But plenty of rape (aka canola) at Montpoupon, taken on 2 April.
Chris Luck, who lives the other side of the Brenne to us, has written a very good post on his blog about French wildlife and beekeeping, about the relationship between honey bees and canola, which you can read here.
7 comments:
The huge swathes of vicious yellow can be hard on the eyes, and the smell can be overpoweringly sickly but.......on the whole I love to see fields of canola as once it's arrived you know the horrors of winter are well behind us (although snow in late April or early May is not uncommon here in Derbyshire)........and summer is literally just around the corner!
Thanks for the link to the fascinating nature blog. I shall read it at leisure when we are chez nous for Easter.
Jean: I agree. I don't like the colour much and it stinks.
I love these two photos. An unusual angle to look at Montpoupon. Yellow is one of my favorite colors.
Canola is a product not a plant. Originally, it was a trade name coined in Canada ca. 1975 for the oil of one particular group of rapeseed cultivars, short for Canadian Oil. In France we talk about colza and colza oil [huile de colza]. I French googled colza and nowhere did I find mention of Canola! Colza is a Frenchified Dutch word, meaning cabbage seed!
I just found this interesting link worth reading which explains what is Canola: an abbreviation of "Canadian Oil Low Acid".
http://www.theperfectpantry.com/2009/04/canola-oil-recipe-baby-potatoes-with-aioli-dressing.html
I'll try the recipe!LOL
chm: The crop is called canola in Australia. I wasn't trying to say it's called canola in France, just that as an English speaking Australian, I know it as canola. I'd never heard of rape until we moved to the UK.
BTW, I'd be willing to put money on Canadian Oil Low Acid being a back formation. I think the Canandians just made up a word that sounded better than rape. I'm sure the Can is from Canada, but the ola is just a catchy ending that sounds a bit like oil.
Susan: I do agree with you that canola sounds better rhan rape!
Love the photos. I also love canola fields (I didn't realise canola was rape). A couple of years ago, I had to laugh when my daughter's Dutch boyfriend came to visit. He thought they were tulip fields!
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