The Gale Woods Farm Flax is A-Buzzing
I visited the Gale Woods Farm linen flax this morning. Surprisingly, it is still in bloom, so you still have time to see the flowers. (Remember, mornings only—the flowers drop off by the afternoon.)
This morning, the flowers were buzzing with both honeybees and bumblebees, along with smaller bees and flies. They were moving from flower to flower and very excitedly rubbing their bodies all around the stamens.
These stalks are so rich with life when growing. And when they are mature and their time in the field is done, they give us lovely, strong fiber and elegant, comfortable fabric. Linen flax is truly a magical plant, from its growth all the way to its place in sustaining us in our lives as fiber and even food. The plant was named so appropriately by Linnaeus: Linum Usitatissimum—“the most useful” plant.
BTW… I just read a research paper on the fact that flax fiber dated to be 30,000 years old has been discovered in an archeological site in the foothills of the Caucasus in Georgia (the country, not the state)! The finding indicates that prehistoric hunter-gatherers were even using flax fibers for various uses in their survival. Flax is a remarkable, enduring legacy of this earth!
No comments:
Post a Comment