madder meitheal
september / october 2025

Madder needs to grow for 2+ years before the roots are thick enough to harvest for dyeing. I planted a madder bed in the dye garden in 2021. In September, 2025, I hosted a meitheal with students from BCA to harvest 4 year old madder root. A meitheal is the Irish concept of a communal work day, generally held to accomplish a laborious task, like raising a barn or harvesting a crop. Student volunteers joined me in digging up the madder bed and removing the roots, which had grown into dense clumps. I took the madder home, washed and dried it, and hosted an open dye bath on campus during my Ph.D. graduate exhibition, Everything Gardens. A large bundle of roots was displayed during the exhibition as well.