SECOND ROUND RETTING (WE NEVER LEARN!)
April - May 2023
WHY WE ARE RETTING AGAIN
The test preparation in November showed that the nettles were not sufficiently retted and that we therefore had to ret over again. Mentor decided that we should ret in April 2023 so that we could prepare in June.
CHALLENGES
But in April there was thick ice on Ryghseter lake with lots of snow, and we had no indoor solution. Mentor wanted us to ret in bathtubs, and to be more efficient, we were now going to have 20 nettle bundles in each bathtub. This was a 300% increase over what was previously possible number of nettles in a bathtub when they should have plenty of space above and below. In addition, I learned last summer that there was no room for whole plants in a tub with 6-7 nettles.
Another concern was the temperature; below 10 degrees would be unsuitable. At Ryghsetra, temperatures were below freezing on some nights, and 10 degrees and above were the exception. Linen people who had experienced with nettles recommended postponing the entire retting until May - June, as retting in such cold water could have unforeseen effects.
From May 10 to 22, I was in Australia for a private event. Aud and Gunnar Bakken were therefore kind enough to be responsible for all documentation and display during this period.
GUNNAR GETS A BRILLIANT IDEA AND MAKES A POOL OUTSIDE THE BARN
Photo Fride Kramer Riseng. Gunnar and Aud are making a new retting pond.
So what do you do with the thick ice on Hagatjern? Gunnar suggested making ANOTHER BIG POOL, this time outside the barn. This was done by clearing the ground flat and free of jagged rocks. The walls were made of pallets that were laid at an angle, so that the physical forces from the water would push inwards and not straight down or outwards. Once the “frame” for the pool was in place, we laid a large, thick tarpaulin over it, which was fastened and tied down. (Thank heaven we have an engineer on the team!)
…AND I MAKE “WATERPROOF PANTS
This time I was missing waders and wading boots, and the solution was… garbage bags and tape. Absolutely not an environmentally friendly or sustainable solution, but a makeshift solution. They worked VERY WELL until they suddenly stopped working…
COLOR CODES AND DAYS
All the nettle bundles that were shed in the bathtub in Sylling were used during the test preparation in Steinkjer. Again, a log was kept of temperature, foam, odour, stiffness and other symptoms of retting. I only include the number of days it was shed here:
"FROST" | Nettles harvested after the first frost night | 10 |
"RED" | Harvested Aug/Sept 2022 (not enough dried) | 18 |
"BLUE" | Red in the pool in Hagatjern summer 2022 | 11 |
"NAT" | Retted "free" in Hagatjern summer 2022 | 11 |
"YELLOW" | Sweeping from felling in Hagatjern | 7 |
"EXTRA" | Aud's 7 year old nettle retted in Hagatjern | 11 |
APRIL 28 – FIRST ROUND | "FROST" AND "RED"
Since we received warnings from flax farmers (who had also worked with nettles) that it was stupid to ret when it was so cold, we chose to start with what we were least afraid of destroying. We therefore started – illogically enough – with what we harvested last fall; 4,200 nettles harvested in August / first week of September, as well as 2,000 nettles harvested after the first frost night at Ryghsetra. Logs were placed over the nettles to keep them under water. We added some warm water from the Jacuzzi along the way and used most of the retting water for the next round.
MAY 22 – SECOND ROUND
In the second round, we retted the nettles that had been retted in Hagatjern in the summer of 2022. Then the retting was interrupted because they were slimy. Whether this was due to algae attack due to high temperatures or mold, we do not know. (During the national nettle collections during the First World War, mold was a topic, where it was stated that plants with mold had to be removed.)
One challenge was that many of the plants look over-retted… They have large areas without plant mass or fiber, open to the cellulose, where the fiber lies curled and loose on the outside of the plant. However, this does not apply to all, - plants that are in the same cut can look completely different, even if they are harvested in the same place / cluster. There is a big difference in colour between the bundles. Some are completely light, others gray, and bundles that have been on the seabed are completely black.
