And so, the 2026 linen flax season ends with two plots put to bed 

Gale Woods Farm Crop

To conclude the seed-rippling details, we ended up with about six pounds of Avian variety linen flax seeds after winnowing! Since we sowed about 2 pounds, that is a nice increase in seed yield for future use. 

The Gale Woods flax stalks retted in seven days at an ambient greenhouse temperature of about 80 degrees. 

We pulled the stalks out of the tanks, laid them on greenhouse racks, and rinsed them while they lay on the racks. The drying time was longer than last year, probably because the humidity was quite high in the greenhouse since its plastic cover had recently been replaced, but not the rollers that allowed the cover to vent. I was concerned about mildew forming on the stalks, so fans were turned on to circulate the air, and the stalks were turned every day. After a week, the stalks were finally dry! 

A couple of interest groups came by to experience the next steps: mechanically breaking and processing the stalks into fiber. One group was a video team from Greener Pastures, Three Rivers Fibershed, and the Living Lineage: Linen in Scandinavian Folk Art and Modern Innovation artist project, who filmed me demonstrating the mechanical processing. The second group was part of a Three Rivers Park employee development day, where they spent a day learning about the farm’s activities. 

About 20 staff learned how to process the stalks into fiber, and we ended up with a good amount of fiber to use in upcoming park programs! Many hands make the work light! 

Next, we'll use the stalks in demonstrations I will be performing at the park district’s fall festival on the farm on Oct 3 and 4, and at a flax processing workshop I will be leading at Gale Woods Farm on Oct 24th. Consider signing up for that workshop soon! Space is limited!

 

My Crop from Riverbend Farm

My personal Avian variety linen flax crop has also concluded! 

I ended up threshing the seed capsules by stepping on them, which both crushed the capsules and released the seeds. I mainly chose this method because I had nerve pain in one shoulder, and pulling the stalks through a rake or tine hackle just wasn't going to be comfortable for me. It was a fairly efficient way to release the seeds, although I think it left more debris behind that I will need to winnow out. I still need to complete the winnowing process, so the total yield in pounds remains unknown.

I started retting my personal plot flax stalks on August 28^th. 

Because I have smaller cattle tanks, I used a series of four retting vats to complete retting on all stalks. The tanks fit in my driveway—the only space on my property with more direct sunlight. The total retting time was five days, although I thought I pulled these stalks a day too early. However, after drying them, they seemed OK. It is always hard to tell the exact timing on the ret! I suspect that since the weather was warm during this period and my tanks are smaller and made of a black poly material, they retted faster than the tanks at Gale Woods. Or perhaps being out in the open environment, with rainfall and more organic matter falling into the tank, gave the ret bacteria more oomph to break down the stalks? Another factor for the faster ret may be the fact I used garden pots that weren't completely clean as weights to hold down the stalks in the tanks. I have recently read that introducing some organic matter to the retting tanks helps the anaerobic bacteria multiply. Maybe...?

After retting, I rinsed the stalks and used a mash-up of clothes drying racks and a ladder as drying surfaces. The ladder worked very well since it allowed more air circulation around the stalks.

I have since packed up the stalks and stored them indoors and will be taking a few bags for my audience to enjoy at my keynote talk and flax processing demonstration at the upcoming annual Midwest Weavers Federation conference (October 2nd in Alexandria, Minnesota). 

 

To Conclude This Year of Growing

What a crazy busy linen flax growing year this has been! I must admit, I am physically ready for a rest. The quieter days of winter will be a blessing for this exhausted body! I can feel why crop farmers are happy to have a winter break! 

 

I hope to take time during the indoor season to spin and weave more linen, and I will continue to share the results of that here. 

 

Thanks for following me during this 2026 linen flax season! I hope you enjoyed the journey! 

Grow flax! Make linen!

Where Does the Time Go? The Harvest is Done! 

Apparently, time doesn’t go into updating the blog since I have a major catch-up to do here. The past two months have been overwhelmingly packed with activities and some health stuff I’ve been dealing with. The harvest wasn’t going to wait for me to recover, so I broke down my Viking resolve to do it all by myself and accepted help. (Once again, I am finding out that growing flax can become a personal learning journey on many levels!)

Gale Woods Farm Plot

This crop has been an odd one. The flowering continued way beyond the expected timeline. 

