Windmill by photosynthesis
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Description
Taken in the northwest of France, not far from Mont Saint-Michel. While on one of my trips in France, traveling with my cousin, I asked him about the fields of yellow flowers we were seeing all over the French countryside. He said they were "colza" & were used for making oil. I had never heard of colza oil, so I assumed at the time it was a French name for something that I knew under another, English name. Turns out it's colza oil in English too & here's some information about it from Wikipedia:
"Colza oil is a nondrying oil obtained from the seeds of Brassica rapa, var. oleifera, a variety of the plant that produces turnips. Colza is extensively cultivated in France, Belgium, the United States, the Netherlands and Germany and Poland. In France, especially, the extraction of the oil is an important industry. In commerce, colza is classed with rapeseed oil, to which it is very closely allied in both source and properties. It is a comparatively nonodoriferous oil of a yellow colour, having a specific gravity varying between 0.912 and 0.920. The cake left after extraction of the oil is a valuable feed ingredient for pigs.
Colza oil is extensively used as a lubricant for machinery.
Colza oil was used extensively in European domestic lighting before the advent of coal (city) gas or kerosene. It was the preferred oil for train pot lamps, and was used for lighting railway coaches in the United Kingdom before gas lighting, and later electric lighting, were adopted. Burned in a Carcel lamp, it was part of the definition of the French standard measure for illumination, the carcel, for most of the nineteenth century. In lighthouses, for example in early Canada, colza oil was used before the introduction of mineral oil. The colza oil was used with the Argand burner because it was cheaper than whale oil.
Colza oil was used in Gombault's Caustic Balsam, a popular horse and human liniment at the turn of the 20th century. (Note that the ingredients listed in this link are similar to, but not the same as, the list on the actual bottle).
Among the more unusual applications of colza oil is the calming of choppy seas, where the oil modifies the surface tension of the water and rapidly smooths the surface. Rescue and recovery operations have been made far less risky in this way.
More recently, colza has been cultivated in Europe as an ingredient for biodiesel fuels, and is the primary source of biodiesel in Germany."
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Comments (18)
Richardphotos
the flowers and mill are both so beautiful
tommorules
I would have assumed this was oil seed rape. Haven't heard of colza. Lovely shot. "Pouring oil on troubled waters" is a well known phrase in th UK; I guess this is where it comes from.
X-PaX
Very nice capture. I like the colors very much.
0rest4wicked
Outstanding composition!
JohnDelaquiox
This is wonderful
DAVER2112
This shot is just perfect. Excellent. :)
Feliciti
so beautiful , like flower fields like here in germany too ,clouds and the windmill too !!
jarmila
absolutely fantastic shot and place
auntietk
Fascinating and beautiful! Colza and rape are closely related to canola and mustard, as well as rutabaga, turnip, kohlrabi, cabbage, kale, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli. I discover the most amazing things while enjoying art on Renderosity!
alanwilliams
windmills, as well as providing an obvious function in life, add so much beauty to the landscape, this being a perfect example
jgkane
A beautiful composition, my friend. Great to learn more about the world and 'colza'. It does look a bit cold, and windy ( good for windmills, I suppose ), with the tourists well wrapped up. Bracing, perhaps ... ;o) Warm regards,from a sunny, but 'bracing' Scotland. Six days of nice, warm sunshine, and next week more snow and maybe down to -9C again. Oh well, the 'Indian Spring' was nice while it lasted, John.
JuliSonne
Beautiful color-drenched and the charming windmill .... a dream for the eyes
roguetographer
Beautiful photograph. Nothing much more picturesque than a centuries-old windmill and it doesn't hurt to have one surrounded by a field of flowers. Isn't rape seed oil commonly called "canola" oil in the U.S.?
morningglory
What a beautiful scene.
angora
awesome!!! a most stunning image & landscape!!! love it!!! canola is the gentech cousin -so would hate to see that 1! forgive me for being opinionated? ;-D - it's rape seed (aka Brassica napus in latin, therefore belongs to the cabbage clan. common name in dutch is 'koolzaad', literally 'cabbage seed') (I learned about the name colza when it became available as virtual plant for Vue ;-D) after the oil has been harvested the remains are fed to the cattle. see those fields in our country for as long as I can remember...
thecytron
Lovely photo composition!
sandra46
SPLENDID IMAGE! GREAT SHOT!
Maxthon
This is stunning. I'd hang this on a wall. Seriously.