DRYING OF RETTED NETTLE BUNDLES
Photo Aud and Gunnar Bakken. Nettles are taken up for the May 17th celebration
The nettle bundles were taken up and hung outside under a roof. According to the original plan, they were to be ready for processing at the end of May, beginning of June, but the mentor could not arrive until July. But despite the sun and wind, it turned out in retrospect that this was not enough time to dry the bundles anyway. The daily weather consisted of sun and rain, and even though the sun shone brightly and the wind shook the fields, there was still a lot of moisture in the air and on the ground. I will return to this humidity in the chapter on processing. It would turn out to have a much greater effect on the fiber than any of us had expected….
Photo Fride Kramer Riseng. Over-retted nettles. We had major material losses all along the way (picture on the right)
WATER CONSUMPTION AND NETTLE WATER – HAPPINESS IS A GUNNAR BAKKEN!
And now, - a speech for Gunnar Bakken! In addition to having extensive knowledge of natural resources at Ryghsetra, Gunnar is a civil engineer by profession. The combination of these two worlds has been invaluable to the project when we have lacked the knowledge and experience to practically carry out tasks such as drying and nettle removal of 12,000 (16,200, or 18,000 nettles, depending on how you count them). Gunnar has found good solutions that have been simple, environmentally friendly and very functional, - mainly through the cultural-historical use of natural resources and other objects he has found around his feet.
WATER REUSE
Ryghsetra is a beautiful small farm with many buildings and well-thought-out solutions. All roofs have gutters, where the water is directed through hoses to barrels or strategic watering points. The large retting pool was filled with meltwater from the roofs. Some of the water took a trip to the wood-fired Jacuzzi, so that the mowing water got a boost to start foaming.
FERTILIZER WATER
When retting was finished, Aud wrote on Facebook that people could come and collect free fertilizer water. The water that was left over was used to water the willow Aud has grown.
EXPERIENCES FROM RETTING
«“From plant to garment” is a learn-by-doing project. I think it will take many more rounds of retting before I can say that I recognize symptoms, - or even know what to look for. But one thing I am pretty sure of:
TIME turned out to be absolutely essential! And time is – I think – the same as DROUGHT.
Which nettles have been successful retted? I tell you:
• The nettle Kristine retted in August 2021 which was from 1996
• The nettle Aud had had in the barn for the last 7 years
• The nettles harvested after the first frost night
Common to the first two is – time. They have had time to dry well. The frost nettle itself is “retted on the root” and may not have anything to do with time, but rather a chemical process through natural decomposition? Something that makes the cellulose brittle? Now these plants were retted excessively, so it is not good to say how they would have been if they had been picked up when I myself wanted to pick them up.
I have harvested nettles retted at the root 2 years in a row; The first time it worked as just fine, while the second year was a disaster. But then the plants were harvested in a drizzle and were put wet into the outhouse. The plants that remained in the water the longest were the lightest and retted the most. But so far NO BUNDLES HAVE BEEN RETTED SO THE LIGNIN HAS RELEASED. Each fiber is embedded in the plant mass like a blade of grass.
Many of the Frost bundls were over-retted where the fiber lay in thick layers on the outside, while others did well. In general, there could be a very big difference in the retting of the same batch of sedges.
Maybe it had something to do with where in the water they were? For example, were they at the top of the water crust where algae attack occurred on the last round or at the very bottom?
The starting point for this project was originally a training project based on traditional heritage and direct knowledge transfer. Retting is based on experience, something you feel in your hands, smell, senses... in combination with tradition and theoretical knowledge. Perhaps no one in Norway knows enough about nettle retting today. This is an unwritten chapter that still needs to be researched.
Nevertheless, a lot of good came out of this last round of retting; I learned how to make a retting pond! Very few people have access to suitable retting sites such as streams, ponds and marshes. Until now I had ret in a bathtub in Sylling, but here I learned to make a larger pool so that I can ret more plants at once. Thank you Aud, thank you Gunnar, thank you Ryghsetra, thank you Tormod! And thank you Vibecke and Bente and Silke and Kjetil and Kristine and the dogs and the sun and the moon and the globe and the nice nettles. Thank you for everything, - there is so much to be happy about!
Comments