Hi, All
Our woad is growing!!!!!  We have a sudden warm spell with daytime highs at
almost 100F (38C)and nights dipping to just above freezing.  The 2nd year
woad plants are flowering with lots of pollinators around them. (only 3
plants left in the ground to make seed!) And this year's woad plants are in
the baby stages -- 6 leaves.  The woad that I planted from seed in early
April is the same size as the woad that I planted 3 weeks later, the first
week of May.  And it has almost caught up to the potted woad in the house,
planted in February.

Thanks to Michelle and Teresinha I have Tewksbury woad and Bleu de l'ecture
(sp?) woad growing along side my Canadian woad.  This year the plan is to
save seed from the Canadian woad and separate the Tewksbury and French woad
in order to save seed from both for next year.

DD's science fair project generated a lot of interest at the national
competition but no awards.  However she has begun working on her phase two
and has hopes to do better next year.

The plan is to compare the three varieties of woad for indigo production to
see if there is any difference in indigo precipitate yield between the
varieties.

We read that watering the plant before harvesting the leaves and fertilizing
during the growing season both increase indigo yield.  So that is something
else she can test.

Everything I've read says that woad doesn't contain any blue after the
winter frost.  One exciting discovery we made was that 2nd year woad leaves
do contain some blue, not a lot, but some.  As well as purple, red, yellow
and green.  We did some sample contact dyeing with 2nd year woad leaves, and
flowers and the results are encouraging.  I am going to post pictures in the
photo section of the list of our contact dyeing results on silk.

Chris
Joybilee Farm
Greenwood, B.C.
http://fiberarts.ca

I must tell you that i have TWO kinds of stinging nettles in my
garden.  First, the kind that I pick bare-handed, and Second, the
brutal kind with big stickers that I should have picked with THICK
gloves on!

I have hung the nettles up to dry but it is so cold and damp here that
they just turned brown and don't look very nice.  Guess I should have
waited for a sunny day for drying.

Herbally yours, Karen in France

For people in UK East Midlands, I visited this Wildflower Farm today,
delightful and loads of woad.  Amazingly cheap - all their seeds are
only £1.50 per packet and plants from £1.20.
www.naturescape.co.uk

M.

--- In woadgrowers@yahoogroups.com, "Teresinha Roberts"
<Teresinha.Roberts@...> wrote:
>
> Hi
>
> Our website host now does statistics, and we have just found out
that we have between 50 and 140 visitors a day to the woad website
www.woad.org.uk ! I am very happy (and so is DH who takes the photos
and builds the website). Just wonder who are all these people
interested in woad.
>
> Regards
>
> Teresinha
>

Well one of your visitors was me........

I grew woad for the first time lat year, I only managed to get three
plants to grow from seed, but I still got enough leaves to dye some
fiber and fabric. Some lovely blues and then some pink wool (I added
some alum and reheated the leaves).  However, I'm having problems this
year, I put the last of my seeds in a seed bed at my allotment but a
cat? has been using the seed bed as a toilet! So nothing seems to be
growing.........  But I did leave all three plants from last year in
the ground and they are as tall as me... so if all goes well I'll soon
have lots of seeds....... to late for this year but plenty for next..

best wishes

Tricia

I've started a blog too not much content yet on dying / natural or
otherwise but I'm working on it.... http://magicindigo.wordpress.com

HI, Michele and all

Spring has finally come and the snow in our mountains is almost gone.  What
a relief, since the first snow was on the ground in October.

The 2nd year woad plants are finally up and I have several healthy rosettes
to leave in the ground for seed.  Woad is a biennial so after the seed, the
plants will be no more.

I received Tewksbury woad seed and French woad seed from Teresinha last week
and it is already planted.  The package was sent as a letter so it wasn't
even radiated coming in to the country.  Thanks, Teresinha.  Yesterday I
received another package of woad seed from Michele.  The seed was nicely
enclosed in a Breakfast Bar wrapper and well foiled.  Thank you, Michele.
It will go into the ground today.

