The flax plant is a versatile grain planted by early farmers to provide clothing, linens and rope for the family needs.

At Quiet Valley, flax is grown in our summer garden and is then harvested and processed into linen fibers. Growing from 18”-30” tall, the flax plant has a central woody core or cylinder. The tough flax fiber develops between the woody center and the thin outer bark of straw.

In July, the flax plant produces pretty blue flowers. After the flowers drop, seed capsules are formed. Quiet Valley workers will then pull the plants, roots and all, just before the seed is ripe. The fibers go all the way down through the roots. The plants are then spread in the field to dry.

After the plants are dried, the processing of the flax fiber begins. The seeds are removed by a process called rippling. One of the farm staff will take a flat iron comb (called a ripple) and pull the heads of the plant through the teeth to remove the seeds. Seeds are very important. Some will be saved for planting, some for a poultice for wounds and some will be taken to an oil mill where the oil (linseed oil) will be pressed out. The oil can be used in paint or for furniture polish.

Next the flax is placed in water to ret (rot). This is done to dissolve the gummy mucilage from the core of the plant so it is easy to strip loose the fibers. It may take one to three weeks for the plant to rot, depending on the weather. It is dried again.

To extract the linen fibers, a good handful of the dried plants will be put across and pounded with a flax brake, which allows the waste to fall to the floor while the fibers are just bent. A wooden knife, called a scutching knife, is used to scrape off the rest of the small pieces of core. The fibers are then drawn through the heckles, rows of sharp iron teeth set vertically on a board. This combs off the last of the waste material and leaves the short, torn and snarled fibers called tow, the fine fibers that will be spun into linen thread to be woven into cloth. Some of the tow will be reserved for making feed sacks and rope.

To process the flax into linen thread is a very long process that can take up to a year to complete! But the finished linen thread is very strong and useful for many purposes around the farm.

Ripple: remove seeds.
Brake: used for braking down the fibers.
Scutching Knife: scraping away small pieces of waste.
Heckle: rows of sharp iron teeth to comb the fibers into workable tow.

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