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!

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.) 

There are many more post-bloom flower capsules on the stalks, so we are getting closer to the end of the flowering. A few capsules are just starting to turn brown, indicating the stalk is becoming mature. I still think the end of August will be our harvest time based on the number of stalks still in bloom and the fact that the majority of the stalks are still quite green at the base. 

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. 

I'm sorry for the blurry image. It was hard to get the bee in focus. It was so happy bumbling between flowers!

I was thrilled to see that the flowers are a hit with honeybees in particular. 

I wonder what flax flower honey tastes like?

I even saw a few bright red ladybugs 

(but the honeybee insisted on being the focus in this image—sorry, ladybug). 

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!