Flax planting.

Last week we planted 35 acres of brown flax. We are growing it transitionally, and will also have another 15 acres of organic flax that is going in soon. Much of the flax is being sold as whole seed for food. Some flax is grown for oil, some for fiber, but the variety we are growing is an excellent food seed. The organic seed stock arrived from California last month, and we have been waiting until the wheat and oats were in before we planted the flax. Hopefully it will yield around 1500 pounds per acre. Organic flax is fairly valuable, but the transitional must be marketed properly to find a good price. There are buyers out there willing to pay a premium for locally grown flax, even if its not organic. Since there are very few flax growers in the Willamette Valley its hard for local bakeries to find local flax. I think that we will be the second largest flax grower in the valley after Shawn Caid's Shekina Farm, which is growing around 50-60 acres of brown flax I believe. Flax has so many potential uses that we are excited about seeing how well it does on our farm.