* two random Celestial Seasonings tea bags
* three regular tea bags, Luzianne, Lipton's etc.
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1 whole lemon
I heat a small pot of water nearly to boil, add the sugar to dissolve. Put in the tea bags.
Entire lemon squeezed into the 2 quart pitcher. Cool.
Usually I drink the entire two quarts in one day. Rarely does it last longer than that.
So that's a lot of lemons.
They're purchased by the bag-full from different sources. Some have a lot of pips and discarding them causes some vague nearly undetectable unease. I cannot quite put my finger on it and in a few moments of unfocused thought I allow free form association and I am briefly transported visually and by feel to a period between kindergarden and first grade.
I see a picture of my father, as a video, turning over to me dozens of tiny clay pots. I recall that, like it was an event. They were delightful little toys -- the way they stacked so perfectly. I was intrigued by their red clay coarse perfection. I stacked them different ways. Smashed a few, of course, com'on, I'm a boy, we must see how things break. I wondered why they each have a perfect little hole on the bottom. Wouldn't they be better without a hole? It didn't make sense. The contents would fall out. I objected to them having holes. I filled them all with dirt, and sure enough, the dirt fell out through the holes. And sure enough they were a mess because of that. I planted every seed that I encountered. Apple seeds. Orange seeds, grapefruit seeds, watermelon seeds, peach seeds, plum seeds, grape seeds, everything good that I like except vegetables.
I see a picture of my father, as a video, turning over to me dozens of tiny clay pots. I recall that, like it was an event. They were delightful little toys -- the way they stacked so perfectly. I was intrigued by their red clay coarse perfection. I stacked them different ways. Smashed a few, of course, com'on, I'm a boy, we must see how things break. I wondered why they each have a perfect little hole on the bottom. Wouldn't they be better without a hole? It didn't make sense. The contents would fall out. I objected to them having holes. I filled them all with dirt, and sure enough, the dirt fell out through the holes. And sure enough they were a mess because of that. I planted every seed that I encountered. Apple seeds. Orange seeds, grapefruit seeds, watermelon seeds, peach seeds, plum seeds, grape seeds, everything good that I like except vegetables.
The house had an oriel window with a built-in bench that faced the front street. It was akin to a greenhouse extension. My parents tolerated me lining the whole window with the little clay pots. There were dozens of them. I think, nearly fifty. Now, can you imagine having a child such as myself with such continuous childish experiments interfering constantly with your own sense of interior design? I can not imagine that myself and that's why I adore my parents so much for that. They were true parents to me and very supportive and encouraging in every instance I can think of.
But we moved frequently, and that overturned a lot of things by fiat. I was always being undermined by the fait accompli of relocation. In this case, the plants survived one relocation but failed a second move when we transferred overseas. I turned over to my grandmother whose neglect caused them to freeze. She wasn't into it and she didn't have the heart to tell me. It was an imposition on her and I did not know that. Fact is, she didn't know me, didn't love me, didn't care about the plant or about having a relationship with me, I understood all this from that tree-neglect, and I was never really able to regard her the same since.
Back.
Back.
Well then. I should plant the lemon seeds.
The seeds went directly into the dirt. So too the seed of the next lemon. And the next lemon. And the next lemon. And the next lemon. And so on until no more seeds fit in the pot. Covered with plastic.
The seeds went directly into the dirt. So too the seed of the next lemon. And the next lemon. And the next lemon. And the next lemon. And so on until no more seeds fit in the pot. Covered with plastic.
Weeks elapse. Nothing happens.
The seeds do not germinate and I do not understand that. ?
Turns out, the seeds are somewhat protected apparently to delay germination.
I peel the seed, carefully with an X-acto knife, like a banana, and get to the seed which is really underneath the denser outside coating.
I peel the seed, carefully with an X-acto knife, like a banana, and get to the seed which is really underneath the denser outside coating.
This discovery motivated a second round of lemon seed planting.
The seeds shorn of their outer coating and planted showed me that I probably wasn't going far enough. By accident I ripped off the brownish outer shell of the already shorn pip to reveal innermost seed. It is very easily broken and I believe this is the portion to aim for.
This is a little trickier to get at. I learned that by making careful slash through the length of the seed then using my fingernail to strip off the shell, like a banana, except how a monkey peels a banana, not how a human peels a banana, that is, straight through a center break like the alien bursting through a victims chest. This is where fingernails take over, and ah got no fingernails, see?
So if I can do it with these short things then you should be able to do it with whatever fingernails you've got.
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