Flax!

In the big news of today, I have woven my first item from flax! Flax is native to New Zealand and its fibre has been used for centuries by the Maori for various things, from rope to baskets to everything in between. Its presence across New Zealand is fairly ubiquitous - we have some on the farm, even - making it a useful resource. I've been interested in weaving it for a while, but didn't exactly want to attempt it on my own. Luckily, a few of my parents' friends, knowing of my interest in weaving and having taken classes themselves, invited me to join them for a flax-weaving session. I accepted gladly. After biking over this morning, I found them preparing the flax (which, to be honest, I didn't even know you had to do). As it turns out, the preparation is the difficult part of flax weaving. Only a portion of the plant is usable, so that section needs to be selected for and cut into strips. Next, the flax needs to be softened, in our case by pulling a knife along its length, similar to how one would curl a ribbon. Finally, the beginning end is split to allow for weaving. Even after I got the hang of all the steps it was pretty slow going, and the preparation time went through a tea break and lunch to the early afternoon. Then we were finally ready to weave. Which, after a false start or two, turned out to be the easier part. I was planning on making a bag, but it turned into more of a baguette holder/quiver/ pencil holder for giants/...... its quite odd, really - it will probably end up full of flowers and hung up on the wall, declared 'interesting' by guests. Yet unpredictable outcome aside, it was marvelous to take a plant and turn it into something else entirely. At the moment the flax we used is a lovely motley of shades, including some almost rose hues and a number of greens. Unfortunately, as it dries all that will fade to unexciting beige. I'm keen to try again (maybe even to actually make a bag! Who knows!), but I am not so keen to spend a lot of time preparing the flax. Maybe on our next rainy day....

Speaking of rain, a few (more) days of rain right before New Years Eve troubled (even more) holidays makers and added to the sense of relaxation up here; mom and I even made it to Nelson to see some art since it was far too wet to be out in the garden. Of course, post-rain the weeds are racing ahead again, in the battle that never ends. The plants are loving it too, luckily, and its easy to see how soon we will be struggling to deal with all the produce from the garden.
In fact, now is the time of year when planting and maintenance happen simultaneous to harvesting and storage. Most of the radishes have been pulled out to make way for lettuce (tucked in behind the beans to avoid the hot summer sun), but have been turned into a variety of successful or not-so-successful preserved foods (kimchi delicious, radish 'chips' weird). So while we're reeling under the weight of our seeming acres of zucchini, I'm also cutting herbs and hanging them from the rafters to store for the winter, and watching seeds carefully for when they will be ready to save. It just reminds me how dynamic gardens are, making gardeners so aware of their antics. And forcing them to be creative with radishes and cardoons, among other things!