Back from Mali

A friend came back from Mali and brought me natural indigo balls. A kilo of them. The story goes that he went to the market and asked around for indigo. A crowd of kids took him to the indigo seller. The man said he had both the traditionnel and the moderne and asked which one he wanted. My friend said traditionnel of course. The man looked at him and with a wry smile insisted that he also take the moderne. My friend just wanted the traditionnel but the man was very persistent. So my friend bought both the natural indigo balls and powdered synthetic indigo. Maybe the seller knows something that we don't.

I have already ground a couple of balls and put them with water and some madder to ferment. i am definitely skipping the urine-from-nubile-lads- fermentation method.
We shall see how this goes.

neki desu