The Blood Ran Red as Beet Juice

Have you ever juiced a beet?
I guess it would also behoove me to ask whether you have juiced at all. Some people might consider it a fad, another healthy diet trend that fades when the press dies down, but I think juicing is important (even fun). It's like potion-making for mortals.

And beets create a beautiful red color. It can stain your fingers and hands if you're not careful, which is what happened to me. Almost made my fingers look bruised, but it all comes out in the wash.


I'm not exactly sure why I wanted to talk about this, but I thought it was interesting. Blackberries can stain your lips and tongue. Asparagus turns your - well, I'll let you figure that one out.

There are so many foods that provide their own strong dye of sorts. So maybe I titled this wrong. It shouldn't be blood, but dye. Dyeing has been around for years, and certain colors were valued over others because of their rarity. For writing, it's important to realize that clothing and what it looks like depends on the time period and what is available. The small details are important and fun to work out, and it only takes about 5 minutes to understand the basics (within reason, physics, aeronautical engineering or some other field of study, probably take years of, well, study).

Vegetable dyes, as in from plants, are very popular and more likely what you think of when it comes to dye. We've heard of berries and bark, leaves and roots - animals and minerals are less likely at the forefront of your mind. However, there have been dyes made from interesting (albeit smelly) sources like cow urine or a combination of processes (like for Turkey red) which uses things like sheep's dung and calf's blood.

I have found that if we learn nothing from history, at least we can find it entertaining.