History and Humble Beginnings Part Two: Slater Mill

Once upon a time, fabric was made and dyed in Pawtucket, RI.  You can see some of the machines from the Industrial Revolution's birth at the Slater Mill on Main St. Now, URI Master Gardener volunteers have recreated gardens similar to those of that time, even using brick and stone from demolished buildings from the turn of last century to make the edges of raised beds and create stairways.  

Native sunflowers stand tall, visited by bees and birds. Kitchen garden crops popular at that time, like pat-a-pan squash, ripen.  In this hot, dry summer, the arugula has already gone to seed, but New Englanders would have saved those seeds for the following year.  Onions were also in this stage, but some fruit trees and gourds were just at their peak.  The garden also includes several medicinal plants common to the time, as well as the "fabric" plants: cotton and flax.

Not much further,  labeled plants are grown as a demonstration of their use in dyes: red ox blood beet roots, yellow tansy or goldenrod flowers, ochre onion skins, blue woad and false indigo...  A volunteer tells of her surprises using mordants like alum and vinegar.  The understated bronze fennel (the whole plant) will give a clear yellow with a little help from alum, but the bright, hot pink and orange petals of zinnia with give a soft beige or tan.  Sunflower petals may yield yellow or green.  Many of the plants require alum to bring out the full color, such as is used with (rose) madder to make reds.  With bloodroot, a native plant, no mordant will yield an orange color from the roots and adding alum will yield rust.  

All these plants must be harvested at the right time for the right parts.  I may have just missed making blue with my Russian sage, but I'm not going to miss making yellows with some native goldenrod and European tansy flowers!

Mallow, as in, marshmallow.

Native goldenrod.

Crested celosia, i.e. cockscomb.

Woad.

Nasturtium: Edible flowers, leaves, buds, and seeds.

Cotton.

China aster.

Cotton seeds and fluff on right.

For ways you can try making dyes at home, for eggs or socks or tie-dye, try these sites:

Dye Garden Plant list

Dye Plant History

I also like using purple cabbage to make blue.  More blue plant dyes here.  My first graders don't know this yet, but we will be making paint this year!

Ox blood beet, for red.

Calendula: Yellow dye and skin cream.

Teasal: Out of season.

Flax: Out of season.

Onion bulbs and seeds.

Love Lies Bleeding.  Amaranth seeds.

Lupines late in bloom and with seed pods.

Support for squash with sunflowers.

Samples!

Collecting!

Much Ado About Mullein

You see them everywhere in the summer, tall candelabras of yellow flowers and soft, fuzzy leaves.  They're erupting from cracks in the sidewalk.  They line the highways.  They dot wildflower field.  Some even include them in their gardens.

Verbascum thapsus, or mullein, is part of the snapdragon family.  Originally native to Europe and Asia, they are now ubiquitous to North America.  Being drought-tolerant and providing flowers make them a very eco-friendly plant to have.  They starts a rosette of fuzzy leaves, and flower in their second year, before releasing seed to start the cycle anew.  

Mullein provides pollen for bees, butterflies, moths, and beetles.  It provides seeds for birds such as the goldfinch.  Ants, true bugs, earwigs, and other creatures use the plant as food, shelter, and building material.  (Perhaps the wool carder bee likes this plant to line its nest.  It does like my lamb's ear!)  The decomposing leaves at the base also feed pill bugs, who provide a great clean-up service in the garden.

Look at the happy honey bee in the first photo.  In the center, a ladybug, grasshopper, shield bug, and a four-lined plant bug.  Last, mullein in the wildflower field at ASRI Bristol, RI.

Mullein also has many medicinal uses.  I've made a tea of the leaves to use as a demulcent, useful for a phlegmy cough or mild asthma.  The leaves are also anti-inflammatory.  Both leaves and flowers can be used in a tea, the mucilage properties,  soothing irritated membranes, and saponins making coughs more productive.  (Interestingly, saponins cause respiratory arrest in fish.)  Some Native Americans have used the roots as well.

The stalk has been used to start fires and may have been used as a wick in Roman candles.  Ancient Romans called it "hag's taper."  It's also been called candlewick, bunny's ear, and flannel leaf, Jacob’s staff, Jupiter’s staff and Aaron’s rod.  Kids love to pet it.  My kid uses the leaves to make sleeping bags for her Barbies.

Sources:
Mother Earth Living
Peterson Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs
Wikipedia


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