Harvesting is typically expected at 90 to 100 days post-emergence and 30 days after the final massive flower bloom, but with flowers still coming and the stalks still relatively green, I pushed the harvest to 105 days. In the end, this later harvest may affect stalk quality. They may be coarser when processed and perhaps ret faster than expected. My assumptions are based on research I’ve read on harvest timing, but the reality of the crop quality remains to be seen. 

We harvested a total of 158 bundles, with July 29^th as the final day of pulling the stalks. We hung them upside down on the garden fence (seed capsules facing down, which helps the seeds mature more fully) and left them to dry until August 12^th, when we took them down, 

moved them to the greenhouse, and removed the seed capsules (rippled the seeds). 

Summer garden staff, Kaela and Adrik, were my main garden helpers through this entire Gale Woods Farm journey. (A shout-out to Greg, the farm manager, and Hema, a summer intern, too!) Here, Kaela and Adrik are rippling the seed capsules off the stalks.

The final seed weight was 5.5 pounds, with many mature seeds, so it looks like we will have a healthy number of seeds for next year’s crop!

A week later, on August 20^th, we began the retting process. 

The ret tanks are filled with plain well water, and anaerobic bacteria will eventually start rotting away the woody stems.

The entire crop fit into two stock tanks! I will monitor the tanks throughout the next week and test the stalks periodically to determine when they have retted enough to release the fibers when processed, but not so much that they destroy the fiber line. It’s a skill learned and relearned each year, and it always feels like a guessing game!

My Personal Plot at Riverbend Farm

This crop seemed to be more “normal” in that the stalks did not have the same extended flowering that the Gale Woods plot had. Yes, some stalks were still flowering when the harvest date arrived, July 24^th, but overall, the stalk appearance was more in line with what is normally seen: about ¼ of the stalk yellowing and stalks holding a majority of brown seed capsules with seeds rattling around inside.

I had such a wonderful group of helpers at Riverbend, 11 in total, all thanks to Greg and Mary and their dedicated gardening friends who were excited to learn about this unique textile plant!  

An empty plot!

We harvested the crop in two hours! The harvest size was similar to Gale Woods, although these stalks were longer overall. I attribute that to a different soil type (more sandy/loamy than at Gale Woods) and the old “who knows” factor!

The entire crop filled my 17-year-old Rav4 (I love this car!). 

After hauling the stalks home, some of my family and I hung them on our backyard fence to dry. 

On August 14^th, we moved the stalks into our garage to ripple later, when I have more time to devote to the task—probably sometime in the next one to two weeks. 

Flax stalks can be stored indefinitely, either before or after rippling the seed capsules. It is best to remove the capsules fairly soon, though, to avoid critters finding the delicious seeds before you can gather and store them for next year’s crop! (The seeds are viable for about 5 years with careful storage, although they lose some viability each year.)

Come back here later to see the next steps: the continued flax retting at Gale Woods Farm and my personal capsule rippling adventure!

The Heat is ON!

This will be a shorter blog, but it's not bad news. 

Our weather has been brutally hot and stormy recently. The heat made me concerned that the flax stalks would keel over or mature too rapidly. They prefer the cooler temperatures of more temperate climates. But they also like wet conditions, and they've had that in spades this summer, which might be their saving grace.

Gale Woods Farm plot

You can see that the capsules now outnumber the flowers.

The stalks at Gale Woods Farm are doing very well! I visited them this morning and could still see flowers. Here I thought the stalks were going to be toast, or at least be completely spent of blooms. Nope! But there are more capsules now than flowers. (Capsules are the compartments left behind after the flowers drop off, and are where the seeds are maturing.)

There was an interloper along the plot! Some sort of squash plant! It was trying to hang onto the flax stalks, but I pulled it back as best I could. 

I expect the harvest date will be sometime towards the end of July if all progresses as usual. The stalks need to be about 2/3 yellow from their base, and the capsules should be leaning toward brown if not fully brown. Typically, the stalks are ready for harvest 30 days after the full plot bloom and 90 to 100 days after their emergence. We are at roughly day 70 right now. The temperatures are forecast to be in the 80s and 90s (26-32+ Celsius) for the next week or so. I'll periodically check the stalks and cross my fingers that they can withstand such heat! 

Bees and other pollinators were still busy finding pollen in the remaining blooms!

Bees continue to visit the flowers. Turn up the audio to hear the buzz on this video!

I wonder if the fiber that is gleaned from these tough plants will be coarser than preferred. When it comes to nature, it's best not to have expectations, but speculation is always in play.

