Flax life

This is my first blog! In my daily life I am a professional horitculturalist. I became interested in growing flax 4 to 5 years ago. It is a way to blend my daily profession with my passion for historical reenactment in the viking age. My personal is based in the 10th century long before the later period flax break was used. It is a bit more work but I am finding that it is working quite well.

I bought seed form Richter seed in Canada. My first attempt was planted in March in 2014, in ground be on my property in Poulsbo. It started to come up great and when the first true leave came out the whole bed was eaten down by rabbits and it never recovered and the weeds took over.

The next year I planted in 5 very large nursery pots so to avoid the rabbits. It grew fine I had my first harvest. I dried it and then Retted it in large tubs I had had. This being the hardest part to get right. This batch alas was not retted well enough and the shaft would not separate from the fiber. Second attempt down.

My third attempt was in 2017. I built a raised be so I would not have so many weed and I could cage it off with chicken wire to protect it form the rabbits. It was 120 square feet. I planted it in rows about a foot apart. The flax grew strong and was perfect. This time I also quit watering it about 3 weeks before it was harvested.

I waited until the seeds had begun to turn brown and then harvested. I pulled it up holding on at the base to get the root. I bundled it into 4 inch bundles and propped it up on the chicken wire to dry. The weather was dry and warm so that was good. I let it dry for 3 weeks until it was good and dry. I then retted (retting is when you soak the dried flax in water to rot the cellular tissues and pectin of the shaft off, which causes separation of the fiber from the stem) all the bundles for 7 maybe 8 days and then dried it again. On the first trial of breaking I realized it was not retted long enough. I broke a few fibers and the shaft would not separate from the stem. The weather was getting cold so I had to store it till the next summer when I could try again. I then retted all the bundles again for 5 days and set it out to dry again. Once dry I have been storing it until I had the time and tools to do so. Thankfully the fiber does not go bad.