More Marigolds

In the craziness of this summer, I have not picked my marigolds as often or as fully as I ought to have. Here we are in September and I have just added our first dried marigolds to the website for 2021.  The marigolds continue to do their part in this process.  They are growing and flowering. The look and smell wonderful. I need to get back to picking them every 2nd or third day to build up our supply.

For now, I have added 1.75 pounds of our wonderful dried marigold flowers back to the website.  They are grown in a 7' diameter raised garden bin.  They are not treated with any pesticides and are fertilized with llama poo from my llamas.  They are a wonderful natural dye.  Each 4 ounce bag of dried marigold flowers will happily dye 4 ounces of protein fiber - wool, silk, mohair - a lovely range of yellow. 

As with any natural dye, the exact color is rarely reproducible since that color will depend on which mordant you use, the water you use in the dye pot, and the temperatures, rainfall and amount of sun that the plants experienced while growing. That bit of unknown is always exiting to me.  We always get yellows with marigolds but they may tend toward green or gold or orange depending on the year. I haven't dyed with these flowers yet so can offer you no indication.  But whichever part of yellow shows up in your dye pot, it will be wonderful!