August 20th
August 20th, 2020
Our Vibrant Friends!
It never ceases to amaze us.
How beyyyyyyond radical the process of natural dye feels, from start to finish.
How somehow every time we see those materials in our pot turning colors we are surprised anew by the magic of it all. How rich each color can be, whether perfectly pale or deliciously deep. The spectrum gets us completely, makes us scream out with excitement. It all hits a certain core within, a deep connection to an art form that feels both simple and yet entirely luxurious. It makes the synthetic dye in the clothes we are wearing feel majorly flat, emotionless, boring as hell.
The colors created by our indigo, our black hollyhocks, our MARIGOLDS pulse with emotion, elegance, a certain music. They really do seem to sing a song about Summer, blooms captured, collected and dried, turned into something that will linger on when the fields have long been turned over, and gone hard with frost.
VVF CHALLENGE TIME!!! Whether or not you have dyed before (insert bad joke about afterlife visions) we encourage you to join us in the joy! We have been swooning over the amazingly rich gold color we extracted from our Marigolds for a collaboration with Madre Linens this past week, and we want to help you create your own precious pieces so you too can wear a little piece of Summer as the season begins to shift. So! Grab marigolds from your garden, a friend’s garden, the market, wherever, and try your hand at the supreme satisfaction of natural dye. You won’t be disappointed.
For this dye recipe – and also because luxurrrryyyyyyy, get your hands on a silk scarf. You can source them many places other than Nightmarazon. Blick Art Materials sells one for $8.25. Silk takes on dye like a dream, and the wispy quality of the material will showcase the color to perfection.
Here is our favorite write up on a tried and true process, by Chris McLaughlin, Master Gardener, and author of A Garden To Dye For. TAKE IT AWAY CHRIS!
PRE DYE PROCESS
Creating a botanical dye involves collecting the plant parts (in this case, the flower heads of the marigolds), and extracting the color from them, and straining the plant parts out, leaving you with a natural dyebath. Once the dyebath is prepared, the fabric or fiber is added to the bath and allowed to simmer in order to take up the color.
Although it isn’t necessary for us to pretreat our silk scarf with an alum mordant when using marigolds, I like to use it on everything I dye because it helps natural color adhere to the fabric fiber and makes colors just a little brighter.
PREMORDANTING THE SILK SCARF
As far as how much alum and cream of tartar to use, I add 10 percent of the weight of my fiber or material. A silk scarf is so light that you’ll only need about ½ teaspoon of alum. This simple mordant bath is often combined with cream of tartar to help brighten and clarify colors. Some dyers use it and some skip it, but I think it helps, so I keep it in the recipe. You can buy both alum and cream of tartar in the spice aisle in the grocery store.
Materials & Equipment
Water source (kitchen sink)
Stove
½ teaspoon alum (potassium alum sulfate)
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar (tartaric acid)
Measuring cup or small mixing container
Spoon or stirring stick
Glass or ceramic bowl
ll the pot with enough water to allow the scarf to float around freely. Add the scarf to the pot of water and place it on the stove. The reason we’ve added the scarf now is so it can slowly adjust to the rising temperature.
Place the alum and cream of tartar in the measuring cup and add a little warm water. Stir until they are dissolved and then pour the mixture into the pot on the stove. Turn the heat to medium. Bring it to a boil.
Once the water is boiling, immediately reduce the heat to just simmering. Let it simmer for about an hour.
Using your tongs, raise the scarf above the pot for a few moments, letting the water drain back into the bath.You can use it again later if you want to. Then place the scarf in a glass or ceramic (nonreactive) bowl to let it cool down for a bit so that you can handle it easily. Rinse the scarf with warm water.
Your scarf is now ready for the dyebath! No need to let it dry, just prepare the marigold dyebath below and you’re ready to go.
MAKING THE MARIGOLD DYEBATH
Step out into the garden (or a friend’s garden, or a good market with local blooms like New Seasons) and snap off a bunch of marigold heads. Another way to collect petals is to deadhead faded blooms and put them into a zip-top baggie in the freezer until you’ve saved up as much as you need. As far as quantity needed, my general guideline is to collect at least the same weight in plant material as I have fiber or fabric (1:1).
Materials & Equipment
Mordanted silk scarf
Water source (kitchen sink)
Marigold petals or entire heads
Stove
Rubber bands (optional)
Glass or plastic bowl
1 tablespoon washing soda (optional; find it in the laundry detergent aisle)
Make sure your silk scarf is thoroughly wet from the mordant bath.
Fill the first pot with enough water to allow the scarf to float about freely in the water, then remove the scarf. There’s no need for more water than that. Add all the marigold petals (or entire heads).
