The images that Lilian includes with her invitation to dVerse Poets today are of items dyed with Indigo, that ancient and persistent fermentation dye from Indigofera tinctoria, whose properties and process are similar to those of woad, Isatis tinctoria, which can be grown in temperate climes. My featured image is from https://indigowares.com

I used to grow woad in a small dye garden that I designed for The Farmland Museum at Denny Abbey, Cambridgeshire, to demonstrate the plants behind the natural dyeing of woollen cloth in the Middle Ages in Britain. One day the cows broke in from an adjoining field and ate the woad – tall plants resembling Brussels sprouts without the sprouts – and survived neither with ill effects nor blue milk, but then they were hardy bullocks.

I understand that Queen Elizabeth I objected to the noisome (i.e. smelly) menace of woad, and placed regulations around how far away from woad vats she was prepared to settle with her court when doing state visits to her courtiers’ country seats.

"Indigo and out again"

Temperamental indigo of intemperate and cooler climes
Contested is thy lineage, smelly are thy times
For, when the dye vat fermented with lye or pee
Queen Liz "The Virgin Queen" distanced herself from thee.
And she had set out abroad a woad restriction decree.

Copyright Kathy Labrum McVittie 25 February 2025