Clockwise, from top: raspberries, sylvanberries, boysenberries, and marionberries.Yesterday was berry good. A client of Rick's asked us if we wanted to pick some raspberries; we jumped at the chance in spite of the heat. Raspberries are my favorite berry, fresh or frozen; I love their flavorful zing! Then, on the way home Rick stopped at another client's place. They raise commercial caneberries and have told Rick he could come out during the season to sample the different kinds. He came home with sylvanberries, marionberries, and boysenberries. We have the latter two planted in our young berry patch; we decided after sampling them that the sylvans aren't worth adding. Last night we made homemade ice cream, and ate it topped with all the different kinds. Heaven!
Two and a half years ago, I bought this Clemes & Clemes drumcarder from a lady who was getting out of fiber (How do you get out of fiber? Fiberholics Anonymous?) Since then it has been sitting in the box she shipped it in - until today. I actually pulled it out and USED it for the first time! It seemed like a lot of work without much happening, but when I pulled off the batt, I realized I had a lot more prepared fiber than I thought I did. It is definitely faster than handcards, and I like the fact that the fibers are more aligned.Here is the fruit of my labors:
Don't look TOO closely. I used Dinah's wool from the first time I sheared her; it was full of VM (veggie matter) and probably pretty dusty from sitting on the floor of my office for, oh, too long. After making this batt I decided to toss the rest rather than fill my drum carder with trash. But I'm excited about using this tool on other, cleaner fleece, like maybe Braveheart's and Brava's lamb fleeces. I've just got to figure out where to keep it, now that it's liberated from its box!Off to rearrange some stuff at . . .
8 comments:
I really really enjoy my Clemes & Clemes! Glad you finally got around to playing with it! I like the table you have it on too, I have mine on what used to be an end table... Have fun!`
This is exciting!! How fun for you. I prefer my combs, but I'm not doing whole fleeces. That batt looks pretty good to me :-)
Isn't that stand great, Becky? It was custom-made for the carder by the original owner's husband. I still need to glue two boards back on, but it works as is.
Good onya for diving in, Michelle!
wow those berries look AMAZING. There are so many things I could do with them. I have never heard of two of them (or seen them pictured before). On a scale of sweetness....what would you rate them all? do they all grow naturally there or are they on 'farms'?
Lots of caneberries grow wild around here (blackberries are considered a noxious weed!), but these are all cultivated. Raspberries (red) are my favorite, followed by boysenberries, which I've heard are a cross between raspberries and boysens. Marionberries are more tart, and supposedly a variety of blackberry. I thought the sylans, another variety of blackberry, were rather bland.
I actually started to salivate just looking at the photos of the berries. I love raspberries.
Snicker - Fiberholics Anonymous...that's pretty funny! thanks for the laugh!
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