Wednesday 6 August 2014

Woad from Scratch


We're growing woad in our garden!
My daughter and I cut the largest leaves. I hope we'll get to harvest more later in the summer.  We tore them into small bits. (following the instructions from Teresinha Robert's website on Woad Extraction )


I heated the leaves in a large pot of water to 80C for 30 minutes; this produced a brown liquid.  After adding soda ash to reduce the liquid, it darkened.

Then I aerated it by pouring it from one pot to another, causing the indigotin to precipitate!



Yay! Woad!







Once the woad settles, and the water is syphoned off, I strained it through silk.  It's a very fine powder!

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