Brandenburg Linen and Flax Production

Used in

• Chapter 6 The Five-Year Conversation
• Chapter 17 The Table

In the Workshop

Linen from flax

The rows that check it

• 4 confirmed
• 1 partly confirmed
• 1 unresolved
• 0 marked for safety

• F75 confirmed Flax after rye in Thaer's 6 to 7-year rotation with lupin or serradella; seed 130 to 150 kg/ha, 1.0 to 1.5 cm, rows 7.5 to 10 cm, 1,800 to 2,200 stems/m², weed once at 5 to 10 cm, …
• T38 partly confirmed Farmhouse great wash 2–3 times a year; bucking (Beuche) with ash lye poured through a cloth over the linen all night; boiling, beating, rinsing; sun bleaching on the Rasenbleiche …
• T39 confirmed Wood ash ~⅓ potash by weight (variable; often 10–30 % K2CO3); hardwood far richer than softwood; pine/spruce ash gives weak tarry lye; beech ash ~1 % of wood weight; Ch 1's 7.5 t …
• T56 confirmed Flax mass balance: 1 ha gives 3,500 kg dry straw and about 150 kg bleached cloth for 654 h of which 387 spinning; village of 300 needs 3.5 to 4 ha and 75 to 90 winter spinners for …
• T57 confirmed Bleach cycle: lye with lime 8 to 12 h, grass 7 to 14 days wetted every 2 h, buttermilk sour 1 to 10 for 24 to 48 h, repeated 4 to 8 times, lye never over 3 % on cloth; Berlin …
• T58 unresolved Kitchen cloths: quark cloth about 10 by 10 threads/cm, straining cloth 22 by 20 folded fourfold, proofing cloth coarse herringbone floured and never soaped

In the Index

The field and the rotation The table Soap, lye and the wash Berlin and Brandenburg