Foraging and Hapazome at Ryebank Fields
Parents for Future Manchester & Common Cloth CIC
@parentsforfuture_manchester, @commonclothmcr
Tuesday 21.03.2026
10.00am – 11.30pm
Ryebank Fields, Chorlton, Manchester
Meet just inside the Longford Rd entrance to Ryebank Fields.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/HKm7ta1mVSmc2rnYA?g_st=ac
Description
Parent and child climate action playgroup session.
Come and join us at Ryebank Fields. Learn about foraging – including how to use nature’s gifts respectfully and safely – and which plants to select to make beautiful pounded pictures on fabric and paper with the simplest of child-friendly portable tools.
Hapa-zome (leaf print) is …. it is an excellent way to
Why is this good for you?
Adults will be learning as much as children. Pre-school kids from babies upwards are all welcome.
Tickets
Book your free place and don’t forget to cancel if you can’t make it. We can’t wait to see you there!
Postscript: Thank You!
Thank you to all the children, parents and grandparents who came along and to Amy from Parents for the Future for organising and publicising. It was a please to meet you all on this brisk sunny morning and actively explore the spring plantscape together.
If you would like to know more about how to support this beautiful but threatened green space follow @friends_of_ryebank_fields on Instagram.
We would love for the beautiful mini master pieces that you created on the day to be included in “Local Colour” at this years Chorlton Arts Festival 8th to 17th May 2026. This visual and tactile communal art piece will be at Cafe Bembe in Alexander Park throughout the festival. On Saturday 9th and 16th May, 2pm – 5pm there will also be family friendly activities.
Our Field Notes
What we found (or think we found) at Ryebank Fields.
Alder, Apple, Aspen, Bramble, Cleavers (Goosegrass, Sticky Bobs, Sticky Willy), Dandelion, Dock, Hawthorn, Nettle, Oak, Sycamore, Wild Cherry.
Below is an identification guide and some notes on each plant. Please note that this is work in progress. If you think that important information is missing, please get in touch.
Hopefully there will soon (soonish) be a glossary of terms to explain words such as tannin and mordant.
Some photos would be great too.
Wild Cherry
Useful parts for natural dyeing: bark, leaves and fruit.
Cherry bark can give dyes in tones of greyish-brown, yellow, orange or pink. Harvest bark in winter or spring. You can use prunings. Soak in water for several days, weeks or longer, then apply gentle heat. Tannin1 rich and substantive. Alum can brighten pinks.
Leaves can yield yellow in spring and pink when harvested in late summer.
Fruits can yield pink and tan colours.
Apple
Latin name
Along Ayres Rd.
Useful parts for dyeing: bark.
The bark gives browns and tans.
It contains catechic tannins. Catechic tannins are proanthocyanidins or condensed tannins. These introduce red-brown tones to dyes (gallic tannins are clear, tannic acid is yellow to brown).
One of the pear trees had lost a branch to a delivery van. We took this with us and will put it to good use. Growing on the bark is yellow lichen which can also be used as a dye.
3. Common Ash
Fraxinus excelsior
Ayres Rd.
Young ash shoots have a pithy core and are consequently good for making wooden beads and stick pens.
Useful parts for dyeing: bark.
The inner bark can give yellows due to its tannin content.
4. Red Maple
Acer rubrum
Ayres Rd.
Useful parts for dyeing: leaves, bark.
The red leaves (anthrocyanins) can be used for eco-printing with iron to print blue-black (reaction with tannins). In a dye bath they yield yellow-green or red (can be modified with acids and alkalis or darkened with iron). They are best used fresh or in autumn, but not when brown.
Bark …
[not yet complete]
Oak
Quercus …
Useful parts for dyeing: bark, leaves, acorns, oak galls.
[not yet complete]
Sycamore
Acer pseudoplatanus
Useful parts for dyeing: bark, leaves
The bark yields red-browns.
Autumn leaves create yellows and mustards.
COMMON CLOTH 