Sukumo – a compost of Persicaria Tinctoria for indigo dyeing has arrived from Japan. As we are on the first year of soil to soil experiments, we do not have Sukumo for this year. So I ordered it from Japan, from Aikuma dye shop. Next year, hopefully we are using our own Sukumo, grown and composted at the Elisabeet…. at least that is the plan.
Sukumo making is a craftsmanship in Japan and this one is from Mr. Sato in Tokushima. It came with a hand written letter (well, it is a copy but still it is written by hand) that explains how it was made and how to store and take care. I found a video of the Mr. Sato getting interview from local newspaper. He grows Persicaria Tinctoria and compost them for 100 days to make sukumo. That is his trade and probably he has been doing this every year for whole his life, generations in his family as this is often a family business. The big heap you see in the background is how they hot compost few hundred kg of Persicaria Tinctoria. The floor of the room is made specially for moisture control for hot composting.
We are lucky to have access to this craftsmanship Sukumo and be able to experiment with it. The number of farms who makes Sukumo is declining in Japan. Last year, when I tried to buy Sukumo in summer, it was all sold out. We have 10kg of Sukumo in total for Circular Blue experiments and it should be enough to do two big dye-bath.