Emma de Long, a Pottstown farmer, and Heidi Barr, owner of Kitchen Garden Textiles, are co-founders of the Pennsylvania Flax Project, which is helping stage a fiber revolution in Pennsylvania, writes Erin Negley, staff writer for Lancaster Online.

The mission of the collective is to reestablish the flax industry for fine linen in the state.

Flax was an important crop for early Pennsylvanian farmers. Linen from flax was used to make clothing, household linens and even rope.

Eventually though industrial hemp and cotton became the more preferred crops. Barr and de Long hope to change.

They are joining nonprofits across the country in supporting local fiber growers, dyers, and makers. So far, the biggest challenge has been financial.

Harvesting equipment must be imported and finding storage and a mill to process locally grown flax can be a challenge.

Besides building a co-op, the Pennsylvania Flax Project is also studying how flax performs as a crop. To do this, de Long and Barr recruit growers to grow flax in square-yard plots.

The group is also conducting seed trials to see which seed performs in Pennsylvania. Currently they are undergoing a trial of 68 varieties of seed from the U.S.D.A. National Germplasm System.

Read more about flax and the growing fiber revolution in Pennsylvania at Lancaster Online.

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More on the Pennsylvania Flax Project.