being brought up from
Earth first. A good portion of the supplies of each will go first towards the ships in question, plus Stellvia. Then - how much overlap will there be
in the crops we're producing? I was looking at heritage fruit trees for one, especially apples. But other things, too. It might be interesting to put in a
level of beefsteak tomatoes or hens and chicks; I imagine that would be popular. *grin* And I'm having at least one level devoted to the production of
shrimp and nori. I have plans for that level, too, besides just aquaculture, you see.
*grin* And rob, I'll be really interested in your results with the Rose. Mind sharing data? If you're looking into that, you might also want to examine
the effects on the bees, as well as handwavium levels in their honey. Hmm. Bees and handwavium. Insects in general, really. I'm getting flashbacks to
50's movies now...
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Quote:Then, too, the GC's usual customer would be one or two fen in their converted car, not an entire station.
Which is how the smaller farms will survive once Wonderland goes into full production. Most Fen will be roasting one or two cobs of corn for dinner; Noah needs bushels of corn so that Meg's and the Hotel Stellvia can feed their customers.
Thanks!
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Quote:Then - how much overlap will there be in the crops we're producing? I was looking at heritage fruit trees for one, especially apples. But other things, too. It might be interesting to put in a level of beefsteak tomatoes or hens and chicks; I imagine that would be popular. *grin* And I'm having at least one level devoted to the production of shrimp and nori. I have plans for that level, too, besides just aquaculture, you see.
Wonderland's going to be growing nearly exclusively plant-based foodstuffs, and Noah doesn't have any current plans for orchards. (The Blood Orange trees are a special exception.) Grains, beans, berries, honey, and sugar (from the sugarbeets) are what Wonderland will have for sale; the potatoes, tomatoes, and cocoa beans are for station use.
Quote:*grin* And rob, I'll be really interested in your results with the Rose. Mind sharing data? If you're looking into that, you might also want to examine the effects on the bees, as well as handwavium levels in their honey. Hmm. Bees and handwavium. Insects in general, really. I'm getting flashbacks to 50's movies now...
OOC, I'm thinking those results should be decided on by the writing Collective as a whole. I don't do much with biomods in my stories, so the numbers don't matter to me as much as they would to others.
IC, Noah would be happy to have the Jason (and the Professor, and A.C, and anyone else who's interested) go over his data. Leda's a good laboratory geneticist, but lacks some of the "field" skills that the others have. Besides, another viewpoint is always welcome when performing basic research like this.
And one wonders whether biomodded bees produce Mnemnosyne's Honey, a particularly sweet version of Guacamole, or both at the same time...
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Given all these veggies, I'm wondering if I shouldn't have Rockhounds invest in vat-steak....
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Quote: Given all these veggies, I'm wondering if I shouldn't have Rockhounds invest in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vitro_meat]vat-steak....
Go for it! Noah would love to get out of that business and free up the space currently taken up by the clone tanks for something more profitable. (Right now, he's only able to make enough sim-ground-beef and sim-ground-pork for Meg's and some trade agreements.)
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Hmmm. Perhaps if I licensed the tech from you, then, and went into mass production, complete with trades with Wonderland for veggies... given the size I'm
expecting Greenwood to get to, it's likely to be important.
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Hmmm... Some of the stuff that Feinan has come up with for The Jason's catalogue is pretty cool too.
36 Atalante will have some limited capability to produce their own food, but by and large they'll be getting their fresh goods from places like
Grover's Corners, Wonderland, B.5... Pretty much anywhere. Though largely the bulk stuff will come from Wonderland maybe B.5 as well, while the stuff that
sits in a bowl for a handy snack will come from Grover's Corners.
Eh, you don't need vats to get beef and chicken. The Jason gets that the old-fashioned way. He grows it in plants. Though I'd be willing to trade
you beefsteak tomatoes and hens-and-chicks for porkchops, bacon and fixings for sweet-and-sour pork. *chuckle* Food production in Fenspace is going to be very
odd, I'm thinking. But fun.
Hmm. Milkweed is a potentially viable crop to sell. Possibly eggplants, too, but people might have the occasional chicken around for eggs. A nice steady source
of milk would be useful, since herds of dairy cattle aren't exactly practical in Fenspace proper. Hey, Bob? You need milk for the kids on Grover's
Corners?
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"Aye, aye, Captain...
10-17-2008, 07:11 AM
I just want to know how soon it will be before someone mails Mr. Freedman a set of overalls dyed bright green...
And you might want to think about growing goats and rabbits, too; they can eat silage which would not normally be edible by humans and provide another source
of cheap meat.
