ULOG 159 - Various updates in my life

ULOG the log about you!

We are entering Summer now in Australia but the weather is very unstable. My plants are not loving it fully as one day it rains and the next day it is super hot and some of them are wilted even though the soil is moist. Maybe cuz I'm growing in root pouches and some of the large plants don't have a large enough root system? Anyway, the Okra plants have just started to continue their growth which seems to have been stunt for a while. Two of them have started to fruit even though the plant is only 20 cm tall. I'm not sure whether to cut the fruit out or let Nature do her work.

We've started to eat the prawns I caught on Saturday. A bit late but time is a rare commodity these days. My wife made some Vietnamese prawn dumplings (Bánh Bột Lọc).

My friend and photographer Frank Williams sent me a Nikon D300 with a 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G VR lens. I already owned a D300 but the menu joypad is broken and I could not get it fixed cheaply. Frank works for a camera shop in London and managed to get this used camera in mint condition for very cheap and sent it to me as a gift. Thanks mate 😄. I will get the good ol' lenses and flash guns out for some photoshoot in New Caledonia soon!

My wife heel and knee problems means she can't move around too much without hurting herself or getting exhausted. She wanted to make some turmeric extract and powder. In order to keep her from moving in and out of the house just for drying them, I decided to buy a food dehydrator which will also be good for other things. For testing it, I went in the garden to pick some lemon balm and chocolate mint to dry them along with slices of strawberry and banana.

I will then grind the mint and lemon balm and put them in some paper tea bags I just received too and will add a small amount of the Stevia powder I made from last season's harvest. Stevia ground cannot be dissolved in water and it's not nice to have it on your mouth and tongue, so adding that into a tea bag will be a great sleep helping tea.

Update:
After 3 hours in the dehydrator at 50 C, the leaves were dry, I then used a herb grinder to turn them into smaller bits.

A bullet mixer would be much faster but overkill for the small quantity I'm testing with. So there we go, 10 minutes of manual work doesn't kill anyone.

Chocolate Mint and Lemon Balm in a herb grinder

It's now ready to be put in little tea bags, one and a half coffee spoon of the mix of Chocolate Mint and Lemon Balm leaves.

I then added a tiny tiny bit of Stevia leaves powder because it's very sweet.

And my bag is ready, I left one for my wife and here are 5 left that I will bring to the office to share with some colleagues.

As I'm updating this post, my tea is brewing.

Previously on my blog:

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