I’m back to dying wool this time using black beans.  The beauty of this method is that nothing is wasted.  I began by  soaking the beans overnight as if I were  to cook them. The next morning I drained the beans but  instead of throwing out the water they were soaked in,  I used it for a dye bath.  Since the wool and the beans never came in contact , the beans could  be cooked for eating.  I used my usual natural coloured Briggs and Little wool pre-mordanted in cream of tartar and alum.  I brought the dye bath to a simmer, added the wool and let it simmer for about one hour, then let it soak overnight. The result is a beautiful shade of blue:

black bean wool

I was very surprised by the colour since it is quite a departure from the  greens and yellows I usually get.  It doesn’t quite  have the vibrancy of a commercial dye but  if  I wanted a commercial dye I would use one.  The only problem with this dye method is that I am  left with a lot of perfectly edible black beans.  A lot of them.  Since I wanted a strong dye bath I used about a pound  of dried beans.  Throwing them out seemed an incredible waste so I dug out some cookbooks that I thought would have some recipes:

cookbooks

By my calculations, which I have never had reason to doubt,  I think I can make every recipe in these books. I hope they freeze well!