Riverbend Farm (my personal) plot

Last Friday, I visited my personal plot. As has been the case all along, since being sown a few days after the Gale Woods Farm crop, the maturity rate is a few days later than that of Gale Woods Farm. 

Many stalks at the Riverbend plot are over 36 inches tall!

I ended up getting out to the farm late in the morning, so the blooms were actively dropping off the stalks.

Aren't the petals so pretty!

It was a gorgeous midsummer day for communing with the flax stalks!

Time Your Visit to See Blooms!

This is a reminder to anyone who wants to visit the Gale Woods Farm stalks to see flowers… Go in the morning! Mid-morning is best if you want to catch the flowers in bloom! If you visit in the afternoon, you won't get much of a flower show! And visit soon! They are coming to the end of their bloom cycle!

What the Heck?! We are in bloom! 

I was so shocked to see a blue hue in the field when I visited the Gale Woods Farm flax on June 10th! That was two weeks earlier than I expected. Although when I count up the days since sowing, it is on time—about 60 days. 

The Gale Woods Farm plot on June 10th—beginning to bloom!

The stalk height on June 10th.

The stalks are shorter than I thought they would be. They range from 24 to 31 inches. However, when looking at the expected height of the Avian variety, it is within the typical range. The shorter ones may catch up to the others, provided the shorter stalks aren't already in bloom (blooming is when the growth stage ends). Nevertheless, we may end up with a range of heights this year. Will see!

Can you see the blue hue in the distance—in the upper center of the photo? 

This was the view of the flax plot on June 18th, looking from the farm's entrance road.

I went back out to visit the stalks on June 18th, and they are still in a healthy bloom state, with more to come! So folks, get out to Gale Woods Farm within the next couple of weeks to catch the remaining blooms! (Gale Woods is a Three Rivers Park District park in Minnetrista, Minnesota.)

The plot is starting to sparkle with blooms on June 18th! Happy midsummer blooms!

If you can't get out to visit the blooms in person, here's a video to give you a taste of being in the field:

My personal plot is also in bloom!

As has been true throughout this growing season, my personal plot at Riverbend Farm, planted a few days after the Gale Woods plot, began blooming around June 12th.

My Riverbend Farm plot on June 12th.

It's a little hard to see the blooms because the wind was really kicking up and bending the stalks. They were getting a workout, but the petals still hung on until early afternoon.

Can you see the blue petals on the ground? Such delicate beauties!

My Riverbend Farm stalks have a more consistent height than the Gale Woods Farm stalks. 

On June 12th, they averaged 32 inches. Why are they more consistent? Perhaps the seeds were more viable, the soil type more amenable, the moisture more steady, and the sun more direct. Who knows?

The Growth Continues

…updating the progress of the Gale Woods Farm and my personal flax plots.

Gale Woods Farm

On May 28th, I weeded the plot for the third, and, hopefully, final time. The weeds were few, although it still took an hour to go through the rows.

The Gale Woods stalk height was about 10 inches on May 28th. 

This should be the last major weeding, since from this point on the stalks should start to snuff out any major weeds in the rows. (Weeds will continue to grow between the rows, but even they should become fewer as the stalks grow, and not affect the success of the stalk growth in the rows.)

The Gale Woods plot is looking good 43 days after sowing!

Some stalks are shorter than others, and that is most likely because their depth at sowing was a little deeper. Other factors may be involved; nevertheless, I've found that the shorter stalks tend to keep up with the taller ones as summer moves on. (Some linen flax growers separate shorter stalks from the longer ones when harvesting, but I find that is a fussy task and not really necessary. The ultimate stalk length is usually within an acceptable range and yields no significant problem in the final fiber result.)

An overhead view of the rows.

The shadows were showing a rough depiction of an American flag!

The Gale Woods flax rows on June 2nd—48 days after sowing.

I went back out to the field on June 2nd. The weeding was inconsequential. Yay! With only the occasional pulling of thistles as the summer goes on, the weeding is DONE! The height of the tallest stalks had grown to 21 inches—a doubling of height in just six days! Exciting! 

I had to hold up the tallest stalks to measure them, since the wind had bent the tall ends.

On this same day, we had a few visitors to the plot. They included two weaving students who had just graduated from the Sätergläntan folk school in Sweden and were in town to see various fiber-related venues. The education coordinator at the American Swedish Institute (one of my teaching locations) thought they would enjoy seeing the farm plot, so she, the two students, and a fellow teacher at ASI arrived for a tour of the plot and the farm. It was a beautiful day! Other farm staff and a farm fiber volunteer joined us, making a convivial group of linen enthusiasts as we shared knowledge of linen flax between countries.

