The harvest of a new group of Linen Stewards

Exploring what it means to grow, process and manufacture flax, the raw material of linen, together with a group of thirty people. That’s the Shared Stewardship, an initiative that’s part of The Linen Project. This spring, for the fifth year in a row, a group of Linen Stewards embarked on their flax adventure. In addition to an intimate experience with flax, this also turns out to be a lesson in group dynamics and organization, where each steward joins with his or her own dreams and expectations.

It’s a warm summer evening at the Horsterhof. An organic farm near Arnhem. Despite the heat, a lot of work is being done on the flax field. Weeds are gently pulled out of the ground to make harvesting easier. But it’s dinner time for the stewards. Time to take off the gloves. A large picnic table is slowly filled with homemade food. A broad bean salad, a plum crumble, a vegetable pie and lemonades. At the table, the stewards share gardening tips. Inspirational artists and workshops are recommended, but of course the main topic this evening is flax.

About half of the 30 stewards participating this year have joined tonight. The group is a mix of different ages and backgrounds. At the table, I meet JP Scheen. He has been participating in the Stewardship from the first year. After studying fashion, he started designing exhibitions. He learned about The Linen Project while collaborating on a Crafts Council exhibition. “From my fashion background, I thought it was kind of special to be able to do something with a textile fiber so close to home. But the community part also appealed to me.” Loes Schepens started as a Linen Steward in 2020. During her career as a graphic designer, she developed a love for paper. As the graphic design profession became increasingly digitized, she decided to work entirely with her hands. In addition to the plants from which she makes her own paper, she purchased Belgian flax. Someone saw her working and tipped off The Linen Project. “I read it and thought, Yes this is for me! I signed up right away. New this year are Reinier and his girlfriend Hanna: “I was looking for something to do with my girlfriend, an activity in a natural environment. Hanna loves fabric and I love old crafts. This project brought all those things together.”

In search of adventure

As with most adventures, the experience is more important to the stewards than the destination. Loes: “I wanted to experience a process that’s completely new to me, an adventure. I hadn’t really formed a picture of it when I started. I just jumped in.” The same goes for Reinier: “I have no idea what I’m going to get out of this. Maybe a new hobby, maybe not.” About the end product, most stewards don’t have concrete ideas yet. This is also difficult, because the harvest from the flax field varies from year to year. Reinier: “There’s nothing that says you go home with your own linen t-shirt afterwards.”

Learning together

Within the Shared Stewardship, stewards work together for a year to grow and harvest a field of flax and process the harvest into linen and paper. They share responsibility for the field and all incidental work. As a group, they make decisions together and everyone contributes their own knowledge and skills. Also the costs for things as leasing the land and the purchase of seeds are shared within the group. During the summer period, the stewards meet regularly on the field. There is plenty of weeding to be done and especially in the period around harvest and retting, the flax stems need to be watched closely. In the winter months the stewards organize processing days when they process the flax together.

This is the fifth year of the Stewardship and by now the experienced stewards have found their way. That was different the first two years, JP explains. The stewards had little knowledge of growing flax, so they sought advice from an organic farming specialist. Processing the flax was also new to them. JP: “Our expectations were high the first year. We were going to harvest all the flax together and process everything by hand during the winter. In spring, we would be done.” He laughs, “That didn’t work, it was way too much! Over the years we have become much more aware of what is feasible. Some years we could harvest everything by hand, studying traditional processing methods. But some years, when the harvest was too big, we had it processed by Van de Bilt (supplier of flax seed and processor of flax). This was also very instructive.” Loes laughs: “Yes that’s something different. Instead of manual hackling and scutching for three months, it’s done in half an hour.”

The stewards are actually engaged in two processes at once. Work has to be done on the flax field, but they also have to discover what it means to do this within a Stewardship. Support with the group aspect was given the first year by Pacale Gatzen, who is also part of the core team of The Linen Project. JP: “She has experience with communities and worker cooperatives (flat organizations where people are both members and employees) and is familiar with nonviolent communication (a conversation technique developed by Marshall Rosenberg that helps connect). She helped us by suggesting ideas on how to get to know each other better and how to make our meetings more efficient.” Loes adds: “For example, we did a round to discuss everyone’s expectations and evaluated that after a while. We discussed what was important to everyone in this process. This led to great insights and allowed us to learn a lot from each other.”

Because new stewards join every year, the dynamics in the group are constantly changing. Reinier: “The first year this was new for everyone. Now you do let the experts guide you a bit.” But this doesn’t stop him from sharing his ideas with the group. “Everyone can have their say and come up with ideas. People really listen to each other.’’

Cross-pollination and structure

The stewards come from a variety of backgrounds: writers, teachers, and of course people from the textile industry. This leads to wonderful cross-pollination. Loes: “I’ve already been able to get a few people excited about learning to make paper. Other artists paint on this paper and are weaving with paper thread. This is fantastic!’’

Working together within such a large group also creates challenges. Especially the first year was a great learning process. Loes: ”Let’s say it was fun and not so much fun at the same time, but incredibly instructive for everyone.” The first year also brought an additional challenge: the coronavirus. JP: “We did a lot online and that was quite difficult.” Loes: “Try having a Zoom meeting with thirty people who have never met each other before. At one point we decided to get together on the field anyway, since we could easily keep our distance here. JP: “That was really a gift at the time! It allowed us to connect on a deeper level and then you notice how much easier the group process gets.”

