Elderberry Days

We've been spending a lot of time with the elderberry bushes in our garden

After gathering and separating a few quarts of berries, we got down to work/play!

First, we made Elderberry syrup, intending to boost immune systems coming into the school year and winter sickies season. It's so good, we've given it as gifts, served it over vanilla ice cream, made soda with seltzer water (as well as a couple of REALLY yummy coctails. Elderberry peach gin fizz and Prosecco with elderberry syrup and fresh mint) 

To make the syrup, we brought 2 cups of berries to a boil in 2 cups of water. After boiling point was reached, we turned off the heat and mashed the berries. We let them steep for a couple of hours, then strained them through a fine mesh strainer. I would have liked to use cheesecloth, but was out.  Then we mixed in 2 cups of raw, local honey. Poured off into mason jars, and voila! I understand it keeps in the fridge for one to two months (though I guarantee it won't last that long! In fact, I just ordered more raw honey from our farmer to make another batch before the catbirds and mockingbirds clean out the bushes!)

I got direction for the syrup from the elderberry  issue of herbal roots zine, which is included in our herb fairies subscription. The magazine is loaded with info, games, stories, recipes and crafts to get to know each herb, as well as journal and coloring pages and resources for further exploration.  The herb fairies stories are a big hit with my girl, and she's learned a lot, listening to them during our after lunch quiet time.

Then we made elderberry ink (mashed, strained berries, salt, and vinegar)

Nature journaling, more cooking (grain free peach elderberry crisp, YUM!), elderberry flute crafting and dyeing yarn and a play silk rounded out our week with elderberry. 

She strained off our fermented elderberry dye. We filled the jar with berries, covered with water, and let sit in the sun for 3 days. After straining, we added some alum mordant and a skein of wool yarn, along with a playsilk.

We were very happy with the results, though we put the yarn back in the jar for 24 hours to deepen the color

cutting a length of elder branch for a flute

hollowing out the branch with a drill bit. The flute ended up cracking after a lot of work, but we will eventually try again

Elderberry syrup on vanilla ice cream with fresh peaches, borage, and nasturtium flowers. Perfection in a bowl.
Can't wait for elderberry season next year!

Dyeing day at Feederbrook Farm

We returned to the lovely Feederbrook farm for our last session of our fiber CSA.  We received the fiber from our sheep (we chose roving, yarn was also an option, spun at the local mill) and did a hand painting workshop with the fabulous Lisa. It was so much fun, and I'm really excited to have new skills and techniques under my belt!

A sweet, tiny little bottle baby lambie, just a few days old

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Some roving and yarn, dyed by Lisa. The bags contain the roving and yarn from the sheep, chosen by program participants

The children learned about the effects of dye applied to different colors of yarn, as well as overdyeing, before they made their color selections

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So many possiblities! They got to choose 3-5 colors for their skein

Mordanting the fiber with citric acid

Squeezing out the mordant

Laying out the yarn for dye application

Purple first, of course!

Squeezing the dye well into the fiber

After some time spent on the stove, it comes off, having absorbed and set the dye

A good rinse......

The gorgeous results of everyone's creative work

The girl and her skein

Anya's skein on the left, mine on the right. I forced myself to use colors I wouldn't normally choose (as in greens and browns)

A small swatch of my yarn. The colors, in person, remind me of raspberries and chocolate.

We have so enjoyed our monthly visits to the farm! We wrapped up the day with some mucking out of the alpaca shelter, bringing home 2 big bags of manure for the gardens. I eagerly anticipate scheduling a spinning class with Lisa, to learn to use my beautiful wheel, gifted me earlier this year. 

Cherry blossoms

Building a fairy house

This time of year, we all look forward to cherry blossom time. We have two favorite spots to visit. One, the tidal basin in DC is alsways crowded, but oh so lovely. The other, a quieter spot near our house, where all of the streets of a lovely neighborhood are lined by cherry trees. If you time it right, fairy land is yours, and quiet. Especially lovely just after peak bloom, when the airy pink petal "snow" is falling.
    As the blooms were peaking, I was inspired to dye some cherry blossom merino roving for a couple of special projects. We used cochineal dye extract, and by varying time in the dyepot, we came up with a lovely, perfect cherry blossom palette.  Anya made about 2 dozen cherry blossom fairies, all on her own. Directions came from this book. I wanted to do another tree weaving. We did one in the fall, with my class of first and second graders, from our Waldorf homeschool co-op. (tutorial here)
    I love the tree (mostly done by Anya.. I helped with the trunk. I also strung the warp)  overlooking our tadpoles on the nature table. Cherry blossoms make me so happy, and truly usher in the Spring for us. What says SPRING to you?