Saturday, July 18, 2009

On the way to town





For some of you that don't know the area, Gowganda is in the Boreal Forest but to get there from the east you have to go through the Little Clay Belt. This was formed 1000's of years ago during the retreat of the ice a large lake occupied what is now the Clay Belt. Deposits from the lake settled forming a large clay area when the water drained away. Farming is quite extensive with both crops, beef, and milk cows this is one of the richest farm areas in Northern Ontario. It is in extreme contrast to the rugged, rocky and forested Gowganda area.
From Gowganda to New Liskeard is approx. 110 Km. Over half of this is through the farmland on the claybelt. Large farms and huge acreages are seen along the way. Most of the farm seem pretty well to do.
A couple of pictures from coming home the other day, one of Triangle Hill a lookout area that has a panoramic view of the farmland both to the north and east. There is a trail to the top that I hope to be going on this summer.
Canola is one of the main crops in the summer and contrasts greatly to all that surrounds it.

5 comments:

Brook said...

Breathtaking-and to stand on the "drop off" when you take that trail will surely be incredible. Do they do anything with the turnip roots or just harvest the seeds? I've always been curious about that.

Gowganda Photography said...

Brook,
As far as I know turnip is a root crop. I'm sure they harvest some seed for new crops too.
The canola in the pictures is harvested for it's seeds. The seeds are used for oil for the food industry.

Brook said...

Canola/rapeseed oil is pressed from the seeds of turnip plants, that's why I was wondering if they harvested the roots as well or if perhaps there is a varietal that doesn't produce the large taproot.

Gowganda Photography said...

Canola was developed through conventional plant breeding from rapeseed, an oilseed plant already used in ancient civilization. The word "rape" in rapeseed comes from the Latin word "rapum," meaning turnip. Turnip, rutabaga, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, mustard and many other vegetables are related to the two canola varieties commonly grown, which are cultivars of Brassica napus and Brassica rapa. The negative associations due to the homophone "rape" resulted in creation of the more marketing-friendly name "Canola". The change in name also serves to distinguish it from regular rapeseed oil, which has much higher erucic acid content. (from Wikipedia). Turnip root is still harvested for its root as a vegetable.

Brook said...

I was merely hoping for first hand insight into whether the harvest included seed and taproot...I was able to find the rather dry yet inflammatory scientific stuff online.
No worries... =)
The field of yellow flowers is magnificent regardless.