Dearest Elmerton,
Pleasant tidings! This is Baratraxar Humbodlt, or as most of you fine people know me, Baxter. Thanks to the town’s help and Rybin’s expert tutelage, my fluency with reading and writing is coming along nicely; even though I still believe the letter C is silly and superfluous. Regardless, I’ll likely have someone read this over and check for any errors before sending this correspondence out to you.
I had mentioned that, as way of saying thank you, I would offer any interested townsfolk lessons of my own: an introduction to cheese-making and the gathering of various rarities of components for all manners of usage (including making cheese!).
Anyone interested in learning the basics of cheese-making should meet me at Aces at five bells past noon on Wakingday. Don’t expect to be making and finishing any cheeses during this lesson; a decent cheese takes a good amount of time to ripen and meet my own personal standard of consumption. What you CAN expect, however, is a lesson on how milk, cultures, coagulants, and a few other ingredients turn into the greatest food ever, as well as some recipes for some basic cheeses that you can try and make on your own. Of course, while we wont be able to eat any cheese that we made that day, I will be bringing my family’s specialty, from the Humbodlt estate in the Archipelacoast, to the lesson for all interested parties to enjoy.
As for the component gathering lesson, for beginners, the lesson will start bright and early at promptly at three bells before noon on Fortuneday in the tourney field near the Smithy. Come prepared with a willingness to learn, good eyes to spot what we need, and a decent pair of walking shoes, as we’ll be traipsing all over the town in search of what we’re looking for. For those seeking more advanced knowledge on more uncommon ingredients, our group will depart, promptly, at one and one half bells before noon, from the same location as the beginner’s lesson.
For those seeking out knowledge of the most difficult ingredients to harvest and rarest of components, ones that you would generally consider of Master rank, our lesson will take far longer. In actuality, we will likely only be able to discuss various examples of components, due to their rarity, but, you never know what you may find out in the untouched parts of town! We will likely need to travel over a good amount of Irvanshire (and maybe beyond!) to locate enough components for me to feel comfortable saying the lesson is complete, and honestly, I can forsee that lasting, off and on, from now until the end of the summer season. For the beginning, meet me at the Wining Spirit at noon, and be prepared to have a few drinks during our discussion.
In closing, I look forward to seeing all of you in a couple weeks. Try not to bring any more snow, will you?
Sincerely,
Baratraxar “Baxter” Humboldt