Time has passed and the flax is in the Global Gardens greenhouse for the winter.

We pulled it late – as it was planted late. As Simon from Flaxlands had told me, it didn’t go so yellow and continued to flower, as the light hours lessened to early summer length due to the late planting. So there’s less developed seed. The field was weedy and the flax thinner, because of the seed rows being further apart. The area that was less prepared and had seed broadcast had a much lower yield but was very biodiverse!

The crop was hung under cover at St Fagan’s farm to dry. Then rippled in the farmyard with help from visitors, who were all fascinated. We were able to have a first go with our beautiful breaker, made by Dylan in Machynlleth, from fallen beech. It’s a hefty beast!

3/4 of the dry crop was then retted in a galvanised tank at Global Gardens. It was late to do it but as it was an unusually warm October week I went for it! Two weeks later and 10 degrees colder, i decided to take it out. It was left on the floor inside for three days, and then tested – it is perfect and it’s the same light gold green colour as our first crop 3 years ago that was also retted in the tank.

The other 1/4 will be used for demonstrating retting next year as we work on sharing our flax to linen journey.

The Global Gardens grown crop is dry, with seed heads still on, hanging in the classroom. This will also be used for sharing processes next spring.

Next we need to start spinning – we’ll start learning with wool. Our donated spinning wheel has been serviced and we have a spin class on 28th October. contact me for more details.