'Tis the Season for Walnut Dyeing
Time to harvest these To achieve this As with pretty much all my friends in the Northeast, it seems, right now I have a walnut tree nearby dropping nuts all over the place. For tree huggers like me who want to know more: the Black Walnut Tree is also called "Stinkweed" when it's small, because it grows fast and just about anywhere, refusing to yield to weeding -- and when you do manage to pull it up, it stinks. These trees are wonderful, however, because they produce a great hard wood. Also, you can make dye from the hulls of the fruit. You can even eat the nuts, although I found it hard to get much food out of them. You can stain wood with the hulls, as my Dad did with a salad bowl I bought years ago. The walnuts are high in tannins, which serve as a mordant and make for a very potent dye. Just look at my gloves: I recommend you wear gloves Here's a brief pictorial essay on making dye from black walnuts. I did mordant my fabric, by the