How many of you read the post title and thought:

“Ah, she’s getting into dyeing plants now.”

If you did, you have now officially earned your Wackadoodle Homesteading/Fiber Arts Certification (WHAC).

Congratulations.

I think.

If you just thought I was angry about something, rest assured you are normal.

It’s actually the former.

Common madder, aka Rubia tinctorum, is a dyer’s plant.  The roots are used to make a lovely red.  I haven’t made dye from it yet, so I don’t have my own photo, but here’s someone else’s to give you the idea:

photo: http://www.welcometohosanna.com/REVELATION/Thyatira.html

So pretty.

I only have a couple of plants and am impatiently waiting the day when I have enough for a respectable harvest for dyeing.  I love this plant, and someone else does, too.

Can you tell someone‘s been munching on the leaves?  It’s a small caterpillar.  I haven’t identified it yet.

It hasn’t killed the plant so far, so I’m trying to co-exist with it, optimistically imagining it’s a lovely rare moth.

Madder is used in traditional medicine, too, for everything from jaundice to melancholy.  Just boil in wine and add honey.

That would make you pink and happy in no time.  Worth a try, anyway.

For purely medicinal purposes, of course.