wherein Liz rambles about Ithaca festivals, funnel cake, work schedules, and the misery of dry skin

[edenfalling]

The Apple Harvest Festival has been and gone. I am trying to remember the next big thing that will take over the Commons, and memory is failing me. The ice sculptures and Santa rappelling down the facade of the Center Ithaca building won't be until December. The chili cookoff is in February. I can't remember if there's anything planned for Thanksgiving -- this, I suppose, is what I get for always running away to NJ for that holiday.

Well, this year I will be in Ithaca for Thanksgiving, so if anything interesting happens, I will be sure to make a note. :-)

Anyway, from my perspective the most notable thing about this year's Apple Harvest Festival (aside from the absence of a Ferris wheel) was the way the funnel cake gave both me and MS gastrointestinal difficulties Sunday night. I don't honestly care -- I eat funnel cake so rarely and it was so delicious that I am willing to consider the diarrhea just part of the price. If I were eating funnel cake every day, I would of course have a different opinion, but it's a once-a-year treat for me, so whatever.

Moving on! Today was cold and rainy, and RE was out sick with something vaguely flu-like. Having learned from last time, he contacted us Sunday night instead of waiting to spring it on JM as she opened Monday morning. This meant MS and I had to do some scrambling Sunday night to sort out today's schedule -- it was PM's day off today, and we didn't want to bother her or call her in -- but despite his girlfriend's medical troubles, BW was able to come in at 9am rather than 11am, and MS came in at 11am rather than noon, so we were covered. Hopefully RE will be recovered by Wednesday or Thursday, whenever he's next scheduled to work.

The temperature is supposed to hover in the low to mid 50s all week: proper fall weather, though hopefully it will get sunny instead of raining interminably. We are not into the full display of turning leaves, but several trees are going gold and red, in a rather piecemeal fashion, and we're starting to get dead leaves tracked into the store.

There are other signs of the changing seasons as well. For example, on Sunday night, the skin at the tip of my right thumb split open because it was too dry to hold together -- and my hands were equally dry today, endless drizzle notwithstanding. Summer humidity is clearly over. Consequently, tonight I set up my drying rack, soaked my two misfit towels, and got my little evaporation-powered humidifier going. I also hauled the giant pot out of the cupboard, filled it with water, and set it on the stove where it will help keep my kitchen from turning bone-dry.

I am much more okay with cold than with heat. My main complaint against winter (because I cordially hate each season in its turn) is about humidity, not temperature. Winter is a constant misery of vaseline and bandaids as I fight a losing battle to keep my skin from cracking open like sun-dried mud.

Which reminds me that we need a new box of bandaids for the first aid kit at the smoke shop, as our current one is nearly empty. I must add that to my grocery list. (I tend to just buy them as part of my own shopping, since I'm the one who uses over 80% of them anyway.)

Comments

[monkey5s.livejournal.com]

Hi, I follow your LJ because you are every bit as entertaining in your regular life as you are with the Naruto fanfic you write. I just feel compelled to poke my nose in here on this post because the splits? That's usually me. Also my lips split.

Until last winter, that is. I started taking two tablespoons of chia seed every day (I do miss some days) around September of last year. Work was every bit as dehydrated as usual, and I did rather poorly at humidifying my home, but I only got a total of three very small splits, two thumbs and one on the side of my index finger, all winter. I didn't actually expect there to be any noticeable difference (I was taking it to supplement omega-3 fatty acids)- fortunately, I actually like taking it as a thick drink (I call it gloop- I put my two tablespoons of seed in a 24-oz. container of tap water, and shake it, repeatedly, and after a good hour or so it's ready).

It's a personal choice, of course, but I would love to be able to help ANYONE avoid the burning sting (and bleeding) of the winter splits.

[edenfalling]

That is interesting! I note that Wikipedia claims chia seed can be made into porridge as well as a thick drink, which sounds more my speed -- I am kind of iffy about pulpy drinks, whereas I am all over porridge. And I suspect the local organic co-op probably carries some.

Question: what does chia seed taste like?

[monkey5s.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Chia seed, as I consume it, only has a taste of being "a grain". What you have to understand (and this might be a deal-breaker for you) is that the seed develops a soft, mucousy casing as it swells in water. I like to drink it because it's... I think the word I'm looking for is demulcent? I have chronic sinus problems so my throat is often rough from the drainage, and the gloop is very soothing. But, the way most people take chia seed is as a gel. If you use a much lower water-to-seed ratio than I do (say, 1/4 cup of seed in 8 oz. of water, where I use 2 tablespoons of seed in 24 oz. of water), when the seed swells it sticks together. I don't mind the gel, but I actively enjoy the gloop.

There is nothing pulp-y about it, honestly. I am not sure what you would do to make it porridge-like (here I'm thinking of oatmeal, and how it can be chewy. Chia seed that's been in water will be soft, with a tiny crunch from the seed if you bite down on it. And, if you eat the seed dry, you'll need to drink a lot of water with it so it can swell up and be soft in your stomach). And you can grind chia seed, to remove the slight crunch of the seeds when it's made into a gel, but the seeds are so extremely tiny that I would despair of doing so myself.

I would expect the co-op carries it, in packages. Tiny, tiny seeds that cling with static electricity to plastic, and then if they get wet they stick to the container- and each other (chia pets were developed from seeing that the indigenous people would smear the dampened seed on pottery, where it would stick and sprout).

Recently marketers have tried to get chia seed away from the chia pet connection by renaming it Salba. In some cases they claim that Salba is the "better, healthier" white seed, while chia is the black seed. Claims of white seed being more nutritious than black aren't proven by testing- the thing that matters, from a nutritional standpoint, is the growing conditions. Of either variety. And it's healthy food to start with, so I don't think any alleged superiority of white over black is worth the higher price.

Since I use it every day, I buy it online from a place that I believe gets it from Arizona. Their name is Natural Remi-Teas (http://www.naturalremi-teas.com/mm5/merchant.mvc), and they sell the white seeds for slightly more than the black. I actually buy 5 lbs at a time, it lasts a long time, and they ship it in one-lb. ziplock bags. But I have seen it, both whole and ground, at the health food store.

Chia Seed in the UK

[(Anonymous)]

Hi all

Great description!

Chia Seeds are a nutritional addition to breakfast cereals and bake mixes.
Just in case anyone in the UK reads this post, Chia Seed is available online in the UK from http://www.chiahealthseed.co.uk

Enjoy!