Seeds in Hand... but not in Puddles!

Black Einkorn wheat, grown at Woodgrain Farm in the Kispiox Valley, Northern BC

Yesterday morning I went to the Vancouver Parks Nursery and picked up our seeds: 2lbs of flax seed ordered from overseas, a special variety intended for processing by hand; and a variety of grains from Saltspring Seeds, including "Rodney" oats, "Chinook" wheat, "Utrecht Blue" wheat, and "Black Einkorn" wheat -- from the photo above, you can see how gorgeous these are going to be! Going to be amazing, worked into some traditional wheat weaving...

Unfortunately, the weather didn't agree with our plans for planting today --
With heavy rains starting late last night and another 50mm of rain in the forecast for the next 36 hours, it's just too wet to work in our compost and plant our grains -- even the sandy, dry soil we've got at the Flax Field!
Darn! wish we'd gotten out there last week.... but in the time-honoured words of wisdom regarded by everyone who works on the land -- from British farmers to Canadian tree planters -- "IT IS WHAT IT IS". So, no regrets, let's just move forward.

We'll be trying again on TUESDAY MORNING, APRIL 22, roughly the same time frame, 9:30 to 11:30.

In the meantime, I'll be on Vancouver Island over the Easter weekend and hope to meet up with some members of the Victoria Flax to Linen group to watch how they process their flax -- these folks have been at it for a few years now, and seem to be leading the country in the resurgence of linen as a folk tradition! Their Facebook Group is fantastic -- always updated with new and interesting flax news and resources, and they're getting new members from across the country.

So, see you Tuesday!
~R.