2017-02-06-1931Z


making some progress on several fronts. first, my arroyo tomato has generated 8 sprouts so far. I'm remembering to water it, which is something of a miracle.

yesterday evening, Arámburo had several packs of beef bones with goodly amounts of meat and fat attached. I bought 3 packs, one of which turned out to have some pretty putrid meat, but I boiled the best of it and had a good 1/4 inch of tallow on top this morning. I put that in a separate container and boiled it again to drive off all the remaining water. then I twisted the fibers of that Gossypium (wild cotton) I'd found earlier in the day, and soaked it in the fat to make a wick. then put machaca in my little stainless steel bowl and covered it with the rest of the fat, holding the wick in the middle, then draping it over a stick across the top. my "meat candle" is now solidifying. the idea is to light it to heat it up, possibly adding bits of potato or other food to cook it, and have an easy traveler's meal.

I cut up the smaller of the two squashes and added it to the beef stew. it was delicious. not bitter at all, in fact so sweet I wondered at first if it weren't an unripe melon.

there were two Gossypium seeds left in my pocket. I must have lost the others. anyway, I scarified one of them with a file, and planted them both in a little dirt. we'll see how they do.

the cracks in my foot today seemed a little less painful, so I tried jogging didn't make it more than a few blocks. but still, better than nothing. it's the third day since I last did my mile and a half. on the way back, I noticed another of those Damiana look-alikes, like the one on Hidalgo, near the corner of Torre Iglesias and Belisario Dominguez. the yellow buds with 5 sepals, and the mallow-like 5-sided seed pods (which apparently make it not likely to actually be Turnera diffusa).

there's more but that's all I can think of at the moment.

Back to blog or home page

last updated 2017-02-28 14:17:46. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com