flax harvest, shared stewardship 2022, de horsterhof, duiven

On Friday 29 July 2022, the Linen Stewards pulled their flax and laid it on the field in anticipation of the dew retting process. Conditions aligned for a joyful day of satisfying physical work together and a promising start to the harvest. The gentle rustling of the ripened seed pods provided a fitting soundscape; farmer Matthias of De Horsterhof had heard seeds ‘popping’ loose in the pods when the sun hit the field in the mornings before.

The most precarious part of the harvest is retting the flax to reap the fibre. In the important weeks after pulling the flax, the stewards took turns to regularly visit the field and monitor the progress. Three weeks after the harvest, the bright green flax stems were almost coloured the same tawny hue as the dry clay ground. The long fibre strands were starting to turn silver/grey, but the proportion of tougher, gold coloured strands was still prevalent overall. 

As predicted, 2022 was on record for being one of the hottest and driest summers in the Netherlands in some years. Dew retting on the field requires moisture paired with warmth for the bacterial process to take effect, so the stewards were grateful that their flax field happened to be incorporated in the watering rotation at de Horsterhof, which makes use of a groundwell located on the farm. The timing and placement of the sprinklers along with the summer heat contributed to the flax retting in these crucial weeks. The balance of working with and supplementing nature remains delicate however; the sprinkler spray does not have quite the same spread as intermittent rainfall, and as such the retting outcome can vary within one field. 

Considering the state of the fibre and the potential that impending heavy rainfall that could potentially push this too far, the Linen Stewards brought in their 2022 flax harvest on August 25, almost four weeks after the flax was pulled. The flax had been turned once in this period, to encourage even retting throughout. A group of stewards and some of their partners gathered after their day’s commitments to make quick work of bringing in the flax before the evening dew started to rise. The flax was lifted to allow the underside to air dry briefly in the late afternoon heat, before being rolled into sheaves for upright storage awaiting processing by hand.