September 21 Sunday
Indigo is regrown and I decided to harvest this weekend as we experiment with Katazome at the Hütte. My strategy is not to harvest huge amount at once, but to do it slowly. I started harvesting few bunches at a time since few weeks, and this weekend, we are harvesting bigger amount with the help of Alina, Sarah and Maria. Also the drying space and timing is a bit of an issue. I checked the weather cast that it will be sunny the next days except a small rain on sunday evening. I placed some nails on the beam under the roof so it can hang there and we harvested what we can fit in this hanging spots under the roof. For harvesting technique, I am referring to this video from Snow hand made. They show how to harvest without chopping the plants small fresh before drying, but to dry first and take the leaf out for storage. (the traditional sukumo technique is to chop the plants when fresh). When this batch is dried, I will do more harvesting. It felt like we cut out a lot, but looking at our field, there are still plenty of plants left. we will have to do few times of this small harvesting round.
Also it was surprising to see that the branches from the first harvest, which I stuck on the ground in mid August has also grown fully. This maybe a nice way to grow even more indigo!
I decided to do it in this small batches, because of the drying space. For the first batch of harvesting, we asked to use the Elisabeet tunnel for drying, but as the tunnel is busy with tomato and eggplants harvesting, I did not wanted to bother them if not necessary. Of course if we can not dry in time, we will have to ask if we can also hang at the tunnel.
I took a video of the field before harvesting. It is nice to stop and just listen to them. First glance, it seems like nothing is happening, but then notice all the flying insects, winds, leaf moving, neighborhood noises… just this one moment that will never repeat.