Once harvested and dried, the seed can be collected. Then there's a tedious problem. At the end of 2018, I spent a few days with a small fan and a garbage bag full of seed bolls, blowing away chaff, separating, separating . . . zzzzzzzz . . .
There MUST be an easier way. So I found this on a website that provides a tech drawing and measurements and asks only that you return the credit of the design to their website, https://www.realseeds.co.uk/seedcleaner.html
In the photo, above, you can see my build was quickly hashed together (Come on, I have laundry and dishes and diapers waiting!)--you can also see the chaff floating on the righthand side and the seeds falling down on the lefthand side into the bucket below. I made a funnel from a scrap of paper, and am using a household vacuum because the shop vac was too aggressive.
One handful at a time, adjusting the vacuum nozzle to get the right amount of suction. When I finished I had collected four pounds of clean seed. The amount puzzled me a bit. It was the same harvest as last year when I had only planted one pound of seed. Then I remembered I harvested the flax early hoping for a finer fiber. I believe if I had left the flax until all the seed bolls were ripe, I would have collected more seed. As it is, I think the four-pounds is all I can manage on my own if I want to do anything other than flax to linen, and the fiber was finer!
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