The Swedish weavers are on the left side of the image; Shai is wearing a red cap, and Malin is wearing black shorts.

Catching Up on My Personal Plot

On May 23rd, I weeded my personal "Riverbend plot" for the second time. 

The stalk height averaged 3.5 inches, slightly shorter than that of the Gale Woods plot during the same week. That was expected due to the later sowing date. 

Oh, the grasses are the bane of my existence out there! But I did quite a clean weeding of the rows, even though the field was SO muddy and the weeds were holding tight in the soggy soil. Exhausting work!

A worm "friend" joined me during the muddy weeding!

The rows at Riverbend on May 23rd, after a good weeding, 35 days after sowing.

I returned to the field on May 30th for the third weeding. The stalks have grown! They are now averaging a foot tall. 

The stalks were a foot tall on May 30th – a gain of 8.5 inches after only 7 days! That's an increase of over an inch a day!

This was a tougher weeding day, with warmer weather, more sun—and I hope my last deep weeding. The flax really likes the organic soil at Greg's place, and so do the weeds and grasses! This was a three-hour-plus weeding session! That's about an hour longer than previous weedings. I plan to go out again this weekend and hope the weeding effort will have lessened as the flax stalks have grown taller. Honestly, the weeding is starting to feel physically taxing as the days get warmer. With June beginning, the weather will undoubtedly continue to become warmer. Another reason to sow those flax seeds as early as possible, as we were able to do this year!

The Riverbend flax rows on May 30th—42 days after sowing.

The rainy weather of the previous week has been a benefit, although a few days had passed since the last good amount of rain and the field was starting to dry out. So at the end of my weeding session, I lightly watered the stalks. More rain is expected at the end of this week, which will be good timing for those growing stalks!

They Live!

Dr. Frankenstein would find flax to be a good subject in his laboratory!

Both the Gale Woods Farm and Riverbend linen flax crops survived the bitter cold temps this spring! They have been growing more slowly than past crops that did not need to compete with such cold temperatures at the start of their life; however, they are still thriving. It is such a relief! 

Gale Woods Farm Crop

Post-weeding view of the plot at Gale Woods Farm on May 11th.

I did a first weeding of the Gale Woods Farm crop on May 11th, 14 days after the first seedlings emerged. Normally, the first weeding would have been done a week earlier, but the cold spring also slowed weed growth. There are benefits of a cold spring!

The seedlings up close!

Their height is about 1 inch on May 11th (measured with a finger), two weeks into their growth.

I did another weeding of the crop today, May 20th. The average stalk height is now about 4 inches after only one week. The recent rains and still cooler temperatures are all beneficial to linen flax!

The Gale Woods Farm stalk height averages 4 inches, one month after sowing.

The Gale Woods Farm plot after a careful weeding on May 20th.

Riverbend Farm – my personal crop update

I visited the Riverbend crop for the first time on May 16th, 28 days after sowing. This plot was the most worrisome for me since the field had seen some freezing temperatures. No matter, the little darlings survived the cold! I'm not exactly sure when the seedlings first emerged, since I couldn't check on them for the 28 days between sowing and May 16th. So May 16th became my first view of the seedlings and my first weeding day. There were certainly a number of small weeds, mostly stubborn, long-root quackgrass, but it wasn't horrible. I was able to hand-weed the entire crop in about two hours (farmer Greg did a bit of hoeing during my visit, too).

The Riverbend plot is a bit lighter in color than Gale Woods, even though the flax variety is the same. That is a curiosity, and for now I attribute it to a difference in soil composition—perhaps also the cooler growing temperatures?

The Riverbend flax stalks, as of May 16th, have grown to about 2 inches in height.

I plan to weed the Riverbend flax stalks again in a few days. It will be interesting to compare their growth with the Gale Woods Farm stalks. Will the two crops be on par? Stay tuned!

A Surprise on May 20th!

When I arrived home from weeding the crop at Gale Woods Farm, I looked towards the edge of my road where I had planted some perennial flax a few years ago. Surprise! They have begun flowering! This plant is so tough! Give it good sunlight and some moisture, and it can survive brutal conditions! Of course, this is a perennial variety that might flower twice in a summer and does not get much more than a foot tall. It spends its time creating flowers for seeds and beauty. It isn't trying to grow tall for fiber!

Flowering Perennial Flax at my roadside.