The Old Folks Home

[Alaskan]

Linda, I think 35% is a great incubation humidity.




I am cooking memorial wheat berries for a friend. This is his tenth year anniversary. I loved him (like a friend), and I love doing it every year, but it sure is bitter sweet.

 

[ronott1]

Ron I just wanted to give a little feed back on the incubation. Yesterday was day 8 so I left it off and spritzed and came back two hours later. With the top off it was 65%. I'm in the deep south and humid. So today I did it without adding the spritz and when I came back it was 35%. That's funny because when I took the top off it was 21%. Any new suggestions.....

Linda, I think 35% is a great incubation humidity.

It it is humid where you are, then you can get by without adding water. Use the cooling and you should be fine.

Most eggs do fine with just the cooling.

I hope you have a great hatch.

 

[LindaB220]

Linda, I think 35% is a great incubation humidity.

I am cooking memorial wheat berries for a friend. This is his tenth year anniversary. I loved him (like a friend), and I love doing it every year, but it sure is bitter sweet.

Yeah, me too. But it was with the top off. When I put it back on it goes back to 20 something. So I have to add water occasionally. Tell me about the wheat berries. I'm very interested in that. How do you cook it. Very sincere gesture for a good buddy.

 

[Wisher1000]

I am cooking memorial wheat berries for a friend. This is his tenth year anniversary. I loved him (like a friend), and I love doing it every year, but it sure is bitter sweet.

What are 'memorial wheat berries?'

 

[ronott1]

Yeah, me too. But it was with the top off. When I put it back on it goes back to 20 something. So I have to add water occasionally. Tell me about the wheat berries. I'm very interested in that. How do you cook it. Very sincere gesture for a good buddy.

These raise humidity from 5 to 10% for each container:

 

[Alaskan]

"Memorial Wheat berries" (but, I did sorta just make that up, trying to translate), is called different things in different cultures. Kohliva, is the way most Americans spell it and say it. Russians, Greek, Serbian, Ukrainian, etc. etc. each spell it a little differently, but it is basically the same thing.

Christ mentions how the grain of wheat must die in order to bring forth new life, and this is why most Kohliva is made with wheat berries. It doesn't have to be though. The Japanese always use rice, because that is their main food staple. Some Russians use rice because of a famine many years back, where no one could find and wheat, but they were able somehow to find some rice, and so some still use the rice since it has become traditional.

Anyway...you cook the wheat berries, remembering that we must all die in order to bring new life, and we must die in this life in order to be born anew in the new life to come. The berries are cooked until they just barely start to soften and split, but stop before they get mushy.

Then you need to drain them very well, and then lay them out on paper towels and clean kitchen towels to dry totally (if you are making Russian or Greek Kohliva, the Serbians like the berries wetter).

Once the berries are the way you want them according to your tradition, you add 'other stuff'. The 'other stuff' also varies according to tradition, but must have sweet for the joy of your loved one going to be with Christ, as well as bitter for the sadness that we can no longer be with our loved one.

I love Almonds for their both bitter and sweet. The Arabs always use lots of anise, but I don't like that, so I don't use that. Anyway, other possible 'other stuff' varies greatly by tradition of course:
orange peal
parsley (also used for the green of the earth from which we are made)
pomegranate seeds (also to show the blood of Christ)
chocolate
plum brandy (I think only the Serbs use this)
sesame seeds

lots of other possibles too.

I should mention, this is all Orthodox Christian. We do the memorial service once a year, on the anniversary of the death. The first year they are dead though, there is of course the funeral, then a memorial service I *think* at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and then after that just once a year. I am in a tiny parish, it has been awhile since someone has died.

 

[Alaskan]

Maybe I should have added..the Kohliva is taken to the church, a set of prayers are said over the Kohliva, remembering the person who died, we all sing the song "Memory Eternal" in this super sad melody, always makes me cry.

Then, at the end of the service, everyone in the church, when they come to the front for the final blessing from the priest, gets some of the Kohliva to eat (usually handed out in those little Dixie cups).

 

[Peep_Show]

We already had vit D and I picked up some calcium today.

Thanks!

If you can get some aloe vera gel, rubbed on it makes the bruising go away pretty darn quickly. This is something I learned in my auto accident where my breasts got both mashed by the steering wheel and took a beating from the seat belt. Had I not been, err, blessed by Grandma's inherited endowments I probably would've died. As it was, I had bruises the size and shape of Australia which went from deep black to banana to nada in no time flat thanks to aloe vera. That bruise-minimizing trick was passed along to me, so I'm just paying it forward.

Hope she feels better soon!

 

[ronott1]

If you can get some aloe vera gel, rubbed on it makes the bruising go away pretty darn quickly. This is something I learned in my auto accident where my breasts got both mashed by the steering wheel and took a beating from the seat belt. Had I not been, err, blessed by Grandma's inherited endowments I probably would've died. As it was, I had bruises the size and shape of Australia which went from deep black to banana to nada in no time flat thanks to aloe vera. That bruise-minimizing trick was passed along to me, so I'm just paying it forward.

Hope she feels better soon!

Thanks for the tip! We have a lot of aloe too.

 

[Penny Hen]

Penny, what a wonderful life lesson. Kids have no idea unless they are told. Or shown. I remember being on vacation in Biloxi Ms thirty years ago and I missed my 5 yr old. Just gone. We searched and searched for about 15 min. and I was ready to call the cops when an older sister of hers thought that maybe she might be upstairs playing with the motel owners daughter the same age. First I had heard of her. There she was. I took her back and gave her physical punishment. Years later all I had to do was point at her and say "The Brush" This of course shows you how often I punished my kids. They remembered it.

One of the stories I told them was about a friend of mine who was an ex-Navy Seal. He had been trained to do some amazing and violent things. After he was out of the Navy he was working for a newspaper as a advertisement salesman/graphic artist. One day a new person walks into their building explains that he has just bought the paper and hands them all checks for the work that they had done up until that day. He leaves shocked and stunned and depressed. He cashed his check and went out to the beach in Ocean Veiw (VA) to walk and clear his head. He was walking along with his head down and after dark when suddenly 7 or 8 guys rush him knock him down, pin him, punch him a couple of times and frisk him for his wallet. They take the money and leave his wallet in the sand. I explained to my girls that anyone can be taken down with enough people. My friend was distracted and depressed and not aware of his surroundings. This made him a mark. Prey. You should always be aware of what is going around you. He had a few body bruises and a big bruised ego. But the next day the new owner of the paper hired him back.