Minerva chuckled,
“Yes sugar would have been nice, but your right I have had tea with those ingredients. So that is a possibility that we can get lucky.” Hopefully, then the question hit her which would try it. She didn’t want to put Eliza in danger of getting sick if this potion were bad, maybe she would just do it, but they could figure that out later. There were still a bunch of steps to do yet before the potion would even be done.
Smiling that Eliza agreed about the pepper and watched as she squeezed the juice and seeds into the cauldron. Scrunching her nose to the smell of the pepper she had never been a fan. She wondered if Eliza needed one a knife to cut the pepper, but she looked like she was doing a great job, so Min just stayed quiet and watched.
“Clockwise does sound good.” and then Min made sure to count the number of times she stirred, seven. Hmm that seemed like a good number, she made sure to write that in their notes.
Oh doing the feather next did sound like a good idea, it would have time to dissolve before they were finished. She liked Eliza’s thinking. Putting that in the notes as well, Minerva turned to the ingredients as Eliza spoke again.
“Umm that sounds like a good idea” picking up the wooden spoon Min pulled her wand and cleaned it before putting it back in the cauldron. Stirring the potion more cross wise then the typical clock or counter clock ways to make the motion that Eliza was talking about. Minerva did this motion back and forth three times.
“Like this?” It seemed right at least.
Finishing with the stirring Minerva cleaned the spoon and set it down just as Eliza was saying about the next ingredient and handing her a knife.
“I completely agree, we would just need the meat of the acorn, but I’m not sure if a knife is going to get the acorn open. I’m going to use a mortar and pestle to crack it open first.” She reached over and took the mortar and the pestle cleaning them first. Then set the first acorn inside. Pushing down on it a few times she heard the crunch of the shell. Then she pulled it out and using the knife opened it the rest of the way. Making sure to be very careful she placed the meat inside the cauldron. Repeating the process with the second acorn.
“Now I think we should continue with the clockwise stirring pattern we started.” Taking the stirrer, Minerva stirred clock wise four times. That seemed like enough, right.
After writing these steps down, she looked at the ingredients,
“I think we should do the daisy and lavender one right after the other. Maybe that should be the next two steps, what do you think?”