August 1st – Passing Grove Hill near Stonnall in the late afternoon sun, I noted that it was surrounded by a fine crop of oilseed rape. Where this had been a sea of vivid yellow in spring, it was now going a soft, golden colour. 

The plant is harvested by special equipment, which flays the pod from the tiny, tiny seeds which are black when ripe. These then go for crushing to extract the oil, both for biofuel and cooking.

There’s gold in those tiny, spherical seeds.