Bast Fiber Processing at Mountain Heart Farm | Open Farm Week 2024

Come by Mountain Heart Farm and learn how bast fibers (flax and hemp) go from retted straw to line and tow fiber for spinning through the processes of breaking, scutching, and hackling. If you have no idea what those words mean, come to the farm and find out! Flax and hemp have a long history of being grown in New England, and are important crops for the creation of new, sustainable textile systems focused on natural fibers. Information about the farm's research projects will be available to visitors during Open Farm Week.

No cost or registration needed. 

Note on arriving: 

• Please do not let your navigation system send you up to the farm via Bromley Road! The town of Danby no longer maintains the 'back end' of Easy Street. Come up Easy Street via Brook Road. The farm is about a mile up Easy Street, 0.7 miles past Mountain View Ranch.

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Mountain Heart Farm is a small diversified farm on the north slope of Dorset Mountain in Danby, Vermont. They raise a flock of Shetland X Icelandic and Romney sheep for handspinners and weavers. They also grow and hand-process flax and fiber hemp for textile use. They are a satellite research site for UVM fiber hemp trials, and are presently conducting their own bast fiber research under a USDA SARE grant. They teach a variety of fiber- and textile-related subjects to individuals and small groups, including spinning on hand spindles and wheels, weaving on floor looms and warp-weighted looms, fiber prep, and flax-to-linen and fiber hemp processing from seed to finished textile. Their farm products: wool, roving, yarn, dye plant and flax seed, hand spindles, flax and hemp fiber and more are available for purchase on their farm website at www.mountainheartvt.com, and will be available to purchase on the farm during Open Farm Week.