Although the pomegranate trees are not actually IN the dye garden, they are one of the most reliable sources of color that we have out on the FARM. But it’s not the color you might expect…

…and it’s not from the juice. Here are the remains of some pomegranates that were juiced by one of the Grow and Give classes. The juice was frozen to save for a meal cooked for residents of a senior center in town. I stayed at the FARM after the kids went home, scooping the seeds out of the rinds and feeding them to the chickens.

I dried the rinds, which is my second favorite part of the fruit.

After these are soaked and boiled, they will become a yellow dye that can shift to gray with the addition of iron, or can serve as the first step in preparing fiber to accept other dyes.