Making paper from day lilies

I've made paper for quite some time, now, but it has always been with paper pulp. Today I experimented using plant pulp. The supplies I used are (from left) Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (which can be used in place of soda ash),
plastic spoon, a stainless steel pot, hot plate to cook the lilies outside, kitchen shears, and a scale.




The first thing I did after I picked the day lily leaves was put the pot on the scales



















and set the tare to zero.
























The next thing I did was cut up the leaves to about half an inch using the kitchen shears.









Once the leaves were cut up, which I thought was the most time consuming, I weighed the cut greens. I had to do that because I needed to find 20% of the dry weight. That is the amount of washing soda I needed.




















I then weighed the soda ash and added it to the pot.










Finally, I added water to the pot and set the temperature on "medium." I checked after two hours and the leaves didn't look like they had done that much, so they are still cooking away. I've been told that after they cook and are cleaned, they will last in the refrigerator for about a week.