From flax to linen

Discover how flax is made into fine linen at the farmhouse from Madiswil, Berne (321). The numerous stages necessary to this process are shown in detail in the "Brächete" at the Ballenberg Open-Air Museum. In our modern world the technical terms sound quaint: the flax is carded, retted, crushed, swingled, spun and woven. In the old days these were everyday activities in the Swiss countryside. Try your hand at spinning the thread until you have made some fine linen cloth, and sample the traditional "Brächete-Brönnts" schnapps.