http://www.ohmidog.com/2012/11/15/weed-search-montana-dogs-hit-the-woad/ a site for dog lovers Wed, 19 Jun 2013 03:36:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://www.ohmidog.com/2012/11/15/weed-search-montana-dogs-hit-the-woad/comment-page-1/#comment-47989 Anne'n'Spencer Thu, 15 Nov 2012 12:53:06 +0000 http://www.ohmidog.com/?p=44070#comment-47989 I’m fascinated. My mother was a hand weaver and spinner who often dyed her own fibers, and I’m very familiar with woad. It is one of only two plants that will dye cloth a natural, permanent blue color. The other is indigo. From ancient times until trade began with India, woad was the go-to plant in all of Europe for blue dye. There were woad gardens and even woad farms, and I believe it was produced commercially. I feel sure it was brought here by European settlers who still produced their own cloth at home. I guess one continent’s valuable agricultural product is another continent’s noxious, destructive weed. Interesting, too, that indigo became a commercial crop in South Carolina.

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