Homegrown Linen: transforming flaxseed into fibre by Raven Ranson

I posted these pictures in the Homegrown Linen Kickstarter threadkickstarter thread, and thought I'd continue the discussion here!

My little flax/linen garden bed! It's pretty small, but it's something. It's seeded with flaxseeds from Raven's kickstarter! I'm hoping I learn a lot this year, and so I can scale up next year!

Is that little bitty flax that I spy? I hope so!

(The fence is over it to keep my ducks from eating all the seeds...something I realized the day after I planted it. Hopefully they didn't eat too much of it in that time!)

My flax has grown! My son loves to get the hose going and water them. He then comes and happily says to me, "Guess what I just watered? Raven's flax!" (Raven is my kids' superhero). I'm still getting some blooms, but other stalks are turning yellow. Those yellow one also seem to be the tallest, so I think I'll follow Raven's suggestions in her book and tie a string around those to save them for seed. This will be the first time I save seeds!

wonderful to see https://www.amberdusick.com/woodmouse_loves_crafts/2020/02/growing-and-processing-flax-to-linen.html

What a beautiful review! It's unusual to see one with such great 'I did it, too' pics. Very impressive!

SO wonderful to watch!  I am inspired!

I did not even know that flax is where you get linen from! LOL but I just watched this video and I was amazed at the process. We do have land now, I don't know if we can actually grow flax out here.  I'm at in Arizona, but it was amazing to watch the process. Thank you so much for taking the time to put together that video and for sharing information about the old ways.

I'm curious Raven - how long before the 'last frost' date in your region, are you now able to successfully plant your Landrace flax seed?

Fascinating information here. I have never considered processing fibers. Will have to dig deeper into it.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Now I have something else on my plate.

Jay Angler wrote:I'm curious Raven - how long before the 'last frost' date in your region, are you now able to successfully plant your Landrace flax seed?

My biggest limit is when the rains stop.  I try to get the flaxseed in a month before May 1st at the latest.

But I'm on a limited well so I have very little water for the garden.  With irrigation, one could probably plant it 80 to 90 days before the first hard frost.  

I think the book looks great. I went to Tiller International a few years ago and there was a couple that had an experimental plot to raise flax, Rhett it and card it. They let me work through each of the stages. They had samples of fabric they had made. They even had sample armor like Alexander the Great wore made of linen (which he wore). I had a rice paddy in Chicago a few years ago. I will try flax next!

We have our first (of what I hope are many) US yarn shops carrying Homegrown Linen: Apothefaery

Would the information on this book be helpful for other plant fibers? I'm specifically thinking about nettle. I want to experiment with growing flax but in the meantime I have fields of nettle 8'+ high that grow unaided every year  There is a shocking lack of practical information on how to use nettle fibers. The articles and YouTube videos I've watched about flax make me think it might be similar.

I'm really surprised how little information there is in general about home growing plants for fiber. Even finding good information about flax and linen is difficultb so your book sounds like a great resource.

Magdalene is part of the permaulture bootcamp. She's currently working on planting some flax out at Wheaton Labs for fibre:
permies.com/p/1393975

Could anyone tell me if this is also available as a pdf/e-book? I'd love a copy, but shipping to New Zealand has always been prohibitive, and is even more so at the moment!

Sorry,  it's not published as an ebook yet.

I'm hoping to do this if there is a second edition.

Teaming up with a friend and getting multiple copies in the same order is a good way to save money on shipping.

I talked about many of these tips for weaving with linen in the book, but here's a video of some of them in action and what happens when we don't have enough humidity (note the fluffy dust at the end - If the humidity could be higher, I tend to not get any dust at all)

I give this book 9.4 out of 10 acorns!

I read this sitting on the beach and in front of a campfire. It wasn’t just the perfect length for vacation reading but for any introduction to the topic. The book covers growing flax, extracting the bast fibers, turning them into thread, and so on -- all with a very personal approach based on the author's experience, but with enough suggestions for people in e.g. very different growing conditions to give it a try.

I’m going to start building my flax grex immediately and see how they grow next spring.

(thesis 4; structure 5; import 4; rare 4; electric 4; easy 4; interesting 5; voice 4; support 3; organized 3; graphic 3; actionable 5; instructive 5; Permie 5; JNSQ 4)

Does anyone know where this book can currently be found? I'd love to buy a copy but the websites listed are sold out or not available. Thanks!

I'm hoping to have them for sale again in about a month.  We had to move some furniture and the "whatever you do, don't block access to that pile of boxes" got interpeted as "pile 4 floor to sealing,  6 foot wide, book cases full of books and abot two tonnes of furniture in front of it".

They come back next month to move it back.

10 days away from getting to my books and the post office goes on strike.  

This is basically a metaphor for how my year has gone so far.

the postal strike in Canada continues.  Once it clears, they will probably ration what they accept and expect long delays while they clear the backlogg.  

We will be lucky to ship before February.

However, any of these Canadian retailers can order the book in for you: https://www.harmonique.ca/dealer-locator/

It's been a year of looking for envelopes that are recyclable in most places, affordable (less than $2 per envelope), that I can buy by the hundred, and most importantly, will protect the book on the journey.  

I did not expect it to be so hard.  

The book was designed to fit a very common envelope size a few years ago.  But now,  no one sells it for under $4 per envelopes (after shipping, brokerage fees, handling fees, pre brokerage fees, customs fees, .....taxes on all the fees, then more tax on the taxes...).  It just got too much.

I have some envelopes on order that they assure me will protect the book and can be recycled in normal paper recycling.  If it goes well, I will be selling my books again to many countries.  I have about 700 left, which is a very small pile compared to what I started with.  After that's gone, I don't know.

There will be a considerable delay selling to the usa as the current system of pre paying the tariff is made more difficult in that the tariff rate can change while the book is in transit, which means the book will be destroyed if the tariff isn't correct.  Which means I'm out of pocket, which isn't cool. (Not putting that on the customer, it's not fair or legal).  It's  a big stress, and would mean my american friends would be paying more than $10 more than everyome else, which also isn't fair.  It's an ever changing hoop to jump through, so I'll wait and see how things settle.  

But, for most other countries, it should be ready to ship by spring.

There has been so much drama trying to get new envelopes to ship this book.  I now am the proud owner of 300 envelopes that are too small and another bunch that are heavier than the book and add an extra $30 to shipping costs if I use them.  I'll sort it out eventually.  And then the world has gone insane with international shipping unpredictable while they sort out the price increases due to it being 2026.

Anyway.

Shop is temporarily open again.  https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/crowinghenfarm

At the moment, I can only figure out the pricing for within Canada.  I've got about a dozen envelopes left, so once these are sold out, it might be a while.  

Wholesale prices are available.  Minimum order is 40 books.

You can still order the book through Canadian Ashford dealers as well.