Does anyone have any experience of this? To save money, I bought a 125g
packet of Flax seed from a health food shop, and so obviously there are no
sowing instructions! It's not a big deal, I'll just bung them in sometime
in the spring, but if anyone has some ideas on their cultivation I'd be
grateful.


--
"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it
flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come."
-- Matt Groening

"bigboard" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have any experience of this? To save money, I bought a 125g
packet of Flax seed from a health food shop, and so obviously there are no
sowing instructions! It's not a big deal, I'll just bung them in sometime
in the spring, but if anyone has some ideas on their cultivation I'd be
grateful.


You are going to introduce a new weed into your garden!

In article , bigboard
writes
Does anyone have any experience of this? To save money, I bought a 125g
packet of Flax seed from a health food shop, and so obviously there are no
sowing instructions! It's not a big deal, I'll just bung them in sometime
in the spring, but if anyone has some ideas on their cultivation I'd be
grateful.

Are you growing for the seed or for the fibre?

Flax - I think its the same species and not some other species of Linum
- is a constituent of some bird feeds and germinates pretty readily. It
likes a reasonable amount of sun and not to be crowded out by other
plants.


--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

Steve wrote:


"bigboard" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have any experience of this? To save money, I bought a 125g
packet of Flax seed from a health food shop, and so obviously there are
no sowing instructions! It's not a big deal, I'll just bung them in
sometime in the spring, but if anyone has some ideas on their cultivation
I'd be grateful.


You are going to introduce a new weed into your garden!



It won't be lonely! At least it's a pretty one.

--
If you sit down at a poker game and don't see a sucker, get up. You're
the sucker.

Kay wrote:

In article , bigboard
writes
Does anyone have any experience of this? To save money, I bought a 125g
packet of Flax seed from a health food shop, and so obviously there are no
sowing instructions! It's not a big deal, I'll just bung them in sometime
in the spring, but if anyone has some ideas on their cultivation I'd be
grateful.

Are you growing for the seed or for the fibre?

Flax - I think its the same species and not some other species of Linum
- is a constituent of some bird feeds and germinates pretty readily. It
likes a reasonable amount of sun and not to be crowded out by other
plants.



Thanks for that. I have a feeling it's not going to be too tricky. Famous
last words!

--
In the beginning was the word.
But by the time the second word was added to it,
there was trouble.
For with it came syntax ...
-- John Simon

Martin wrote:

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 22:26:49 +0000, Kay
wrote:

In article , bigboard
writes
Does anyone have any experience of this? To save money, I bought a 125g
packet of Flax seed from a health food shop, and so obviously there are
no sowing instructions! It's not a big deal, I'll just bung them in
sometime in the spring, but if anyone has some ideas on their cultivation
I'd be grateful.

Are you growing for the seed or for the fibre?

Flax - I think its the same species and not some other species of Linum
- is a constituent of some bird feeds and germinates pretty readily. It
likes a reasonable amount of sun and not to be crowded out by other
plants.

You can tell those, who used to grow it professionally for the fibre
in Brittany. Most have one or more fingers missing.


!!!

I think you'd better tell me more before I plant any! Was this from
harvesting injuries?

--
Love your enemies: they'll go crazy trying to figure out what you're up
to.

Martin wrote:

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 10:50:02 +0000, bigboard

I think you'd better tell me more before I plant any! Was this from
harvesting injuries?

No, more from processing the harvest. I went to a Breton village
summer festival, where the village OAPs were demonstrating, amongst
other bye gone traditional crafts, a fiendish machine that was driven
by a two stroke engine. The operators fed flax into the machine and
flails converted flax to fibres and any finger that went into the
machine to mince meat. There were no guards on the machine, which had
been in use until about 25-30 years ago. There weren't any male OAPs,
who had farmed flax, with a complete set of fingers. The processed
fibres really look like flaxen hair.

I shall be processing by hand, so I hope to retain my fingers. You probably
already know, but on the subject of flaxen hair, the phrase 'tow headed'
also derives from the flax industry. The tow is the shorter, less fine
fibres from the processed flax.

--
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
War is peace.
-- George Orwell

Martin wrote:

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 11:26:43 +0000, bigboard
wrote:


I shall be processing by hand, so I hope to retain my fingers. You
probably already know, but on the subject of flaxen hair, the phrase 'tow
headed' also derives from the flax industry. The tow is the shorter, less
fine fibres from the processed flax.

How are you intending to process the flax?

Retting on the lawn. (Leaving it to rot for a couple of weeks in the dew.)

Breaking the outer stem by hand.

Then separating the fibres with a home made comb. (Nails bashed through a
piece of baton.)

As you can see, it will all be most hi-tech!


Useful web site? http://www.nps.gov/colo/Jthanout/FlaxProd.html

Interesting, thanks. As this is the first time I will be attempting it, I'm
avidly reading everything I can on the subject. I've made cordage from
other fibres in the past, so I'm not too worried once I get to that stage.

--
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the
subject.
-- Winston Churchill

Martin wrote:

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 12:33:00 +0000, bigboard
wrote:

Martin wrote:

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 11:26:43 +0000, bigboard
wrote:


I shall be processing by hand, so I hope to retain my fingers. You
probably already know, but on the subject of flaxen hair, the phrase
'tow headed' also derives from the flax industry. The tow is the
shorter, less fine fibres from the processed flax.

How are you intending to process the flax?

Retting on the lawn. (Leaving it to rot for a couple of weeks in the dew.)

Breaking the outer stem by hand.

Then separating the fibres with a home made comb. (Nails bashed through a
piece of baton.)

As you can see, it will all be most hi-tech!


Useful web site? http://www.nps.gov/colo/Jthanout/FlaxProd.html

Interesting, thanks. As this is the first time I will be attempting it,
I'm avidly reading everything I can on the subject. I've made cordage from
other fibres in the past, so I'm not too worried once I get to that stage.

It might be worth putting it in your car and driving to Brittany. It
was a major industry there at one time.


It was fairly major in East Anglia too, and that's a bit nearer! I've got
a lot of my information so far from various John Seymour books. He is the
cause of a lot of my problems/experiments.

Maybe I can find a photo of the machine, I know I took some.

It would be very interesting to see. I've only come across pictures of
processing by hand.

--
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the
subject.
-- Winston Churchill

Martin wrote:

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 14:10:52 +0000, bigboard
wrote:

It would be very interesting to see. I've only come across pictures of
processing by hand.

fingerless hands? :-(

Yep, palms only. ;-)

--
"I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to
die in."
-- George McGovern

Martin wrote:

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 14:17:42 +0000, bigboard
wrote:

Martin wrote:

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 14:10:52 +0000, bigboard
wrote:

It would be very interesting to see. I've only come across pictures of
processing by hand.

fingerless hands? :-(

Yep, palms only. ;-)

Are you looking for a handout or just a hand?

Neither, I'm already fairly handy myself.

--
America is a large, friendly dog in a very small room. Every time it
wags its tail, it knocks over a chair.
-- Arnold Joseph Toynbee