Solo Experiments in juice and tea.

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Syka is a new settlement of primarily humans on the east coast of Falyndar opposite of Riverfall on The Suvan Sea. [Syka Codex]

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Experiments in juice and tea.

Postby Sophia Sunshore on August 7th, 2018, 5:10 pm

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34, Summer, 518 a.v.

It had been a few days now since Sophia had last been into the deeper rainforest with Uta. Since then the soursop fruits and the book she had found had been sat in her tent waiting to be used, and today was the day Sophia had decided to take the time to use them. By the time she had actually gotten around to starting though, it was nearing mid-afternoon and first she needed to make a quick trip. Sophia wanted to stop by the mercantile to pick up something that she thought would help her with any future endeavours into the realms of creating teas and other drinks.

After an uneventful walk over, Juli had helped Sophia to locate a couple of things that seemed exactly what she needed. They had found a small strainer that should work for catching loose herbs, and a type of cloth called cheesecloth. Apparently, it worked well for straining liquids from pulp. Sophia paid for her purchases, and stepped from the mercantile, waving goodbye to the woman behind the counter.

Her next stop was the community kitchen to collect a few more herbs that she wanted to try and make into teas. Sophia carefully cut a few lavender stalks, picked some lemon balm and a few stems of fennel where the flowers were almost dying off. Maybe I should try and grow my own herb garden... There was so much that Sophia wanted to try and make, and she was a little worried about using up the shared supplies.

She set her own ingredients aside for a moment to water the plants in the community kitchen as the soils had felt quite dry to touch. There wasn't too much work to do as the summer seemed to have all the plants thriving quite happily. One or two dried and browning leaves were then plucked, and Sophia gathered up her things and was on her way back home.

Reaching her tent, Sophia deposited her purchases just inside, and set about fixing up the fire again. Her original circle of stones was holding up nicely, and she cleared away some of the ash so that she could add fresh tinder and small sticks. She grabbed her flint and steel to light it, carefully blowing on the spark she had generated till it caught in a small twist of smoke.

Leaving the fire to grow, she reached for one of the soursop fruits. Uta had told her that it was possible to make into a drink and she wanted to try it. The first thing she did was take out her notebook and sketch a rough image of the oddly-shaped, spiky fruit. The young woman was determined to improve her drawing skills so that they would be of more use to Uta.

She took her time to draw the outline carefully and was rather pleased with the likeness. Then the spikes went down, though she found these rather fiddly to do. Sophia grabbed her eating knife and cut the fruit in half. The skin was incredibly soft, and the knife went easily through, and she took a moment then to draw out half the fruit to show the inside with the seeds.

Uta had told her not to eat the seeds, though Sophia wasn't sure why. She jotted a note down for future reference. Do not eat seeds... poison?? She took her time flicking the seeds out from the fruit, careful to keep them together so she could dispose of them or take them back up to Uta. If they were toxic the last thing she needed was for Pearl to eat them.
NOTE: During the Fall Sophia is a Dhani, specifically a golden eyelash viper. See here for more detailed info.
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Sophia Sunshore
Plant Lady
 
Posts: 213
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Joined roleplay: July 5th, 2018, 5:26 pm
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Race: Human, Mixed
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Experiments in juice and tea.

Postby Sophia Sunshore on August 7th, 2018, 6:06 pm

Sophia laid out a piece of the cheesecloth and scraped the white flesh of the soursop into it, removing any more seeds she had missed. When both halves had been done, she tied up the cloth so the fruit was inside. Setting it over her bowl, she began to press down on the pulp inside and the juice started to drip through the material. She squeezed harder and it came through in a steady stream.

Quickly that petered out, and Sophia tried to wring the rest of the liquid out as hard as she could. She wasn't the strongest, but she still managed to coax a little more from the soursop. Untying the cloth, she removed the messy remains of the soursop from within. There was perhaps two mouthfuls of juice in the bowl. Sophia forwned. All that effort for such a small amount? It would seem that you needed to have a lot more fruit than you'd think to obtain a decent amount of liquid.

