WORT 89.9FM Madison · Wisconsin Linen Revival Promotes Local Textiles

If you look at the label of the shirt you are wearing right now, chances are it’s made out of cotton and/or polyester.  Cotton, of course, is grown exclusively in warm climates and aside from its historic connections to slavery, is a petrochemical intensive crop.  Polyester is a synthetic made from fossil fuels.  Neither is particularly friendly to the environment or the atmosphere.  One group in Wisconsin is trying to revive a very old textile, made from a plant that readily grows in northern climates, needs little in the way of fertilizer and produces a durable, comfortable cloth that has useful moisture wicking properties.  We’re talking about flax, and its cloth product, linen.  Leslie Schroeder and Karen Kendrick-Hands are the co-founders of the Wisconsin Linen Revival,

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