farming
The Celtic Festival of Samhain
The Celtic festival of Samhain marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter, the darker half of the year...
After the Flax Harvest at Mallon Farm
The flax has changed colour as it dries to a beautiful gold. At this stage we remove the seed heads in a process call...
The Flax Harvest at Mallon Farm
Traditionally, flax is harvested 100 days after being sown. So far that has been our experience here at Mallon Farm, ...
Double Retted Flax on Mallon Farm
A spinner has been testing some of last year’s fibre for us. The tests showed that there were still some pieces of th...
Biodiversity on Mallon Farm
We’re applying to join the “Fair to Nature Scheme” backed by the RSPB and are currently doing an audit of biodiversit...
The Summer Solstice
Today is the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the longest day and shortest night of the year, usually fa...
Tradition Restarted: Sowing Flax 2021
Three acres have now been sown by hand.
Once again this year we used a traditional tool for broadcasting seeds ...
The Celtic Festival of Beltane
Beltane is the Celtic May Day festival celebrated on the first of May. It was considered an important festival in the...
Tradition Restarted: Scutching Flax at Mallon Farm
Scutching is the process of taking off all the other outer parts of the flax plant to leave the long fibres. Back in ...
River Friendly Retting at Mallon Farm
Retting was the one part of the process that we knew we needed to change if we wanted to restart linen growing here. ...
Tradition Restarted: The Process of Growing Flax at Mallon Farm
Charlie Mallon has reintroduced flax to his farm in County Tyrone. He is committed to growing and processing flax usi...
The Celtic Festival of Imbolc
The Celtic festival of Imbolc is celebrated on the first of February through to sunset on the second. Falling between...