Some years ago, when we moved into our current home, I planted a little madder plant in the garden. That little madder plant has since grown... and taught me that madder grows like, well, mad.

It's not a really beautiful plant with its long stalks that are prone to fall and lie flat. It doesn't have spectacular blooms (they are small and yellow, and the madder berries are round and black, so nothing eye-catching either). It has no lovely smell, and it's not nice to touch - quite the opposite, in fact.

What it does, though, is grow. Grow and take over as much of the garden bed as it can, sending out its roots below ground and suddenly sprouting up. This year, it ate at least two of my tomato plants that I, foolishly, set too close to the madder patch. Thus I decided it's time for the madder to be harvested... and the beautiful sunny weather yesterday was just the right invitation to dig some red roots.

I got about one bucket full of roots, and there is still some left to harvest. The roots are brittle, and have colours ranging from bright orange to a deep red inside, the older the darker. They also have a very interesting, kind of sweet-ish smell to them.

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Madder root with an orange core...


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...and with a dark red one.


Now they will need to dry, and then they'll be cleaned and shredded into pieces, and then... they will hopefully dye a nice deep red. And my tomatoes will be safe for a few years. Probably.