My DD takes her Woad project to Nova Scotia in two weeks for the Canada Wide
Youth Science Fair.  There is a lot of interest in her project from the
organizers of the national contest and her project is being featured in an
environmental media presentation to the public.

The woad seed that we are planting will be her second year continuation of
this year's project on Woad and Natural indigo.

Maybe we'll even get indigo from the leaves this year!!!!

Blessings,
Chris
Joybilee Farm
Greenwood, B.C.

http://fiberarts.ca

Hi Michele and everyone,

I have been duly ignoring my woad so maybe it will come up and
thrive this year; I'll have to go check on it.

My other herbs are coming along nicely.  I have already made
dandelion liqueur, and am drying stinging nettles (this, I pick
without gloves).

I dry my herbs for teas and soapmaking or make olive oil infusions.
St. John's Wort I pick in local fields.

I usually have tons of chickweed and have also infused this in olive
oil.

I recently bought dried yarrow.  Does anyone know if this should be
infused fresh or is dried OK?

Happy Spring to all and welcome to the new members,

Karen, a Hoosier in France who lives 1 mi. from a Roman ruin right
on the German-France border

Hi all. We have a few new members this week, so could everyone wave
and say hello. I'd like to hear how this year's crop is coming on.

For our new members: we started off mostly with members in England
and Scotland (I'm in East Anglia) but we now have some Canadians and
Americans too.

Our success with woad is mixed. Sally and Teresinha seem to grow
acres of it effortlessly. I had one very productive plant, but my
seedlings get to slug snack size and vanish. Linda has one plant who
had to be imported.  And Patterson joined because he is trying to
get RID of woad.

We all have had some luck producing blue pigment. Teresinha is a
spinning and dyer of everything par excellence, and Sally is a
historian specialising in makeup and perfume. We have some other
spinners and dyers, and a few lucky people with furry animals.

I mainly have woad because I collect what my husband calls "witchy-
poo plants". I hand spin dog, cat and animal for friends and make it
into small things for keepsakes. As I'm really an engineer by trade,
this usually reduces people to helpless laughter.

My woad plant has finally departed, dug out in a garden
reorganisation but it had succumbed to old age. In its last year it
produced a large amount of seed. If you need any, just ask. I have
some in the ground, hoping to carry on the tradition!

Michele

PS Good luck to Linda, who opens her soap shop in the Hebrides on
May 1. How goes the witch-friendly garden in the front, Linda?

And PPS - does anybody have a snippet of madder root I could have?

----- Original Message -----

From: marytheknit

To: woadgrowers@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Monday, April 16, 2007 4:51 PM

Subject: [woadgrowers] Lost baby woad

I had put my two mini-woad plants outside on the window ledge along
with lots and lots of other seedlings, been out nearly a week day and
night as weather so good, and woke up this morning to find a female
blackbird has tossed out over half the soil in both woad pots. The
smaller plant has disappeared altogether, the larger was found bare-
rooted and shivering. Nothing pecked out of the leaves, so cannot
understand what the bird was after, far more juicy seedlings nearby.
No worms in these pots, all compost from bag. Never in 24 years in
this house has this happened to me before with any pots.

The one remaining seedling has withered now, as we have unusual temps
of up to 23 degrees here at the moemnt (middle of UK). Is it too late
to plant new seeds now?

M.

---

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I had put my two mini-woad plants outside on the window ledge along
with lots and lots of other seedlings, been out nearly a week day and
night as weather so good, and woke up this morning to find a female
blackbird has tossed out over half the soil in both woad pots.  The
smaller plant has disappeared altogether, the larger was found bare-
rooted and shivering.  Nothing pecked out of the leaves, so cannot
understand what the bird was after, far more juicy seedlings nearby.
No worms in these pots, all compost from bag.  Never in 24 years in
this house has this happened to me before with any pots.

The one remaining seedling has withered now, as we have unusual temps
of up to 23 degrees here at the moemnt (middle of UK).  Is it too late
to plant new seeds now?

M.

Hi Chris. I'll be happy to send you some seeds, and you don't have to
give me nuthin'. I have a big bagful. Just send me your address and
I'll find some foil.