In the beginning, everything was new and a lot of attention was paid to the structure of the Stewardship. For example, how do you consult with each other and how is information shared within the group? Within the Stewardship everyone works on the things that appeal to him or her, JP explains. Loes: “We are considerate of each other and grant each other things, I think that is very important. Exploring everyone’s talents and figuring out how they can serve the group, is going more and more organically.”

Captivated by flax

But what does it feel like? Harvesting and processing your own flax. The question of what makes flax so special seems almost superfluous when you see the stewards at work. Loes: “So many facets! Everything you do with the flax adds something. The more precise and longer you process it, the more beautiful it becomes. Reinier is also impressed: “I’m amazed at how beautiful the plant actually is. I think linen is a beautiful fabric and linseed oil is wonderful stuff. And it’s all in that one little plant.”

“Actually, it’s the whole process.” JP adds. “It starts with the seed. It’s magical when you move your hands through one of those large bins of seed. And then the sowing, watching the plants sprout and working in the fields. There is a beautiful pattern to the process. In the days from sowing to flowering, from flowering to harvesting, and then the retting process. To move with the seasons this way is very special. You grow with the field.” Loes glows: “During harvesting, you bend down slightly to harvest the stem with root and all. You get close to the seed pods with your ear and hear the seeds gently rustle.”

After this poetic description, you would almost think working with flax is only a romantic affair, but the stewards assure me that it is also hard work. Reinier: “Working in the field is very relaxing and you’re outside, but weeding is heavy. You have to keep your balance among the thin stems and be careful not to step on the flax.”

Surprising twists and turns

The time, energy and love the stewards put into the process creates value. JP: “That did surprise me. You always feel a responsibility to get the flax off the field. You sowed it yourself. Then it doesn’t occur to you, in case of a bad harvest, to take the lawnmower and be done with it.’’

There have been years when the harvest was very good. JP: “It was quite a kick to stand with our van full of flax at Van de Bilt last year and hear from the inspector that we were almost at the top score in terms of quality.‘’ Loes emphasizes: “The difference between the Belgian flax I used to buy, and the flax I got from our field is so vast. The quality of our flax is really much higher.” This is partly due to the processing process. Loes: “The Belgian flax is chemically bleached. This breaks down the fiber further. And maybe an organic variety is stronger in the end. I really notice that while making paper. The paper I make from our flax is much stronger.” Normally different qualities are mixed, which makes it difficult to say anything about individual quality. JP: “We are now completely used to the fact that when we make something, it comes 100 percent from our own field, but that is unique!”

Due to an addition of lime to the soil at the beginning of the season and the huge amounts of rain, the growth of flax has been very irregular this year. A bit of a setback for the Stewards. The question of how they will harvest this year is therefore on the agenda tonight. Loes: “That could lead to several options: harvesting only the higher edges, for example, so we collect all the long fibers. Or we might choose to harvest some of the shorter fibers as well.” JP: “At the kick off early this year, we had actually decided that we wanted to process the flax at Van de Bilt this year, but as things stand now, reality has caught up with us. You really only want to have it machine processed if you have a good and large harvest.” That’s certainly not to say that this year wasn’t instructive. Loes: “The shorter flax is a great opportunity to take the new stewards into manual processing. And lots of other products can be made from the shorter fibers.” At the picnic table, people are already deliberating: “Can’t we make something else out of it? Maybe paper from the shorter fibers?” someone calls. “Loes knows!” someone else answers.

A (linseed) oil stain

This year, The Linen Project launched the 1m2 flax initiative. Nearly 800 people participated and sowed their own square meter of flax at home. The stewards hope that this has sparked the fascination for flax in even more people. JP: “I wouldn’t be surprised if throughout the Netherlands, people who want to continue researching flax start forming groups and new stewardships emerge.‘’ Loes interjects: “There already are. For example, in Zeeland you have the Flax Class and in Groningen the Northern Linen Project, but there are more!”

So the stewards hope to inspire with their work. Not only hobbyists, but also people from the textile industry. Loes: “The fashion world has to become more sustainable. We are a very good example of how it can be done. And then it is important that we share all the knowledge we have gained.” JP: “Of course we have been thinking about that from the first season. By now there is a separate working group that combines all this knowledge and works to make it transferable.” In May, an exhibition took place where the work of recent years came together.

The dishes and plates on the picnic table are slowly beginning to empty. The group has decided, despite the extra work, to harvest the short and long flax stems separately. This will keep the different qualities separate. But a little more patience is needed, because not all stems have flowered yet. Depending on the harvest, the long stems may still be processed by machine if possible. The shorter stems will be processed by hand. Reinier: “I would also like to make linseed oil. If we do that, it has to be done during or immediately after harvesting. So we also have to decide that in the short term. Actually, only now are the real choices we have to make as a group coming into focus.’’

Text: Iris te Wieske
Photography portraits: Eduard van Wijk / field: Marieke van Mieghem