Thursday 20 July 2017

Lupins for food

Continuing Tag's harvest theme this morning, some farmers in the Tarn are experimenting with growing lupins as an animal feed crop. Some 60 hectares around Albi have been planted with lupins, which apparently have been known since before Roman times as a rich source of protein (and Omega 3, though one imagines the Romans did not know that). The Albigeois cooperative that is trying the crop also introduced flax as a crop a few years ago, giving the landscape a beautiful blue tinge.
First harvests of the lupins this week look promising and the crops will be mixed with other plants, such as flax, to provide a rich animal feed with 100% traceability.
Lupins growing near Albi