At this time of year the not entirely sweet smell of cabbages wafts across the air from the ubiquitous fields of oil seed rape.  A member of the brassica family it is eaten in china and south africa as a vegetable for human consumption but in Europe and much of the rest of the world it is grown as animal fodder or for edible vegetable oil or to produce biodiesel fuel.  It is a useful plant for bee forage before other flowers become available but the honey quickly granulates so it is not the best food for honey production.  If I ignore the perfume of the plants I can appreciate the acid yellow but I don’t want to see it everywhere.  A little bit of variety is good for the birds and the bees and for me too.