Hard grapefruit, soft grapefruit

Mom's neighbors dropped off a bag of grapefruit from their tree. Last week, I juiced three of them (you decide: the neighbors or the grapefruit), poured the juice in a sterilized bottle, added a teaspoon of yeast and corked it with a glass tube and a rubber stopper. By morning, there was a steady stream of gas pockets rising through the column of water in the tube. I tossed around the idea of blogging about "hard grapefruit" to see if anyone else had made such.

A couple of days ago, Mom's old furnace quit, and Mom had a new one installed. The next evening, when we walked into the house, we picked up the faint smell of something like paint. I speculated that we might be smelling the gasses coming off of my brew. Mom thought it was a good smell, a smell of newness that came with the new furnace, something she was delighted had restored the warmth of the house in this chilly season.

Continuing to smell this "new furnace" today, a little bit stronger now in the family room, I sniffed around and found the culprit in the fruit basket.

Mom, I'll see if I can round up a better "new furnace" smell for you.