Apr 05 2007
The yellowing countryside
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No crop dominates the British arable landscape quite like rapeseed (Brassica napus, also known as oilseed rape, the edible variety as canola).
From the very beginning of April, previously mundane green fields of this member of the cabbage and turnip family suddenly erupt into luminous flower.
Across lowland England, great swathes of countryside are painted yellow. Rape covers around 3.5% of England’s farmland and approaching a tenth of the countryside in some counties, such as Bedfordshire.
What is all this rapeseed for?
Of all the major crops, it’s probably the one with the least obvious connection to our food. Indeed, much of the rapeseed crop is put to industrial uses, from the production of lubricants and adhesives to cosmetics and gardening products. Many varieties aren’t even edible, containing high levels of the toxic erucic acid.
But the main use of the oil rich rapeseed crop is for the manufacture of cooking oils, margarine and processed foods, with much of the by-product used as animal feed. Globally, rapeseed is the third most important source of cooking oils. It’s essentially a commodity crop, the products it goes into culturally divorced from the productive fields.
Cold-pressed Rapeseed Oil
A couple of bold UK farmers are seeking to change this, producing cold-pressed “extra virgin” rapeseed oil from their crops. Hillfarm Oils, of Heveningham in Suffolk, and Farrington Oils, of Hargrave in Northamptonshire, are leading the way. Their oils have a distinctive nutty flavour, a far cry from the anonymous cooking oil most rapeseed goes to make.
We’re used to some sort of provenance on our olive oil (from the vague but appealing Mediterranean country of origin to the more exclusive single estate oils) and have fond (but often desperately idealised, as revealed by Sustain’s report on cooking oils) images of the productive olive groves.
Rapeseed doesn’t - yet - have the attractive associations of olive oil. It’s time we started making the connections between the bright yellow spring fields and the oil in our food.
Essential Reading
I used to be wildly allergic to rapeseed when it was in full bloom, living right next to a farm that grew it. In varying years, at farms over the road from us, behind us, or next door to us. Unfortunately, I was highly susceptible to it as a child, the smell giving me intense migraines, but luckily I grew out of that! I think it is incredibly important that the UK finds its own Olive Oil. Perhaps this is it! Thanks for bringing this to our attention!
I didn’t even realise what all the yellow flowers were. It just goes t oshow how we can walk around with our eyes closed half of the time.
How does the nutritional info for the Extra Virgin Rapeseed Oil look? Does it share the benefits of Olive Oil?
There’s a Yorkshire farm making rapeseed oil as well, http://www.wharfevalleyfarms.co.uk/. Healthy and delicious!
Thanks for this. I past lots of these fields down by the coast over the weekend and was wondering about them.
The intense gold of cold-pressed rapeseed oil reflects the still yellowing spring fields of oilseed rape. Read more about rapeseed oil…
A few more farms producing rapeseed oil - R-Oil in Gloucestershire - http://www.r-oil.co.uk - Oleifera in Northumberland - http://www.oleifera.co.uk - and Munns in Cambridgeshire - http://www.laemunns.com
[...] from the Google queries that have led people to my post on the yellow fields of oilseed rape now colouring vast swathes of the countryside, there’s plenty of curiosity about the crops in [...]
Call me a dumb blonde if you like but can anybody out there enlighten me as to why there seems to be so much more of it out there this year?
Where I live the fields are awash with yellow and when the sun shines on them they look spectacular. Farmers have had a bad time over the years and so I hope this crop is their saviour.
Hi again, I thought this post was so good and informative that I’ve added it to my ‘delectable posts’ round up: http://asliceofcherrypie.blogspot.com/2007/05/delectable-posts.html
hi just tried your r/o, verry good but were do you by it
from we cant buy it in birmingham or surrounding area
the only place we were able to buy this was down devon while on holiday please start stocking up this way ???
thanks jim whitehouse
Hi, My name is George Munns and I supply the Munns Extra Virgin Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil that was kindly mentioned by Earnest in the above communication of the 12th April. This oil is marketed as a healthy alternative to imported olive oil. It has only 50% of the saturated fat of olive oil and double the omega 6 and a hefty 10 x the level of omega 3. Couple this with the very low food miles associated with this product and it is an excellent all round good product !!
Man i just had a look on your banging website and i saw a picture of my field and i was omg wtf mate the hell is going on ay !
We are producers of rape seed oil called Oleifera. I agree with most of George Munn’s comments but he can not call his or any rapeseed oil extra virgin. this is a standard that is written for olive oil and the basis is that it is the first pressing of olives. On the basis that his and our oil is not made from olives we can not call it extra virgin! This is why we call Oleifera premium cold pressed oil. If George wants to ask the Trading Standards Officers about it this is the answer that he will be given! See us on http://www.oleifera.co.uk
With the current problems bee keepers are having with collapsing collonies and and the time spent on IPC (integrated pest control) to try and combat the non indigenous varroa mite, it would be very useful to have a pool of contacts who would allow bee keepers to set hives up on their land for the duration of the crop.
In a good year four distinct crops (or more) can be obtained from one colony
1. Oil Seed Rape (Spring) Set Honey
2. Field Bean (Late spring, early summer) Amber colour, runny
3. Summer blend (All the summer flowers) Darker Amber, runny
4. Borage (An almost totally clear and very sweet taste) runny
5. Heather (the most expensive to produce) Gel like consistancy
6. Ivy (A rare occurrence)
Each one is totally different form the other.
Food for thought.