This past week I went bike riding with a friend. It was dark, and the trail was riddled with ridges from tree roots. Apparently one of the trail bumps coincided with me putting on my brakes, sending me head over heels across the handlebars of my bike onto the asphalt of the trail. By the time we got me home, the blood was no longer spurting from my face, and I ... Continue reading »

Today I am home ill. So I am resting on the couch, noodling on the computer.

My husband is also home, because he is the stay-at-home parent in our marriage. He was quietly shifting things around when he exclaimed:

"εύρηκα!"

Since I don't speak Greek, it sounded to me like "Hey you row ick a." On the other hand, I am sufficiently educated that I knew what he meant, and that it was ... Continue reading »

When I started making kombucha, I would painstakingly make the tea, then filter it through coffee filters, and add it to one of several quart jars that had a small kombucha mushroom or SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast). When I was ready to bottle the kombucha, I would carefully pour the kombucha through coffee filters into a pitcher, then pour the kombucha from the pitcher into each bottle ... Continue reading »

Last year I visited the Homegrown Institute to talk about aquaponics. While there, I heard about an allegedly fabulous drink, kombucha.

The standard kombucha recipe calls for sweetened black tea, which is then let to ferment for a week or so with the aid of a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast (a SCOBY). The final result is a lightly carbonated pro-biotic drink rich in B-vitamins.

My initial impression was this drink ... Continue reading »

This past year we've had a little white gerbil as our pet, named Snowball by the two little boys who let us adopt him. Snowball was quiet and sweet, and he lived to a decent age, for a gerbil. When he passed away, I was sad, but not terribly upset. One of my daughters, however, began to act out. She became more anxious than usual. But it wasn't until we stumbled ... Continue reading »