Wednesday 10 June 2020

The food we eat

It was a lovely day for a walk yesterday. My usual route along field edges. I came across some activity, machines blocking the path. Ooooh, photo opportunity, and a chance to be nosy. The yellow fork lift has just unloaded bags of seed peas into the bin on the front of the tractor. 
Pink peas, who'd have thought.

The peas are sucked along the tube landing in the spreader at the back, and evenly distributed in rows on the ploughed field. Clever ain't it.

 Empty bags are placed in the gateway waiting for collection. There are more full bags at the other end of the field, it's a big field.

I showed a picture of a perfectly ploughed field a few weeks ago, well there will be plenty of spuds to harvest here. I did find out from a tractor driver that it is a GPS system which steers the tractor therefore making perfect furrows. All the driver has to do is turn it around at the end of each row. 
I spotted this field, another photo opportunity. We are surrounded by farmland here. Not sure what the crop is. A mixture of straight lines or curved, following the edge of the field. Ideas for a tapestry maybe.


Same field but the rows go in a different direction. 

I made a video while on this walk, I'll post it later.
Back to the black assemblage. Toodle pip.  ilona

16 comments:

  1. I love watching the local farmer at work. We came across a couple of fields with pea plants around 12 inches tall and in full flower. I'm always amazed at the exact rows, spacing and planting.

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    1. I am hoping to take a walk along there in a few weeks and eat a few peas as I pass that field.

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  2. I bet those peas are covered with a herbicide. I've seen pink seed corn here.

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  3. How interesting.
    It always amazes me that, while I live in a city of 3 million, I can be in farmland within about a 40 minute drive. If the pandemic teaches us anything perhaps it will be that we have learned just how important farmers are and how fragile our food supply can be.

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  4. Yes the peas are coated so they don't get snaffled by pigeons and other birds. Most seeds are these days.

    I love to see the tractors going up and down the fields using their GPS systems, with the drivers barely having to do anything. It's a busy time of year for the food growing farmers.

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    1. It seems a pretty boring job to plough a field, going up and down. Maybe if it's a massive field they could put their feet on the dashboard and read a newspaper and have a mug of coffee.

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    2. They frequently do, as long as they are there and alert to any alarm 'dings' they can do just that :-)

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  5. Could be something to prevent them being eaten... definitely a -cide!

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    1. You're probably right. I know the allotment holders here have problems with rabbits having a right good scoff.

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  6. There is a new breed of pink peas called Flamingo Peas. Perhaps these are what you’ve seen?

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    1. Had to gooooglie that. I found pink eyed peas.

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  7. I love fresh peas and discovered pea shoots a few years ago. I grow them for the shoots now.

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    1. I've never tried that. Do you mean you eat the pods before they fatten out, or is it the leaves and stalks you eat?

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  8. I may never eat another pea again...pink peas? No thanks. And then I guess they are then dyed a bright green for packaging. All in the name of profits. If the rabbits won't eat them, then I wonder if we should either?

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  9. The crop looks like potatoes which are grown in massive numbers where you live.

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  10. yes the crop are potatoes

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