Kay and I were riding our motorcycles in western Oklahoma during the spring of 2012 and kept seeing these beautiful fields of yellow flowers. At first glance we thought “sunflowers” but quickly determined they were not sunflowers. It was a mystery until a few days later when Kay texted a picture to a friend and he told her the flowers were from the Canola plant. We knew about Canola oil used in cooking but I didn’t know much about growing it in Oklahoma and how it had seemed to blossom overnight into these huge fields of beautiful yellow plants.
I decided to dig a little deeper and do some research on Canola, and specifically how it became a common crop seemingly overnight in Oklahoma. After a bit of research that I found interesting, I decided this would make a magazine story and pitched the idea to Oklahoma Living Magazine, the statewide magazine for rural electrical co-operatives. They liked the idea and asked me to pursue it further I spent time during the summer photographing the canola harvest, and interviewed farmers, harvesters, mill owners and even chefs about the how’s and why’s of Canola in Oklahoma. The story was recently published in the January 2013 issue of Oklahoma Living Magazine and makes for an interesting read about these yellow flowers.
