Mom’s Shelf Ingredients:Carmine Beetles - These very tiny scarlet-red beetles were eating the oak tree in Kara’s back yard. Having been collected, washed, dried in the sun and put in a bottle, they can be crushed and used as food coloring or in make-up or ink.Bloodwort - This red-orange dye was made from a resin that grows inside small bumps on the roots of Bloodwort, a flowering plant native to North America. The raw resin is very caustic to skin and can cause burns, possibly having been used by Native Americans as a wart remover. Indigo - This dark blue dye came from pressing, drying and powdering the fermented leaves of an indigo plant. Its relatives include woad and dyer’s knotweed. Shaggy Mane - This gray-green dye was made from a mushroom also known as Inky Cap. The color of the dye can be altered by either cooking it in an iron pot or mixing in some ammonia.Giant Puffball - This dark red dye was made with either Dyemaker’s False Puffball, an inedible mushroom which makes a rich red to golden brown to black dye, or Purple Spore Puffball, an edible mushroom which makes a rust red dye.

she doesn’t know which mushroom it was, but the dye is pretty.Scaly Hedgehog - This blue-green fabric dye was made from an icky tasting mushroom also called shingled hedgehog.Purple Snails - This purple dye was made from a specific type of sea snail. In many ancient cultures, purple was reserved for royalty because the snails were difficult to find and expensive to make into dye.Sulfur - Historically called brimstone, this element with the symbol S was mined as yellow crystals and ground into an icky smelling powder. It can be mixed with KNO₃ and charcoal to make black powder, or with water or oil to make a yellow dye (…and, oops, Mom misspelled this label.)Burnt Lime (aka Quicklime) - This white powder was made by heating limestone in a kiln to 850 degrees Celsius. When mixed with water, this powder can become hot enough to cause wood to burst into flame. Slaked Lime - This white powder was made by slowly and carefully mixing Burnt Lime with water. When done properly, this can be used as a leavening agent similar to baking soda or as a preservative in pickling.

Kayen Eau Trois - This white powder was scraped from a cave wall and mixed with a liquid Mom concocted. The powder is Potassium Nitrate, a chemical compound with the symbol KNO_3. It has been known by many names throughout history such as Potash, made from storing wood ashes in a copper pot, or saltpeter, meaning “stone salt” coming from the crystalline form harvested off cave walls. Enaych Trois - This liquid was made by cooking rotting plants with burnt lime and is Ammonia, a chemical compound with the symbol NH_3. It will darken wood by chemically reacting to the tannins inside the wood itself and can also be made by fermenting urine. Pine Sap - Used as a wood polish, this resin was harvested by making a small cut in certain types of pine trees and collecting the sap. Distilled Pine - Commonly known as turpentine, this solvent was made by distilling a pot of Pine Sap.Tallow - This was made by skimming the fat off the top of a boiling pot of animal parts. The fat can be burned in lamps, used in making soap or as a leather conditioner.