Amrita Cottrell

I grew up on sheep farms in Ohio and Maine. My Mom became an expert at dying wool. I don't remember what all the various plants she used were now so many years later. But, I Googled it and this is what I found. What a beautiful color palette depending on the mordant used.

Hope this helps. Please report back and let us know your outcomes.

Thanks for sharing this.

Amrita
https://blog.ellistextiles.com/2015/05/14/a-lesson-about-dye-plants-broom/#:~:text=There%20was%20clearly%20%E2%80%9Cno%20contest,I%20get%20from%20weld%20plants.

Hi All:

My first time posting here. I really appreciate all the wisdom of this group.

Does anyone run or belong to a bulk buying club for shelf-stable items? There is so little organic food (no coops) here where I live and virtually no good health food stores nearby. We just move to Southern Maine from Southern Oregon where we were so spoiled with organic items available at numerous locations near us.

Years ago when I lived in Hawaii I belonged to a great buying club because of the same situation. I'm thinking of starting one in our community and wonder who are the distributors who sell bulk items. We really like a lot of Bob's Red Mill products (especially gluten-free) but they no longer let you purchase frromo their website. I refuse to support Jeff Bezos and of course, Amazon is the first thing that comes up when doing a Google search for bulk food buying. One of the only stores that is within reasonable driving range from our home is Whole Foods and I don't want to support it. Plus they don't really have a good bulk section.

I'm sure there are many others wanting to have a good amount of food on hand, especially in the winter, and don't want to support all the packaging of smaller quantities and waste precious fuel driving back and forth to stores that are a distance away. I welcome a good discussion on this important topic.

BTW, this is our first year in our home and we put in a food forest that gave us hundreds of pounds of produce which I have canned, frozen, dehydrated, and fermented. I am so grateful for these methods of extending and preserving this wonderful food.

Amrita of Berwick Food Forest Garden, Berwick, Maine

Hi Nicole:

I have a question about the potatoes. You said to put them on the ground and cover them with grass clippings. Are those fresh grass clippings or composted? If fresh don't they burn the potatoes? I want to do potatoes in a simple way this year and my neighbor has been bringing us the clippings from when he mows our shared yard.

Thanks,
Amrita