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 due to climate
change 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.