You win some you lose some

This will be quick because as always I'm running behind the clock and can't think of anything good to write. An update on the series of projects I've been doing, to encourage fellow experimenters scientists and other explorers to not give up at the earliest sign of failure.

First update: the oysters I've been trying to germinate have finally shown some sign of survival and it's looking like they could make it through over the next few weeks. Unclear on whether it'll be edible at any reasonable date or be any good, but something is better than nothing and I was expecting a total loss there so this is really a massive win for me.

On the sadder side, I decided to completely abandon the candied banana-peel project this afternoon. It was about investment versus rewards to me, and all the work I put in and would still need to put was not enough to get black unidentified sugary blob of...something...that I was making for...no good reason than finding it on someone's webpage and going along with it. In retrospect, should have considered the fact there weren't any good recipes for it online besides weird earthy blogs and they too sounded overly defensive about it. And the problem could be entirely me really, there was way too much of the peels and not enough drying space, so after twelve hours of leaving in (shut) oven I checked them and they were still wet and gloopy, it didn't make any sense for me to spend another day babysitting them hoping I'd get something nice out of it. It was mostly sugar anyway, the two hours spent working with them are now a lesson on what NOT to do.

Besides, now I understand the concept of blanching and why anybody would ever do that, so it's worth just that lesson if nothing else.

In other news, the syrup from the peel and the bananas were overproduced and there was no clear avenue in my mind to use them properly so decided to turn it all into banana wine. If it works, I'll drink with friends and roommates some mediocre banana wine. If not, ah well, learnt a good amount about sugar chemistry bananas and fermentation. Still have all the equipment and the expensive raw materials, I'll have only lost three dollars worth of banana and three dollars worth of sugar. But if it does work, and the result is great [or even -ish], what a coup this will have been, making use of the cheap raw materials from haymarket to go gangbusters on homemade wine!