Thursday May 23: "We Dyed and Went to Heaven"

Stephany's Facebook Post says it all: It worked! A year ago three of us indigo growers (persicaria tinctoria, PNW USA) started our journey of making sukumo. Using Takayuki Ishii’s book “the Way of Indigo”, we started the composting process with 2 years of our dried harvest ( three growers, two years drying and storing our harvest). Last month we added homemade lye water, lime and Sake (from Sake One in Forest Grove Or), and raised our glasses for a toast, to start the fermentation process. Our dye master Joni has been tending the vat and today we dyed and went to heaven!

Tuesday May 21 Day 11

 Morning Stir:

Last night I dropped my pH meter into the vat accidentally. I was able to fish it out quickly, but I think I need to re-calibrate it.

This morning before stirring:

 

This morning I stirred a little, then just went ahead and added the last round of lye water instead of waiting until afternoon. I used a pH strip afterwards and it is still at 11, so that's good. 

After adding lye water and stirring.

 

Next step is a little more lime tomorrow and then on thursday we dye!

Monday May 20 Day 10

 Morning stir:

pH still hovering around 10.5, which is good, because the lye water I will add this afternoon is still a little over 11, so it should bring it back up to 11 ish

Photos before and after stirring. It is getting a nice sheen...

Sunday May 19 Continued

 3:00 PM added lye water.

Now it isn't so sludgy.

The pH was right at 11 after adding the lye water, so all is well.

And now that it isn't so sludgy, it seems more bubbly.

After the lye water:                           

Evening stir:

Nice and bubbly.

10.75 pH after stirring.

Day 7 Friday May 17, Day 8 Sat May 18, Day 9, Sunday May 19

Friday May 17

Morning stir:

pH before stirring - 10.8

after stirring - 10.5

just little bubbles around the edges. It's actually less bubbly than it was the first couple of days. Later I will dip some water color paper in and see what it does....

Evening stir:

After stirring tonight it is still at 10.9. Even flashed into the 11's a little before it settled on 10.9.

I brought it out of the shop today and set it in the sun, and now it is in my studio, which feels warmish, but I don't know the temperature. Probably high 60's or so now - that is what the kitchen is and it feels about the same.

A good sign I guess is that some of the dry splash further up the side of the barrel looks blue.

The water color paper is still brownish yellow.

Today is day 7.

The book says  "If you prepared the lye water with a pH of 11.5, it might take 5 to 7 days for the fermenting to start, but these variations are okay. The most important thing is to wait for the indigo flower to form on the surface of the indigo vat."

So, patience is the virtue we are seeking.

But I think we're doing okay...

 

Saturday May 18 

Morning stir:

So I'm still not really seeing what I would call the indigo flower. There are bubbles around the edges is all. But the pH this morning was 10.1. So I think I need to add the lime today. 

The process is to add lime - about half of what we added the first time, or whatever amount needed to keep the pH above 10.5.

And then 24 hours after adding lime to add more lye water.

So today I need to check the pH of my lye water and maybe make some fresh...

24 hours after adding lye water the first time, I add more, then a third batch after another 24 hours.

So the schedule is:

lime today

lye water Sunday

lye water Monday

lye water Tuesday

more lime on Wednesday

Ready to dye on Thursday

Mid afternoon:

Just checked and pH was 10, fluctuating down to 9.8 before it settled.

Added lime, not quite as much as I was supposed to and it is now over 12.

But look at what it did to the pH meter - that was even before I added lime!

That tip used to be the same gray color as the rest of it.

 

 

 

Saturday evening stir

Perfection

I was a little worried that I'd put too much lime in because the pH was over 12 when I finished.

But tonight's stirring just now, it was about 11.4 before stirring and exactly 11 when I finished, which is exactly where it should be.

It's working!

Pictures are before and after stirring...

It's in the studio with a seedling heating mat under it, which should keep it around 70.

 

Sunday May 19:

morning stir:

10.7 before

exactly 11.0 after

I will be happy to add lye water this afternoon, to start diluting the sludge a bit!

 

Day 5 and Day 6

 Wednesday May 15

pH is 11.2 after stirring.

So it still isn't ready. Today is day 5.

I may need to boost the temperature somehow. It is supposed to be between 68 and 77, and the shop has been about 62-65 in the mornings lately.

Photo before stirring. The camera picked up more glow than I saw!

Evening stir:

Still hovering around pH11.

I checked pH at about 6:30 and it was 10.9 - no stirring.

Then I just stirred it and afterwards it was between 11 and 11.1.

So not dropping rapidly yet.

Thursday morning May 16:

Photo before stirring:

pH after stirring: 10.7

Maybe it's getting there?

 

Day 4 Tuesday May 14

AM pH 11.1

PM pH 11.1

So it isn't dropping quickly.

This evening, before stirring:

Day 3 Monday May 13 Morning Stir

 pH is now 11.6 again. I measured it after stirring instead of before.

Photo before stirring:

Sunday May 12 Day 2 of the Vat

 pH 11.4

This is before stirring.

It looks bubbly but the pH isn't dropping rapidly so it isn't ready. The book says at least 3 days, and that when fermentation begins the pH drops quickly, so I don't think it's ready yet. 

Morning Stir

 9:30 AM 

Stirred the vat.

pH 11.7

brown and bubbly

Making a Vat

Shame on me for not keeping up with these posts.

To summarize, we finished the process and declared the sukumo ready sometime in October I think. I stuffed it into a pillow case and let it sit in a cool, dry place all winter.

During April I burned some fresh apple prunings, prune tree prunings, and fig prunings. I got about a half small bucket full of ash. 

A week ago I started making lye, following the instructions in The Way of Indigo book. That turned out to be very easy and as of today the pH of all the lye I made was between 11.3 and 12, so just perfect.

We ended up with 6.917 pounds of dry, crumbly sukumo, so we adjusted the amounts in the Way of Indigo recipe accordingly. That recipe was written for 7.7 pounds. We dumped it into our container, added 16.2 liters of lye water, 67.5 grams of lime, 45g of wheat bran boiled with .9 litter of lye water, and 135 ml of sake.

Now it sits, and I will stir it every 22 hours. We should see "indigo flower" within 5 days or so.

Pictures on next post.

It is 90 degrees today!