Hi Everyone, a few weeks ago a long time online friend from eastern North Carolina asked if I would like a little local grown cotton for the seeds. The cotton was being harvested near her, and she spotted some on the ground-yes I would love some I said.
It arrived in today's mail. Back when we first moved to Missouri after our retirement, I grew seeds from heirloom green cotton seeds-can find different cotton seeds at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange-here They need a long growing time, so I got just a little bit of cotton back then-thought would be fun to grow cotton again-can use the cotton for needle felting pictures-which I would like to do again.
I am hoping this photo turned out-still need a new monitor so can not see photos well
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The seeds are inside the cotton which takes patience to get them out. I can see why the invention of the cotton gin was a huge time saver back in the day.
found online The cotton gin is a device for removing the seeds from cotton fiber. Such machines had been around for centuries when Eli Whitney made his improvements in 1794. However, Whitney's was the first to clean short-staple cotton; and a single device could produce up to fifty pounds of cleaned cotton in a day
The cotton plants need a very long harvest, so I will start some in my greenhouse bottles early this spring.
A few hours after I started writing this post-I separated the cotton from the seeds and dried plant material
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We may wake up to snow tomorrow morning. Northern Missouri is already getting several inches of snow as are some bordering states. Today we had strong winds, rain-sleet-and a few snow flakes-so will be interesting to see what nature brings us by tomorrow morning.
I don't drive in bad weather any more-so not going to worry about no car at the moment.
I also got a new weaving book in the mail today. I am in a group on Facebook which is only for Structo looms-my little 4 harness loom- and someone posted about this book and that she had also just refurbished her vintage loom The drafts-patterns-are designed for the small width looms-so thought it would be easier for me to set up. (have never been great with math problems like this)
I think I finally have the knotting pattern figured out for my quilt-haven't been able to get back to it-hope to do so tomorrow.
I needed to use up a bunch of apples so I made us one of our favorites-an apple crisp. For this one I soaked to soften dried cranberries to add to the apple layers-yum
Enjoy your week
Tuesday Morning update: those of you that have read the books about the wolves in Yellowstone especially the loved wolf 42 will appreciate this video.
Have fun with your new ook and cotton pods. Hugs, Valerie
ReplyDeleteI will thanks
DeleteSeeing your cotton reminded me of a misadventure i had with cotton.... When my daughter was little she had a hamster... i was new to TX and cotton fields etc.. but on our drives past them i noticed all the leftover cotton in the fields and along the side of the road... and i thought ' I bet that hamster might enjoy some cotton in his cage.'... Ha! So i pulled over and picked some up and put it in his cage ...What i didn't notice at first was THeres BUGS in that cotton!!!!! totally freaked me out... um.. not cotton for you Mr. Hamster.. lol Never even crossed my mind there might be bugs in the cotton.. lol Hugs! deb
ReplyDeletewow I would not have thought that either-this was really cotton-there are many bugs that attack cotton plants I think it is why organic cotton is so expensive not sure what they do about the bugs but the other cotton uses allot of pesticides and herbicides to grow it
Deletethis was clean cotton
DeleteI will be interested to see your cotton grow. you have been pretty busy and the apple crisp sounds delicious
ReplyDeleteCathy
I haven't caught up on enough sleep yet to work on my quilt-doing allot of reading right now we love apple crisps I make those now instead of pies
DeleteI will thanks
ReplyDeleteQuite a project you are up to - good luck!! And I agree, no to driving in this weather. Today was so cold my nose started bleeding when I came back inside. A first.
ReplyDeleteHope everything is up on the way! Hugs to you all, lake included!
we are back to strong winds tonight-this weekend will be bitter cold ugh
DeleteInteresting about the cotton. TFS No snow here. Just a cold rain all day and still raining. Janice
ReplyDeletethat was most of our day too not allot snow in the forecast here but biter cold over the weekend
DeleteIt sounds like you have definitely had fun mail and plenty to keep you occupied if you get the snow. Even here where we are used to it, I do my best not to go out any more than necessary.
ReplyDeleteI agree at our ages now-I keep food stocked up and just don't go out n bad weather any more
DeleteKathy, I can't wait to find out what you'll do with those cotton flakes. . I'm guessing you'll dye them and do some work with them. There are videos on the Internet.
ReplyDelete