Just when you thought the world was going to Hell in a handbasket – American economy is tanking, more than the usual number of middle-east quagmires, gas prices skyrocketing – you see something so out-of-this-world amazing that you think maybe, just maybe, there is some hope for our species after all.
Month: May 2008
Aeromed Helicopter Crash
My Economy Has Been Stimulated
Taken with my new Panasonic Lumix FZ50
An excellent use of a government bribe, if I do say so myself.
Buds
The Weekly Avocados, week 5
Here they are, in all their glory. The oldest one is in the middle. It should have the beginnings of leaves in another week or so.
Flash Math Experiment
A littler something I was playing around with this evening.
Click the Flash movie to reset the image with some new parameters.
The Weekly Avocado, week 4 – and a how-to
Yup. More roots coming in. Shouldn’t be long before there are shoots coming out the top.
In other news, two more of my avocado seeds have started sprouting. At the same time. The same day, even. So for all you people who want to know my secret, here it is:
1. Eat an avocado.
2. Clean the pit carefully, and set aside of a couple of days, until completely dry to the touch.
3. Carefully peel all of the brown skin from the pit. At this point it should come off fairly easily.
4. Cut the top and bottom from the pit; maybe a quarter of an inch each, but be careful on the bottom that you don’t slice into the seed inside the pit.
5. Now you should be able to see the natural split in the avocado pit. Carefully, very carefully, insert a thin knife blade a bit and just barely begin to pry the two halves apart. You don’t want them to come completely apart; just enough to weaken the seam between the halves.
6. Toothpicks around the perimeter, suspend the pit half submerged in a container of water as in the above photo.
The change here, from other online instructions, is the weakening of the seam between the halves of the pit. In most every failed attempt, the pit remained a solid whole and I think this prevented the seed from sprouting. This is not to say this method is foolproof, but it seemed to work okay for me (call it fool resistant instead).
I have two more pits waiting, and I will try with them too. I will post progress if and when there is any to report.
The Fulton Street Farmer’s Market is Open!
At long last, the Fulton Street Farmer’s Market is open for the season. After a long bland winter, I now have access to vegetables which are bred for flavor instead of toughness. For the moment the vendors are mostly selling plants and various non-food wares, but as the growing season picks up we will see a shift over to more foodstuffs. This morning the big sellers were asparagus, rhubarb and various meats.
Yum!
Spring in Huff Park
