not far from the tree

In 2009 we harvested a few treats that we hadn’t harvested in 2008: plums, sumac drupes, black walnuts, ginkgo nuts, and my own personal forage for quince. It’s amazing what the trees in the city can provide for our food needs. But the urban forest has even more to offer, including non-foodstuffs from its plentiful bounty.

We were lucky to connect with Toronto artist Jason Logan and his curiosity to make art materials from urban trees. He was especially interested in using some of our harvest to make natural dyes, particularly black walnuts. So when Marc was finished the gruntwork of hulling our one tiny harvest of black walnuts, the husks were handed over to Jason to see what he could make of them. I’m told the exchange happened in a very seedy fashion: deep in the bowels of the subway system, the husks were handed over in an unmarked garbage bag.

Despite the small harvest, Jason was able to distill a bottle of ink from the black walnut husks that Marc offered him. To our great delight, he appeared at the End-Of-Season Celebration with three very playful posters to demonstrate what the ink could do. Here they are! Aren’t they lovely?

And next year he hopes to try out even more dyes, like elderberry and sumac. If you have an idea for an artistic collaboration, send us a note!