Monday, October 15, 2007

Wheatgrass and Other Stuff.

Em teases me because I think it's important for us to eat from all the colors in a crayon box. Not the BIG 64 crayon box, but the small one with the 8 colors. The 8th color is green "other". Seriously; I read this. So, as mentioned previously, I decided to get "into" wheat grass juicing.

It takes a while to get the wheat berries "going", and it doesn't help when you soak 1/2 cup of wheat berries and put them into a container that will only accommodate 1/4 cup, then decide (2 days later) that there are too many wheat berries and rip the poor things out and put them into a second container. We live and learn, though. The roots on those things went through the drainage holes on the bottom after only a few days.

So, the process goes something like: soak the wheat berries for 24 hours (or 3 days if you're too lazy to move on to the next step). Drain them and lay them onto soil with good drainage. Cover. I drained and resoaked them every 8 or so hours using an old instant coffee jar with a knee-high nylon stocking and rubber band.

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In just a day or two the sprouting grasses started forcing their way through the small holes atop the containers. I waited until they got really forceful to open the lids permanently, but I still rinse them every 8 or so hours. I put the green grass outside if the weather is clear. Developmentally, here's the process from front to back:

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In other news, there's absolutely NO TRUTH to the rumor being spread about how I panicked when the fanbelt broke off the car on the way to Oklahoma last Monday. I heard Em say that he couldn't stop or steer the car and didn't scream ONCE. I spent the whole time (while miracle man drove to the car repair place) looking out the passenger window at the lovely Texas scenery. I was even so calm that we continued to Oklahoma once the fanbelt was replaced. We forgot to turn off the hazard lights when we got there, so killed the battery while we were there, but Casinos are good about fixing things like that.

Lots of things are going on this month and next if you look to the right of the blog for information. Em's job precludes us from attending most of these things, but maybe you can attend things in your area.

I've ordered a number of fruit plants to help us maintain our crayola diet. Ordered mostly 2 of stuff so they could pollinate each other a little... 2 peach trees, 2 blueberry bushes, 2 blackberry bushes, 2 raspberry bushes, 6 strawberry plants. Some repetition isn't necessary; for instance, the peach trees are self-pollinating, but we've been looking to put some trees in our backyard for a while now and one at each end worked for us. We'll receive the stuff when it's time to plant them.

Tomorrow or the next day we'll begin "harvesting" the wheatgrass for juice. I'll let you know how it tastes (plain, mixed with other juices, etc.) I'll also let you know if we can leap tall fences in a single bound after drinking a shot of the stuff.

Don't forget Halloween is this month. Lots of kids look forward to the community afforded by neighbors oohing and aahing over their costumes while stuffing their bags with treats.

17 comments:

No. 2 said...

Aah. Halloween. I always look forward to dressing up at work. This year's costume is Catwoman. I've secretly always wanted to be Catwoman, but have had a hard time finding a costume that I liked. This year I got one very similar to the one Haley Berry wears in the most recent Catwoman movie.

In other news, my new guy kicked my butt in the gym today. I'm definitely going to be sore tomorrow. I've been trying to make an effort to atleast make it there 3 times a week, but it gets hard with work, school, and homework. Usually I only make it to the gym at 10pm at night. That's why I have the membership at the gym that's open 24 hours. I think the latest I've been there is midnight.

That's about all the news with me. Gotta go to school!

No. 2 said...

Well, I feel like I haven't been on here in awhile, although sadly, I don't have much more to contribute. Today was Algebra class. We worked on imaginary numbers and complex numbers. Not much fun there. Right now I am procrastinating on starting my homework.

But for anyone interested, my Wednesday usually goes something like this:
Wake up at 9am. Go to Starbucks, get a coffee and an egg sandwich, go to work until 5:15. Race home to eat and change, then leave for school by 6. School goes from 6:15 to 9:30. At this time, I go home, eat dinner, possibly go to the gym or just do homework before I have to go to bed (usually around 1am), and then go to bed because I have work again in the morning.
Today I got home, Chgo Jen came by for awhile. I ate a pizza, paid some bills, and am now checking emails and such. It's 11:30pm and I still have yet to start on homework.

