How to Make the 갈옷. Part 3

Once the cotton fabric is all washed, dried, and prepped, it's time to see to the persimmon juice. The fall season is the best time to begin the actual dyeing; there is lots of sunshine and it's not too hot, but most importantly, the persimmons are in season. It's best not to wait until the fruit is fully ripe to extract the juice. Stock up while they're still a bit green as the juice itself is still potent and the firm fruit is easier to work with.

One fall I took my new wife along on a persimmon purchasing excursion. Six of us piled in two trucks and one van and headed inland from Muan in Cheolla Nam Do. We stopped outside Gwangju and ate lunch and then kept driving what I think was East-North-East ish. It felt like we drove for 2 hours and the scenery got more mountainous and very picturesque. I assumed we would stop somewhere at a market or farm or orchard, but all of a sudden we just pulled over along the side of the road.

There waiting for us were a number of old country folk gathered in the middle of nowhere, standing guard over many many bags stuffed full of persimmons. After exchanging pleasantries and bows, we weighed each bag one-by-one, logged the weight in a book with the seller's name, and then loaded the bags into the trucks and the van. Each farmer received a bundle of cash that the Master removed from a huge wad in his fanny pack. There must have been 75 bags, each weighing between 30 and 45 kilos. I'm not a weight lifter (or a cage fighter) and my body was toast after heaving those loads of fruity booty.

Tired and hungry we stopped at a country restaurant for some Samgye Tang and Makkeolli. The food was delish and the makkeolli was home-made, complete with mystery floaters.

We arrived back at the Master's house around midnight. We wasted no time and unloaded the fruit and started juicing. We had one large industrial juicer that ran from midnight until nearly 10 the next morning. The juice was all stored in large plastic containers. After a few hours of shut-eye we were ready to start dyeing.