Flax seems to be booming in Sweden. One reason for this great interest is a project that now connects 6,000 people, all of whom are 1 m2 Grow flax in the garden.
There are videos on every step of the process, large regional groups that meet to exchange ideas, online events and a dedicated website.
Inspired by the ethnologist Inger Widhja, the idea of sending flax to interested people and information on cultivation was born in 2020, in the middle of the Corona pandemic. One of Inga's favourite textiles is an old towel she made with her grandmother when she was a little girl. At a time when flax was hardly grown any more, but there were still many tools on the farms. To show little Inger the process, her grandmother grew a square metre of flax.
From a regional project with 700 producers in Västra Götaland, 1 m2 Flax has become a Nordic phenomenon. Not only in Sweden is flax flourishing in more and more gardens, but similar initiatives have also formed in the Netherlands, Denmark and the UK.
Hardly any idea, in my opinion, has done more for the dissemination of flax knowledge than 1 m2 Flax and I hope many more countries will follow.
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