Geese, Goslings, and Great Blue Heron

I finally managed to get pictures of the geese and this year's goslings on the grounds of the Veterans Administration. Someone was feeding them bread while I was there, despite the signs warning people not to feed the geese. At one point, the goslings ran toward me, thinking that I was going to feed them as well. I probably would have picked up a package of organic spinach on the way if I had intended to feed them.

Blooming Trees_2023

I got away from my desk today for long enough to get a few pictures of the trees in bloom. Pear trees are considered an invasive species where I live; even so, they are some of the first trees to bloom in the spring and are often pretty, despite their appearing ghostlike on occasion.

I recommend that you click on the first picture and then scroll through the pictures for the best viewing.

Homemade Peanut Butter

Beginning during the pandemic when places like Natural Grocers and Whole Foods stopped allowing their customers to grind their own peanut butter, I have been grinding my peanut butter at home and storing it in the refrigerator. As a vegetarian, I eat peanut butter daily as a source of protein.

It was often difficult finding enough unsalted peanuts during the pandemic, and I sometimes ordered peanuts in bulk from New Jersey. More recently, I have been able to find jars of unsalted peanuts at my local grocery store and at Whole Foods. I have discovered that the 365 brand from Whole Foods and the store brand at Price Chopper make more than three large mason jars of peanut butter while the Planters’ brand makes less than three large mason jars because of the amount of waste included—that is, the seed coat or the wrapper covering the peanut.

I made the switch from store bought peanut butter because of the amount of sugar, particularly the amount of high fructose corn syrup. In an effort to get away from excess sugar, I began buying the grind-it-yourself peanut butter at Natural Grocers and Whole Foods. During the pandemic, our son gave us a peanut grinder for Christmas. It took us a while to figure out that we still needed to chop the nuts first before transferring them. I am at the point now that I can grind six pounds of peanut butter in an hour. Cleaning up afterwards is a bit of a chore. I usually soak the peanut grinder for a few hours first.

My students in one writing class are currently working on their information essay, which requires that they describe how to do something that they know well. If it were me, I would be describing how to make peanut butter.

Addendum

I am adding two pictures from my most recent batch of peanut butter. I had to use four pounds of Planter peanuts this time, so the peanut butter is a bit dark because of the wrappers covering so many of the peanuts. I tried sifting them, but it didn't help.

These pictures come from the end of the process. The peanut butter left in the drum and on the stones fill up the third jar. 

Reading in 2022

I added twenty-two books to my LibraryThing account in 2022, eight of which are ones published by Choeofpleirn Press, the press that my wife and I run. Until I got the six books that my wife and son gave me for Christmas (five collections of poetry and one anthology of poetry), I had only purchased eight books during the year—Mood Swings, a collection of stories about jazz by Bill Moody, and books of poetry by Elizabeth Tibbets (Say What You Can), Ada Limon (The Hurting Kind, The Carrying, & Bright Dead Things), Maggie Smith (Good Bones), Tony Hoagland (Turn Up the Ocean), and Joseph Millar (Dark Harvest).

During the year, I also finally renewed my library card and checked out Ada Limon’s Sharks in the Rivers and Melissa Fite Johnson’s While the Kettle’s On, along with a few other titles.

Writing poetry regularly, and reading poetry as an editor, has led to my emphasis on poetry in my own reading.

There are other books that I want to read, such as Adam Minter’s Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale, and I plan to get to them at some point.