With a sigh, she set about peeling the second soursop. She hadn't planned on using them both, but she wanted to try a decent amount of juice. In any case she wasn't sure what she wanted to use the second one for yet, and she supposed she could always get some more now that they knew the tree location and had obtained seeds to grow more if it proved useful.

Sophia made quick work of the skin, and this time decided to cut the fruit up a little smaller in the hope that it would be easier to squeeze the liquid out. When all the seeds were again extracted, she tied the cloth and set about wringing out more of the milky juice into the bowl.

In the end, she had a full cups worth of juice. Sophia had gathered the messy pulp into the cloth to dispose of later and had made sure the seeds were safely stored away from Pearl. She picked up the cup and sniffed at the juice. It had a distinctly fruity scent, quite sweet and not at all what she had been expecting.

Cautiously, Sophia took a sip. The liquid was quite thick, not at all like water, and a similar colour to that of milk. The taste was very exotic, similar to a pineapple mixed up with strawberries and there was a sourness beneath it. She wasn't sure if she liked it, and once she had drained the cup she still couldn't make up her mind. She determined that she definitely wouldn't bother to go out of her way to make it again at least.

The juice left an odd aftertaste in Sophia's mouth and she wrinkled her nose. Hopefully there weren't any odd side-effects, although since Uta had told her it was safe she doubted there would be. The fire was still going strong, so the Svefra decided it might be a good time to try and make a new type of tea.
NOTE: During the Fall Sophia is a Dhani, specifically a golden eyelash viper. See here for more detailed info.
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Sophia Sunshore
Plant Lady
 
Posts: 213
Words: 193757
Joined roleplay: July 5th, 2018, 5:26 pm
Location: Syka
Race: Human, Mixed
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Experiments in juice and tea.

Postby Sophia Sunshore on August 8th, 2018, 12:01 pm

The evening was drawing near so Sophia decided to try for something that would be relaxing. The first thing to do would be to sort out the ingredients. She gathered together the herbs she had picked earlier. The fennel she set aside as she didn't intend to use it yet. She recalled from the herbalism book that it was best to use fennel seeds, and the plant needed to be dry to extract them, so she would have to wait for that.

Lavender was well known to be relaxing so that was definitely one that she would use. The only other thing she had to hand at the moment was the lemon balm. She didn't really know exactly what use lemon balm had on its own - that one was to find out later - but she did know it often worked well when mixed with other things. Perhaps lavender was one of the herbs it would complement nicely.

Herbs selected, Sophia filled her small pot with clean water and set it over her fire to boil. She then plucked off four of the lemon balm leaves. She knew from last time she had made tea that lemon tended to come out very strong, though she had a feeling that had been the lemon grass. She dropped the leaves into the pot and picked up the lavender. Sophia had no idea how it was best prepared, so she decided to simply break up the lot, stems, flowers and all. Four full stems went into the pot and she sat back and waited for the water to boil properly.

Once it was boiling, she carefully moved the pot so it wasn't directly over the hottest flame. The fresh herbs needed some time to release their flavour into the water, so while she waited Sophia cleaned and tidied away the things she had used to make the earlier juice. Pearl fluttered down near the fire as she was doing so, and the Svefra shot the bird an affectionate look. The little prion had taken to Syka extremely well. Short of being back on a boat this place seemed to be perfect for her.

Sophia settled herself back in front of the flame and Pearl hopped up into her knee. The scent of the herbs was starting to come out now, so she hoped it wouldn't be too much longer. She glanced back at the seabird, who returned her gaze. Sophia concentrated for a brief moment.
"What have you been doing this afternoon?" Images of the open ocean flickered in her mind, waves rolling down below and she had the sense of diving into thee waters. I seemed Pearl had spent the afternoon scouting along the shore and hunting for the microscopic fish she liked to eat. Even though Pearl wasn't of the grasslands, the pair had an incredibly strong connection and she found that it was easy to use her gnosis to communicate as she would with any animal of her marked biome.
NOTE: During the Fall Sophia is a Dhani, specifically a golden eyelash viper. See here for more detailed info.
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Sophia Sunshore
Plant Lady
 
Posts: 213
Words: 193757
Joined roleplay: July 5th, 2018, 5:26 pm
Location: Syka
Race: Human, Mixed
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Medals: 1
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Experiments in juice and tea.

