End of season and preparing for harvest
A bevy of beautiful baskets at the April Weaving Retreat.
Bronwyn Lowe • May 29, 2024
Can't believe it's almost harvest time again! There's been lots of action since last September, including running a few Beginners Workshops, weaving days for more intermediate members, a garden party at the willows to welcome the new year, a number of Committee meetings to continue our work towards incorporation, a visit from the American weaver Judy Zugish (listen to Judy discussing willows and weaving with us in this OI podcast) and our fabulous Weaving Retreat in April.
A thick mulch of sacks going down before harvest.
On the 25th of May we had our last workday at the willows before harvest. The day focussed on mulching the beds with sacks, and checking all our systems are go for the harvest to begin on 6th of July. Margaret had organised with Cerebos Greggs for us to pick up a load of coffee sacks the day before - thank you Margaret! And thank you to Cerebos Greggs for donating 4 pallets of sacks to the willow beds. Five cars and a trailer were packed to the gunnels. Gretchen had the grand idea of getting the sacks spread between the rows of willows straight away rather than waiting until after harvest - should give the sacks a chance to get wet and bed down a bit before harvest without having to peg or weight them. We're also hoping it will minimise the amount of mud between the rows if we have wet weather for harvest.
Willow beds looking beautiful in their autumn colours. Spot the Pīwakawaka photo bombing Jill's head!
Meanwhile the willows having been growing well, despite a very dry autumn. We're thinking that some of the varieties haven't grown as tall this year due the dry weather. Its going to be interesting to see whether there's any effect on the weaving properties of this year's crop. Luckily there was no sign of aphids until quite late in the growing season, and the infestation on the willows was relatively light and short-lived. Too dry for them too? Who knows. The willows are looking very healthy overall. The beds are now almost three years old, and the number and size of rods produced by each stool will be approaching what we can expect from mature beds. It promises to be a very good harvest this year!
Put the harvest dates in your calendar and come along. Join us on the weekends of the 6th - 7th and 13th - 14th of July 2024, 10am to 4pm each day. More information will be posted closer to harvest time.