This weekend is crazy since I work a double on Friday (17 hours), we have our Halloween party at work Saturday with a band which means we will be really busy and probably won't get out until about 4am. Then Sunday I have work again. Mind you, the baseball World Series is going on, and being that we are a sports bar, we will have an unusually large crowd. The bonus is the extra money, but the downside is the exhaustion plus dealing with more drunk people.

I can definitely tell you that I am not looking forward to this weekend, and if you hear from me on Monday, that means I survived.

XOXO

Chile said...

Hey, it looks like you got your wheatgrass going just fine, even with a rocky start. I've been too busy to do another batch. (That's what all the lazy people say, huh?!) Congrats on growing your own green stuff and remaining calm during a vehicular crisis. ;-)

Anonymous said...

How's it taste?

Are you growing the trees indoor or out?

Oldnovice said...

We haven't tasted it yet. Seems like I got it growing good and then we got sick with what I call "change of weather" colds (even though I know that colds are caused by viruses and not weather changes.) It's growing like weeds! I think it woulda been fun to make it into a huge chia pet type of thing.

Gotta force myself into doing some stuff today because the trees and bushes (or at least one box of whatever it is) got delivered last evening. I had grocery shopping planned for today, but Em doesn't have enough time before work to do both planting and shopping.

I trust I'll receive Halloween pictures again this year, No. 2? I (barely) remember the days when I could keep a schedule like yours lol. These days I feel overloaded if I have two projects on my plate for the same day. We try to schedule around working stiffs, too, shopping when everyone else is (supposed to be) at work, for instance. This means we don't shop weekends or evenings, so we'll get to the grocery shopping next Monday or Tuesday (last day of the weekly sales).

Definitely planting everything outside, #3. I haven't really decided where to plant all these things. I'm toying with planting some of the berry bushes on the sides of the house rather than in the back yard. I like the idea of bushes in front of all the windows for security reasons. Seems kindof odd to think of going out the front door to pick berries, but why not? We'll see what Em thinks about it all when he gets up and I let him know that we need to get these things planted today.

How about a pic with Macaroni, No. 2? Dress him up as a guitar teacher. lol.

Anonymous said...

You can pick the berries through the windows!

Really late at night avoids most of the crowds, too. Its just not a trick you can pull with Banks. I bet 2 has the gym all too herself on those nights...

I've started doing some computer side jobs, and I have not cashed one check yet.

It seemed like there were a lot of mixed reviews on that juicer. Has it come in yet? (Wondering about fruit/carrots...)

Oldnovice said...

You can pick the berries through the windows!

If the bushes grow tall enough, I suppose I could. We're just now thinking about where and Em thinks we could use the sides of the house. His first question was, "Do they need sun?" Duh; they're not mushrooms! So, maybe raspberries under the den window, blueberries under the kitchen window and blackberries under the guest bedroom window.

You need to cash the checks! In fact, a good rule of thumb is to cash the first check before doing the 2nd job for the same client. Some checks expire within 90 days and you always want to make sure the client is good for the money. An alternative to not cashing the check (if the goal is to not spend the $$$) is to start a separate account for dumping windfall profits. :-)

Really late at night doesn't work for me. I turn into a pumpkin pretty early because I get up at something like 4am every day. In addition, some of our groceries have begun closing at 11pm.

The juicer's here, but I forgot how to set it up. It came with a DVD which I watched about 2 weeks ago, but I've slept a few times since then. Everything gets mixed reviews (if you read reviews) and I DO. The main problem I have with this juicer (and that's before I even use it the first time) is it's made in China. I hadn't known that before I bought it or I wouldn't have bought it, but now that I bought it I'm gonna give it a whirl for its intended purpose anyway and just try and remember to check first next time.

