I hear you LOUD AND CLEAR about this. I do have a question though about rapeseed oil - is it okay if it is cold pressed?

Olive oil seems tolerated so long as it is cold pressed and not heat extracted which can oxidise the oil and so long as it is fresh and not left too long (again, possibly able to oxidise).

It might be a cross-Atlantic misinterpretation since we do get Canola and Mazola and other horrible Monsantesque filth, but the rapeseed oil I buy is cold pressed. It is "extra virgin" cold pressed and pressed only once - it is a gourmet oil and intended to be a rival to the rather ubiquitous olive oil. It is from my home country and the fields are within 50 miles of my house. This is the stuff: http://www.yorkshiresoriginal.co.uk/.

I can kind of see Grok feeling happy with himself after sitting on an olive or an avocado and noticing the oil having squeezed out ... how shiny it looked on his fingers as he rubbed it between finger and thumb. Not sure about rapeseed, though ... I'll have to go squeeze some and see if it as easy as the guys at Yorkshire Original make out.

Thanks JS - that is sound advice: "if I wouldn't eat it, I wouldn't want the oil extracted from it".

I can appreciate that but you know I'll go my own way ... looking at the side of the bottle, I see some interesting facts; that within 100ml of the Yorkshire Original Rapeseed oil I am getting 99.8g of fat or which 62.3g is monounsaturate, 26.1g polyunsaturated and 7.0g saturated. The majority is the lesser of the evil fats 🙂 I also get almost no protein, no carbohydrate, no sodium, a mere 8.1g of Omega-3 (it does not state how much Omega-6, or what the balance is ... I'll probe them some more) and a good pack of Vitamin E.

I contacted the company to ask them a little more about the product and the process ... and, I've been invited to visit the farm so I will try a bud/seed of the stuff and see if I want to eat it!

By e-mail, they said: "Our oil is so simple, it will not take long to tell you about it!

Firstly, it is illegal in this country to grow genetically modified crops, so the seed that we use is GM free, any alterations to the makeup of the seed have been made by natural progression, for example disease resistance.

We are farmers based near Wetherby, and all the seed we use has been grown by ourselves or our next door neighbours. It is all grown to our specification, so variety and any treatments have been agreed by ourselves.

The seed is generally planted in August, and then we apply a weedkiller in September, October when the seeds are in danger of being overrun by weeds. After that we do not do anything to the crop. Unless there is a major problem which we have not had for the past 4 years. The crop is then harvested the following July.

There are two methods of harvesting the seed. We use the traditional method of swathing, this means that we go through the crop with a sharp knife and cut off the seed bearing stalk so that it lies on the stalk in the ground, this keeps it off the ground so that it can die naturally using the wind and the sun as a natural dryer. The more normal way is to dessicate the crop with a weedkiller such as Roundup a Glyphosate, this means that the crop dies on its feet. Less risky but we are happier knowing that no chemicals have been used so close to harvest.

After that the crop is picked up by the combine and the seeds shaken out, taken into store and kept until required for oil.

To press the oil we pass it through a simple screw press which gently squeezes out the oil, no heat or chemicals are applied. The oil is then filtered and bottled and that really is that.

So if you are wanting a naturally grown oil Rapeseed oil is the best bet. Unlike Olive oil we do not blend oils to achieve the required levels to be able to call it Extra Virgin it just is Extra Virgin!"

This is a simple farm of three people! I will visit them ... and I will eat their oil. I love the colour and, I'm happy to treat it as a condiment. I do not cook with it, I do not use it much ... I use it in vinaigrettes with fruit vinegars (lingon and apple, elderberry, etc) to make a colourful splash over some salads. It's not a major part of my diet and used for colour, maybe once or twice a week in one or two meals.

I like it - it's local to me and satisfies my "local, pure and natural" mantra. I'll keep it as a "treat/cheat" ... it's not like I gulp down litres of soda a day.

As with all I am learning - I will consider what is put before me and consider it well. Thanks for the reply. Again, sound advice.