Flattened

Friday, we had visitors from SUNY Fredonia. Tim brought his students to harvest, strip, scrape, and tour the Morgan. Jill in the green hat is a fellow teacher and did the Iowa program and is friends with Radha, so she had a fun first visit.

We only got through half of the Japanese kozo but it was picked quite well. I've never had such a clean batch! I'm a little concerned that the rest won't get cleaned as quickly or as well, but that's just life. The naginata got this batch to a lovely cloud.

Charity, Kyle, and Radha gave lovely presentations that night during the worst weather and dazzled us all with their artwork. I'm so glad that this is our team now!

Lisa managed to get a few dips in the hanji vat before flying home on Saturday morning. I trained Kyle a little before the scores of people descended for the harvest, which included a custom tour for the Secret Tea Society.

The steams were a little slow in getting underway but it was really cold the first day. We had very eager and helpful volunteers, though!

 scraping

 beating

Susan trimmed more iris leaves after she did some kozo work.

Cleaned white bark

 Day two was sunny and much warmer,

 so scraping stations moved outside

Still lots left to steam, strip, and dry. But a nice harvest after a good growing season. No time to rest, though: still hanji to make, fiber to prep, and a milkweed class to teach this weekend!