Kombucha

Joel and I started our very first batch of kombucha last Sunday and today we pulled it out to give it a look before bottling it up tomorrow with raisins and possible other additions.... We are very happy with the new scoby's growth (look how thick it is!!!) and excited to enjoy the finished product come next week. Here are some photos!

In other news, here's a "joke" told to me by Joel:

The doctor comes in and tells a woman who has just given birth, "Well, I have some bad news. Your son...is a giant eyeball."

She responds appropriately in horror, "Oh no! That's dreadful!"

The doctor continues, "There's worse news...he's blind."

After hearing this, I apparently did not respond appropriately and failed to laugh. Joel's reaction is that it's because I'm a woman and women can't appreciate high art.

Jenny Pastor

We've survived the wedding day, returned from the honeymoon (see picture below for information on who we shared one of our campsites with for a few nights)moved in to a room in a house in Ithaca, NY, went back to Norman for a funeral, visited people in D.C. and Mississippi, and returned to our new home in time to start planting things.....

As for planting things, we also have new friends, Sydney and Erin Penner. Sydney is a farmer and has 6 of the Cornell student garden plots at his disposal (totaling I think he said 3600 sq ft? I'm not quite sure.....). They're about to leave to visit his parents in Nova Scotia and we're going to weed a bit of their garden while they're away, and maybe use a bit of the leftover space (the beans never came up) to plant a bit of our own stuff!

Before knowing this, I had started what I assumed would be a rather meager garden for this year, some zucchini and herbs, and a new addition of some tomato plants. Unfortunately, while scoping out the best spot in our yard for a garden, I was informed that one of the rather large trees was a black walnut....which exudes a toxin, particularly harmful to tomato plants and potatoes. Luckily, they don't seem to harm squash nor carrots.... So, the offer of garden space was great! We'll keep the majority of the zucchini and herbs, and a few tomato plants in pots, but the others, off to the bigger and less toxin-infested garden.

We've also, as of today, started a little compost pile. While raking up some old leaves to cover the kitchen scraps with, I saw some of the biggest earthworms I've ever seen! They're thicker than a pencil and as long as....well...an unsharpened pencil. So, pencil-sized. Anyway, that's pretty big for a worm! So, yay for fertile soil (toxic maybe, but at least fertile for that which can grow....).

More to come, later, I'm sure....