Painting is just another way of keeping a diary ~Pablo Picasso

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Canola, or Maybe Mustard

I have to admit, I can't really identify any of the plants that grow in the Palouse.  It's not like the Midwest where I grew up, corn and soybeans are pretty easy to tell apart.  I don't know wheat from lentils.  I initially assumed that this yellow flowering crop was canola, but I read online that canola and mustard are hard to tell apart to the untrained eye.  I also read that if you plant one of these crops in a field than you can never plant the other, because they cross to form a plant known as rapeseed, which is evidently a very unwelcome crop.  When I was in the Palouse last week I wandered through the Moscow Farmer's Market, and there was a vendor selling something I believe he called Canolina Oil, which was made from a mustard seed, but not the same as the mustard oil you would find at an ethnic grocery.  I tried some and thought it tasted delicious!  He had a lot of statistics and data worked up by the WSU campus to show all the health benefits, but I was a little skeptical on how well it would store given that he compared it against flax oil which oxidizes so quickly.  Anyway, that's my wishy-washy experience with this yellow flowering crop, whatever it is.  Not exactly my most definitive post!  :)

7 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

whatever it is, it makes for a brilliant image! looks like crayola yellow!

Sketchbook Wandering said...

Natures various colors are very, well, awesome...you show us that...

Linda W. said...

Wow, lovely shot! So.much.yellow.

Folkways Note Book said...

I have growing in a small bed some mustard-greens. Are they the same as what you are calling mustard. My mustard-greens are very green. But besides weather the plants growing in your photo are mustard-greens or canola they make for a warm photo. -- barbara

Giga said...

Less matter what it is, but it looks wonderfully field in yellow flowers. Regards.

Rose said...

It is beautiful...I am always wondering how to tell the difference.

Also, any time I see fields of gold like this, I think of Sting's song Fields of Gold.

Gail Dixon said...

Gosh, my head was spinning reading that. One needs a degree to garden, apparently. :/ Whatever this is, it's a beautiful, lush field of gold. Really pretty, Melissa!