This series highights 6 agricultural crops found in SK. These Legacy Caches are placed for SCAR 2018. To keep your smiley from being harvested, please do not find or log before 5:30 Friday May 24th.
Canola - This is a recent (1970's) variation of what was known as rapeseed. The oil produced by rapeseed has been trace back as far as 4,000 years to India, 2,000 years in China and Japan. Records from the 1300's show the use of the oil in Europe. At that time, it was an oil used as lamp fuel and limited applications as a mechanical lubricant. In the 1800's when steam engines were developed, machinists found rapeseed oil to be the best lubricant in these new machines.
When WWII happened, there was a surge in demand for rapeseed thanks to all the steam powered machines an ships. Canada, at that time had started growing this crop in a limited manner. When the war ended, there was little application for the oil because of it's disagreeable taste and colour.
In the 1970's, Keith Downey and Balfur Stefansson of the University of MB developed the first of what we know as canola through breeding modifications of rapeseed. It had a more clear colour and much less of the euricic acid. It became a much more appealing for the food industry to use. The last significant modification was in 1998, which is what we now know today as canola.
In 2017, Canola was recorded as the highest crop seeded in Canada. And in SK, it dethroned wheat for the first time as the largest crop seeded.
This cache is placed close to a canola crushing plant. One of the largest plants of this kind in the world. There is a pull out approximately 100 feet north of GZ for safe parking. At GZ, the crushing plant can be seen toward the northwest.
The cache contains the log and some swage