Natural Baskets: June 2010

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Kudzu

It's been several years now since I've even thought about weaving a basket. I'm considering taking a group to a kudzu patch and having a class. If I do, I'll post pictures.
Thanks!

: Name: Neil; Location: Hot Springs, Arkansas, United States

I enjoy hiking, biking, swimming, art and music! Massage Therapist, hammered dulcimer player, beginning Spanish student...

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~ HD Thoreau

Garden Secret: "I have a garden secret not many people know: that garden plants are oft times more than veggies in a row. I plant things for weaving like willows, kudzu vine. Their appearance is deceiving, yet to weavers, theyâ€™re divine! Willows grow down by the creek, grow quick, but not too strong. Weavers copse for withies straight, flexible and long. Oriental kudzu spreadlike fire across the south. People wouldnâ€™t hate it if they put it in their mouths. Salads, jellies, starchy roots--Itâ€™s food that grows on trees. Weavers like its supple vines, so easily it weaves. The parasitic dodder, from gardens it is torn. But dried, then wet and spun just right: A piece of twine is born! Tree roots often find their way to where your flowers grow. Chopped! Removed and burned in piles by those who do not know that tree roots twist, they snake, they bend, yet washed and turned with care, become a basketâ€™s handle strong enough for weight to bear. Honeysuckleâ€™s scent delights the most discerning nose. Farmers get upset to find it growing in fence rows. If itâ€™s cut, then boiled in lye to loosen tenacious skin, the vines are soft and white like snow--Weaving can begin. Before you cut just any plant and haul to compost heap, consider that gardens offer more variety you could reap." Neil Thomas

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Natural Baskets

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Kudzu

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"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."