Sunday, October 6, 2013

Drying the Glen Valley flax

I've had a difficult time this year drying my flax. I got the first batch dried, rippled and retted. Then the rains started coming, so the next drying stage was delayed. Meanwhile, the rains caused the other flax beds to fall over so one of them was quickly harvested.

That flax was put up against the fence in the hope that it would eventually dry and I could ripple it. The rains kept coming and coming. Nothing was drying. So I decided to use the rains to my advantage and instead of leaning them up against the split rail fence, I put them on the grass. At least the downpours could continue to rinse the smelly swamp water from the first flax. And the hope was that the steady stream of water could start to dew rett the other flax, despite the fact it hadn't been rippled and was still full of leaves and seed pods.

The sun finally came out yesterday and it's still here today. So I decided to take advantage of the sun and heat and do some active things to encourage drying. I got the drying rack and stacked the retted flax onto it.


Then I had a look at the non-rippled flax that I threw on the ground. I flipped it to get the really wet side in the sun. Lo and behold! It's starting to rett. You can see the fine wisps of linen fibres on the edges. It doesn't go all the way up the stem, it's mostly happening down near the root end, where there are no leaves.


About an hour later, encouraged by the heat and sunshine, I moved the drying rack over to the driveway. The gravel in the driveway heats up and we can really push this drying number today. I took the flax from the shade of the second and third level of the rack and put it on the ground.

Inspired by the retting results of the non-rippled flax, I moved it from the lawn over the driveway next to the retted flax. Using the jet stream on the hose, I power-washed as much of the rotten leaves from it as I could manage. And now the whole lot is drying. I'll flip it every hour or so, until the sun comes down. And then everything is going under cover. Enough of this.


And last but not least is the harvest of the final bed. I have this off the ground, all stacked up on the garden bench. It can't stay there. I have to fashion something that will help it dry - but we have some more rain coming in this week. I need an Indian Summer to get this stuff finished off.


Time to head back out and flip the flax.

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