Sweet Dahlia Tea

Oh, does someone need more water? Oh, and yes, I'm sure you're hungry again, even though we just ate an hour ago. Would you like a snack? Oh, and you're most definitely bored, I can see that. Should we set up the paints or the play-doe? And you can leave it all there for me to pick up. Would everyone please leave their wet bathing suits on the floor a few more times?

I'm not bitter. I'm not bitter about being a slave to my children all summer. I'm not bitter at all. Does it sound that way? Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to come across that way. My bad, but I'm really not bitter.

Well, there is one week left of my servitude, but I used yesterday as a me day and I brewed up some sweet dahlia tea for our fiber. I'm going on a rampage this fall and I'll be bathing in aluminum sulfate and some blue and red and pink and yellow and green; and so if anyone wants to wreck their lungs and color their finger nails...join me. The pot will be boiling and I'll be the crazy witchy woman chanting: "Double, double toil and trouble / Fire burn and cauldron bubble".



I had to work inside yesterday because my firepit maker hasn't made my fire pit yet! I'm mordanting the fiber with aluminum sulfate here...boiling at 200 degrees for an hour.




But look at these beautiful blooms. I'm lucky enough to know people in high places. I got these dahlia bulbs from my friend Mike at American Meadows. He and his bulbs have never failed me.



I had to pick 20 blooms for dyeing...and there are new ones just about to burst. I won't have to miss their colors!



Shove the dahlias in glass jars with mordanted fiber and cold water.



And let them soak for several days...in the sun!


And despite disrupting the tiny earwig birthday parties that were going on in each of the blooms, it was a fairly easy process. I'm moving on to the goldenrod fields, that is, if the little princess and princes will give me a few hours. And if not, I'm scared I might have to drink some of that sweet tea. Especially if it's turning into a nice purple vodka!