The Bloom is Nearly Off the Stalks

My visit to the Gale Woods Farm flax this morning revealed fewer flowers and more seed capsules that are turning brown. We remain on track for harvesting at the end of August!

The harvest this year is going to be interesting. Because of my tight schedule this summer and the continuously rainy, hot, humid, smoky weather, I haven't been able to tend the plot as it should have been tended. The actual flax stalk rows aren't too nasty with weeds, although the plot edges are buried in grasses, thistles, etc. It is even hard to see how the stalks are maturing, let alone get close to them! 

While trying to pull a few of the more massive grasses, I accidentally pulled a stalk. 

It is the length of much of the crop—32 inches—but branching has started halfway up the stalk, so the useful fiber will only be about 16 inches when it's processed. (Branching is preferred in the top 1/5 of the stalk for the best long fiber extraction.) Plus, the stalks appear to be thicker in circumference this year. I feared this would happen with the wider spacing between the rows. (See my earlier post about how the seeds were sown this year.) Of course, it may not be just the spacing issue that has caused this. Other factors, such as late sowing and the weather conditions, could have played a part. When I visit the flax next week, I will reach into the tighter rows to see if they have more favorable stalks. It was so miserably hot and humid in the field today, I didn't hang around for very long!

An Opportunity to Learn More About Bast Fibers at the Minnesota State Fair!

If you're in Minnesota on Friday, August 22nd, come to the Minnesota State Fair, Creative Activities Building. I will be presenting Flax as a Textile Fiber and demonstrating the mechanical breaking process that gleans the fiber from the stalk. My presentation/demonstration will be on the Weavers Guild of Minnesota's (WGM) new stage. It will be repeated three times, at 10 AM, Noon, and 1:30 PM. 

If you can't make it on the 22nd, there are two other days highlighting bast fibers on the new WGM stage: On Monday, August 25th, Matt Holen, a researcher in the Horticultural Science Department of the University of Minnesota, will be presenting Cultivating Perennial Flax for Textiles. (His project is the one that has kept me busy for most of the summer.) And, on Friday, August 29th, Tom Michaels, also from the University of Minnesota, Department of Horticultural Science, will be presenting Hemp as a Textile Fiber in Minnesota. We are certainly loving the bast fibers this summer!