Thursday, 20 May 2010

NOP 1

Since I've got my parents' car on loan while they are on holiday in the Middle East, I can do a lot. I drive to work every day (I'm lazy), I can get the shopping in a lot easier and I can drive around the countryside.

I live in the Noordoostpolder, which is the oldest part of Flevoland, the newest of the twelve provinces in the Netherlands (hence the NOP in the title). It's a mainly agricultural area, with tulips and potatoes the two crops that stand out (and both have their own festival as well).

This photo shows you a field of tulips that have just been beheaded. Most flowers have lost their heads due to the machine, but some were either too small or had not yet bloomed. The reason the flowers are beheaded (as opposed to deadheaded) is basic: stop the nutritions from going to the head and lead all of it to the bulb. The bulbs are then harvested some time during the summer, teenagers peel off the outer layers and the bulbs will go up for sale.

11 comments:

  1. I love those colourful fields. So Dutch! ;-)

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  2. Thank you for helping me understand what tulip bulb production is all about. I live on the west side of Michigan where our city named Holland celebrates a Tulip Festival every year. Many Dutch settled here. And thanks for the geography lesson. Tell me why there is a fleur-de-lis on Flevoland's flag, please.

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  3. I didn't know that but I can see why that is done. It must be beautiful in person to see all the tulips.

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  4. The fleur-de-lis is a lily flower and the person responsible for our province was called Cornelis Lely. His last name is the Dutch word for lily! Our province's capital is also named after him: Lelystad.

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  5. Beheaded tulips! :) They're still pretty! Interesting post.

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  6. Re your comment on Flamblogger:

    I wasn't really that much of a rebellious teen. I knew I was on pretty safe ground when I went looking. My parents had bought me a purebred Welsh Corgi the Christmas before. We had only had him about a month when he died from distemper. So I was pretty sure they wouldn't be dead against it. And frankly I think they didn't expect me to find one!
    May 20, 2010 1:50 PM

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  7. thank you very much, Mara, for the info on Lely. Now I know at least one Dutch word!

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  8. Interesting post, Mara. I really like this blog of yours!

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  9. What a sense of freedom you must have with your parent's car available! Have fun! (But not too much fun!)

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  10. I have never seen a field of tulips before! Just beautiful! I guess I never though about where the bulbs we plant here come from!! Thanks for the lesson!

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Any weighty (and not so weighty) comments are welcome!