Radishrain

I've previously tried rooting grapefruit cuttings in water in a windowsill (probably about four times). Each time it failed. The cutting would eventually dry up and die, with no roots, after some weeks. I didn't use hormone-rooting powder, however (but that would dissolve in the water, rather than stay on the stem, unless I tried rooting it in soil).

I figure part of the problem is algae. Light from the window causes algae in the water to grow, and that algae may be competing with the grapefruit tree cutting.

So, my grapefruit tree was getting too tall for my room; so, I pruned off a couple pieces, which I'm trying to root as cuttings in water, again--except this time, I'm trying it in the closest where it's dark (instead of the windowsill). The rationale here is that algae won't grow in the dark, clouding the water, and coating the stem. Also, the sun probably won't dry up the leaves eventually (if they die, they might die a different way). So, maybe it'll grow roots, this time; yeah, it doesn't have light to feed the cuttings, but the cuttings probably have starches and stuff stored up in them (they are tree cuttings, after all), which they could use to grow roots.

Many people know the following about starting an avocado tree from a seed/pit:

Stick toothpicks in the side to hold it up in a jar of water. Wait for it to grow. Plant.

However, did you know there's a trick to getting the tree to grow straight up and really tall really fast? Basically, what you do is keep it somewhere dark until it's ready to plant. Because of the lack of light, it keeps growing up taller, and it grows straight (searching for light), since there's no light to bend toward.

Anyway, we used to start them in my grandma's cellar when I was a child. Later on (still as a child), I started one in a locker in my bedroom, and it grew very nicely; I think it got about four feet tall before I took it out of the jar.

Another advantage of keeping it in the dark is the water likely won't grow algae in it.

I'm copyied my post from TomatoJunction (and added more content):
https://www.tomatojunction.com/post64083.html#p64083

Oatmeal raisin cookies. Here's the recipe that I used (quite loosely based on Dropped Oatmeal Chippies from The Doubleday Cookbook):

3 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1.5 teaspoons iodized salt
1.5 cups butter (three regular sticks)
3 cups firmly packed brown cane sugar
4.5 cups old fashioned oats
6 eggs
3 teaspoons artificial vanilla flavoring
3 cups raisins

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix all the dry ingredients, except the brown sugar, together (including the oats and raisins). Melt the butter in a sauce pan. When melted, take it off the burner, wait a bit, and add (to the melted butter) the brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Stir thoroughly.

Grease pans (not super heavily, as that will affect the taste) with extra virgin olive oil.

Pour the combined wet ingredients into the combined dry ingredients, and mix it all up (I used a Kitchenaid mixer).

Drop the cookies on the pans (the size can be generous if you don't mind them touching in the end). Bake for 19^ minutes. Remove the cookies from the pans within a minute or two after removing them from the oven.

For me, this made just over four pans of large cookies. If you do smaller cookies, you could get more pans full of cookies. I cooked two pans of cookies at a time.

^If you only do one pan at a time and use smaller cookies, you might reduce the baking time somewhat.

They turned out quite well.

Here are the ones I haven't eaten, yet:



We don't have a cookie jar, so I repurposed a large-ish slow-cooker:


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My method of making a slow-burning fire that lasts a good long time for the amount of wood is to do this:

Place a surface of wood on the bottom. On top, place two pieces of wood parallel to each other with a space between. Put a firestarter there. Place two parallel pieces of wood (with a space between) perpendicular to the others, on top. Keep adding more layers in that fashion the longer you want it to burn (even little blocks of wood work for this effect). Light the firestarter. The fire should shoot up through the middle hole, and begin to light all the wood in the center. You'd think it would burn fast, but it doesn't. It does get decently warm, however (by the time the wood topples over, there are a lot of coals, and it should be plenty warm; then you can burn additional wood quickly on those coals, if desired).

If you're having difficulty envisioning the way the wood is stacked, imagine a Jenga stack with the middle piece of each layer taken out.

So, those no-hassle firestarters (for lighting fires to keep your house warm) are getting expensive, these days (those Strike-a-fire ones). We've been dividing them up into several to make them last longer. Yes, you don't need them to light a fire, but they make the process easier.

Within the last few days or so, I discovered a nice substitute. All you do is take a handful of toilet paper, put a reasonable amount of rubbing alcohol in it, and position it like you would your firestarter. Then wipe your hands dry (so they don't catch fire), light a match, toss it on, and watch it burn for a good long time (at least a few minutes).

