Rinsing and Drying Madder Roots

Today was a very productive day. I had the day off. It was mostly sunny and warm. And, despite weeks of frosts, the ground was still workable. We’re supposed to get lows in the teens and highs only in the 30s later this week, so I was very motivated to take care of some outdoor tasks before the really cold weather rolls in.

I already wrote about digging up approximately one third of my madder bed a couple weeks ago. I already rinsed some of the madder roots I dug up, and they are already dried. I didn’t document that earlier batch. This morning I rinsed the rest of what I had dug up the other day.

Here is a brown paper grocery bag full of dried but still dirt-covered roots. I hadn’t planned to dry them first, it’s just that I didn’t manage to rinse them off before they dried. Fortunately I didn’t have any issues with mold.

dirt-covered madder roots

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Digging up Madder Roots

After a glorious and fairly mild autumn, the colder weather arrived about a week and a half or two weeks ago. We have had at- or below-freezing temperatures every night since then. Fortunately it’s been warm and sunny in the day times, so the ground isn’t frozen. It has also been very dry, so the soil isn’t wet or heavy. Perfect weather for digging up the madder bed in my fiber and dye plant garden at Bramble Hill Farm. So, on Saturday I headed over there in the morning… a bright but cold and windy day. Continue reading “Digging up Madder Roots” →

Small Woad Vat

This summer I have spent most of my time and energy on weaving, but I didn’t want to let the summer end without at least a little bit of dyeing. So, last Friday I ran a woad vat, following my usual routine based on Rita Buchanan’s directions in A Dyer’s Garden and A Weaver’s Garden. The woad plants in the bed that self-sowed, and the transplants from that bed, were still pretty small. I lost about half of the plants in the bed affected by club root, which left one short bed with decent-sized (though a bit moth-eaten) leaves. I picked from all the beds, and collected two and a half pounds of leaves. I was worried that there wouldn’t be much color in the leaves yet because they were still small, but you can see the “breaking blue” as it oxidizes here on the cut stems:

cut woad stems

This is always a good sign. Here I am rinsing off the leaves.

rinsing woad leaves

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Woad Gets Club Root

This summer I started out with two small beds of woad on opposite sides of the garden. Normally I don’t grow woad in the same bed two years in a row because it doesn’t do well the second year. I know you ought to rotate beds to interrupt pest and disease life-cycles, and I thought we were doing pretty well with this considering that our garden isn’t that big. My woad has been plagued by slugs and cabbage whites, but I’ve never had serious disease before. I’ve always chalked-up the deficiencies of a second-year woad bed to a nutrient problem, though I’ve never actually tested “before” and “after” soil samples to find out exactly what gets depleted. So, my original two woad beds this year were not planted in the same beds as last year. Continue reading “Woad Gets Club Root” →

Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair

This post falls into the category of better late than never. Over a month ago, now, I did a natural dyeing demo at the Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair in Cummington, MA. It was a very rainy, windy and cold weekend. The high on Saturday was about 40. They were forecasting snow flurries for the hilltowns that night. Sunday was a bit better, with a high around 50, but still very rainy. Nevertheless, intrepid visitors showed up, and I had some great conversations with people about their favorite dyeplants (jewelweed and dahlias, which I have never tried) and their favorite ways of storing valuable dyebaths (in the freezer, which alas our freezer isn’t big enough to do).

I focused on dyeplants that can be found or grown here in Massachusetts. Here are the baskets with my samples of wool yarns.

naturally dyed wool yarns

The one on the right shows yarns dyed with cultivated plants (cosmos, woad, madder, weld, etc.). The basket on the left shows wildflowers (Queen Anne’s Lace, tansy, black walnut, umbilicate lichen, purple loosestrife, etc.). Continue reading “Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair” →

Flax is Up

Despite the enormous backlog of unprocessed flax under the bed, in the closet, and in the back of the car, I decided to plant more flax this year. I am growing Marilyn from the Hermitage. In my trials last year, Marilyn grew the tallest but also had the most trouble with lodging (flopping over and getting tangled on the ground). This year I am aiming for long, fine fiber. The little “line” I have managed to process thus far from years past is fairly coarse and stiff. I have always harvested around 90 days after planting, sometimes a bit later. My plan this year is to harvest much earlier than I have in the past, and then to compare the fiber with past crops. Continue reading “Flax is Up” →

Madder is Up

Spring has sprung here in our corner of Massachusetts, despite the sleet and hail yesterday. Today Matthew and I went to check on the madder at my dye and fiber plant garden at Bramble Hill Farm.

The madder has been there for three summers now. It likes the location, and has been spreading very nicely. After trying to keep it contained for the first couple years, I decided to double the width of the bed this season. So, today Matthew and I dug up the roots and shoots outside of the parameters of the new bed. Continue reading “Madder is Up” →

Hardy Flax

Back at the beginning of September I was surprised to discover that tons of flax seeds which I’d dumped out of a retting tank in the back yard had managed to germinate, despite having been waterlogged and fermented, and still being in their pods. You can read my original post here.

After I came back from the very inspiring flax processing workshop at Rhinebeck in October, I decided retting was done for the season even though I had one more portion of the 2012 crop left to ret. So, on Sunday October 21st I poured out several buckets of water I’d been saving. As I was dumping the water onto the grass, I was amazed to spy dozens of flax plants growing in the lawn beside our apartment, under the shade of a huge spruce. Continue reading “Hardy Flax” →