Bits of information that brought up this concern in my head!
1. Just because it's "natural", doesn't mean it's safe for the environment - unless care is taken to make sure it is!
2. I believe it was in Raven's new
video, that I learned that the best time to harvest
flax for linen is before its seed is ready for harvest.
3. I believe it was in Small Farm Canada, that I read that farmers growing flax for seed were switching to fiber flax plants in the hope the fiber industry would take the flax
straw off their hands as they had no good way to deal with it, but they were still going to harvest it based on the best time for seed.
4. A friend brought me a bag with a bunch of dry organic matter which was supposedly what was left-over from a 3rd party's attempt at extracting fiber for linen. My friend figured I'd figure out something to do with it - this was years ago and I recall my eventual
answer was "compost". I believe the farmers were open burning theirs and I'm *sure* permies can do better than that!
So this
thread is to get people who've actually done the planting and fiber prep stages to be up front about what's left over - pictures would be great! Then we can all brain-storm on good ideas for what's left over. I suspect that part of the issue is that "crop farmers" and "animal farmers" are no longer the same small, integrated farm. I suspect that if I layered the left-over straw with
chicken shit and added a bunch of worms, I'd at least get good dirt! But is that left-over material like
wood chips that take a LONG time to turn into dirt (and really need to be soaked in
water and weathered in order for the lignin to start to break down before composting from my
experience, which is one reason I try to avoid commercial wood shavings as bedding?
I'm well aware that "perfect" is the enemy of "good". Linen fabric is way better than polyester environmentally, so we don't need to debate that - I just want "best practices" ideas.
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