How to grow your own Linen
Linen has been used for thousands of years for clothes, bedding and furnishings. It is loved for its soft and cool feel. It is a very strong and durable material which will last much longer than other alternatives, like cotton. Growing your own linen may see overwhelming, but it helps to break it down into manageable steps.
Plant 1 kg. fibre flax seed in a 6m x 6m plot - One plot will give you enough fibre to make a shirt from line (long linen fibres) and tow to weave a couple of towels. Your actual yield will depend on growing conditions, how well you weed the plot and how perfect your retting and hackling techniques are.
Broadcast the seed thickly, over well tilled ground and then walk on it to firm the seed in.
Weed it well about 4 weeks after planting - Your flax will take about 2 weeks to germinate in a cool, wet spring. When it reaches just over 5cm in height you should walk into the plot and weed it well. You can step on the plants without damaging them when they are between 5cm and 30cm tall.
Admire the blue flax flowers as the linen grows - Once the bed has been weeded well, you can just admire it as it grows. About 60 days from planting the flowers start to open. It is very beautiful watching the blue flowers swaying in the breeze. Each flower is open for only one day. Each stock produces several flowers and each flower turns into a seed boll with 6 to 8 seeds.
100 days after planting, harvest the flax - The stocks of flax will be 2/3rds yellow and 1/3rd still green when it is ready to harvest. The flowering will be finished and each slender flax plant will have 4 to 6 seed bolls. You harvest the flax by hand, by pulling each plant out by the roots. Toss the weeds and place the stems of flax in order. Tie into bundles (shooks) about 30cm across, using strong twine.
Shook the flax and wait -Take the shooks of flax and put them, standing upright, under cover to finish maturing the seed and drying the fibre. The whole stock will turn brown as it dries. This takes a month in dry weather, a bit longer in wet weather.
Ripple the flax - Open each bundle of flax, take the flax by the root end and draw the seed end through wide toothed combs or a board with nails acting as teeth. This removes the seed heads. You can begin the retting process now or retie the bundles and wait till Spring.
The seed is edible and has a good oil content. You can crush the seed bolls and separate the seeds from the chaff by winnowing. Save about 1 kg. of seed to replant the field next year. If you don’t want to clean the seed by winnowing, you can feed it to your back yard chickens. They will take care of the seed bolls for you.
See our website for the full tutorial with pictures: www.curtainclean.co.nz...
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Product recalls - November 2024
Here are some items that have been recalled during October/November. Click on the blue title to learn more details about the recalled product.
Food recalls:
Equal brand European Dark Chocolate
Mrs Rogers spices - Butter Chicken, Curry Powder and Garam Masala
Bin Inn brand Ground Fennel
Classic Taste Fennel Powder
Jongga Kimchi
Pure Delish Grain-ola
Homemade Baker Muffin Batter Banana Choc-Chip
Hellers Shaved Roast Chicken
My Food Bag middle eastern spice blend and All The Flavour dukkah
Gilmours Jalapeno flavour corn chips
Product recalls:
Goldair panel heaters
Boost Lab skin cleanser
Canyon E-bike batteries
Panasonic power supply adapter
Kids blanket hoodies
SCA lithium battery
Noxen Kids hooded towel
Kids rubber duckies
Justyling/YesBobbleheads custom Neon sign
Brompton T Line bike
We hope this update was helpful to you and your whānau.
Live Q&A: Garden maintenance with Crewcut
This Wednesday, we're having another Neighbourly Q&A session. This time with John Bracewell from Crewcut.
John Bracewell, former Black Caps coach turned Franchisee Development Manager and currently the face of Crewcut’s #Movember campaign, knows a thing or two about keeping the grass looking sharp—whether it’s on a cricket pitch or in your backyard!
As a seasoned Crewcut franchisee, John is excited to answer your lawn and gardening questions. After years of perfecting the greens on the field, he's ready to share tips on how to knock your garden out of the park. Let's just say he’s as passionate about lush lawns as he is about a good game of cricket!
John is happy to answer questions about lawn mowing, tree/hedge trimming, tidying your garden, ride on mowing, you name it! He'll be online on Wednesday, 27th of November to answer them all.
Share your question below now ⬇️