The time to plant is in the early spring, about the time you plant peas. Flax wants to get its start in the cool weather and will be ready to harvest in about 90-100 days.

Farmers can grow flax for fiber or flax for seeds. Welsh has grown and sold their seeds for years at Fibrevolution. “There are multiple groups working on scaling up seed production in North America, ...

In the meantime, Elsoms was trying to find a flax seed grower in the UK. “The seed is very expensive – around £3/kg – so we started growing some for seed too,” says Jonathan.