This is nice, since it's so easy to light. You don't have to wait any time at all (just touch the fire and the toilet paper bursts into flames).

It's also inexpensive. You could take a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a roll of toilet paper camping (for a campfire), for that matter (they'd have more uses than firestarters, of course).

Anyway, of all the flammable substances with which to light a fire I've seen, I'd have to say I like rubbing alcohol and toilet paper the most. It's easy. It's clean. And it's fun. However, to be safe, make sure you don't have rubbing alcohol on your hands or such when you light the fire (it can catch fire instantly).

This is in the substance forum because toilet paper and rubbing alcohol are both substances rather than units.

https://phys.org/news/2022-02-scientists-soil-viruses.html

I discovered the other day when I ate a whole large onion (I fried it, and then put it on my quesadillas, and fried them) that I felt really good, like eating that much onion was super healthy or something. It was a red onion, if that makes any difference.

I've eaten fairly large amounts of onions before, but this was more than my usual large amount.

Did you know you can roast garlic directly in the flames of a hot fire? (Such behavior causes marshmallows to burst into flames, or would likely turn hotdogs to charcoal.) I didn't read how to do this online; I wanted to burn the skins off instead of peeling them.

Here's how you do it:

1. First of all, keep the skins on. They're easier to take off after they've been roasted.

2. Skewer the garlic (papery coverings and all) on a hotdog roasting stick.

3. Stick the garlic directly in your hottest flames for a few minutes, until it seems like they ought to have burned to ash.

4. Then, take them out of the fire, skin them (skinning them under running water is fast). Surprisingly, the fire doesn't completely burn up the skin, but it mostly does the job.

There you go. The garlic underneath the burnt skins shouldn't be burned at all. It tastes more like a vegetable than a spice.

Every once in a while (days to weeks or so), one of my Christmas cactuses moves. When it does, it seems to do it all at once. It starts out flopped on the north side of its pot. Then, it spreads out across the pot nicely, with part of the plant north, part in the center, and part south. Then, it flops completely over to the south side of the pot. Then, it flops back entirely over to the north side, and the cycle repeats. The room only has a south window, some distance away, and I don't move the pot.

I had another plant (the same kind; they both originate from the same plant, and so should be genetically the same) which did the same thing, except it only flopped back and forth (no phase in the middle), and I think it did it more often; eventually, it stopped doing it (maybe it will again). It would be one direction, then the next day, it would be another direction. The plant I first mentioned used to only have two phases (north and south), until it got somewhat bigger.

I wonder if they move with the moon cycle, or something. Today is one of those days when my plant flopped over. It had been spread out across the pot, but now the whole plant is facing south. I've never actually seen the plants move; I've only seen the complete change in position after it already happened.

For the record, the current moon cycle is 67.7% waxing gibbous.

I used to think the plant flopped south when it needed water, but that proved to be wrong, as I made sure it had water when it was spread out across the pot, this time.

Anyway, I don't see this as a problem. I see this as something that is very interesting (plant motion that isn't just following the sun like a sunflower does). The plant seems to be healthy.

I got some organic dill seeds a while ago. I decided I wanted them in powder form to make them easier to use at a moments' notice for a wider variety of purposes. So, I blended them up, and now they look kind of like peat moss, but workable.

The freshly blended up seeds smelled like menthol, which was fascinating. I'm guessing that smell will subside over time.

I decided to make some kind of dressing with it. Here's what I added:

Dill seed powder
Black pepper
Granulated garlic
Key lime powder (from dried whole fruits, peels, seeds, and all)
Sweet pepper powder (from peppers we grew in 2021)
Pink sea salt
Parsley
Some white onion, cut into small pieces
Mayonnaise

I mixed it up and tasted it, and it was delicious! But, it didn't taste like salad dressing, nor like tartar sauce. It tasted like a dip or sandwich spread. I tried it on salad, and while it can pass for a makeshift salad dressing, I sensed it had better uses.

So, I spread the rest of it on bread and baked it in the toaster oven until it was well-done. The result tasted pretty good, and was more satisfying to my stomach than expected.

Anyway, I think the sauce/dip/spread might be good on something like a hamburger, a sandwich, or with chips. It might be good with fish, too (even though it's not tartar sauce).

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