A little trivia...

I was speaking to a man on the bus and he has lived in Kappelen for over 20 years.  He told me that his mother in law has lived there for over 70 years.  The lifestyle here seems very healthy.  Everyone is walking or biking.  The air is clear and everything is very clean.

He told me that this area (Aarberg) is where the vegetables are grown in Switzerland.  Very fertile land.  It wasn’t always that way as it used to be swampland.  150 years ago they dug a canal from Aarberg to Biel Lake that helped to drain the land.  It’s now a great farming community.

These are Sucre Beets that have been harvested and are waiting to be taken to the processing factory in Aarberg.  There they are made into sugar!  I always thought sugar came from sugar cane but not so!

This is the plant before harvesting.  I thought they were a type of large turnip.

Aarberg is one of the main factories in Switzerland for processing these sucre beets.  You can tour the factory which I wanted to do but tours don’t start until next week as they are too busy hauling this crop in from all over the area.  They are delivered by tractor and train.