Material
Reed is used since the end of ice-age when nomads began to settle. After cutting the bundles must be shaked in order that weep stalks and other soiling will drop out. Therefore a machine has been developped that comb automatically the reed bundles. After that the finished ones will set up outside till they will be picked up for covering thatched roofs.
Former the reed crop depended on the frosty weather an soon a legal settlement was established: from 1st Nov. till end of February reed is allowed to be gathered. Conservatonist like to know that the local reed production at the “Großes Meer” is generally forbidden.
The reed is a marsh plant and forms with its roots rotten and marshy underground. When the reed areas can extend uncontrolled, our formely seas abounding in fish will become land step by step. The formerly especially thin strawed East Frisian reed is meanwhile died out by pollution of the seas.
The thatched roof you can see mostly today are covered with imported material from Hungary, Romania, Poland, Denmark and Austria. The original East Frisian quality that maintains for a life time doesn’t exist nearly any more. Today 5 – 10% of the reed is coming from German arable land, the rest from Austria, Hungary, Romania and Turkey.
If you want you can get Danish and African reed.