ULTIMATE TEST
It was quite fun to grow flax into my small city garden. First to see the flax flowering after a period of struggling with jackdows and afterwards to harvest two small bundles of flax grown through the surface of felt. Waiting for the right moment of harvesting and testing the exact moment of stopping the roting process gave me a little bit of the agricultural feeling. Hence the unexpected surprises I don’t want to be a cityfarmer again next year, after all there is an empty place for months now in my garden. How ugly! Lets scale up this project in the future in a more suitable landscape!
Unwinding the felt flax package after weeks of drying. 
Roots and stems were separated. 
Repelen means removing the seeds from the stem. I used a carder brush instead of professional tools for repelen. It worked out very well. 
Flax seeds on the ground as a result of repelen. 
Flax straw ready for the process of roten. 
In order to remove the wooden parts from the flax fibers, the flax straw needs to lay down under the water. Pectin between wooden stem and fibers will dissolve into the water. 
There are several ways of roten and associated periods of roten. Of course, my little amount of flax can’t be compared with the industrial methods of roten. 
The ultimate test for roting period; After breaking a 10 cm. piece into the flax stem, the wooden reet part must be separated carefully from the surrounding flax fibers. 
I decided to take the bundles out of the water after 6 days. After all the hot summer days are speeding up the process of roten. I checked the fibers several times. To be continued after drying and upcoming landscape projects!
The process of making flax fibers is a craftsmanship that can be exercised using several methods. To get the feeling of having a little bit control of this craft I have read the PhD thesis; “De Vlasserij in het Nederlands in de eerste helft van de twintigste eeuw” of A.P.J. Brouwers (1957).
Feltscape 