Flying Squirrel Images

On December 11, 2008May 23, 2016 By David FankhauserIn Greenhouse, Homesteading, Lab ProtocolsLeave a comment

Haloumi Cheese

On December 11, 2008May 15, 2016 By David FankhauserIn Cheese Making, Homesteading, Lab Protocols, Lecture Notes, TravelsLeave a comment

I was privileged to stay with the Samara family in Bil’im, a village in occupied West Bank of Palestine. It is a village surrounded by olive orchards, vineyards, family gardens, and grazing lands on which goats and sheep are grazed. I was fortunate to be able to see Mr. Samara’s daughter-in-law prepare Haloumi, a Palestinian White Cheese almost always served with breakfast.

If you need a primer course on how to make cheese, see in information in the “Related” section below.

Ingredients

1 gallon milk
1/4 cup fresh active yogurt
1/2 tablet rennet
2 oz. Kosher salt

Supplies

1.5 gallon stainless steel pot, thick bottom
Large white handkerchief, boiled
colander
3 quart plastic tub with lid

Procedure

1) Warm 1 gallon milk in stainless steel pot to 32 C.

2) Dissolve ½ tablet of rennet in ¼ c water. (You may use 1 tablet for more rapid setting.) Meanwhile, suspend 1/4th cup yogurt in ½ cup milk.

3) With continuous stirring, slowly add the dissolved rennet and the suspended yogurt to evenly distribute.

4) Cover the pot and let sit undisturbed at room temperature until you get a clean break (see the basic cheese page), about an hour.

5) Cut the curds as instructed on the basic cheese page, to produce curds about ½ inches in diameter.

6) Cover again, let the curds sit to firm up for 10 min.

7) Pour the curds into a sterile cloth suspended in a colander. Hang the cloth, allow to drain for 6 hours in a cool place (in the fridge in the Summer). Save the whey for “cooking” and making brine.

8) Remove the ball of cheese and cut into 6 pieces. 9) “Cook” the cheese: bring the whey to 45 C, and add the 6 pieces. Keep at 45 C for an hour.

10) Remove the cheeses from the whey, salt the surface, and chill for several hours.

11) Bring ½ gallon of the whey to the boil, add 2 ounces Kosher salt (1/4 cup), stir to dissolve, cover and let cool. 12) Transfer the cheeses to the cooled whey in a plastic tub with a lid. Place in the fridge. You may eat it immediately, but the flavor improves after several weeks or a month.

It is often served at breakfast with hard boiled eggs, fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, pita and coffee. (The cut haloumi is in the lower right of the image.)

Related

Beginning Cheese Making

Cheese Making, Illustrated

Images taken around the Samara family’s home.

Yogurt Making, Illustrated

Khyar Bi Laban: Cucumber and Yogurt Soup

On December 10, 2008May 1, 2016 By David FankhauserIn Cheese Making, HomesteadingLeave a comment

Khyar bi laban is a wonderfully delicious, refreshing, cold “soup” which I LOVE in the summer. The Arabs have really discovered something here. It is so simple, pure, fresh, nutritious, and did I mention, delicious. Make it in five minutes, and enjoy it for time immemorial… “Yallah.” (“Let’s go!” in Arabic)

Assemble the ingredients: three medium sized fresh cucumbers three medium sized fresh garlic cloves one quart fresh yogurt 1 tablespoonful dried mint (some use dill) 1 teaspoonful kosher salt

As with many other recipes, crush the fresh garlic under your heavy French knife.

Chop the garlic prior to grinding in the mortar and pestle.

Add the chopped garlic to the mortar and pestle.

Add one teaspoonful of salt (using Kosher salt here, as a gesture of brotherhood with the Israelis…) You may want 1 1/5 tsp. salt, depending on your tastes.

Using the salt as a grinding agent, grind the garlic well in the mortar and pestle until well blended.

Add 1 tablespoonful of dried mint to the mortar and pestle, grind well. (You may want to rub through a strainer first to remove stems.)

