Today started with a weight training and balance video, which I really like, because balance is better than falling. Usual teachers, April and Aiko
Then there was a walk, cheery greetings from neighbors. My Chinese neighbors always wave even when they're two feet away on the sidewalk, I love it.
Then home to find Gary lugging stuff about. I think gardening should be renamed carrying, but anyway. I was observing that I had one potato total from two containers. Then he remembered he had two containers, so we tipped them out to see.
Then lunch with a spicy sausage fritter, butter melting over the potatoes. More for tomorrow, too.
I'm reading The Ellerie County Funeral Ladies, very warm friendly reading, located in rural Wisconsin. I like reading about it more than living there.
Later I made a leek and spinach quiche
Crustfree, using just the green part of the leeks. I've got other plans for the white sections.
Then this afternoon was a presentation on natural dyeing of Anatolia, where the slides are self explanatory, so I'll just show you. It's a feast! For people who know a bit about natural dyeing, no news here, but it was still great to let it flow.
Arsenic makes a lovely green, but it's hazardous for the dyer and maybe wearer too.
This was a great lecture. The host commented that they've had so many questions over the years about the technicalities of antique textiles when collectors present, that they thought they'd get a great technician in dyeing history and processes, to talk. Behind him is a kilim, rug, the yarn for which he dyed.
Isn't it great just to wander about these colors and mixes and history.
Happy day, everyone, they can't take this away from us.
Oh, those incredible colors and textiles. I’m thinking of some great uses for poison green.
ReplyDeleteI used to think it was just a name, before I found out it was a literal description. Deadly.
DeleteMy mother wasn't much of a cook, but she could at least make a nice mint sauce.
ReplyDeleteThat's rather cool with the yarn changing colour as it comes out of the dye bath.
Mint sauce used to go with lamb, at home, but meat isn't on my menu.
DeletePeople who've dyed using indigo always tell you about this magic moment.
Looks like a decent little harvest. Can't believe he didn't want to eat any of it!
ReplyDeleteThat dye that changes color as the air hits it--wow!
The green looks pretty but...arsenic! Don't think I would care to wear it or make it--lol!
All very interesting. Thanks! :)
He doesn't like vegetables! So when he grows sweet peppers and green beans, he offers them to his daughter and me.
DeleteIt's hard to believe they used arsenic in dyeing, wallpaper, even candles, until they connected illness with the products. Doh!
That’s kind of funny about Gary and the potatoes. The quiche looks good to me.
ReplyDeleteHe only likes the growing, not the eating. They're pretty good, earthy taste, actual flavor.
DeleteWhat an amazing bunch of slides. When I was very young, 18 or 19, I got it into my head that I wanted to dye wool. I knew nothing about wool, or dye, and the whole idea went nowhere. I lived in a small town, no courses available, but I would have loved to take a course. I was probably too shy too.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this.
If you're still interested, you might still try your hand. Good thing for Jack to learn along, too, what local plants you can get dye from. Onionskins, simple stuff. Just sayin.
DeleteI forgot to add how beautiful those rugs are. Wow!
ReplyDeleteThe colors clearly done by skilled dyers, too.
DeleteAll of this reminded me of a grand experiment which did not go well involving the importation of many Minorcans to North Florida near what is now St. Augustine in the late eighteenth century for the purpose of cultivating indigo.
ReplyDeleteIt's a long and very sad story but there are now over 20,000 descendants of that group in St. John's County and they have had a very large influence on the culture there.
Indigo was a precious commodity indeed.
Yes, bringing people for their skills. So much for people learning in slavery.
DeleteWell done on the potatoes! And the lunch looks delicious. I always thing home-grown food tastes better!
ReplyDeleteOur yield this year was small. Few potatoes from four containers. We're not sure why, unless the extreme heat exhausted the plants.
DeleteHowever small the harvest, it's welcome and tastes so good.
ReplyDeleteThey always taste different from mass produced veggies.
DeleteThe quiche looks delicious. I used to grow potatoes when I had a large garden. The flavor is so wonderful when they are homegrown. Beautiful colors.
ReplyDeleteI love digging potatoes, always so thrilling to keep finding them. And fresh picked and scrubbed, boiled, pat of butter, gourmet food.
DeleteI just finished the Funeral Ladies book yesterday. Very good story. I won't spoil the ending.
ReplyDeleteOur garden was not as successful as usual this year. We got squash bugs which took care of the zucchini, yellow squash and egg plants. The tomatoes did well for a little while and have fizzled. The cucumbers were gungo ho and then the vines died. We do have green peppers like crazy and I have been taking boxes to the food bank.
This was a good year for stone fruit, at least what I've had, and not so good for vegetables.
DeleteThanks for not doing spoilers for the Funeral Ladies.
What a fascinating post. Both the food and especially the dyeing. Last year I had all kinds of plans for summer natural dyeing projects, but we had some fantastic harvests from the garden which kept my time otherwise occupied. Color is always inspiring.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you'll get to growing a dye garden next year. Can you grow madder in your zone?
DeleteI snickered when I read Mitchell's comment - good one! Nice that Gary gave you his potato harvest. I love new potatoes with butter and pepper...yum.
ReplyDeleteNatural dyeing is fascinating. All I've ever done is some avocado and some rust, but I would love to dabble in indigo.
I've never done indigo. It's usually a special workshop because of access to the plants.
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