My grandfather began a large dairy farm in the Broad Brook valley in central Vermont in the  1930’s; a time of hardship for the country. He was an international publisher himself but bought an old abandoned farm, and then another little hill farm and then another…from farmers who could no longer afford their own land. He bought the farms and joined them into one farm which offered stable income to those farmers who stayed on.

When I was a child, our farm was one of the top rated herds in the state. My playmates were the children of those farmers who now were managers and herdsmen employed by our farm. But alas, dairying in Vermont became economically unviable and the herd was sold during the dairy buy-out of the 1980’s.  Since then, our fields have deteriorated as agricultural activity has declined.

Once again, Vermont, as well as the whole country, is experiencing challenging economic times…in addition to extreme weather events ascribed to climate change. By creating Green Mountain Linen, my intention is to carry on my grandfather’s legacy of promoting healthy, sustainable farming in the Broad Brook Valley.

I have lived in the Broad Brook valley for 32 years and am fortunate to have also spent part of my childhood in the East Barnard community. This is where I first met my friend Robin and we shared adventures riding ponies through the Vermont landscape.

I have always been curious about the natural world and have been involved with agriculture through my training in landscape design and gardening, and working on local farms. I am still active with horses, teach riding lessons and have a particular interest in dressage and rider biomechanics. My previous experience with flax includes feeding the ground seeds to my horses.

I am the granddaughter of Mennonite farmers in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and have lived in Vermont for over 30 years. I have worked with textiles all my life and learning about flax-growing and fiber production from the earliest stages through the eventual weaving is a thrill for me.

I’m honored to use my skills as an artist, photographer, writer, community builder and creative professional to help establish Green Mountain Linen. I am photo-documenting our story from its earliest stages, and providing collaborative creative direction for GML. My home is in the center of East Barnard and my husband and I steward the land where a half acre of flax was grown for the demonstration harvest during the first Linen Fair in 2022. We anticipate growing demonstration flax for the 2024 season on a different location of the land.

My website: sueschlabach.com

or find me on Instagram 

I have always had a deep affinity for natural fibers and textile art. With a background in weaving, sewing, knitting, and farming, it has been a dream of mine to grow flax for linen as a way to understand the origins of fiber. Human connection centered around land projects is another passion of mine, so being a part of this community project has been a delight.

I love to weave with linen yarn on my Macomber floor loom, and I am currently sampling linen kitchen towel products for GML. I’m excited for the future products we will create and the process along the way!

I was born into the fourth of six generations of Frary’s living in the Broad Brook valley. I have been friends with Andrea and her husband Dean for years and have sold hay to them for their horses for a long time. Andrea first asked me about plowing, harrowing and seeding the flax and introduced me to Robin.

I had never heard of flax, but I was curious and have since done a lot of reading about it. They used to raise flax in this part of the country. I cut the hayfields in the hills and valleys of this region and know it well.

I was happy my son-in-law Mark and grandson Matthew could bring their oxen teams Bear and Bud and Skip and Buck to start this year’s season.

Andrea is a shepherd, fiber artist, educator, and bast fiber researcher. Her work in natural fiber focuses on the revitalization of local and regional textile production systems as a means to confront climate change and revitalize rural economies. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Northern New England Fibershed, and was the recipient of a 2017/18 USDA SARE grant exploring the growing and processing of flax for community-scale linen production.

Her research at the Smokey House Center in Danby, Vermont includes fiber hemp production in partnership with the University of Vermont, and work towards the development of regionally-scaled bast fiber processing infrastructure for New England. She is a graduate of Macalester College, St. Paul, MN. Andrea lives with her family in Danby, Vermont.

For more information visit www.smokeyhouse.org/

or find Andrea on Instagram at @mountainheartvt

Will Lisak lives and works on a hill farm above the Broad Brook Valley. His interest in historical trades and reproducing a pre-combustion engine craft practice has been an asset as he looks for and repairs antique equipment.

He grew a field of flax in the summer of 2022 and has been integral in researching and building tools to process our flax.

He has traveled to Belgium to see how flax is grown and processed for linen, and has provided demonstrations and education at both of the East Barnard Linen Fairs.

Find Will on instagram