A Backyard Life

Berkeley, CA, is often thought of as a suburb of San Francisco. And in a way, it is. But visitors are usually startled to find a densely populated small city rather than the spread out acres of McMansions that the word "suburb" generally connotes. 

Note requisite rain barrel and compost bin... 

But despite the nearly Manhattan-level density, we enjoy a quiet life in our back yard. I love our little house! John is an excellent vegetable gardener, and even though we don't have a lot of space, I love telling him what I'd like to cook — next thing I know I've got some fresh Lacinato Kale or Jade green beans ready to toss in the pan.

Last weekend I pickled some green cherry tomatoes, which we have a veritable flood of. Don't they look cute? The jars joined the pints of Zucchini Relish that I canned in August. (I'd hoped this endeavor would make a dent in the zucchini harvest nagging at me, but only one gigantor was used....) 

I have a nice dye bench in the back yard, too. It was made out of the lumber we recovered when we dismantled an odd semi-porch in back. (This house was SUCH a fixer-upper when we bought in 6 years ago I can't tell you!) What a luxury to have a solid spot to work. 

And it's a good thing, too: A couple of weeks ago I received my first of four shipments from Birdsong's natural dye CSA (commmunity supported agriculture) called Nature's Cauldron. I was so excited to open the box! Lodgepole pine bark, yellow lichen, dried comfrey, and ever-so-fragrant fennel was packed in with a copy of Harvesting Color, a hank of perendale yarn mordanted with rhubarb, and alum for mordanting. 

Birdsong either grows or gathers all the dyestuffs that she includes in the shipments. I am intrigued by natural dyeing but have to admit that I'm quite unlikely to go out to gather dye materials myself (my lichen hunting notwithstanding), so I leapt when Birdsong announced the creation of this CSA. I'll be sharing photos of my dyeing experiments soon — for the most part I'm using Shetland jumperweight, with the intention of knitting a stranded garment (perhaps my Fair Isle From Scratch that has been stalled for so long!).

It's been nice to be home for a few weeks. I needed to get grounded again, and being out of doors — even if just in the backyard — is what this knitter needed.

Comments

[Nancy]

Fun! I am particularly intrigued by the rhubarb and fennel since both grow like weeds here!

[Pamela]

I grew up in Berkeley, and I did some natural dyeing in the late 60's. Mostly I remember marigolds and onion skins.
I also did some weaving, drop spindle spinning, macrame, you name it. Most of it I barely remember. I recently had to take a class for the drop spindle to get the hang of it again!

In those days Dharma Trading Co was in downtown Berkeley, on University.