Michele

My daughter did her science fair project on growing and using sustainably
grown natural indigo.  She won a 2nd place for it at her district science
fair and competed at the regional fair yesterday.  She did exceedingly well
and came away with a gold medal and several cash awards.  She has also been
invited to represent our region at the National Science Fair competition in
Nova Scotia.  (We're in Canada)

She grew woad in her garden and tried to extract the dye.  That part of her
project didn't work and she is going to try that again this summer using the
wonderful directions on Teresinha's woad site.  She had to purchase some
Indian indigo to do her remaining experiments.

She wants to continue this project next year.  Unfortunately the seeds that
we bought from Ian Howard are not germinating.  I think that they probably
were treated with radiation on entering Canada (not his fault), as they were
not put in a foil envelope.  Would anyone be willing to send me woad seed in
a foil pouch so that we could have a second variety of woad for her to try
this year.  With two varieties she can do some comparison of productivity.

Our snow is gone now and we have 6 second year plants that made it through
the winter so we will be able to save seed this year.

I have Hurry's Book "The Woad Plant and Its Dye" scanned in PDF format (its
public domain) and I would trade a copy of the CD for a generous gift of
seeds for my DD project.

TIA
Chris

I have now got two very fragile looking tiny plants on my kitchen
windowsill.  How big should they be before I think about planting them
outside?  What protection should I give them?  Last year I used sawn-
off lemonde bottles, but some slugs still found their way underneath
and ate the plantlets.

M.

My seeds arrived yesterday from UK.  I got a 10g package from Ian Howard and
I assume it is from the varieties grown in the Spindigo project, as he was
part of that.  I never thought to ask the origin of the seeds -- so excited
was I to see that the seed was available.

I also got a small packet from Suffolk herbs which was labeled "wildflower",
so perhaps has not been selected for good dye qualities.

I also have a package of seed from Richter's in Canada, which I grew last
year in the garden.  I had good germination from the Richter's seed and will
compare the three seed stocks for vigor--if I can get them to grow.

It took less than a week to get to Canada.  Amazing since letters within
Canada take up to 2 weeks to travel across the country.

I am going to put some in a pot beside the wood stove to encourage
germination.  It is really still a month early to be starting things
indoors.  We had more snow yesterday, just when I thought winter was almost
over.

Chris
Greenwood, B.C.
Canada
http://fiberarts.ca

Historically in England allotments were each something like 30 feet by
10 feet minimum, the size need to keep a family of four in veg all year
round.  Many homes built in the UK up to WWII would also have back
gardens this size (lenght, not width though)  If you wanted to grow
soft fruit and flowers, you generally begged and pleaded for another
plot, adjoining if possible.  In some areas there are long waiting
lists and my pal in Leeds has just obtained a quarter plot (shows the
pressure in land in the UK at the moment!).

A group of holders would be able to buy in fertilisers etc at wholesale
prices - some have gone on to become proper businesses.

To bring this back to woad - I have had one seed sprout this morning!
Previous years on planting out they have been eaten, even though
covered with a "cloche" of a cut-down lemonade bottle.  I suspect
slugs, so this year I might try a big bottomless pot (rather like
growing mint) and lots of gravel round it.

M.

----- Original Message -----

From: Robin & Chris Dalziel

To: woadgrowers@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 7:51 PM

Subject: RE: [woadgrowers] Getting woad to grow and Hurry's book

Hi, Teresinha

I left a comment in your guest book.  I love your site and have referred to it several times.  My DD is doing a science fair project on dyeing with Indigo and part of it is to hopefully have a live woad plant in a pot for the science fair.  (I hope it grows for her).  Your site will be in her bibliography for the report.

Do the libraries in UK have an interlibrary loan system?  That’s how I got the book.  And I was very surprised to get it.  It was only a week since I made the request.  By now the Hurry book should be in the public domain as he died in 1930, so it should have entered the public domain in 1980.  (or are the rules different in the UK?)  I wonder that it hasn’t been reprinted on the internet in PDF format.    

