Building a Resilient Local Fiber Flax Seed Source to Support Pennsylvania's Re-Emerging Flax to Linen Industry

Commodities

• Agronomic: flax

Practices

• Crop Production: seed saving

PA Flax Project (PAFP) is a cooperative, founded by farmer Emma de Long and textile designer,
Heidi Barr. Our mission is to reestablish the fiber flax industry in Pennsylvania by initiating new production and processing capacity.

A significant barrier to scaling fiber flax agriculture in Pennsylvania is the cost and availability of seed. There is no significant production of fiber flax seed in the U.S., and importing seed from Europe is prohibitively expensive and global shortages make it increasingly difficult.

Our two-pronged approach of identifying and increasing production of open source seed varieties and breeding a regional variety provides maximum opportunity for farmers. 

In 2024 we'll contract with farmers to grow 1/10 acre plots of open source seed varieties, scaling to 10+ acres in 2025. Our seed breeding trial partners include Truelove Seeds, The Experimental Farm Network, and farmers in Rodale's network. We'll work with Vic Spindler-Fox of OpenTEAM to house our data on their open-source platform making
our seed trial results widely available.

PAFP’s long-term goal is to establish a cooperatively owned scutching mill, processing 4,000 acres of fiber flax annually. In addition to income from crops, our producer-owners will receive a percentage of the sale of products leaving the mill. 

We believe our cooperative has the capacity to greatly increase the quality of life and revenue streams of small to medium sized farms, who are looking to diversify production within the constraints of the growing season. This starts with a reliable seed source.

1 - Expand our Farm network to include 3 - 5 farms committed to growing 5 + acres fiber flax seed by 2025

2 - Grow 3 - 5 open source varieties of fiber flax seed in isolation for increase.
Grow 1/10 acre plots 3 -5 open source varieties of fiber flax seed we chose from our 2023 seed trials in isolation for increase on the farms identified in objective 1

3 - Continue work to breed a regional fiber flax seed variety making up to 20 crosses.
Partner with Nate from The Experimental Farm Network and Owen From True Love Seeds to breed a regional fiber flax seed variety by following the protocols shared with us by Jenny Kling. 2024 goal is to make our initial crosses.

4 - Data Collection/Analysis/dissemination. Work with Vic Spindler-fox to create a database and protocols for use. Enter, analyze and disseminate data from 2020-23. Create protocols for future use of the database. Support farmers in collecting and entering data.