A quill pen has a special way of transporting a writer to the past. Grip the quill, dip into an inkwell, start making long, curvy strokes across a piece of paper, and suddenly you’re a young Revolutionary War soldier writing a hasty letter home, or you’re Thomas Jefferson agonizing over just the right words for the Declaration of Independence.
Funny how a pen and ink can connect us to the past, and how using old tools and techniques can drive a love for history!
There are ready-made inks available for writing with a quill pen, but why not go for real authenticity and simply make your own? It wasn’t uncommon for people of the 18th century to make ink when inks like iron gall or India were unavailable to them. Soot, tea, and coffee could all be used to make adequate inks, but berries, like poke berries, produced an especially rich and lovely ink.
Pokeweed is found throughout the eastern United States. It’s easily identified by its purplish-red stalks and clusters of small berries that turn nearly black in late summer. Any child who has ever squashed one of those berries between their fingers knows what an incredible stain they leave behind, and this deep purple pigment is what makes poke berries an ideal ingredient for ink.
So how do you make it?
It’s an easy process, and one I was excited to try using poke berries I had collected from my own yard. Here’s how you can do it, too.
**Poke berries provide an intense color that is especially good for ink-making, but other berries can be used, too. If you don’t want to wait until late summer to harvest poke berries, or they aren’t available where you live, you can get a similar effect using blackberries or raspberries from your local grocery store.
Collect poke berries, 3/4 – 1 cup of them, when they have ripened to a deep purple/black color.
Ripened berries will likely fall off easily in your hand. And don’t panic if you hear someone say poke berries are poisonous! The seeds inside the berries are actually the poisonous part, and they only release their toxins when crushed. (And who would want to eat a poke berry anyway? They smell terrible!) I collected mine over a period of about a month, adding them over time to a freezer bag. Some people even say that freezing the berries deepens their color.
Crush the berries in a glass bowl, then press through a strainer with the back of a spoon until only the seeds and pulp are left.
Make sure your surface is covered well because this stuff WILL stain! But the purple color is absolutely beautiful. You should end up with anywhere from 1/4 to a 1/2 cup of juice.
Add 1/2 teaspoon vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon salt to the juice. They’ll act as preservatives for your ink. Pour the ink into a container or inkwell and let the writing begin!
Poke berry ink does fade when exposed to sunlight, as did many inks of the 18th century. Avoid exposing your writing to direct light to keep it looking beautiful longer.
Enjoy the experimentation! Writing well with a quill takes some practice, but it’s a fun way to brush up on penmanship skills while coming to understand writing in history just a little bit better.
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