Your homemade paper cards are fascinating too.  My DD has done home made paper but only made gift cards out of it.  I hadn’t thought of incorporating our spinning threads into it too.  What a great idea!

What is an “allotment”?  Is it a farm or a garden plot or ???  We don’t have those in Canada but we do have community gardens where people in a city are assigned a plot within a community garden.  They usually have organic rules here.  So I wondered if it was the same thing? 

Of course, living on a farm we have more land than we actually have in cultivation.  My husband’s relatives from Scotland (Carluke and Haddington) were visiting many years ago and when they drove by our farm commented that Canada was just farmland and forest and rocks and trees with very few people.  You can drive for 2 hours in any direction from our farm before you find a city and that would be over 2 mountain passes.  Our nearest neighbor is 1 km. away.

Chris

http://fiberarts.ca

---

From: woadgrowers@yahoogroups.com [mailto:woadgrowers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Teresinha Roberts
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 9:47 AM
To: woadgrowers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [woadgrowers] Getting woad to grow and Hurry's book

Hi Chris

I was going to ask you which library has the Hurry book, when I noticed you are in Canada (I'm in UK).

Have you had a look at our woad website www.woad.org.uk ? It has a lot of information you may be looking for. If you have the time to leave a comment on the guestbook, I'd really appreaciate it!

It is also well worth trying out the woad swicki in the blog. It work much better than google.

Regards

Teresinha

www.wildpaper.co.uk

----- Original Message -----

From: Robin & Chris Dalziel

To: woadgrowers@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 5:13 PM

Subject: [woadgrowers] Getting woad to grow and Hurry's book

After reading your posts I think I should be very happy I even have woad
plants in the garden! Instead of complaining that I'm not getting any
colour.

My very small local library brought in a copy of Hurry's book "The Woad
Plant" (loaned from a university library) and I spent the evening reading
it. Very interesting, although mostly history of the industry in the UK and
Europe.

Some things I learned from the book that may improve my chances of getting
colour next summer. The plant needs to be well weeded. (I'm not great at
keeping my garden weeded.) It doesn't fair well when having to compete with
weeds. And it needs vast quantities of manure to grow well, as well as
additions of lime/calcium. It was the first crop to be grown intensively
and taught husbandmen how to cultivate for the best harvest. So next summer
it will get its required manure. I have lots of it due to the sheep and
goats in my barn.

The seed should be started early but the plant may be damaged by late
frosts. Oh my, we have frost all summer, perhaps I will need to move it to
a bench with good frost drainage and put it under a cold frame.

The leaves should be washed before using them for dye. (Oops, I think I
just shoved them into the pot)

The flowers from the top of the dye vat are used to make an artist
pigment--blue lake. This I want to try, too. If only I could get some
blue.

Hurry's book doesn't mention woad being grown in Scotland at all. But it
does mention it in England, France, Italy, Germany and Holland. I wonder if
it doesn't do well in cold climates (like Canada?) My woad is under 4 ft.
of snow right now. I won't know if it survived the winter until April, when
the snow will melt and the ground thaw.

Unfortunately, Hurry's book doesn't mention how to actually dye with woad.
Chris
In Canada

---

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----- Original Message -----

From: Robin & Chris Dalziel

To: woadgrowers@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 5:13 PM

Subject: [woadgrowers] Getting woad to grow and Hurry's book

After reading your posts I think I should be very happy I even have woad
plants in the garden! Instead of complaining that I'm not getting any
colour.

My very small local library brought in a copy of Hurry's book "The Woad
Plant" (loaned from a university library) and I spent the evening reading
it. Very interesting, although mostly history of the industry in the UK and
Europe.

Some things I learned from the book that may improve my chances of getting
colour next summer. The plant needs to be well weeded. (I'm not great at
keeping my garden weeded.) It doesn't fair well when having to compete with
weeds. And it needs vast quantities of manure to grow well, as well as
additions of lime/calcium. It was the first crop to be grown intensively
and taught husbandmen how to cultivate for the best harvest. So next summer
it will get its required manure. I have lots of it due to the sheep and
goats in my barn.

