May Days Newsletter
Sally Fox
https://mailchi.mp/a52ae7fa78b1/may-days?e=8827d243a2
for photos use the link above
It is the middle of May and this year there is not going to be a breeding nursery. And so the photos of plants from last year's nursery are even more special. This particular plant was dug up and placed in a huge pot and it lives on, along with some of the other most spectacular plants from the nursery. And this feels special- almost like the very beginning years of this adventure- when all that I had were the ancestors of them all growing in pots that I took with me wherever I found employment. Which in those days, as a young just out of grad school woman, was awfully hard to find. For one thing the entire profession was brand new- all of a sudden farmers in the State of California needed a prescription written by someone with my training and a newly established Pest Control License to buy any pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. And secondly, there was a depression in agriculture altogether and nobody seemed to be hiring anyone. It did not help being a woman in a mainly men's profession, either. But over time, I was fortunate to have found the most amazing positions with people that I am honored to have learned so much from. In the end it worked out. But back there, with the cotton plants all in pots dragging them from job to job in the back of my old car..... I sure did not know that at the time.
There were two reasons not to plant a nursery. The unusual rains that were so dearly needed after so many years of severe drought prevented us from preparing the field with enough time to plant without going into ultra stress mode. Which I was in no mood to jump into because in order to pay for last year's nursery, even with all the sales (thank you dear customers!!!!) and the donations (thank you donors!!!!) I still had to borrow completely up to my farm's credit limit. And I really did not want to rush a breeding nursery in, in the nick of time, only to have something expensive break, and not be able to afford to fix it. Too much of a risk to both the cotton breeding lines, and to my nerves. Which at my age, matters.
So, my focus this year is to sell enough products to pay the loans down and prepare the area where the nursery can be planted next year. I will only be irrigating the safe green oasis evacuation pasture for the sheep. Which should help keep my farming costs down and leaves me open to visiting my customers. I want to try my best to support my commercial customers' products launches, and writing up the story of these 41 years of amazement.
I have started taking all the story telling posts from Instagram and Facebook; reworking them and posting them on LinkedIn. In the hopes of getting back to writing some every day and then building up to continue the story from where I stopped and into the oh so devastating collapse of the textile industry as it was. And how it was that I was able to keep my seeds, a farm and keep going despite the utter calamity for just about all of us in the industry.
What kept me going, back in the beginning, and what keeps me going now, is my commitment to do everything that I can to get these cottons into the hands of the most creative and talented people. I do that by supporting my revered mill customer in Japan, Taishoboseki, and their customers who are so courageously creating and offering products of quality and depth out into the marketplace. And supporting the products of my US customers as well : Organic Threads ( who make the fabulous much loved socks!) and American Blossom Linens ( who make the beautiful sheeting! ) and all the other people and companies of integrity who support my work with purchases of yarns and fabrics in order to produce their clothing and or home goods. I will be filling the mail orders as fast as I possibly can and just keep on keeping on. And day by day pay the debt down and prepare for next year's breeding nursery.
On the website, since I last wrote a newsletter I have added the 2 lb little bags of Sonora wheat, and will be adding stoneground flour in 2 lb bags soon.
In the gifts as a thanks for donation are some of the hand spinner's seed cottons that I love the most and think my handspinning customers will enjoy. They are all found here: https://www.vreseis.com/shop/donate-to-the-breeding-program-1 .
And the 10/2 Colorganic® yarns described on the options as "marled" here: https://www.vreseis.com/shop/102-1-lb-foxfibre-colorganiccones . These new 10/2 yarns were produced for Ricketts Indigo - which is what the photos below are all about.
From the Ikat Exhibition at The Seattle Art Museum, where these cottons that we love were exquisitely spun by Taishoboseki (out of all the Colorganic® cottons grown by Alvarez Farms in New Mexico for them, designed by me) for Rowland and Chinami Ricketts of Ricketts Indigo who were commissioned to create the opening piece.
The photos include close ups of their work of over dyeing in particular places indigo that they had grown and fermented on their organic farm in Indiana. I consider it among the most amazing honors of my life to have contributed to such a masterpiece of art and craft.