Postby Sophia Sunshore on August 8th, 2018, 12:26 pm

Another few chimes passed before Sophia determined that the tea was ready to drink. She collected her clean cup and the new strainer she purchased earlier. She wrapped her hand in a cloth - the handle of the pot tended to get pretty hot - and slowly eased the pot out of the fire. The strainer was set over the cup and she carefully poured to contents of the pot through it.

The scent of lavender and lemon wafted up from the cup as she poured, and she could see that the liquid had turned a lovely blue-purple colour. She set the pot to one side and shooed Pearl away from it. Sometimes the little bird was far too curious for her own good. The strainer filled with the herbs went into the pot for it all to be cleaned, and she picked up her cup and settled back down to taste.

Sophia blew gently over the tea to make sure it wouldn't scold her and then took a cautious sip. It was a perfect mixture of lavender and lemon, but she couldn't help feeling that something was missing. She retrieved the little pot of honey from her tent and added a tiny amount to the tea, stirring to dissolve it. She then took another sip and smiled at the taste. The tiny bit of sweetness from the honey had made a big difference.

The cup was very quickly drained, and she sat back with a sigh. Sophia could actually feel the tense muscles across her shoulders loosening. Even if it wasn't the tea relaxing her internally, the scent alone was working wonders to calm her and settle her down for the end of the evening.

Sophia reached again for her journal to write the recipe down. It wasn't particularly complicated, but she thought it was best to get into the habit. Plus it was all helpful practice for when it came to assisting Uta. She sketched out a sprig of lavender, trying her best to mark down the fiddly little flowers neatly, and then added a few leaves of the lemon balm next to it. It was a little rough around the edges but she definitely felt like she was improving. She would add some colour later.

Next she jotted down the amounts she had used of each and a couple of notes about the effects she had personally observed.
A relaxing tea, good to drink before sleep. Helps to loosen muscles. Add honey if sweetness is desired. She then paused as another herb popped into her mind. Chamomile was also meant to be a good herb for calming. She hadn't noticed it in the kitchens however, so she would see about finding some seeds. Note: Try adding chamomile.

She flipped the journal shut and gathered up everything that needed cleaning to set aside for tomorrow. The tea had most definitely relaxed her and she was starting to feel sleepy. Sophia crawled into her tent and settled down, her mind flickering with thoughts and ideas about creating her own little herb garden. She would have to speak to Uta about it - the botanist would surely know the best way to go about that.

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NOTE: During the Fall Sophia is a Dhani, specifically a golden eyelash viper. See here for more detailed info.
User avatar
Sophia Sunshore
Plant Lady
 
Posts: 213
Words: 193757
Joined roleplay: July 5th, 2018, 5:26 pm
Location: Syka
Race: Human, Mixed
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Plotnotes
Medals: 1
Featured Character (1)

Experiments in juice and tea.

Postby Solstice on August 30th, 2018, 2:03 am

Grades are here!

Sophia Sunshore

XP Award:
  • +1 Botany
  • +1 Herbalism
  • +4 Cooking
  • +2 Drawing
  • +3 Philtering

Lore:
  • Botany: Checking Soil To See if Plants Need Water
  • Cooking: Preparing Fruit for Juice
  • Herbalism: Harvesting Almost Dead Leaves
  • Botany: Soursop Seeds Not Edible
  • Cooking: Little Juice From a Lot of Fruit
  • Soursop Juice: An Odd Taste
  • Cooking: Preparing Tea
  • Cooking: Lavender, Lemon and Honey Makes Delicious Tea
  • Drawing: Sketching Plants
  • Philtering: Recipe for Lavender, Lemon Balm, and Honey

Rewards and Penalties:
  • +1 Strainer
  • +1 Cheese Cloth
  • - Price for Items

Note: I feel like I remember you discussing what the price would be for those objects but I don’t quite remember what it was! You may want to pm Gossamer and see if you don’t know. It was a fun thread! I enjoyed reading it.
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Solstice
The Sky Awaits
 
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Joined roleplay: June 3rd, 2018, 3:05 am
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