Many Lemons, Paleo Tea, Homemade Kombucha, and Jainist Ways

The paleo coconut tea I made last night. Coconut butter makes it creamy and coconutty.

A fresh batch of our homemade kombucha was ready last night. I drank that too.

I checked on the lemon tree last night, and found that it’s covered with baby lemons. I mean covered, to the extent that I’m now worried that:

♥ The tree won’t be able to support the weight of the fruit.

♥ This hyper-production will deplete the tree’s energy just before it’s to come indoors for winter. You don’t want a weakened lemon tree trying to bull its way through a winter indoors.

♥ I’ve been over fertilizing it, and this is abnormal growth.

This morning I had the idea that maybe I should remove some of these lemon clusters from the tree. That’s a horrible thought, but it would be more horrible if this excessive reproduction just lays the tree to waste.

The goal is to get the tree as strong as possible before bringing it indoors for winter, where dry air and lack of sun will stress it even more. I still gave it phosphorus last night. What lemons I do leave on the tree will grow fat and juicy if they’re well nourished.

A friend turned me on to coconut butter yesterday. This is not coconut oil, but the entire coconut, minus the shell, ground to a smooth, buttery paste. Last night, I used it to make paleo coconut tea.

Brew a cup of black tea (I used Tazo), add it to the Nutrabullet or blender container, sweeten to taste or not at all, and add a healthy tablespoon of coconut butter. Whir it for about 15 seconds, and it’s done.

The result is a super healthy, vegan, medium chain triglycerides-rich, great for the skin and body, anti-oxidant-rich, delicious, frothy tea latte. I wanted a second mug of it, but there was the kombucha.

The most recent batch of homemade kombucha was ready for drinking last night. Our growing scoby is more than a year old now, and doing great. Over time, the kombucha it produces has become smoother and more mellow. I’ve been flavoring it with fresh orange juice or cranberry juice.

My husband pulled up the kale bed last weekend. Our kale had become completely insect-eaten. When you practice ‘harm none’, veganic gardening, pesticide use is not an option. The best way to discourage insects is to remove what attracts them in great numbers. So you have to relinquish a crop or two each season so the rest of the garden won’t come under attack.

So I’ll be planting kale as one of our autumn crops. The planting happens this weekend. This is about a week later than I’d planned, but I predict an extended summer this year, with germination-type temperatures clear through September. All we need to do is get these cold weather crops started and strong before October, and they’ll do their magic through to Thanksgiving and beyond.

I’m drawn again now to Jainism (see last summer’s posts for my earlier thoughts on Mahavira’s teachings) and this afternoon, plan seek out a Jainist colony or temple in Connecticut with the intention of visiting.

Jainist ways are the absolute embodiment of compassion. There’s no doubt that there are principles of Jainism that are compelling. Incorporating even some Jainist practices would only enhance Buddhist practice.

Both systems unfolded in India, the holiest of holy lands. Mahavira and Siddhartha walked the same path: aparigaha (non-attachment) and no harm. The most righteous ways to be.

Live in peace.