Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Iceland thanks Eyjafjallajökull Volcano for Bumper Crop of Wheat

For a month last spring I was on the volcano beat.
Starting with "You say Volcano, I say Eyjafjallajökull (Volcano could mean cooling, acid rain)" on April 15, we added ten updates
("How to short a volcano was #8 on April 23).
The first post was fairly popular, we ended up with something over 10,000 visits on that one:
Original post:
Here's the BBC's Guide to Icelandic Pronunciation. Pity the poor newsreaders.
As best as I can make out it's something like:

Ewe-gotta-be-fcking-out-'o-yer-skull 
http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/Photography/Images/POD/e/eldfell-volcano-41861-sw.jpg
In July it was the wheat beat and I took to referring to the blog as station W-EAT.
[it didn't catch on with the general public -ed]

Now we get to combine the two. From IceNews:

Iceland volcano thanked for bumper wheat harvest
Wheat farmers in South Iceland are expecting a particularly good harvest this year. Some farmers hope to start harvesting at the beginning of next month, but most will wait until the middle of September.



Olafur Eggertsson from Thorvaldseyri, who is head of the Icelandic Wheat Growers’ Association, told RUV that this years crops are looking excellent. The warm and weather Iceland has been enjoying this summer has helped the wheat, and the lack of rain does not seem to have damaged the crops.

Eggertsson believes volcanic ash from this spring’s Eyjafjallajokull eruption probably has a big part to play in the good harvest. Although it caused havoc at the time, he explains that it adds nutrients to the soil and its colour causes the ground to better retain the sun’s heat....
HT: Eruptions
Odd volcano news: Volcano stadium, wheat from Eyjafjallajökull and volcanoes as ads