me, linen

Everyone knows me in all my aspects except my original form: a long herbaceous plant that lets small blue-purple flowers appear in spring, I am a vegetable raw material at the top.

Tell me thank you because not only do I dress you - thanks to my textile fibers - but I also produce small seeds rich in minerals and vitamins. People like to eat me in the kitchen for making bread or in powder, crushed, ground because I am a formidable opponent in the face of cholesterol and cardiovascular diseases. Not to mention that I am a super slimming asset.

Also called linette, I am a concentrate of good things: oilseed, an oil is extracted from me for industrial purposes but also for cutaneous use because I heal your little sores, soothe your burns and nourish your skin. It's still more fun than playing in a famous TV series!

I am also used as a material in the form of fibers because I am solid, insulating and resistant. After a long process of treatment, I am used, among other things, for the manufacture of clothing, building materials and household linen… which allows me to parade in white tablecloth in large houses like that of Garnier-Thiebaut!

In all modesty, I am satisfied to be so complete: my culture requires little or no pesticides and fertilizers, nothing is lost and everything is kept at home. We can therefore say that I have an ecological fiber.

Beautiful plant that gives itself completely so that you can take advantage of all my assets, what is certain is that over time, everyone will fall for flax.

Text: Sonia Ben Abdeslem
Illustration: Pascal Drai