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!