Thursday, August 14, 2014

More Crops

There are a few other crops I've noticed driving around the valley recently.  Canola is the brightest, coating the fields in bright yellow, but there's a little bit of oats this year, and I found one group of buckwheat fields.

I only found one field of bright yellow canola in bloom when I went looking, though I've seen a few others further afield this year. Against a blue sky, it really is a beautiful looking crop.

Canola is not a grain, but an oil seed crop, with larger leaves near the bottom, and is related to cabbage and turnips.  It was bred from  rapeseed in Winnipeg, Canada, though there is a lot now grown in the U.S., especially in North Dakota.

This field, taken looking through a fencerow in the evening sun, is oats.  When it's growing, oats has a light bluish-green colour in comparison to other grains, but I haven't seen many fields of it this year.

In appearance, oats is quite different than barley or wheat, even though it is also a member of the grass family.  The individual grains are easily visible, held seperately at the top of the stalk, not clustered together as in wheat or barley.

This surprisingly white field is buckwheat, not a wheat at all, but is related to rhubarb.  But it is used like wheat; the seeds are harvested like grain and it is most commonly consumed as flour.  Production has gone down in recent decades simply because wheat and corn respond so much better to fertilizer.

This shows the flowers and leaves of buckwheat.

And I shouldn't forget the one beautiful field of flax I saw about 3 weekd ago.  That covers the crops that I've seen around the valley this summer.


10 comments:

  1. Beautiful colors in the fields... I love the yellows of summer--but that flax is gorgeous also. Thanks for sharing..
    Hugs,
    Betsy

    ReplyDelete
  2. They are very pretty crops but the flax one is really beautiful. It's one we don't see here or at least around our area. There is timothy planted on the hill behind us and oats across the road. Heavy rain today will have laid a lot of it down though. The hay was harvested behind us on the weekend. I'm kind of glad to see the field looking 'neat' with the crop gone. Enjoy the weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The colours in these fields are lovely, particularly the flax.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It is good to see things growing so well.

    I have often wanted to grow lavender, more than a plant or two.

    Things do change. We have had three cattle incidents/accidents this year. the cattle are gentle but things can happen quickly. I have the family shop to run. The land must still be cared for and I don't even want to think of all the building repairs I have a head of me. By golly, we won't have to feed in the ice and snow this winter except for the small animals.

    ReplyDelete
  5. We have canola fields here in the Willamette Valley and they are beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  6. There's something comforting about seeing crops growing.
    The last photo is wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  7. When my husband and I traveled through Germany and Denmark, we saw so many fields of that beautiful yellow canola. Awesome. Looks like you have lots of Lindas on your blog today!

    ReplyDelete
  8. A field of canola sure is a beautiful sight. Now I know that's what buckwheat look like. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Well, I did not know that buckwheat was related to rhubarb! Very nice. I'm collecting pics for an ag tour here. You've inspired me.

    ReplyDelete