Rani's Reflections

The abundance of drugs in Parable of the Sower is a representation of the abuse and necessity to “feel” something in society. It warps peoples thinking that corporations have caused this spread od destruction via drugs rather than abuse of power. At the same time these corporations have the power to “help” people and in turn can pay them an extremely small salary whilst providing enough structure where staying in this cycle is better than past situations. Pyro is the drug that claims to make “watching fire better than sex”. The addicts of the drugs are called “crazies” or “paints” because they paint their skin an assortment of colors before setting houses or even people on fire. I think this drug represents the imbalance of society the “paints” are an informality attacking the rich and the poor and causing the chaos in society. The poor are mad at the rich for in no way helping the social, political, economic, or environmental situation. They are upset with the “paints” for abusing t...

  When reading Parable of the Sower the conversation Lauren has with her father about the foraging book intrigued me. It never occurred to me that humans as a whole have strayed away from their primal instinct to forage. Simply using acorns isn’t a common practice anymore and it used to be the lifestyle of Native Americans. Why this resonated with me so much was actually due to a creator on tik tok. Her handle is @alexisnikole. She even specifically has a video about consuming acorns, but that's not all. She goes to parks and forests near her town and collects plants that we might consider weeds everyday. She shows free and easy ways you can find food that grows in your own backyard. All while giving defining characteristics of each plant so you know which are safe to eat. After each forging video she will come home and show recipes for teas, simple syrup, flour, everything can be made with things we find outside. All you have to do is open your eyes and know what to look for. I hi...

  Recipe for Acorn Bread: How to prepare acorns: Moldy, cracked, or infested acorns must be thrown out (you can float the acorns, the ones that sink are good to use) You must remove all the shells from the acorns and retrieve the meat ( a nutcracker can be beneficial for this step) Next, remove the toxic tannins from the acorns by boiling them, the tannins will make the water brown so repeat this process until the color is no longer removed Once the tannins are removed, roast the acorns for an hour at a low temp. (about 250 degrees) Making acorn flour: For reference you need about 2 pounds of acorns to make 3 cups of acorn flour You can simply blend the acorns into flour using a blender or a food processor Acorn Bread Ingredients: 1 cup of acorn flour 1 cup of all purpose flour (acorn flour can only be substituted for half the regular flour content in a recipe) 2 tablespoons of baking powder ½ a teaspoon of salt 3 tablespoons of sugar 1 egg beaten 1 cup of milk  3 tablespoons ...