Blog on the Lillypad
Sunday, September 14, 2003
 | Gaaaaagh! Hot!Hot!Hot!---Part Two!
Last week I started my horseradish experiment, based on the advice of Norman Walker, a vegetarian who lived to be over 100 and advocated fresh vegetable juices for what ails you. I've been fasting two days per week, drinking three pints of juice for each 24 hour fast, and at this point my back inflammation has decreased sharply---especially this week. Also, my symptoms of menopause have lessened considerably, especially the insomnia. So today it was time to throw out the old horse radish and pulverize in the new! |
At the grocery store the Chinese produce man frowned at shallw bin of horseradish roots and said, "Not too good! Soft!" But I told him soft horseradish is better than no horseradish. This morning I peeled it and noticed a lot more fumes. Last week's fresh root did not give off the mustard oil fumes until it was actually being pulverized. But I chopped it up and then ran it through the Champion Juicer, set on puree. A lot less juice came out with the pulp, annother effect of being past its peak. But oh my, those volatile oils did just fine!
Once again, an invisible cloud rose all around me, prompting an exit once or twice so that I could recover. But I finally got all the pulp scraped into a bowl and then washed up. As it happens, this past week was a flu and sinus infection week for a lot of people. I'd been a bit achy and congested earlier but had gotten off lightly. Three people I know actually had to see the doctor and get antibiotics. And two of them spent Monday and Tuesday in bed. But after the exposure to the mustard gas in the kitchen, I blew my nose and expelled black blood and gunk from far back in my sinuses (sorry to be grotesque) and abruptly breathed easier. So to be on the safe side, after I'd mixed the pulverized horseradish root with lemon juice, I took a large half-teaspoon of the mixture.
WAAAAAHOOOOOOO! More tears, and liquid fire all the way down my gullet. And nausea. Horseradish, pure and barely diluted, does not always agree with me. So I mixed up some lemon juice with two tablespoons of maple syrup, filled the big glass jar with 24 ounces of cool water, and drank down this natural lemonade to settle things. It did.
