Local Yarns: Indigo Harvest

Monday, August 9, 2010

Indigo Harvest

Today I harvested 1050 grams (2.25 lbs) of Japanese Indigo (Polygonum tinctorium, also known as Persicaria tinctoria). Here is the 2 gallon bucket with the cut stems:

I picked off the leaves into a gallon plastic bag for weighing, then cut them up with kitchen shears:

and stuffed them into a half gallon canning jar and filled it with warm water. Then I put the jar into a canning pot on a hotplate set to heat no higher than 100F to let it ferment overnight:

The next bag (250 g) I put into a 2 1/2 gallon plastic bucket with cold water. I'll add vinegar and macerate by hand to extract the color:

I also have 250g in a yogurt maker with water but it doesn't seem to be heating up much. I should have started with warm water. This is supposed to ferment too. I have just read a recipe for dyeing the fiber right away in the fermented liquid without beating it to oxygenate and then reducing it again. The fermentation splits the indican into indoxyl and glucose with carbon dioxide escaping as bubbles.

4 comments:

To WriteAugust 13, 2010 at 1:21 PM
I had no idea of this process. I always thought that the indigo color comes from the flowers. Want to see more as you go through this process. I'm so impressed with what you are doing.
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LB070August 16, 2010 at 5:12 PM
Indigo is a unique dye substance. There are many different plants around the world that have the same pigment precursor in them. They all must be extracted in similar ways. People all over figured out how to do this with fermentation vats or mortar and pestal with alkali. I don't know if the method I just used (cold water/vinegar) is traditional; somewhere I read that it was but I haven't seen it mentioned in any of the books I have.
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Elizabeth at Strand (url to come...)August 18, 2010 at 5:00 PM
It's a good thing you're a better gardener than I am, or we'd all be sunk...

Looks great!
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LB070August 18, 2010 at 9:14 PM
The plants I grow have to be pretty hardy because they don't get coddled, except when they are seedlings. Our volunteer potatoes are doing better than the ones we planted!
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Goals for 2012

1) Make some videos.
2) Build a solar oven for dyeing.
3) Build a low hoop cover for the Japanese Indigo.
4) Japanese Indigo, Madder, Weld, Coreopsis tinctoria, and Orange Cosmos. Just started the indigo last week, can't find the coreopsis seeds so must buy some.
5) Mulch the Dahlias over the Winter.
6) Go to Shepherd's Extravaganza, Went to this and bought a Pygora fleece and some washed kid Mohair locks.
Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival, Missed this one.
Black Sheep Gathering. This one hasn't happened yet.
7) Joined textile collective!

Goals for 2011

1) Blue - Grow twice as much Japanese Indigo -- Did this but our Spring was so wet and cold the plants are all smaller.
2) Yellow - 10 Weld plants -- Two plants came back from last year. One vat was not too impressing. Collected seeds though.
3) Red - Harvest 3-year-old Madder Root in September -- Some fruits have formed! And have harvested 499 grams roots.
4) Orange & Orange-Yellows - Coreopsis grandiflora and tinctoria, Dahlia, Tururu Marigold -- Coreopsis grandiflora is prolific! Coreopsis tinctoria finally got going with hot and sunny weather. I'm freezing the few Orange Cosmos blossoms and drying the Marigolds. Red Gem Marigold has very small flowers so I'm collecting them each day and adding to an alcohol extraction jar.
5) Add some medicinal plants -- Echinacea, three plants no flowers yet. Elecampane, two plants with large leaves.
6) Rotate neighbor's chickens around the farm plot to keep weeds down and add nutrients -- This is working for part of the plot.
7) Hope neighbor's ducks will eat slugs -- Used beer traps and iron phosphate instead.
8) Build seedling bed cold frame -- Didn't do this, still working on it.

Goals for 2010

1. Double the cultivated area. -- In process
2. Dye Plants:
Japanese Indigo (twice as much) -- Slug problem, some have made it but I had to buy some starts from a local farmer. I'm lucky she had indigo!
Madder (add plants to make twice as much) -- Have three times as many plants! Six from a local farmer and at least twelve baby seedlings from seeds I planted.
Forsythia (get cuttings from friends) Haven't done this. Was thinking of a hedgerow on the farm plot but have heard Forsythia can get unruly. Well, I would be pruning for dye.
Dyer's Coreopsis (new) -- The slugs ate a lot of baby plants this year. One plant made it and has bloomed.
Coreopsis grandiflora -- I bought five starts from the local grocery store and am picking and freezing the flowers as they bloom.
Weld (new) -- I planted too many seeds in each pot; I'm not sure how I'm going to thin them, maybe when they are bigger. Bought six starts from local farmer. Love the color and works well with Indigo for greens.
Yellow Cosmos (new) -- Three or four survived the slugs. Finally got a few blossoms.
Safflower (new) -- Next year
3. Take 15 lbs. of wool to a local mill for carding. Waiting for it to be finished. Done!
4. Borrow drum carder to see if I want to purchase one. -- Haven't done this yet.
5. Buy a blending hackle. -- Done!

Goals for 2009

Build Hoop House greenhouse
Buy or find rain barrels -- Have barrels but no fixtures yet.
Buy soaker hoses --Done!
Plant Camas Lilies--Planted four, need to get more for next year. November: Planted 25 more purchased at the Washington Native Plant Society sale. Also sowed seeds.
Plant cover crop for compost -- done! Mammoth Red Clover and Icicle Radish.
Plant dye plants--Yes! Japanese Indigo, Peppergrass, Madder.
Learn to spin wool--Done! Now own 8 spindles and have a wheel on order.
Learn to spin flax--Done! Also planted flax. Waiting for harvest. November: Retting done and started processing. Saving seeds.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Indigo Harvest

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