On Sunday, October 3rd, the sixth event of the Young Agrarians 2021 Columbia Basin Farm Club series took place at Lakeside Park in Nelson, an outdoor, hands-on workshop all about flax fibre processing presented by Young Agrarians and the EartHand Gleaners Society.
The workshop filled up quickly and 15 people spent the afternoon hearing from Jaymie Johnson, a member of EartHand Gleaners Society. Jaymie first grew flax for fibre in Vancouver in 2017 with the instruction of EartHand artists Sharon Kallis and Rebecca Graham. At that time EartHand had been growing flax for fibre in collaboration with community already for 4 years, since 2013.
The afternoon included an overview of flax as a fibre plant, Jaymie’s personal experiences with flax so far, as well as a hands-on demonstration and opportunity to participate in the processes of breaking, scutching, and hackling flax using traditional wooden instruments.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for a lovely afternoon, to Jaymie for sharing her time and knowledge and to EartHand Gleaners Society for lending us the instruments for the event.
Check out photos from the workshop below!
Learn more about EartHand Gleaners Society:
EartHand Gleaners Society is an arts-based non-profit that models how to “Be a Producer without first being a Consumer”. EartHand uses a community-engaged model for creating environmental art programs with opportunities for research, skill development and skill sharing. Their projects foster multicultural, interdisciplinary collaboration among community members and professionals in the fields of education, sciences and the arts.
www.earthand.com
About the artist
Jaymie Johnson has formal training from Emily Carr University of Art + Design (BFA 2015) and the San Francisco Art Institute as well as years of mentorship from environmental community and public artists Sharon Kallis (EartHand Gleaners Society) and Dr. Cameron Cartiere (Border Free Bees). She’s recently relocated back to her hometown of Nelson on the unceded, ancestral, and traditional territory of the Sinixt, Ktunaxa, and Syilx peoples, and the Yaqan Nukiy Lower Kootenay Band, where she is the Nelson Lead Artist for EartHand Gleaners Society. Jaymie is passionate about plants and the potential that building relationship with the plants around us has to strengthen our connection to place, our histories, and one another.
www.jaymiejohnson.ca
Check out the rest of the events this season in this blog post. Don’t miss an update by subscribing to our Columbia Basin/Kootenay newsletter!
Additional Information
- Join our Young Agrarians Columbia Basin Facebook Group to stay up-to-date with all events.
If you have any questions please contact Hailey@youngagrarians.org.
GOT LAND? WANT LAND?
Through the B.C. Land Matching Program, Young Agrarians is offering support to farmers looking for land for their farm business and landowners looking for farmers to farm their land. The Columbia Basin Land Matcher will be attending the event to answer any questions about accessing land through this program. For those unable to join us, you can send a message to hailey@youngagrarians.org for more information.
THANK YOU!
The Columbia Basin event series is made possible with funding from Columbia Basin Trust.
