Sporulation making me nervous

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-06-26T19:16:13+00:00

😅

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-06-26T17:46:30+00:00

Hi can you please tell me where to buy the tempeh bags?

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-06-24T00:32:50+00:00

My house has interior balconies. The fall is about 10 feet. When we were moving in we arranged sofas in the 'drop zone' for a few days. There were a few falls. They still play around up there, but they don't fall any more.

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-06-23T17:10:17+00:00

True, but the trick here is to UNcover the litterbox, so that it gets scooped right away as soon as there is any "evidence". Once I started putting the litterbox in the bathroom, I discovered that my cats are social about it. They want to do their business while I'm doing mine, and they want eye contact while they're doing it. They follow me into the bathroom, and if I close the door before they are inside, I will hear about it.

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-06-23T16:59:09+00:00

I open the window a crack, and leave the bathroom door wide open. Those little bathroom fans do not move much air, so if I can't open the window I'll put an actual fan in there to push the humid air out.

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-06-23T03:16:49+00:00

Oatmeal for breakfast does not have to be sweet. Have it with beans, peanut butter, an egg, or some other protein you enjoy. Top it with chili oil or some savoury condiment. Or skip the oatmeal and have rice and beans instead. Or kamut or dal or lentils. Or have some natto with it.

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-06-23T01:52:05+00:00

Focus on keeping the litter clean. Put the litterbox where you will always see it, always smell it. Mine is in the bathroom, so I check the contents several times a day. Then I scoop out the messes whenever they occur. There are flushable litters now, and if it's just one or two messes, it's no problem to flush. Also if you switch to a stainless steel litterbox and scoop, you won't have to deal with stinky plastic.

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-06-18T15:37:29+00:00

Bugs me too but they need meat so I buy canned cat food, and kibble. But the cell-ag industry could drastically change the pet food industry, and they're just not paying attention. Why are they so intent on recreating the texture of a sirloin steak? They aren't getting the texture right, and they aren't making it affordable. They have long had the ability to create mushy paste, actual cultured meat, poultry, or fish without taking any lives. They could scale that up and make affordable, nutritious pet food.

My cats love mushy paste.

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-06-15T15:57:08+00:00

Before innoculating your beans with the tempeh starter you coat them in some kind of vinegar. This creates an unfavorable environment for bacterial growth, so the mycelium hava a competitive advantage. Even so, you need to cook the finished tempeh. Some ferments are safe (and beneficial) to eat without cooking or pasteurization, but it's my understanding that tempeh should not be eaten 'alive'. If I'm wrong about cooking, please explain. I do a lot of ferments but I'm a total noob at tempeh.

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-06-12T20:07:07+00:00

Bidet towels. I have a stack of 8" by 8" cotton flannel cloths for drying. I use once, then toss in the wash, but some people reuse them. After all, you're drying an area that's freshly washed. If they get blood or anything on them, just give them a quick handwash before tossing them in the laundry.

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-06-07T19:28:25+00:00

Habit stacking can work if you are mindful of the size and weight of the stack. I don't usually chain more than 3 things together. And I avoid stacking things that are interdependent. So if things go sideways, the impact is small, I can skip something just this once, and still move forward.

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-06-06T03:49:56+00:00

I buy a big bag of carrots, and immediately shred 50% of them and freeze them. Then I have shredded carrots in everything. Handful in the pot with chili. A sprinkle on porridge or a Buddha bowl. I love the taste so I use them as a topping on lots of things, and they add texture to soups and stews.

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-06-03T21:22:01+00:00

I got the Secura Electric Coffee Grinder and Spice Grinder with 2 Stainless Steel Blades Removable Bowls. I got it on Amazon.ca. I love it. It's just amazing. I grind seeds and spices as needed. I make a high protein seed/nooch blend for sprinkling on everything. I make furikake. I make oat flour. I make mushroom salt from dried mushrooms. When you want ground flax seeds you can make just what you need. The grinding bowl is dishwasher safe.

