Buckwheat Hulls
Well, I got myself into a predicament. But from it, I learned a couple of things. I’ll pass along my experience in the hope that maybe it can benefit someone else.
I went on a little vacation trip to the northern mountains of Pa. with my wife and my good friend George, and his wife Sue. The weather forcast was calling for rain. We were hauling some of our supplies on an open trailer, so I got some construction grade cleanup bags (super heavy duty trash bags), to put our supplies in to keep them dry.
Sure enough, on our way home, it poured rain. Unbeknownst (my spell checker says this isn’t a word, but I’ve been using it all my life, and I’m not stopping now) to me, the one that had my buckwheat pillow in it ( You didn’t think I’d go camping without my buckwheat pillow, did you?) had gotten snagged, and was letting the rain in big time.
Arriving home, I had a thoroughly soaked buckwheat pillow. I prefer my pillows really soft and flimsy, with only about 1/2 or less of the hulls in them that they come filled with. so I thought,”Well, I’ll just throw it in the clothes dryer, and it will come out fine”. So I did.
After an appropriate amount of time, I heard my wife calling my name in a tone that I recognized as being indicative of my being in deep doodoo. Not knowing why, I timidly answered “Yes, Dear”. I got no answer, but heard her feet coming toward me in a familiar staccato rythm that I instinctively react to with the age old fight or flight syndrome.
She was holding an empty, hideously brown stained, empty pillow cover, which I didn’t immediately recognize. I said “What is it?”
Holding it almost in my face, and shaking it like a puppy does a limp raggedy toy weasel, she hissed “Its your buckwheat pillow”. I timidly whispered, “Where’s the rest of it?” “All through the dryer” she replied, showing great restraint in her effort to not arouse panic in more than the next 4 0r 5 homes in any direction from ours. Fortunately all our doors and widows were closed wih storm doors and windows on them, so I guess much of the volume of sound emminating from her was effectively muffled.
Seriously, she just scooped most of the loose hulls out with a sugar scoop, and then put a new bag in her sweeper, and vacuumed the rest out of the dryer, so virtually all of them were salvaged in pristine condition. She then bleached the cover and it looked just as good as new. And both of us have recovered into our normal loving relationship.
My problem had resulted from the zipper, which allows one to adjust the hull volume to your particlar comfort level, somehow becoming unzipped during the drying process. My solution to that would be to slip a safety pin through the cover in a position that would prevent the zipper from unzipping. Bleaching the cover renovated it to what it had looked like when new.
Having said all that, I must offer a few words of caution. I believe my pillow would have come through that ordeal okay, if the zipper had not come undone. However, this is not a ringing endorsement of the practice of washing your buckwheat pillow.
If you remember, I had mentioned that I only fill my pillow about 1/2, or less full. I believe this would have allowed sufficient water and air flow through the pillow to allow both successful washing and drying. However I realize that probably most people use their pillows with considerably more filling than I do.
Therefore, if you were to attempt to wash your buckwheat hull pillow, if you do fill yours more than 1/2 full, I would suggest poring half of them into another suitable cover, and washing and drying them in 2 seperate covers. If you don’t have 2 covers, you could do it in 2 operations, using the same cover.
Don’t forget, you will need to bleach the covers after you’ve washed and dried them, because those hulls will leave a really unsightly stain. The biggest problem you definitely need to avoid is having the hulls clump toether in such a way that the clumps stay damp, because if they do, they will surely mold, which can cause severe health problems as well as totally ruin your buckwheat pillows.
The standard advice is still to pour out the hulls onto a flat surface in full sunlight and stir them occasionally to make sure they all get exposed to the direct rays of the sun. Meanwhile you can wash and dry the cover as you would ordinary sheets and pillow cases.
If you try washing and drying your buckwheat pillow, Please either write a comment on this blog, or send me an email filling me in on your experience.
