The behinder I get…

Roselle – aka Florida Cranberry

This picture was taken exactly one month ago. I can’t seem to get myself in synch. Here you can see the hibiscus-like flowers and little buds rising from the stem. Wait’ll you see how the plant looks now!

This plant is, officially, my favorite plant. Here are things you can do with this plant: 1) eat the leaves – in France, this plant is called sorrel; in fact, the leaves taste just like sorrel, 2) make tea with the calyces – just like rose hip tea, 3) make jelly with the calyces – yum yum, 4) make a jellied “sauce” like cranberry sauce with the calyces, 5) make dye with the spent flowers, 6) make fiber – yes roselle is a bast plant! Quite a lot of bang for the ol’ buck, yes?

Kurogoma – Black Sesame

Back in August, TT gave me some seeds at the downtown farmers market. They were black sesame seeds. Of course, we couldn’t wait. Planted 6 of them. The all germinated. A month ago, this is how Miss Sesame looked. Great little flowers! Now…well. The seedpods are – well…I have to take more pictures tomorrow.

I suppose I should be taking pictures of the wonderful sandspurs that Sally and Holly have discovered. My fingers are bruised and sore from picking the damn things out of their fleece. No. I’m not dignifying the sandspur with a photo.

I have some exciting actual fiber things to show, too. All weekend, I prepped fleece. Washed, mordanted, dyed…mmm. And now…I’m in the carding and roving pulling process. Next time…

Hello Fall, Goodbye Coreopsis

My stand of coreopsis was reduced to 3 or 4 spindly, hacked up plants around the terra cotta chicken fountain. The hennys did a pretty good job of dismembering said stand. So, I was reduced to trolling the county roads. My very own personal county road, also called 232, was loaded with the 3rd blooming 2 weeks ago. I had not had time all summer long to even pull over and snip some blossoms. So, this was it. I made sure I had a big ol trash bag with me whenever I went out. And finally, I said to myself, “Today’s the day.”

I set out for the feed store, expecting to see masses of yellow flowers, but when I turned out onto the road, all I saw was new mown grass. A mile later…5 miles later…8 miles later, there was a tractor, mowing ‘em down. I turned onto 27. Tractors mowing everywhere. It was one of those early fall days, you felt you could be outside, I guess. I got the feed. Not a flower in sight. Decided to take an alternate route home. And there, by the bottling plant near the springs, OH HA! The Last of the Coreopsis.

So there you go. I mordanted a variety of fiber…some of Holly’s hoggett fleece from last April’s shearing, some fine GCNI from a sheep in Dry Creek, Louisiana, some Border Leicester from Maryland. Then I made a dyepot with half of those coreopsis. The result…not intense oranges, but milder, softer shades. I’m totally delighted with the “overdye” effect on the gray GCNI. I want to wear THAT.

Here’s a close up, sans flash, of this season’s green cotton. We had quite a time with cotton this year. Permitted by the state, boll weevil trap planted in the garden by the Division of Plant Industry, and inspected by Wayne every three weeks this summer.

This is our 2nd year of growing cotton. We planted only green. I selected bolls with the darkest fiber, and was pleased with the outcome. Most of the cotton is medium green. Last year’s batch was all over the green spectrum…but mostly very very pale.

These are beautyberries. An entirely different color.  Pretty intense. I’ve been cutting stems and making wild bouquets with goldenrod. For years. Well, this year, I heard tell of a jelly made from beautyberry. Lenore, daring wench that she is, went first. She found “the mother lode” on her 10 acres. She was so daring she even added wine. Well. I tasted her jelly. I tasted the berries. I knew I had to make some.

Lenore the Enabler showed up at the farmers market with a big fat bag of berries. Almost enough for the “recipe.” On one of Smitty’s morning sojourns, I picked enough to make enough jelly for the Western World. I didn’t add wine. Just berries, pectin, and sugar.

Here you go. Five half-pints of jelly. Scarlet jelly. Now, how did that happen? The violet berries produced an amber colored juice. When the pectin hit…instant color change! I’d never used pectin before, so I didn’t know what to expect. The jelly set right up…ka-boom! Heck in a handbasket, it’s just like store-bought. Except it tastes herbal, wild, and like nothing that Publix would ever carry. Yum.

Thanks Lenore!

Oh…and the recipe…should anyone out there care to dare:

1 1/2 qts beautyberries
2 qts water
1 pkt pectin
4 1/2 c sugar

Start a boiling water canner rolling. Prepare 5 1/2 pt jars, lids, and bands.

Rinse and pick over berries. Ditch the stems. Cover the berries with the water. Bring to a boil…let boil for 20 minutes. Mash the berries a bit. Strain.

Use 3 c of the berry juice. (You’ll have another 3 c left to refrigerate to make more at a later date.) Bring the juice to a boil. Whisk in an envelope of pectin. (I used Ball brand.) As it boils, whisk in the sugar (all at once) and bring a 2nd boil. Let it boil hard for a minute.

Remove from heat. Skim off the “stuff” on top. Pour into sterilized 1/2 pt jars with 1/4″ headspace. Process for 10 minutes.

3-ply on a Sad Day

This is the yarn I spun today. It’s from Holly, one of our dear Gulf Coast girls.

We’re very sad this evening. Wingie, our heroic mother hen, died today. She leaves 4 chicks who will be 5 weeks old this week. Oh, what a heartbreaker.