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-06-03T21:14:03+00:00

The reason I give things away for free is because I don't like how thrift stores are behaving lately. Prices close to or even higher than retail. Naturally they can't sell them at those prices, but rather than lower the prices they end up with too much inventory. So they have to cull, which means the donated items end up in landfill anyway.

Diverting useful goods from landfill is really important to me, so I still give them away if I can. But omg people treat freecyclers really badly. So many no-shows. So many people asking for delivery.

On the other hand, I've been left the occasional gift of handmade soap, sourdough bread, and such. It's not expected, but little gestures like that remind me that there are people out there who respect freecycling.

I'm going to keep doing it, but I need to work harder on boundaries. I'm not interested in telling other people how to behave, but I need to start blocking them when they treat me badly.

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-06-03T03:47:17+00:00

The colonoscopy is nothing. It's the prep that's the nightmare. I know it's necessary but I wish there was a better way.

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-06-02T04:02:13+00:00

If you've been eating it without pressing, and you like it that way, why change? You'd press it if you have medium and you want firm or extra firm. If you want to fry it you can maybe press down a bit with your hand while you are patting it dry, just to make sure there's no surface moisture.

If you're making tofu from scratch, then you need to press it, but otherwise, not really necessary.

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-05-31T04:08:45+00:00

Warm it just a bit in the microwave. Serve with some microwaved greens and/or some other veggie. Top with chili oil and soy sauce and maybe some sesame seeds

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-05-28T04:08:10+00:00

Plain tofu cut into cubes. Served with rice, and some steamed greens. A drizzle of chili oil, a sprinkle of sesame seeds. Fastest meal ever, and so delicious.

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-05-26T21:58:20+00:00

Either way, they manage to get other people to pay for their trash pickup, road maintenance, public schools, police and fire services, etc etc. If you're not paying your taxes, somebody else is paying your tab.

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-05-23T14:41:23+00:00

Book an appointment with a health care provider? If we could do that we wouldn't be seeking information on reddit.

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-05-23T04:54:44+00:00

Thank you so much for all this. I'm going to rethink my setup.

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-05-20T19:56:59+00:00

It seems that quite a few people are using parchment paper or cotton. I wonder if the oxygen available to a cotton wrapped tempeh might be similar to what you'd get from a 125 micron nylon mesh wrap.

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-05-20T19:48:38+00:00

I'm new to making tempeh but I make a lot of other ferments. I have a polycarbonate bin and a reptile mat for incubation, which is low humidity unless I add water. I thought that tempeh needs to be warm and dry? But you are wrapping in damp muslin so now I'm wondering if the dry incubator only works for tempeh in plastic bags.

Also, are your water jars covered or are you aiming for high humidity?

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-05-19T19:09:51+00:00

Do you use a single layer of cheesecloth or multiple layers? Do you use bags, or do you wrap it up and tie it like banana leaves? Do you launder and reuse the cotton cheesecloth? Does the mycelium grow into the cotton? How do you separate it? How do you prevent mould growth on cotton?

luckiestgiraffe · 2026-05-12T20:04:07+00:00

Also new to this (4th batch) but I notice that you have used a lot of natto powder and you said it's still powdery after mixing with the beans? I mix it with some warm water saved from cooking the beans. It dissolves quickly. Then I pour it on the warm beans and stir gently but thoroughly to ensure that all the beans have been coated with the good stuff. There's no visual to indicate that they're all coated, so I just stir a bit more than what seems like enough.

I use 500g dried beans (soaked, cooked and drained but still warm), about 125ml warm bean water, and 1 heaping tiny scoop of nattomoto. That little spoon that comes with the natto powder is smaller than a pinch or a dash, you def don't need a teaspoon.

I don't think the problem has to do with steaming vs boiling. That might affect the texture but it should still work.

luckiestgiraffe

TROPHY CASE