Indigo

Indigo blue is one of my favorite colors so I have been looking forward to visiting this project. I was surprised to learn that the plants have nothing blue about them, at least not in this stage. The short green plants looked pretty normal to me. But oh, the transformation that growth and heat and water and sunshine can make!

There are 5 women who produce the indigo. They have done the planting and at harvest time they are the ones who will harvest the plants and soak them in these large drums. Then they have to either stir the mixture for 6 hours or use a newly invented contraption (pictured below, behind Jensen) that has bicycle pedals. I'm not a mechanical person so I won't try to explain it, but I will say that I'm glad God has gifted some people with the ability to create amazing, time-saving contraptions that are also quite good for the environment.

Here is Bita, talking with one of the producers.

And here is Jensen, holding up the old stirring stick, stained from hours of stirring indigo. After having a good look around and hearing about the process, we were ushered into the office where we were fed plates of fresh fruit - apples, mangoes, pomegranates, oranges and grapes.