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Chickens are good. They don't take up a lot of space, are relatively easy to maintain, and just three or four is enough to give you enough eggs for a group
of five with enough to spare even. Just make sure you keep the wavium away from them - god only knows what it'd do to them. (Though I bet a shining example
is on Monster Asteroid where one of the Jones boys takes great glee in using it attack anemies with toxic egg bombs or something like that.)
Pigs are workable, especially if you have a large enough area that you need to rotate crops. Thing is, you can let pigs run free in the areas you're not
growing anything in and they'll turn the earth for you while they forage. Get darker colored breeds - their meat is better than the pink-skinned breeds.
The only problem with pork is that it is gonna come at a real premium unless The Jason comes up with plants that can reliably produce pork products.
You know, funny thing; I just had the thought that The Jason's Beef Steak Tomatoes would become popular on Earth as well simply because of conscientious
vegetarians who don't like the idea that they're eating animals. And countries on subsistence economies would just love those plants as well. After
all, when you can grow meat on a plant, why bother with all the hard work of raising livestock?
Another thing that can be looked into is fish and other seafood. Finding someway to either grow fish or make it easier to keep them in space would be very good
(of course, with my memory I may have seen it in The Jason's catalogue and forgotten about it). Benjamin may be a raving, fanatical Texan, but his diet
tends towards the 'opportunistic omnivor' end of the spectrum. 
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I'm sure Greenpeace will be making friends here.
One thing no-one outside the Forge will have is Greenpeace's great success. She actually managed to produce Manna Bushes. But given one can survive on ONLY
manna (not even needing water, at least for a month or so), it'd destroy the food industry out of the Well. So it's never been released, although
it's used as hospital food in the Forge.
(This is bacause eating it makes you healthier, and has been proven to NOT cause biomods. An overweight fen paid for a custom biomod, and submitted to a study
on its affects. They gorged themselves on Manna for a month, easily getting 10 times the biomod amount of 'Wave in their system, but rapidly lost weight
and solved all the health problems due to bad neutrition.)
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Quote:Hey, Bob? You need milk for the kids on Grover's Corners?
Sure. I don't think I included cattle in the livestock, so any source of milk is welcome. Not just for the kids, but for basic staple use. Quote: I just had the thought that The Jason's Beef Steak Tomatoes would become popular on Earth as well simply because of conscientious vegetarians who don't like the idea that they're eating animals. And countries on subsistence economies would just love those plants as well. After all, when you can grow meat on a plant, why bother with all the hard work of raising livestock?
Depends on how paranoid they are about the whole "genetically modified" scare. And whether or not the local religion will regard the plant as being really a plant -- I suspect that least some Hindus will resist the Beefsteak Tomato on general principles, for example, and if a pork plant is ever developed it's a sure thing that some radical branch of Islam will convince itself that it's actually an attack on their faith somehow. Even without religion involved, some vegetarians will probably eschew meatplants because of squeamishness, or a vague sense that it's "cheating". Quote:Another thing that can be looked into is fish and other seafood.
Oh yeah, aquaculture would be pretty easy to manage in Fenspace, although I think fish still need a local gravity gradient despite living essentially in zero-g.
-- Bob
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Hmmmm... Europa, the Giant Fish Farm in the Sky?
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Quote: blackaeronaut wrote:
Hmmmm... Europa, the Giant Fish Farm in the Sky?
You'd either have to biomod the fish for extreme cold, or somehow warm the entire moon.
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I vote warm the entire moon. After all, we are working towards the point of being able to move entire planets, eh? *Wicked gleam in his eyes*
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A note: You should probably include a sanitation engineer in your NPCs. Human waste is notoriously chock full of things that can cause problems when it gets
used as fertilizer, mostly along the levels of Montezuma's Revenge, but an outbreak of dysentery among the customers of Hotel Stellvia would be extremely
bad for business.
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I believe in the last write up I posted for B.5 I mentioned that they raise chicken, rabbits, and fish (the aquaculture decks also grow rice) Their only try at
raising pigs so far has had unsatisfactory results. 8P
Out of curiousity, will Wonderland be orbitting near Stellvia? Or further out?
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Quote:Out of curiousity, will Wonderland be orbitting near Stellvia? Or further out?
I see no reason not to put it at the Earth-Luna L5 point, along with Stellvia (and New Yavin, two other Space Rocks, and whatever else might also be there). Such close proximity would make shipping produce to Stellvia inexpensive, after all.
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Quote: Ebony wrote:
A note: You should probably include a sanitation engineer in your NPCs. Human waste is notoriously chock full of things that can cause problems when it gets
used as fertilizer, mostly along the levels of Montezuma's Revenge, but an outbreak of dysentery among the customers of Hotel Stellvia would be extremely
bad for business.
On Greenwood, this is one of those things that Farmer Greentrees supposedly takes care of.
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