A Visit to the Silk Farm

We visited the Silk Worm Farm today and found the entire production of Silk to be very interesting. The worms are fed a diet of Mulberry leaves from trees that are grown on the property. The worms eat until they are large and then they stop eating and they turn from a white colour to a pale yellow. At this point they are put on twig branches where they will begin to create a cocoon. The entire process takes 47 days. The cocoons are then boiled in water which allows the silk strands to be retrieved and wound around the spools. The outer layer of the cocoon is where the raw silk comes from and the inner layers are the fine silk and most desired silk. The dying process is very interesting as they use herbs and plants to get their colours from.

The weaving of the silk is very labour intensive. This is a skill that requires many months of training and the accuracy level needs to be 100%. The weavers are paid by piecework and the average wage is about $90.00 per month. This is considered to be a well paid profession. The products that are produced are absolutely beautiful.

When shopping in the markets you must be very careful when purchasing items that you think are made of silk, often they are not pure silk but a blend. Pure silk is quite expensive and for good reason.

This tour was informative and gave me a much better appreciation of the value of silk garments.

SUBMITTED BY Joanne Stewart