Back to the Garden

Twenty four hours is a long while to be gone from a place like this: a labor intensive-dependent place, with living, breathing, eating dependents. We got back late yesterday afternoon, ate, relaxed, and slept. This morning, the celestial choir awakened us. All 9 roosters were going off, simultaneously, in pairs, in quartets, in…well, you get the idea. They were just so needy. Artie, the muse, on the other hand…

Content-o-Cat

She is laying on, you guessed it, Sally’s fleece, all rolled up in an old sheet. I haven’t yet had time to skirt, weigh, etc, so there it sits. And, as you can see, she knows a good thing when she feels it. The gal who has to sleep with mommy, and has, for 15 years…well, there’s something better.

The garden needed attention. I planted borage seedlings, cotton seedlings, a couple rows of Jacob’s Cattle beans, and lo, oh, yeah, and behold…the Contenders are blooming. Also, we have 3 little ears of corn on corn stalk #1. Also, we pulled a dozen or so plump crisp red potatoes out from under. Also…oh pah, I won’t go on. I did have a lot to do out there, though. Fertilizing the Seminole squash and the Cocozelle…good ol rotted chicken poo hay. Watering the onions and the Brandywines. Half the dang day.

Then there was food to make. Blueberry muffins, daily bread, sausage & peppers…another good chunk o time. And, needless to say, I had to drive to the feed store.

So…the spinning didn’t get going until about an hour ago…and what should I spin? Well, Gracie came today. Gracie is a CVM Romney cross. The darkest dark brown. And as soft and silky as a bevis.

An Ounce of Gracie

This is what I did. This soft, slidey stuff takes a little bit of gettin’ used to…so, I took that ounce that I washed this afternoon, and spun ‘er up using a variety of tensions and ratios and speeds. Light, medium, and slow. There you go.

A Dash of Apricot & a Map

The apricot-coreopsis fluff from yesterday’s post (below) is being transformed into yarn. But, there are so many last minute things to do before tomorrow’s big reveal, that I just can’t fit one more centimeter of yarn into my day.

Tomorrow Holly & Sally get loaded into the truck (that ought to be a worthy sight) and driven back to Morningside, where they were born. There, they are destined to meet a shearer called Joel, who came all the way from Alabama to shear a few Gulf Coast Natives.

Before the haircuts, I will be dressed up like your maiden great-grand-aunt who lived in the sticks in 1880. I’ll be setting with Susan the soapmaker, showing off these plant dyed yarns of mine. I can’t bring the Fricke, but I have many a handspindle to accompany me. I promise to sneak a certified non-authentic camera in, to take a couple pictures.

After the haircuts, Tom & I will drop the naked girls off back home, feed the chickens, and depart for Barberville, where we are scheduled to play the last dance at 10:00. Then…who knows. We will probably drive home so as to be here to feed the critters first thing. Then, it’s back to Barberville for more pickin’ and fiddlin’ – a midday gig and an early afternoon dance.

Hence the book of maps.

Ah, to be Single & Orange

172 yd/1 1/2 oz Gulf Coast Native Singles – Coreopsis

The dyed locks from last summer ran out, but gave up a nice soft singles yarn. I’d like to ply it, and the choice I have is between waiting for coreopsis to bloom and dyeing more, or plying with a different color. This time, I’m opting to wait for flowers. I’m hankering for solid colors.

Today, our fiddle band played for the opening day of Morningside’s Farm & Forest Festival. Many many elementary school kids were let out of jail and brought to the farm to enjoy a day of earthiness. They made rope, watched a blacksmith, a tanner, and a banjo maker, they ate kettle corn and roasted corn, they saw a “cracker” barnyard and an heirloom garden, they touched tanned pelts, and they sat on benches and sang along with the Flying Turtles String Band. We return on Saturday with our sheep and my baskets of plant dyed yarns. Our gals, Holly and Sally, will get their very first shearing. We are very excited! Holly and Sally…well…not too much.

Singles – Cotton – Sally

L-R Cotton Seedlings, Newborn BL Singles, Sally Hogan – GC Yearling

Does this photo really need commentary? I took this morning’s singles out in the sun for a portrait, thinking, “Heck, those cottons would be nice as a backdrop,” when along came Sally to see if I happened to have a corncob in my hand. I did not, but she remained interested. Here she is, taking in the photo shoot, probably thinking, “I know there’s a corncob over there, somewhere.”

Oh…these are the last singles I need for my top secret emergency project…which I will have great fun posting later on down the line.

Wind and Rain and Wind = Tired Out

Stormy day. Wind and Rain started last night. The chickens were all at risk. Wind tore off a coop door, blew off a coop roof. We worked in the dark in the lightning resecuring our charges. Finally, there was a break in the storm and we all slept. But, this morning, the wind was back. Couldn’t decide if it was a west wind or an east wind, a north or a south.

Look at this. You decide.

 

Oak Tree Dancing with the Wind

Oh, what does a spinner do when she can’t sleep? Correct, Queen Friday, she spins. I didn’t want to coax fiber into rolags or roving, I just wanted to spin. I have a 3 oz roll of Gulf Coast Native roving that I pulled a while back. So, there, I had something to work with.

This fiber is so springy, stretchy, that it really looks crummy sitting there on the bobbin. Looks like big fat airy yarn. This is a very fine single. I’ve learned not to spin the GC singles too firmly, the resulting plied yarn will be hard.

This singles yarn will, hopefully, contribute to a wonderfully springy soft sock yarn.

Good stuff can sometimes come out of storms.

Jasper & Blackie

No, not fiber animals. They aren’t and I know it. But they are something to behold. Look at these guys!

Pretty Boy Blackie

Blackie from the Top with the White Girls

Jasper White & Harem

Yes, He IS the Size of a Small Turkey

See if you can pick Jasper out of the crowd. Cock-a-doodle-doooooooo!