Ode to Joe: Prepping Pine Needles

We had a beautiful end to summer with many hot and sunny days, so I used my time wisely and prepared pine needles for basket making. I use a combination of vegetable glycerin, sea salt and Rit dye, simmered in a large electric roasting pan for several hours. I finish the pine needles off by placing them in vinegar water for an hour or so to set the dye color. I put the pine needles in a single layer in plant trays and let them dry for a week. My greenhouse is the perfect place for drying pine needles because it keeps all the critters away and helps dry them quicker. This whole process takes a few weeks, because I do several batches of pine needles in a row since I have everything set up. I fortunately finished just in time before the fall rain arrived a few days ago.

Before all of this work of preparing my own pine needles, I used to get most of my pine needles from an elderly gent named Joe, someone I met through Ebay when I first started buying Longleaf pine needles online. Over the years, I bought many dyed and natural green pine needles from him and we got to to be friends. He retired from dyeing and selling pine needles about 8 years ago when his propane stove finally rusted and fell apart. He supplied hundreds of bundles of pine needles to many people and craft groups over the years. He kindly shared with me his recipe on how he prepared and dyed his pine needles. I learned a lot from him and now use his methods for dyeing pine needles. I continued to stay in touch with him every year or so after he stopped his pine needle business. Even though I never met Joe in person, I felt like we were kindred spirits with our love of good pine needles. He was very picky about the quality of his pine needles and took great care in sorting out the bad ones. He would carefully package them in tidy bundles wrapped in raffia and put them in long plastic bags so they wouldn't rub against each other or get broken. It felt like Christmas morning every time a box of his pine needles would arrive at my house. I would get so excited, carefully unwrapping them and storing them in plastic bins for future use. I often think of Joe while making my baskets. I told him that he was a big part of why my baskets looked good upon completion. I recently emailed Joe to see how he was doing and to see if he knew of someone that had quality pine needles for sale, but I didn't hear back from him. About three weeks went by when I finally got a reply. The message was from his wife; she gave me the terribly sad news that Joe had passed away. I told her that Joe will live on forever in my pine needle baskets and that he will never be forgotten. I will continue to think of Joe when I use his lovely Longleaf pine needles while making baskets. Rest in peace, Joe, and I hope you are surrounded by beautiful Longleaf pine trees.