After last year’s successful grow of one alley we are planting 6 alleys this year. The alley you are looking at is to be an experimental alley. We will be sowing in square patches, and monitoring outcomes. Our main seed is Futura 75 with tests of Mika 76 and Fibror 79. All three are specialists fibre varieties.
The tests will include
- sowing dates
- time from sowing to flowering
- harvest dates (length of grow time)
- rate of growth
- retting methods
Of course each season will have its own weather variables so an absolute ‘best’ result is not possible, but by keeping these records over time we hope to know the likely optimum sowing growing harvesting and retting times for each variety of hemp when grown for fibre.
Hand working hemp with traditional tools
An important part of our project is to revive the traditional skills of pre mechanised agriculture in the Waveney Valley.Harvesting, retting, heckling and scrutching the plant by hand with the same tools our forebears would have used.The fibre will be spun on a wheel, dyed using all natural hedgerow dyes and woven on a loom to create fabulous cloth for garments. From field to fashion, we intend to face down the horrendous waste in the garment industry and grow our own clothes.
What is it about hemp?
The incredibly versatile industrial hemp plant has many uses : fibre for cloth and paper, architectural products for building, oils for medicines and cooking, proteinous seed for eating, material for animal bedding and most importantly the plant sequestrers carbon at a rate 5 x that of new growth forest so has a major part to play in tackling climate change. The deep tap roots re mineralise the soil helping with the regeneration of this crucial resource.
History of Hemp
Hemp has been utilised for its fibre in England since 5th century AD when Saxon farmers produced 'hempenspun' a rough cloth for garments. It was important enough to be a tithable crop in the 13th century when charted markets to trade the cloth were established. The fibre was crucial in the success of Tudor naval exploration, in the form of rope and sail cloth, although it was not until the 1700's that the Waveney Valley became a 'great hemp belt, stretching from Eye to Beccles' producing 8% of the entire UK output.The industry flourished until the early 1800's when (in part) competition from cheap imported cotton made the industry uneconomical. Despite this the making of fine damask table wear from hemp lingered in North Lopham until 1925.
