Judith Browning wrote:I grow and gather a lot of dye plants and materials but I think my all time favorite is a variety of cosmos called 'Bright Lights'.
The flowers can be used either fresh or dried and make a beautiful orange on wool. I pick them weekly over the summer and they bloom prolifically on into fall.
They attract so many butterflies and other pollinators...that alone would be a great reason to grow them. The plants are quite tall and can be bushy.
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not sure I've attached the photos I intended...a crocheted wool blanket with all natural dyes...the cosmos flower dye being the orange one.
and the second image should be our garden. The cosmos are the orange and yellow flowers, smaller than the deeper orange/red Mexican sunflowers.
and they make prolific seed that is easy to save and share....I would be happy to send a small handful to anyone in the states who would like to try them?
nellie stella wrote:
Joylynn Hardesty wrote:The gifted varieties were Erlene's Green and Red Foliated White.
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Here I have pictured the white cotton I received from the heritage demonstration mentioned above. It is probably a commercial variety as the demonstration was on the cotton gin. They got a deer in the headlights look when I asked what the variety name was. The heirloom natural I misplaced the name of.
Ok that green cotton is just amazing!! I live in Georgia and man do I ever need some! Where did you get it? (Sorry, perhaps you already said where you got it and I just didn't notice)
((EDIT: I forgot to ask, does it really keep that pretty green color when you spin with it?))
Joylynn Hardesty wrote:The gifted varieties were Erlene's Green and Red Foliated White.
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Here I have pictured the white cotton I received from the heritage demonstration mentioned above. It is probably a commercial variety as the demonstration was on the cotton gin. They got a deer in the headlights look when I asked what the variety name was. The heirloom natural I misplaced the name of.
Janet Reed wrote:
Denise Cares wrote:Very cool stoves everyone! I love the look of a real country kitchen. Question is how do you manage cooking/baking through the summer months and still keep relatively cool? Weather out here gets over 100 deg often in summer, so it would be a challenge to "fire up the stove"!!
Some people have summer kitchens...places they cook in away from the main house. My Aunts all had wood stoves in summer kitchens so the house stayed cool. Some of us cook early and plan our time to cook when it’s cool .
Others might use alternative cooking methods in the summer.
Thoughts?