Excerpt from ‘The Ballinderry River’ by Maura Johnston which features in her book of poetry, The Whetstone The Ballinderry River The beautiful Ballinderry River, running from the Sperrins through to […]
The Ballinderry River and Rethinking Retting Read More »
The Harvest Traditionally, flax is harvested 100 days after being sown. So far that has been our experience here at Mallon Farm, in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. However, in 2021,
The flax harvest rescued from the rain (almost) Read More »
In Northern Ireland flax flowers are often called the ‘wee blue blossom’. Find out more about the flowers and where to find them.
The Exciting Arrival of the Wee Blue Blossom! Read More »
When and why did Northern Ireland’s capital city, Belfast, become known as ‘Linenopolis’? Linen production was once a huge industry across the entire island of Ireland. It accounted for almost
Linenopolis: a world famous leader in linen Read More »
Is it Mackies, Union, Depoortere or Van Hauwaert – the mystery of who made the flax scutcher? What is scutching? Scutching is the process of taking off all the outer
The weird mystery of the Frankenstein flax scutcher Read More »
While this year’s crop of flax is around halfway through its growing period, we are still busy with retting last year’s crop. Retting is the process of breaking down the flax to
River Friendly Retting in a Repurposed Cheese Vat Read More »
Mallon Farm is around fifty acres and has always been nature friendly throughout its history. It was a mixed farm for years and even when, like many other farms here,
Sowing flax for fibre; a revival of Irish Grown Linen Read More »