Put the lid on the pot, place on the stove, and heat the water slowly, bringing it to a gentle simmer (not boiling).
Optional Step: You can skip this part if you want to, but I want to tell you how I got the pattern on the scarf in the photo. Take the wet scarf and fold it in half. Fold it in half again. Now wrap sections of the scarf with the rubber bands (as many as you’d like), making the scarf into a bundle. Go on to step 5 whether you create a bundle or not.
Add the scarf. Slowly bring the water back to a gentle simmer, and simmer for about an hour. If you find that you can’t resist peeking inside the pot (and really, who can?), please don’t put your face over the pot while you lift the lid. Let the steam out for a few seconds before you peek, as steam can burn your face.
After an hour, place the mesh strainer over the second pot and drain the bath through the strainer so that the marigold petals become separated from the bathwater. Now place the dyebath (now in the second pot without the marigold petals) back on the stove. Once the bath is simmering again, add the silk scarf to the pot (either bundled or free-floating).
Let the scarf simmer in the dyebath for about 30 minutes.
Using the tongs, remove the scarf from the bath and place it into a bowl to cool down. Once it’s cool enough to handle, rinse it off with fresh water from the sink.
If you left the scarf free-floating, you can hang it up to dry in a shaded, well-ventilated area that’s out of direct sun. You now have a botanically dyed fashion scarf!
If you made a bundle with your scarf, after the bundle has been rinsed, add more rubber bands to the bundle.
Now, add the washing soda to the dyebath on the stove. Washing soda is a modifier and will change the color of the marigold bath slightly.
Add the now double-rubber banded bundle to the dyebath. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes.
Use the tongs to remove the bundle and rinse it under running water in the sink. Once it’s cool enough to handle, remove the rubber bands and rinse the entire scarf again.
Hang your one-of-a-kind marigold-dyed scarf to dry in a shaded, well-ventilated area that’s out of direct sun.
And there you have it! Absolute magic. A craft worth its weight in mari-GOLD. We would love to see your finished pieces! Message them to us, will you??
Until next week, with love and gratitude to you and yours,
-- Rosemary Stafford for Vibrant Valley Farm
ROSE’S RECIPE IDEAS OF THE WEEK:
KOHLRABI APPLE SLAW WITH ZIPPY CITRUS DRESSING
Ingredients
4 cups kohlrabi, cut into thin matchsticks or grated in a food processor
2 cups green apple, prepared as above
½ cup chopped cilantro
half of a jalepeno, minced
¼ cup chopped scallion
orange zest from one orange, and juice squeezed
lime zest from one lime, and juice squeezed
¼ cup olive oil
juice of one orange
juice of two limes
¼ honey or agave syrup
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
dashes of fish sauce to taste
salt to taste
Preparation
Trim and peel kohlrabi. Cut off two ends, then cut in half from top to bottom. Thinly slice, rotate and slice again, making ¼ inch matchsticks
Prepare similar sized matchsticks with green apple
Place both in large bowl with chopped cilantro, scallions, finely chopped jalepeno, lime zest, and orange zest
Whisk dressing together in a small bowl. Toss with salad. Refrigerate until serving. Garnish with further zest and cilantro, salt as needed.
Serve with a delicious and bright summer cocktail or mocktail. Cheers to your good health, and hope for the upcoming election. We must have hope!
MARINATED EGGPLANT WITH CAPERS AND MINT
Salad Ingredients
2 to 3 medium/small eggplants, chopped into approx ¼ inch rounds
4-5 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
¼ cup chopped mint
5 tablespoons capers
Preparation
Preheat broiler
Arrange eggplant slices on a large baking sheet and brush both lightly with oil – or use some of that rad spray olive oil (makes roasting a breeze!) and salt and pepper to taste
Broil about 4 inches from heat, turning once, until golden, about 8-12 minutes
Stir together vinegar, mint, and capers
Layer broiled eggplant slices on a large platter with mint caper mixture spooned over the top. Marinate at room temperature for at least 30 minutes
Eat all by yourself and do not share. It’s that delicious.
SPICED CANTALOUPE TEA CAKE
Ingredients
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups ripe cantaloupe, grated (only the flesh)
Preparation
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 5x8 inch loaf pans.
Combine the flour, cinnamon, salt, ginger, baking soda, and baking powder in a medium mixing bowl.
With an electric mixer or a whisk, beat the sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla in another mixing bowl until well blended and frothy. Fold in grated cantaloupe.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and fold until just blended. Do not overmix or you will toughen the glory!
Divide the batter between the loaf pans and bake, until a toothpick in the center comes out dry, about 1 hour.
Let cool on a rack, then invert. Serve warm on your fanciest tea platter with other fanciful nibbles. Well I do declare!