I Became The Chief Of A Primitive Village

Chapter 559, Solar Dyeing

Translator: Silavin

Soon, they returned to the Yong’an Building, bringing back quite a number of tomatoes with them.

“Shaman, apart from eating, what else can tomatoes be used for?” Yu Ying asked, wondering why they suddenly needed to bring back so many tomatoes.

There were already many tomatoes stored in the Yong’an Building. If they were meant for eating, those tomatoes would have been enough. Why was there a need to pick so many more?

“To dye your clothes.” Su Bai smiled. This was something he had suddenly thought of.

Back on Earth, he had seen related videos and books. In ancient times, people had used tomatoes to dye their clothes.

“Dye clothes with colour?” Yu Ying doubted whether her ears had heard correctly.

Previously, quite a few people in the Tribe had harboured such thoughts. They would crush some plants and smear them onto Animal Hide, hoping to give the Animal Hide different colours.

However, this was often only temporary. As soon as water was applied, all these colours would disappear. More seriously, the applied area could even cause skin ulceration or red spots.

Although people of the Tribe had harboured thoughts of beautifying things, they simply had no way to implement them.

It was not as if they had not considered using the type of paint from Tribal ceremonies, but most of those were prepared using Beast Blood.

Similarly, the colour would disappear as soon as water was applied, and moreover, the smell was extremely foul.

Therefore, this plan had never been truly implemented and had been aborted from the very beginning.

“Of course. Don’t you want your linen clothes to have more colour?” Su Bai asked with a smile.

“Of course I do, but I don’t think this is possible, right?” Yu Ying expressed some doubt. Seeing the determined expression on the other party’s face, she continued to ask in confusion. “Shaman, are you planning to use the tomatoes for this?”

Yu Ying felt that this did not seem like a joke, otherwise there would be no reason to bring back so many tomatoes for no apparent reason.

Moreover, after bringing back these tomatoes, the first thing mentioned was dyeing clothes with colour. It was difficult not to connect the two.

“Indeed, these tomatoes will be used for dyeing.” Su Bai nodded.

Back on Earth in ancient times, there was persimmon dyeing.

However, in the Primitive Era, no berries related to persimmons had yet been discovered, but Su Bai found that tomatoes could work just as well.

Although tomatoes and persimmons were two different objects, he discovered that the tomatoes of the Primitive Era were very similar to the persimmons from Earth. This was not in terms of taste, but rather in terms of their cloth-dyeing properties.

He had discovered this by chance one day when tomato juice accidentally got onto his body. After a few days, he found that the spot could not be washed off, yet the colour was surprisingly attractive.

This made him wonder whether he could recreate Earth’s technology in the Primitive Era, namely ‘tomato dyeing’.

“Using tomatoes?” Yu Ying widened her pink eyes, revealing a face full of disbelief.

“Yeah. Take all these tomatoes and wash them, then crush them all and extract the juice,” Su Bai instructed.

As for whether this would succeed, that remained unknown, but it certainly required trying to find out.

Furthermore, all the tomatoes brought back this time were greenish-red in colour. The dyeing results might prove very successful.

“Yes,” Yu Ying, though still in a state of shock, followed the instructions and took all the tomatoes to wash them thoroughly.

After Yu Ying had washed all the tomatoes, she placed them all in a wooden basin and finally followed the instructions to extract juice from all the tomatoes.

“Shaman, what should be done next?” Yu Ying was very curious about what the next steps would involve.

“Pack them all up. After twenty days have passed, we shall proceed with the next step,” Su Bai instructed.

Persimmon dyeing on Earth worked in this manner. The purpose was to allow the juices to begin fermenting, making it easier for the fabric to absorb the colour.

On Earth, persimmon dyeing was also called solar dyeing, which was quite a pleasant name.

However, in the Primitive Era, solar dyeing could not be associated with tomatoes, because the difference lay in persimmons containing abundant tannin components.

This was the source of the astringent sensation when eating persimmons. This component was more prone to oxidation under light exposure, playing a huge role in colour dyeing, hence the name solar dyeing.

Although tomatoes did not contain this component, how effective they coloured was similar. The colour preservation might not last as long, but how would one know without trying?

“Must we wait that long? Is it also necessary to wait for these things to ferment?” Yu Ying used vocabulary she had newly learned previously.

“Yeah, it must ferment before we can better proceed with the next step.” Su Bai nodded.

“Okay,” Yu Ying nodded and placed the mass of tomato juice in a corner.

“Go and bring over some of the other fruit as well. Are there not many berries planted in the greenhouse? Also, I believe there are many that were picked before the snow season arrived. Do the same thing for them as well and prepare a jar for each.”

Su Bai blinked his black eyes and continued. “Also try a few types of fruits mixed together. We might be able to get a colour you really like.”

In the Primitive Era, there were no paints available. The best paints were the juices of these fruits, which were also the best materials for dyeing.

However, it was unknown which type would best dye linen, nor which type would have the longest colour retention. All of this required experimentation to determine.

Since they had already begun, why not take out all the fruits for a comprehensive trial?

It would not take much time either. They would need to wait over twenty days regardless, and then conduct unified experiments at that time.

“Understood. I will go and collect them.” Yu Ying immediately replied.