Don't throw away that beet water or purple green bean juice! As many of you are parents trying to figure out how to keep those kids busy at home, I thought I'd share a super delightful project inspired by a neighbor of ours.. After our friends sent us a video of their kids painting with blackberry ink, I did a little internet search for how to make dyes from plants. Who knew it was so easy!! ... Or that some many beautiful colors could be created just from dinner leftovers. We made gold beet yellow, red beet pink, and simmered down the juice from the purple green beans till it was just a couple spoonfuls and ended up with a vibrant purple that turned aqua green with the addition of something alkaline (baking soda in this case). Here's a link to the instructions we used (we added a bit of vinegar, salt, and a clove to each jar as preservatives based on another couple website suggestions).
https://www.lostincolours.com/natural-plant-based-watercolors-for-children/ You can paint with the dye, or add kaolin clay, which we ordered from Amazon, to make a thicker paint. We can't wait to try artichokes water and see if we can make a paint with it- PS they're in the box this week ;)
Upcoming seasonal items to look forward to:
Canteloupes! they're getting big and are veigning.. but still not quite ripe. Artichokes will be around for a couple weeks. Cherry tomatoes should become more plentiful each week. Purple Islander and Poblano peppers are imminent, and the Italian Sweet and Gypsy bells will come a couple weeks after that. Tomatoes- we've got green sets... but sorry folks this cool coastal fog means tomatoes in general take their sweet time to ripen- We usually don't really expect them till end of August. Oh! Almost forgot! We just noticed some grounder Ubileen pears and tested them out.. pretty close to pickable :)
