06/17/2026
📝 Field Note from Robin & Arlene Karpan (Karpan PhotoJourneys):
"Nothing says summer in rural Saskatchewan like the vibrant yellow bloom of canola crops. You won’t have any trouble finding them, since we grow around 12 million acres of the stuff every year. Canada is the world’s largest canola producer by far, with well over half coming from Saskatchewan.
Our close association with canola (a word derived from “Canada” and “ola” for oil) dates to its origins at a Saskatoon research station. Scientists used traditional plant breeding methods to modify rapeseed to develop a new plant that produces a healthy cooking oil.
Economic importance aside, brilliant fields of flowering canola beg to be photographed. We like to pair classic prairie features such as country churches, traditional grain elevators, old homestead buildings, or grain bins with the carpets of yellow. A wetland next to canola can often yield warm golden reflections in the water.
Nothing beats finding canola and flax fields next to each other, the yellow canola and the blue flax blossoms complementing each other in a stunning display. We’re also the country’s largest flax producer, by the way.
Canola usually begins blooming in late June, reaching its peak around mid-July, with late-seeded crops sometimes blooming into early August. Each year varies somewhat depending on weather conditions and seeding times.
Canola is almost always grown in rotation with other crops, so it’s unlikely it will be in the same field two years in a row. There’s no way to know if a field will be in canola until the growing season is underway, unless you happen to know the farmer. When we come across canola starting to emerge (easily identified by its broad green leaves) in a photogenic setting, we usually mark the coordinates and return once the fields reach full bloom.
One of our go-to areas is northeast of Saskatoon towards Wakaw, where we usually find flax as well, and onion-domed Ukrainian churches dot the landscape. In the rolling topography of the Thickwood Hills northeast of the Battlefords, canola melds with pockets of forest and numerous wetlands. The Qu’Appelle Valley is different again, where a backdrop of green valley slopes frames the smaller yellow fields on the river flats.
Since canola is grown throughout the grain belt, there is no one 'best' place. Photo ops abound practically anywhere in rural Saskatchewan during canola season."
Photos by Karpan PhotoJourneys
