We’d calculated Wednesday 23rd August as around 95 days after sowing and so we headed there nervously. The weather has been extreme. Totally dry for three weeks after planting. Then a super wet July. We had planted further apart than the two years before – due to weather, time and human resources. So i was worried that it could have been flattened by rain or not grown tall enough.

But there it was, a beautiful patch of green with little blue dots and yellowing seed balls. We have a crop. Flax is a super plant. So little water and care is needed. However, on inspection we decided that only the first portion was ready to pull. It was a little shorter but there were few flowers left and the seed balls were full. This portion will be hung to dry and half of it saved as dried decorative seed heads. The other half will rippled of seed and then tank retted, for processing to see if it makes finer fibre when picked slightly earlier. The main crop will need another week or two.

We wanted to try out the beautiful new flax break, made for me by Dylan Jones of Machynlleth. It’s from fallen Beech and is a beast – nicknamed the Flax Capacitor. Sadly when we eventually found last years retted flax, it hadn’t been kept dry enough and so is now over retted. It wasn’t dry enough to properly try breaking, and so it’s gone to the farmhouse for a week, and we’ll try it again next week. But it was breaking off easily at the root end, which was the most retted as it had stood in a stook on a damp surface. I think we’ll salvage a shorter length and the rest we can try for papermaking and casting. So, lessons learnt… keep track of your flax and make sure it’s dry and aired.