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What is Jute?
Deep in the Bengal countryside, freshly-extracted raw jute hangs out to dry.
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At the mill where it's turned into fabric - our boss with a great big roll of it
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Jute is a natural fibre. It's a tropical cousin of the European lime or linden tree and its official latin name is Corchorus capsularis or Corchorus olitorius.
It is cultivated on small farms in the Ganges and Brahmaputra valleys of Bangladesh and India. Traditional, nearly organic methods are used . The fully grown 12 ft (3.6m) tall plants are beautiful. They have delicate green leaves and little yellow flowers that are pollinated by insects.
Farmers cut the flowering stems down, dry them in the sun and then soak them in water to loosen the bark and dissolve the gum that holds the woody fibres together. This process is called "retting". The fibre is then extracted by hand.
The fibres in jute are uneven in diameter and are highly resistant to stretching but individually brittle - so they develop microscopic fractures during the weaving process. These two factors give jute its natural slightly rough appearance.
The jute fabric industry was pioneered by mill-owners in Dundee, Scotland in the 1820s. By the 1850s they were setting up jute mills in India itself and some of these mills are still working today. Jute is a major item in the world's commodity markets and the finer grades can be seen in fashion, luggage and home furnishing. It is also known as hessian and burlap.
Apart from its use as a textile, jute can be eaten! Young leaves are added to salads whilst older leaves need to be cooked - very similar to spinach. Jute leaves are high in protein. Dried leaves are used as a thickener in soups or even to make tea.