Making Rape-Seed Oil

[WiZeR]

Hi

We have a large area of rape growing on an unused allotment and I was wondering if it could be made into RapeSeed oil? I mean for cooking nor for BioDiesel.

I have no idea the process involved to get it from plant to oil.

Can anyone help?

[pigletwillie]

Most of the vegetable derived oils require a process to make them edible as they are naturally toxic.

So, you can go ahead but you may die if you use it.

[WiZeR]

cheers piglette, it was the process I was interested in. I cant find any info on it.

[Hazel at the Hill]

From Seymour:

'Oil seed rape will grow in temperate climates. You plant it like kale and harvest it when it is still fairly green. Pul the plant out of the ground, dry it in a stack, thresh it and then crush the seeds to get the oil out. The residual 'cake' can be fed to stock but only in small quantities as it can upset their stomachs.'

'To make the oil, you need to crack the seeds, wrap in cloth to make 'cheeses', pile them in a press, clamp and crush. If you haven't got a press you can rig one up with a car jack'

[TEB]

Round ere the farmers dont harvest it until the flowers are well dried

[beefy]

Oilseed rape also goes under the name of Canola to try and get away from the bad things surrounding the word rape.

Here is a link to a page about the myth or not of how bad the oil is for you .Please read to the bottom of the page!
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/canola.asp

Theres the link to Wikipedia -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapeseed

A link to a company who will press your seed to oil-
http://www.osel.co.nz/page.aspx?pri=110&sec=612&tpl=9

Or if you want to do it your self this lot will sell you the machinery to do it-
http://www.rosedowns.co.uk/products/Mini_Press.htm

Unless you are growing about 50 acres of the stuff I suspect it would be cheaper buying the stuff.

[johnty greentoes]

Please no more OSR. The whole world round here has turned yellow this year, inclusing grass verges, blocked gutters and anywhere the blastes plant can get.

Grupm.grump.grump

[sewer rat]

OSR is nothing but a thug.
My field played host to this crop three years ago and I have sprayed it twice with Glyphosate this year before planting, and still it comes back, bigger and meaner than before. It will take thirty years or so to completely clear the ground - that's a shed load of hand weeding for 5 acres !!!!
My farmer friend is full of regrets about being persuaded to grow it in the first place but it is an early and high value crop so who can blame him ?
It stinks at harvest too - mentioned this last year !!
And in case you weren't aware, bees love it !! Blossom Honey is what they cleverly market OSR honey as - otherwise a lot of people might give it a body swerve.

[TEB]

I tried OSR honey last year and I didn't much care for it, we got it in two fields surrounding us and in one of them there must be about 15 bee hives all stacked in a row, BTW I love the smell , the other field is growing borage and i cannot wait for it to flower - amazing

[Peter]

OSR honey has to be extracted as soon as the bees have capped it off.
Otherwise it sets solid in the comb and cannot be extracted.

Lime tree honey on the other hand is green and very runny, like dipping the knife in olive oil.

[WiZeR]

thanks guys, seems like it may be more hassle that it's worth.

It was once grown and harvested on 3 allotment plots on our site. I guess the guy who grew it has professional equipment.

[Flummery]

One summer, while in a car with three friends and the windows down, my sister passed a field of OSR and said, 'Rape stinks, doesn't it?' The others weren'e really aware of what the crop was and thought she was making a philosophical statement about the evils of forced 'affection' ! Spoilt the moment when she explained!

[terrier]

For an 'odorless' oil, rapeseed oil smells pretty awful to me when used in cooking and if I eat anything cooked in it I usually get indidgestion. Maybe Canola oil is different, I'll look out for it. Fish and chip shops these days cook in 'vegetable oil'? Although they don't specify what type of oil that is but I don't go to chip shops any more because of the awfull oily cooking smell. Sunflower oil is another of the 'wonder' oils to come in for criticism in recent years. It seems that no oil is safe for human consumtion. When food is fried at high temperatures, it becomes almost impossible for the human gut to digest it efectively and that includes olive oil and good old fasioned lard dripping. I'm going to carry on eating whatever I enjoy in moderation until it kills me! So far, so good.