A Rippling Good Time Was Had!

The flax stalks had been drying on the fence line for nearly two weeks, but the farm staff moved them into the greenhouse because of another bout of rainy and stormy weather. 

That was a good move since we were able to ripple (remove) the seed ovules (the capsules containing the seeds) inside the greenhouse last Friday, August 23. That was two weeks after the harvest and the typical drying period before rippling. A few of the stalks had a green hue in the middle of the bundles, so perhaps they were not fully dry. But we moved ahead with the rippling anyway.

Since we didn’t have a “true” seed-removing hackle, we used an open-tined garden rake as the first tool to pull off the capsules and followed it up with a wool hackle (used in preparing wool for worsted spun fiber—something I had in my teaching tools). This two-step process worked quite well.

 

After three hours of rippling with four of us rotating between the hackles, we ended up with a LOT of seed capsules. Considering the capsules average five seeds per capsule, we undoubtedly had a lot of seeds to try germinating and sowing for next year. 

Greg, the garden supervisor, took aside about two cups of capsules and debris and winnowed it down (cleaned out the debris) to about a half cup of seed. In the photo, he is letting the wind blow away the lightweight chaff as the heavier seeds drop into the bucket. There wasn't enough time to winnow all the seeds that day, but with what was gathered in the tarp under the rippling hackles, there should be more than enough seeds to give it a go for another crop. We also left a quarter of the stalks in the field dedicated to harvest for seeds, not for linen fiber. So, there should be no worries about having enough seeds for next year’s crop!

As I write this, an UPDATE! The winnowing has been completed, and there were 5.5 pounds of seed just in the approximately 125 lineal feet of harvested flax! Considering that we started out with 1.5 pounds for the entire 150 lineal feet, that is a huge seed yield!

The winnowed seeds show a variety of maturity levels. The lighter-colored seeds are probably not mature enough for sowing next year, while the mature flax seeds are medium brown. Interestingly, based on my research, the stalks with the less mature seeds will likely have finer flax fiber, so harvesting the stalks at this stage should be good for our fiber goals. What is left in the field will be more suited for next year’s seed crop since those stalks, maturing longer, will be too woody for good linen fiber. Greg will do a germination test of the seeds to see if the seeds from the stalks still left in the field will germinate better. It will be interesting to discover the results!

The rippled flax stalks are now resting in the greenhouse while we await the next step: retting (rotting) the rippled stalks. (Check out that corn stalk in the middle! It was from a rogue kernel of corn that germinated in the greenhouse and was probably the tallest corn stalk at the farm this year due to the poor growing conditions. That is why they left it standing! 😂) 

We are waiting until after Labor Day weekend (the first week of September) to begin the retting process. I am crossing my fingers that we will have warm weather into September since we are retting the flax outdoors, probably in vats or laying them in a field to dew-ret if we cannot find large enough vats. Warm weather is essential to keep a warm environment for retting in a vat or field. 

The stalks need to be retted and thoroughly dried before the final mechanical step, which is processing them into fiber. Time is getting tight! We have a deadline of October 13—the Gale Woods Fall Fest day (10 AM – 4 PM), when I will demonstrate those last steps—hopefully with the Gale Woods Linen Flax!

A Visit from University Researchers and 

Flax Harvest at Gale Woods Farm!

A couple of weeks ago, three researchers from the University of Minnesota Department of Horticulture Science visited the Gale Woods Farm flax crop. The U of M has been testing perennial seed flax (not linen flax) to develop the most suitable seed flax for the Upper Midwest region. I first met one of their researchers, Matt, after I gave a presentation and demonstration about linen flax in April at the Weaver’s Guild of Minnesota. He became intrigued by the Gale Woods Farm linen flax project I mentioned at my talk and has been following its progress. On July 29, Matt and his colleagues from the U of M traveled to Gale Woods Farm for a literal field trip to learn more about linen flax and see it growing in real life. We had such an enlightening visit sharing and comparing the different varieties of the flax species! 

 

Matt gave me a few bundles of their perennial seed flax stalks, which he had retted and dried. Note that these bundles have been cut and not pulled. (The cut end is on the left in the photo.) The crown and roots of the perennial varieties need to remain in the soil for next year’s spring growth, so they are cut. (Linen flax is an annual plant and is pulled.) I have promised to mechanically process these cut stalks with my flax processing tools to see what sort of fiber might emerge. Seed flax has many flower branches and is shorter than linen flax (these bundles are 3 feet in length, and an optimal linen flax stalk will be another foot longer), so I don’t expect to recover fiber that will be that useful for spinning unless it is blended with other fibers. But we shall see! I LOVE such real-life experimentation! 

Gale Woods Farm Harvest Day Has Happened—
Friday, August 9th!

This is what the plot looked like on August 9. It was ready to harvest!

We (the Gale Woods garden staff, a farm volunteer, and I) harvested the flax last Friday, August 9th. The harvest date snuck up on us. Most of the stalks had quickly become yellow about one-third of the way up the stalk, perhaps because of the warmer turn in the weather from the past week. Since August 9 was 94 days since the sowing on May 8 and within the 90–100 days from sowing, which is the expected growing window for linen flax, it was ready, even if some flowers were blooming on a few of the slower-growing stalks. Our harvest day just happened to be on a beautiful, cool day with a brisk wind, so it was another reason to take advantage of the perfect weather for harvesting!

 

In four hours, we pulled about three-fourths of the 150-lineal-foot plot and left the tallest last quarter of stalks to stand in the field, where they will fully mature to a brown color, and their seeds will also complete their maturation. Those stalks will then be pulled, and their seeds will be used to plant next year’s crop in hopes that they will also result in a tall crop for next year. (See them at the far end of the image above. The green plants in the pulled plot are mainly weeds left behind after the harvest! It was a weedy plot, even though you couldn't see all the weeds through the dense, tall stalks. Better preparation of a plot area in the fall will make next year's plot much cleaner. We didn't have that opportunity for this year's crop.)

Another sign that the crop is ready to harvest is the sound of the seeds bouncing inside the seed ovules (capsules). Turn up your sound to hear the gentle rattling of these ovule “maracas”!

The harvested plot yielded 157 flax bundles (“beets”), which we hung on the adjacent fence to dry with the seed end down. Hanging flax is the best way to dry the stalks since it allows the stalk and seeds to mature further, as all moisture remaining in the stalk will move to the stalk tip and the seeds during the drying process. The other method is to set them upright in “chapels” in the field (chapels are beets set upright in groups that support each other like a teepee). But because our summer has been so wet and space for the chapels to sit was challenging, hanging them was the best option. They will dry very quickly when hung and make a lovely visual along the fence line!

I drove past the fence yesterday, and in just four days, the harvested stalks have already started to dry and turn brown! 

When they are fully dry, maybe in a few more days to a week (there is no urgent timeline for the next steps), we will ripple (pull off) the seed capsules, and the stalks will be ready for retting. The farm has vats that we can use to ret the stalks in the field. Vat retting is the fastest retting method. But, since we cannot artificially heat the vat, we will need to let the ambient temperature and sun participate in the ret, which takes about a week longer than a controlled heated vat. (The other retting method is dew retting them by laying the stalks in thin layers on the ground. That usually takes at least two weeks or more and can result in an uneven ret. Besides, since ground space is also limited, that was another reason to vat ret!)

 

The stalks should be ready for rippling off the seeds sometime during the next week. Stay tuned!