A modern woman sees a piece of linen, but the mediaeval woman saw through it to the flax fields, she smelt the reek of the retting ponds, she felt the hard rasp of the hackling, and she saw the soft sheen of the glossy flax.
More than half of the flax production is harvested in France, followed by Belgium, Belarus, Russia and United Kingdom. Flax is the only plant textile fibre originating in Europe and is used to produce linen.
