Of all my natural dye experiments (pics here), I've never seriously considered pokeberries. This is because the color is notoriously not color fast. My thought is why bother? Poke plants are prolific in our yard, however, so every year when their berries ripen I can't help but think about their color.
Recently, I found Carol Leigh's "Non-fading Pokeberry Recipe." After I read it, I knew I had to try it.
Her discovery is an interesting read, the gist of the recipe being 1 to 2 gallons pokeberries to 8 ounces of fiber. The recipe also calls for 56% acetic acid rather than vinegar.
I'm toying with the idea of using this recipe for the dyeing aspect of the Permies.com textile badge. The challenge is that I'd have to dye two pounds of fiber for the badge. That means I'd need two to four gallons of pokeberries. That's a lot of berries, so first I'd have to see if I can collect that much.
We have a lot of poke plants around, but not enough to pick the required amount in one picking. So, I decided the best course of action would be to pick them as they ripen, then de-stem, weigh, and freeze them until I get what I need.
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| First picking yielded 14.5 ounces of pokeberries. |
Picking them off the stalk was rather messy, so I tried cutting them off with my kitchen scissors. That was still messy, but the job went a lot faster. I put them in a gallon freezer bag which I labeled "TOXIC! DO NOT EAT!" and popped them into the chest freezer.
My second challenge will be finding 56% acetic acid. Looks like I'd need a quart for two pounds of fiber. So far, I've found 4%, 20%, 50%, and 99%. The other consideration is that acetic acid is apparently considered hazardous material, which requires extra fees for shipping.
Even if I can't collect enough to dye two pounds, I'd still like to try this. Considering the colors pokeberries yield, it would be pretty amazing to have at least some fiber died with it.
2 comments:
I need to find the blog post from the great poke berry harvest and dye day from about 2016.
Yes, you do! I'd be really interested in that. And also how the samples look years later, if you have one(!)
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