We'll probably wait until tomorrow to try the juicer because I wouldn't want two projects on my plate today. :-)

Good to see you here, son.

Oldnovice said...

Opened the box and found the peach trees & the blackberry bushes. Neither should be planted for a week or two yet (per instructions), so we have time to look from the left, right, up, down, all-around to pick the best spots and maybe even get one of those post diggers to make our hole digging easier. [Where's Tony when ya need him?]

This also means that we can try the juicer today!

Oldnovice said...

Um...Um...I think I need an electric juicer if I'm gonna go with juice (and I'm not at all sure I want to have anything more to do with juice of any kind). I don't even want to take the time to describe all the awful scenarios of juicing with this thing today. I'm sure it's all due to operator problems, but since I'm always gonna be the operator and it's all downhill from here, I need a bigger cushion for error.

PFHD*UREY!

Anonymous said...

:/

That sucks. What went wrong?

froogle puts the electrics at 150, at least:
http://www.google.com/products?q=electric+juicer+wheatgrass&btnG=Search&show=dd

Anonymous said...

Could you at least grow the grass for more berries?

Oldnovice said...

First off, I had to open up the dishwasher in order to clip the thing to the counter because my other counters didn't have the correct margin. I'd heard about that, so it was no surprise.

Actually, that wasn't first off, because I had to watch the video something like 14 times to figure out what to do with the thing that I'd ASSUMED had been put together correctly as far as it HAD been put together, but then it squirted green juice into the dishwasher, and then the crank fell off, taking the whole container of juice with it onto the floor after spraying green juice all over the walls and the floor and my socks. Almost TWO containers worth of wheatgrass (once sprayed around my kitchen) gave Em and I each one small sip. lol. Then, I "juiced" apples & carrots. Hmph! We got another one sip each out of that and I washed a whole lot of really moist pulp down the disposal.

Might have just been my mood today and how I didn't have hours to throw at it. Email me Heather's address and I'll send it to ya.

Oldnovice said...

Who needs juice anyway?

Anonymous said...

BTW, I picked up something called Buddha's hand at Jewel the other day. It was a little yellow fruit, which had a jellyfish like appearance.

The damn thing cost me 10$, but I figured that it was a small price to pay for trying something so weird looking.

It was pretty disappointing. There was no actual fruit inside it, it was all the husky part inside. (It has a really nice citrus smell)

I ended up scraping the skin off (zest, I learned it was called), and using it on some cheap tilapia that H picked up from Aldi.

I put cooked mine in some finger peppers, as well, but she though that it was too hot. I kinda liked it (didn't taste too much like fish)

Still, not worth 10 bucks...

Anonymous said...

Sounds more like you struck out on the first shot. I think if you tried it a few (5-6) more times, you would probably get the hang of it.

Water gets a little old after a while. Carrot/whatever juice would be an easier way to suck down the less tasty veggies, too...

Oldnovice said...

I kinda liked it (didn't taste too much like fish)

Tilapia is one of those fishes that taste like whatever you make it taste like. It's kindof like tofu in that respect.

Sounds more like you struck out on the first shot. I think if you tried it a few (5-6) more times, you would probably get the hang of it.

I'm thinking the same thing. I know my frustration level was low today, which is why I offered you the machine versus take a sledge hammer to it. [Sledge still has a nice ring to it, however]

Oldnovice said...

Opened the box and found the peach trees & the blackberry bushes.

Correction: blueberry bushes and blackberry bushes. I had to call to find out what I'd been sent. lol.

Gonna spend some time today outside starting on the holes for these things while Em's at work. Today's a big day at the racetrack, so he works something like 9-9. Gonna plant both species (4 plants) on the East side of the house and neither will really go beneath windows. The blackberries will go nearer the front of the house and the blueberries nearer the back of the house.

It's gonna have to get a whole lot warmer (which it will) before I go outside, though. I'm shivering INSIDE!