Ooo-eee ooo-ah-ah, ting tang Walla-walla bing-bang

A few weeks back,* Luke told me that if he lived in the middle ages, he'd want to be the village baker. He likes the idea of waking up in the wee hours of the morning to bake big loaves in a stone oven. When he lived in Guatemala, there was a baker in one of the towns that was a good example of what he has in mind: a fat man with strong arms and a big laugh.

*On a side note: I have no concept of time. Anything that was longer than a week ago is "a few weeks back." It could've been two weeks, it could've been six months. I don't know.*

When he asked me what I would be, my first thought was of taking the job of midwife. But I should leave that to someone who actually likes birth, and not just the idea of liking it. The job I would really choose is the herbalist/medicine woman/witch doctor. I like learning about herbs and plants and mushrooms- edible things that can be foraged, medicinal properties, etc. It would be fun to have a job of it (and if I was the baker's wife we could combine the two and give medicinal breads).

For my friend Drew's birthday I got to play medicine woman, and made him some tinctures. It was fun to research which herbs I wanted to use, which medicinal properties they had, etc. I ended up making a St.John's Wort tincture for mood elevation; nettle tincture for colds and hay fever; and a sleep tincture using chamomile, spearmint, lavender greens, and lemon balm.

 

 

As I do any time I want something to have a cute label, I asked Luke to do it.

Also for his birthday I finished his Christmas present that I never gave him. It's a magic bag. It can hold his tinctures, stuff for reiki sessions, books on shamanism, whatever. The front of the gray linen bag is embroidered with wheels ("chakra" means "wheel") with the corresponding color and number of spokes for each chakra. The crown chakra is represented by a lavender lotus (just to make it more interesting and because I was not about to embroider 960 spokes). This was a fun project. Though I don't believe in chakras the same way Drew does, it was fun to learn about them and the ideology behind taking care of them. And it seems like something a witch doctor should make, right?

I need to buy some chia pets.

A couple weeks ago I was at work, reveling in a veggie sandwich from Apple Spice Junction, and I realized that for me, what makes a good veggie sandwich is the mushroom/sprouts combo. I spent every spare second of the day reading about the different kinds of sprouts, the health benefits* of sprouts, the best ways to grow sprouts at home, etc.etc. etc. On the way home I stopped at Whole Foods, where you can buy different sprouts in bulk. I bought just a little bit of three kinds- a sandwich blend (alfalfa, radish, broccoli, and mung), radish, and mung bean- in case this was just a phase and I lost interest after the first time.

For the radish, I spritzed a paper towel with water and stuck it in the bottom of a mason jar, with the the seeds over it. The sprouts molded before they were very big.

For the mung and the sandwich blend, I put about three tablespoons of seeds in the bottom of a mason jar, and used one of those paint strainers as a screen over the mouth of the jar, secured by the ring. I soaked the seeds for 12 hours, then shook out all the water, and left the jars to drain on my dish draining rack. I rinsed and shook up the seeds every twelve hours, always finishing by shaking out all the water and letting the sprouts dry out as much as possible. Within four days I had a really delicious blend for sandwiches/salads.

I also had a jar of really stinky mung beans.Turns out the paint strainer weave is too tight for the bigger beans; not enough water got out, and the beans went bad.

I'm debating buying or making a sprout grower because they look so nice, but trying to talk myself out of it because the jars work just as well (or will, once I get a looser screen for the big beans). What's nice, though, is that I can always have them on hand to add flavor and healthiness* to various foods. This week I'm going to experiment with sprouts in smoothies.

*Sprouts are a good source of protein, vitamin C, and a lot of other good stuff that prevents disease and cancer, and lower bad cholesterol.