Lemonade Day: Cooking Up a Scary Meal - Black Lemonade

Mother always said I was full of it. Drama, that is. I stand firm that on this occasion, we certainly avoided a potentially huge disaster.

You see, we made Black Lemonade.

A member of my photography crew, Braedon Schmidt, and I were shopping for the ingredients for the Black Lemonade we would make that night. We went to our usual store, the Ralphs grocery in the Marina Pacifica village. As we were driving there, I wondered how we would get the lemonade black. I thought that surely it would be black food coloring. I'd used black food coloring to make a Batman birthday cake for a certain 4 year old many years ago. Black food coloring is not available at the regular grocery. It's made by Wilton and you can find it at Michael's in the fancy baking aisle. A quick lookup of the shopping list we'd made contained the word... "charcoal". You mean briquets? I knew we could find them at Ralphs, but could that be right? We thought that perhaps we'd be instructed to blend it. I wondered if I should have checked the garage. I'd been wanting to cook in the Dutch oven, over an open fire - last year. I know I'd purchased some charcoal then. Don't charcoal briquets have some sort of starter fluid in them? Isn't that poisonous? Black Lemonade.

As it turns out, there's a health food store version of charcoal that comes powdered, in tablet and in capsule form. Activated charcoal. It's used to treat poisoning, overdose of drugs and to settle gassy stomachs. When used to treat a poisoning, activated charcoal powder is mixed with a liquid. Once mixed, it can be given as a drink or through a tube that has been placed through the mouth and into the stomach. Sounds lovely. Activated charcoal is also available in tablet or capsule forms to treat gas.

Thankfully, we realized this before blending the starter-fluid infused charcoal briquets into our lemonade. So we're not D-E-A-D. Before you run to Ralphs' to get your activated charcoal, I'll share with you that we got ours at CVS the next day. A bottle of capsules cost just $9.00 and we had a $3.00 Extra bucks coupon. Deal!

We wanted to add some Community Lemonade to our Black Lemonade and we had the perfect way to do it.

I'm always on the lookout for lemons, and had noticed an abundantly laden lemon tree at the off of 7th Street. The next weekend, I thought - I must have some of those lemons. It was after the Chili Cookoff was held in the park, and many of the lemons were gone. I got a few.

So I texted the photogs with the instructions: "Walk west on 6th street, past the golf course. Turn right and at the park on the left hand side, you'll see a lemon tree. Pick about 8. Take a bag and a rod, because the lower lemons are probably all gone." What a beautiful ritual to add to any preparation involving lemons. Step 1. Pick lemons from the community lemon tree. Step 2. Make lemonade. Step 3. Enjoy delicious Community Lemonade!

We served it up in a couple of Queen Mary Dark Harbor glasses we had stashed away from a prior year.

Observations, thoughts, questions:

• The tree was planted by one of the sisters. I have several, but it was none of them. It was one of the Sister Cities... Sochi, I believe.
• There's something beautiful about picking fruit off the tree and using it, and something very beautiful about it being in a public park.
• I wonder what other stories that lemon tree has made...
• Update from Friend Mary Barton:"That tree is grafted from the official “Friendship Tree” (I think that’s the name) in Sochi, Russia, which contains grafts from fruit trees all over the world. Of course, the fruit is free for the taking here. The meaning/significance of the tree is probably lost on most people, but the fruit is just as good whether you know the background or not. Richard Madeira, now Chair of the Sister Cities of Long Beach organization, was responsible for getting the tree planted here—and spent 20-30 years on the Sochi relationship!!" Very cool!
• There's another park with fruit in it. Oranges, I believe, are in Harvey Milk Park in downtown Long Beach. Are there others? I wonder.

ABOUT LEMONADE DAYS
In 2012, I decided I wanted to make 3 or more Makerspaces here in Long Beach. I set myself a task:100 days of creativity in search of projects, creatives, places, materials and equipment. I made a game and played it. Here in Long Beach, and here on the Belmont Shore Patch. It's been 5 long years and my mission is yet to be completed, but there is progress. And where there is progress, there is hope. The mission has adjusted and grown, and I've taken many paths. Some of those have turned out to be amazing, some less so. They are all learning opportunities. I learned that we all have super powers inside us, we just need to give them a chance to present themselves. Our powers all have levels and with practice those levels rise. I learned that everyone has a voice (some have many), and this forum, the Belmont Shore Patch, gave me one place to present one voice. A very special voice. One of community, of Long Beach. I learned about the internet, about video making, about blogging, about websites, about community building. If you'd like to check out the community we call Makersville, you can find it online here and at theLong Beach Sea Base on selected days and at selected times. We are working to find the solution to regular hours at the Maker Space at the Long Beach Sea Base.