The seed should be started early but the plant may be damaged by late
frosts. Oh my, we have frost all summer, perhaps I will need to move it to
a bench with good frost drainage and put it under a cold frame.

The leaves should be washed before using them for dye. (Oops, I think I
just shoved them into the pot)

The flowers from the top of the dye vat are used to make an artist
pigment--blue lake. This I want to try, too. If only I could get some
blue.

Hurry's book doesn't mention woad being grown in Scotland at all. But it
does mention it in England, France, Italy, Germany and Holland. I wonder if
it doesn't do well in cold climates (like Canada?) My woad is under 4 ft.
of snow right now. I won't know if it survived the winter until April, when
the snow will melt and the ground thaw.

Unfortunately, Hurry's book doesn't mention how to actually dye with woad.
Chris
In Canada

---

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.441 / Virus Database: 268.17.37/682 - Release Date: 12/02/2007 13:23

After reading your posts I think I should be very happy I even have woad
plants in the garden!  Instead of complaining that I'm not getting any
colour.

My very small local library brought in a copy of Hurry's book "The Woad
Plant" (loaned from a university library) and I spent the evening reading
it.  Very interesting, although mostly history of the industry in the UK and
Europe.

Some things I learned from the book that may improve my chances of getting
colour next summer.  The plant needs to be well weeded.  (I'm not great at
keeping my garden weeded.)  It doesn't fair well when having to compete with
weeds.  And it needs vast quantities of manure to grow well, as well as
additions of lime/calcium.  It was the first crop to be grown intensively
and taught husbandmen how to cultivate for the best harvest.  So next summer
it will get its required manure.  I have lots of it due to the sheep and
goats in my barn.

The seed should be started early but the plant may be damaged by late
frosts.  Oh my, we have frost all summer, perhaps I will need to move it to
a bench with good frost drainage and put it under a cold frame.

The leaves should be washed before using them for dye.  (Oops, I think I
just shoved them into the pot)

The flowers from the top of the dye vat are used to make an artist
pigment--blue lake.  This I want to try, too.  If only I could get some
blue.

Hurry's book doesn't mention woad being grown in Scotland at all.  But it
does mention it in England, France, Italy, Germany and Holland.  I wonder if
it doesn't do well in cold climates (like Canada?)  My woad is under 4 ft.
of snow right now.  I won't know if it survived the winter until April, when
the snow will melt and the ground thaw.

Unfortunately, Hurry's book doesn't mention how to actually dye with woad.
Chris
In Canada

Hi Ian. From what we can tell, it's easy to get woad to sprout but
tough to keep it going. I can get it to sprout in the ground, but
then something eats it.

I may try Chris's idea with the cinnamon and see if I can get them
going in protected pots.

Chris, you're nearly there on the leaf processing. I aerate using my
hand mixer, let it settle in a wine bottle and then let it dry on
the bottom of a big glass casserole. I scrape it off with a razor
blade. I haven't dyed with it yet - I gave my few tablespoons away
because I just have too many things on the go. (Over in soapwitches,
Rebecca posted the addy for plans for a diy cotton spinning wheel.
Sigh..... I don't dare.)

Michele





--- In woadgrowers@yahoogroups.com, "Ian Temple" <iantmp24@...>
wrote:
>
> Hi All
> Just wanted to say thankyou for the seeds, a lot of my friends
want
> plants from me, but they dont want to grow them from seed, so lets
> hope they all come up.
> Take care
> Ian
>

Hi All
Just wanted to say thankyou for the seeds, a lot of my friends want
plants from me, but they dont want to grow them from seed, so lets
hope they all come up.
Take care
Ian

I make soap, too.

I noticed that they are using oil made from woad seeds as one of the
oils in soapmaking (http://www.woad-inc.co.uk/).

But I think if you tried to use woad pigment powder for colouring you
would have a colour change during the saponificaton process.  I
haven't tried it but when I've tried using other natural vegetable
colours the colours either turned a yuky brown or faded during the
aging process.
Chris