what is canola?

Rick Harrison

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Mar 17, 1993, 10:32:11 AM3/17/93

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In the past couple of years, canola oil has become popular for
cooking with. What is canola's botanical name, what family is
it in, and what sort of climate does it grow in? (I assume
canola oil comes from some kind of seed?)

Carolyn Jean Fairman

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Mar 18, 1993, 2:22:59 PM3/18/93

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bbs-...@jwt.oau.org (Rick Harrison) asks:

Canola oil is derived from rapeseed. I think companies were worried about
a negative reaction to oil from "rape" seed and changed the name. Rapeseed
is the genus Brassica and related to the wild mustard weed, Arabidopsis.
Most research for making better rapeseed oil is done on Arabidopsis.

I think it'll grow most anywhere but I can only speak for California!

Carolyn

Rodger Madison

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Mar 18, 1993, 3:25:55 PM3/18/93

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Rape is a common crop in Montana. Like wild mustard it has a yellow flower
which makes the fields planted in rape very colorful.

Rodger

John Snyder

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Mar 18, 1993, 5:43:42 PM3/18/93

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I believe that canola oil comes from a particular strain of rapeseed.
I heard that for a while, they were using the name LEAR, shich stood
for something like: low erucic (spelling?) acid rapeseed. LEAR
was hardly a better name than "rape"seed. I believe that most of the
commercial stuff is grown in Canada, and that canola is an acronym
for CANadian Oil or something like that.

John
sny...@henry.ece.cmu.edu

Cheryl Shipman

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Mar 19, 1993, 9:46:53 AM3/19/93

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Rape plants themselves also produce wonderful and tasty greens. If your
oil-seed production doesn't work out, you can simply eat the plants. Enjoy.

Cheryl

Beverly Erlebacher

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Mar 19, 1993, 11:12:26 AM3/19/93

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In article <114...@netnews.upenn.edu> hon...@mail.sas.upenn.edu (Cheryl Shipman) writes:
>
>Rape plants themselves also produce wonderful and tasty greens. If your
>oil-seed production doesn't work out, you can simply eat the plants. Enjoy.

I concur, and if anyone would like to try this on the cheap, find a place
that sells seed for feeding canaries. You can usually buy about a pound
of rapeseed for less than a dollar (i.e. enough for an army). The seeds
are small, round and blackish like cabbage or broccoli seed. You can also
sprout the seeds for salads and sandwiches (so now you know what to do with
the rest of the pound bag).

Incidentally, in China, rapeseed (also called colza) has been grown as a
vegetable and as an oilseed for centuries. The oil was used in cooking
and as a lamp oil.

Beverly ("weird veggies 'R' us") Erlebacher
Toronto, Ontario Canada

Larry London

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Mar 19, 1993, 8:44:29 PM3/19/93

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The oil comes from the seed of a variety of rape plant specially bred for
high oil yield. It was developed in Canada and is a major cash crop there.
The name: Canada + oil = Canola.

lon...@sunSITE.unc.edu

NWR AYRES

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Mar 26, 1993, 12:02:30 PM3/26/93

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Carolyn Jean Fairman (cfai...@leland.Stanford.EDU) wrote:
:
: bbs-...@jwt.oau.org (Rick Harrison) asks:

If it is from rapeseed then anyone planning to grow it had better not suffer
from hayfever. Here in the UK farmers have been planted huge areas to the
dismay of hayfever sufferers.

Nick:

tha...@rhea.arc.ab.ca

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Mar 31, 1993, 12:10:11 PM3/31/93

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Yes, on the Canadian prairies canola is a major crop. It's bright yellow
flowers turn the landscape yellow for about a month each summer -- very
attractive with yellow canola fields beside the dark greens of cereal grains.
It likes cooler weather, which has given Canada an advantage
in the marketplace. I understand there are efforts to breed a more heat
tolerant variety for the states, which has some people here worried.