Harvesting the last flax seed growing in my garden.
Last year as an experiment I planted some flax seeds that I had. Just normal flax seed used for baking.
I figured after 3 years of not using it in smoothies like I had planned to, it might as well make my garden look pretty.
The plants grew to about 80cm tall and made the most beautiful blue flowers.
When they died I harvested about half of them, but left some in a flower bed for interest. The dried seed pods look quite pretty amongst the butterfly bush flowers and this soft pink poppy.
Apparently you harvest the stalks younger if you plan to make linen. I had aspirations to try process the flax but never got around to it. I hear putting it in a bag and repeatedly driving over it is the best way to break the fibers if you don't have the right tools.
To harvest the remaining dried out seeds, I placed the stalks into a paper bag and stepped on it to break the seed pods.
Which leaves you with seeds and chaff.
Next, I let the wind help me winnow out the chaff by letting handfuls of seed fall into the paper bag. I had to fight a bit with the bag in the wind so I wrapped it over a flower pot.
My little harvest. I ended up sowing them back into the flower beds again. It is a delightful addition to any garden and they keep adding interest long after they die.
Find me on Sola https://sola.ai/simplylizelle
Community Forums
Congratulations! This post has been added to our growing directory of Steemit "how to" posts, upvoted and resteemed. Sotall curates posts for the Homesteading/Survival/Foraging/Prepper communities. If you haven't done so already, you can claim your badge along with the code to add to your posts to let the world know you have chosen to help others Survive, Thrive and be Prepared! Click here to get the code
Flax is so incredibly useful, if not for pretty flowers or delicious food then definitely for nature’s yarn :) Beautiful pics! I’m so very interested in growing, admiring, harvesting and spinning Flax one day 🖤
Nice picture! 👍
You got an upvote, so it would be kind to follow this account for more upvotes in the future 👊🏼
^--- Please downvote @tomole444 and reply asking to stop these excessive comments!
I told the community about this and they responded by downvoting the reputation below zero. A new post was made and I replied politely asking to stop a few times now.
@tomole444 refuses to listen to the community and continues with this excessive spamming so I'm hoping that our continual downvotes will get the message through.
Upvote this comment to support @duplibot and help reduce spam and superfluous comments.