I cracked open my latest brew of kombucha last night. I flavored it with papaya and passion fruit (maracuya). This will be my choice for the duration here. I doubt I will ever be able to replicate this flavor at home.
I was wondering if the passion fruit flavor would come through. It did indeed. Kombucha has definitely replaced my wine habit, hands down. I love when I open a new bottle, and it bubbles over like champagne. It feels so alive. I also love the feeling I experience when I reach for a drink of a second glass, and I don’t feel intoxicated. Instead I am pleasantly satisfied.
I am also so grateful that Natalie has an Instant Pot. Yesterday I made a delicious soup with giant white beans. It took less than an hour, and the beans were perfectly creamy. Also, thanks to the Instant Pot, I am also able to keep fresh yogurt on hand. It is SO much better than store bought.
This one has a dollop of St. Dalfour Four Fruits. All of their preserves are lovely. I made a mistake with my last batch of yogurt. I forgot to allow the milk to cool to 115 degrees before adding the starter. The final product was grainy milk. Gag. Dan would have used it. Mine went down the toilet. Sorry God.
I went for a rainy Palo Alto walk yesterday morning with Barbara and Debra. Now that Barbara has her wheels back, we’ll be seeing more of each other. She wants to learn how to make kombucha. Barbara was also a wine lover but quit almost a year ago, so she’s interested in trying this.
Here are a few shots from our walk. We met Barb at La Casita for coffee. She was driving her kitted-out golf cart. I would love one of these. Barb’s is the only one I’ve seen. Steffen did all the custom work on it to make it legal for the streets. She said that more are becoming available now that someone has created a business doing this.
Today is another rainy windy day. Yesterday, I watched as Martin and his helpers cut down bamboo across from my house. Today the wind is blowing it over.
The bamboo can really get out of control here. It reminds me of a lesson from my Hola Spanish class. The teacher, Brenda Romaniello, compared learning Spanish to the growth of bamboo. It starts out very slowly and then it suddenly shoots up, sometimes growing four feet per day!
Everyone is hunkering down this week. It is the week of the Boquete Flower and Coffee Fair. The traffic in town is overwhelming. So, locals stay home or leave town. Barb and Steffen left this morning for Pedasi on the southern coast. I don’t expect much other activity. Trivia and Tuesday Market are both cancelled because of the fair.
I will spend the next couple of days learning some new Zentangle patterns and build up my card supply.