How To Make Huckleberry Ink
Charles Stanford via Flickr
Most pioneers couldn’t afford to buy ink, since true ink was fairly expensive, so they made their own using different ingredients depending on what color ink they needed. Some pioneers used not just berries, but powdered roots and nuts as well to create their ink. You can made different colored inks depending on which berry you use.
- Huckleberry (Garden, Wild) – blue ink
- Pokeberry – pink ink (DO NOT EAT – poisonous)
- Buckthorn, common – green ink
- Black Raspberry – light purple ink
- Red Raspberry – medium pink ink
- Blackberry – purplish ink
- Black Cherry – purplish/pinkish ink
- Red Cherry – light pink ink or red ink
- Walnut – Not a berry, but does produce a nice brown ink.
Writing with a quill pen gives your handwriting an antiqued look, so it’s great to use for invitations, art projects or for keepsakes. Check out this wonderful article from theprepperproject.com for detailed instructions to make your own ink! Click here: