Blog
The Magic of Blue
When I started this CSA Farm adventure, I planned to grow enough Japanese Indigo (Polygonum tintorium) to dye yarns for my subscribers; after all, the plant grew well in other parts of California and normally, we have a wonderful growing season here in the foothills. Nature, and the seeds I got originally, had other plans for me. The spring was cold and wet. The first round of seeds withered and died, the 25% that even bothered to germinate! Thanks to Dustin, I was able to get another batch of seeds going, but I didn’t have real plants...
read moreMy Fibershed Map
I just located a tool that would allow me to generate a map, with Nature’s Cauldron Farm smack dab in the middle, showing my Fibershed region. Lovely to see that I truly do overlap with many I have been interacting with this season (all plant sources and seeds, and all wool, my web designer and my advisors!). Yeah, I know I’m a little...
read moreDown in the Pokeberry Patch
What are pokeberries? Not a surprising question for a Northern California grrl… this is a native plant in the South and considered mildly invasive here. In fact, when I first read about Rebecca Burgess’ results with pokeberries in Harvesting Color, I was amazed and surprised since I had never seen a pokeweed bush in my life! Then, Dr. Sara Gottfried mentioned dyeing with Rebecca, and some of the medicinal properties of the plant as lymph cleanser, stating we should dye our bras with this beneficial juice! (As a special note at this...
read moreAugust Dye Adventures
It has been a busy month! I am happy to report that first CSA shipment was sent out last week, featuring Rebecca Burgess’ book, Harvesting Color, and an assortment of summer gathering efforts: lodgepole pine bark, comfrey roots, fennel and Letharia vulpina(that chrome-yellow lichen that festoons the trunks of evergreens here in the high Sierras) In the midst of the packing and shipping, I was also preparing to give a talk on natural dyes and the fibershed concept at the 13th annual, local music and sustainability festival, called...
read moreA Dye Gathering Trip
Nature’s Cauldron Farm is located in the Sierra Nevada foothills, at the edge of a large amount of backcountry leading into high mountain country. I am so very, very fortunate to live right where many people wait all year long to come on their summer vacation. So, last week DH and I took a mini-vacation, heading up to our other (and original) home at 5,000 feet elevation, and making a few forays into the uninhabited regions. We decided to avoid becoming fast food for mosquitoes by staying indoors, though I did miss camping under the...
read moreHomework for Dyers
I sent out my August newsletter to the natural dye CSA shareholders yesterday, and it is full of good, basic information about everything else you need (besides the plants!), so I am reprinting it here. Dear CSA Shareholders: I know everyone is looking forward to getting a box of goodies in August and beginning their dye adventures, so it’s time to help you plan ahead and gather the items you will need to get started. First, start thinking about how/where you might work outdoors; some of the dye plants are stinky, and you might not...
read moreThe Madder Saga
Friends who have been following my CSA start-up’s progress will recall that Jan offered to give me all her madder roots, if I would only come and dig them up. She had decided that working with natural dyes did not suit her, and that her garden could expand into the bed these plants had been taking up since 2003. Here’s the story of that adventure. I got most of the roots planted, but held some back for experimenting with, as I like to be able to tell others “Yes, I really have tried this myself and it worked”. I set...
read moreThree Bags Full
Baa, baa, black sheep, Have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, Three bags full. One for the Master, One for the Dame, One for the little boy Who lives down the lane. Baa, baa, black sheep, Have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, Three bags full. Not surprisingly, this was my favorite Mother Goose rhyme when I was a child… following is the tale of my own three bags full. Summer is going well here in northern California, though quite a bit cooler than usual. Most of the dye plants are thriving, and the woods around me are lush. I have both...
read moreWool Into Gold
When I was little, the tale of Rumpelstiltskin was one of my favorites… spinning straw into gold! Now, as an adult spinner, I think that turning raw wool into yarn is far more valuable to me. I have been busy today gathering together the threads that will turn approximately 15 pounds of Romney wool donated to the CSA by Mary (who also skirted the fleeces!) into skeins of yarn that can be dyed with the extras from my gardening and gathering efforts later this fall. We are fortunate to still have Yolo Wool Mill operating in our...
read moreWelcome, July!
The garden got some drenching rain three days ago, something very unusual for the end of June in these parts. I was happily transplanting in black-eyed susans and marigolds the morning the storm was predicted, in order to take advantage of the gentle temperatures predicted for my new plants to settle into place. Now, the weekend of the 4th is expected to be the hottest of the year! It appears that the high elevation plants are approximately 3-4 weeks behind schedule, but I have already begun cutting and drying yarrow and bronze fennel from...
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