Add a small amount of yogurt to the mortar, and grind to suspend the garlic, etc.

Optional: Peel the cucumbers. (Usually I do not, since I do not mind the skins. In fact, I think they add both esthetic and possibly nutritional components.

Slice the cucumbers in a “mandolin” to produce thin slices. Alternatively, slice thinly with a French knife (etc.). (Be kind to your knuckles.)

Combine the macerated seasonings in a large bowl with the yogurt and mandolined cucumbers. Stir.

Chill. Serve in an attractive bowl, a cup into each individual bowl, and garnish with a sprig of fresh mint.

Mitosis and Meiosis

On December 9, 2008May 16, 2016 By David FankhauserIn Lab Protocols, Lecture NotesLeave a comment

In the 1870s, Walther Flemming noted that during cell division, thread-like features were distributed to each of the new daughter cells. He termed this process “mitosis,” or the process of the threads. Waldeyer named these threads “chromosomes” in 1888. We now know that the purpose of mitosis is to distribute genetically identical copies of genetic material to each of the two daughter cells.
We can see the stages of mitosis in rapidly dividing tissues (high mitotic rate) such as in the root tips of growing seeds or bulbs. Plant tissues capable of mitosis are termed meristematic tissues, found as lateral meristem by which the stem widens and apical meristem, by which the stems lengthen. We can see mitosis in action in root tips of sprouting onion (Allium sp.) Because they are particularly large, and the mitotic rate is high. We will use onion root tips as a classic example of mitosis in general, and in plants in particular.
Mitosis in animals has certain important differences from that of plants, as will be demonstrated by studying this process in Ascaris, a genus of nematode to which the common intestinal round worm belongs.
Make five drawings for each species, one in interphase, and four for each of the stages of mitosis: prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase. As you make your drawings, pay particular attention to the differences as well as the similarities between animals and plants.

Meiosis is an entirely different form of cell division used to reduce the number of sets of chromosomes during gametogenesis. We will study meiosis in the monkey testis.

MITOSIS

Mitosis in Plants: Onion Root Tips
The images of onion root tip mitotic figures were taken of specimens prepared in our lab according to our protocol Chromosomes in Root Tips.

Prophase

Nuclear Envelope — The nuclear envelope disappears, the chromosomes condense, often appearing as a “ball of yarn.”

The second image also contains a late anaphase cell on the right of the image.

Metaphase
Microtubules assemble, forming the spindle. Centromers attach the chromosome to the spindle which maneuvers the chromosomes to the center of the cell. The spindle is visible in these images.

Anaphase
Centromeres split, and the kinetochore component of the centromere pulls the chromosome along the microtubule towards the end of the cell. this is by far the shortest phase, and anaphase figures are therefore less common in these preparations.

Telophase
Chromosomes have reached the ends of the cell and appear tightly contracted. The spindle will dissolve, nuclear membrane reform, and cytokinesis will divide the cell into two genetically identical daughter cells.

Mitosis in Animals: Ascaris

Prophase

Metaphase

Anaphase

Telophase

MEIOSIS

Meiosis in Animals: Monkey Testis
Here is a page on the histology of mammalian gonads. Note especially the testis and the labeled cells engaged in meiosis.

Meiosis in the testis does not begin until after the spermatogonia, which is attached to the basement membrane of the seminiferous tubule undergoes mitosis. One daughter cell remains attached to the basement membrane, the other is pushed away and becomes a primary spermatocyte. The primary spermatocyte, released from the inhibition of the basement membrane, begins meiosis. Chromosomes may be visible, and the content of the nucleus is the same as the spermatogonia. After completing meiosis I, two secondary spermatocytes result, each with half the DNA as the primary spermatocyte. These two cells undergo meiotic division two producing four haploid spermatids. These are easily recognized because their nuclei are small, round and dense. Spermatids undergo further differentiation in which spermatozoa are formed: lysosome condensed into an acrosome, mitochondria migrate to form the tail sheath, a flagellum grows, the cytoplasm is reduced, and the nucleus becomes tightly compacted.