Oil-seed rape

Living near it in Lincolnshire, love to see it in bloom, love the smell, and only use the home grown coldpressed oil for cooking. Luckily not a hay-fever sufferer.

I love to see it too - the bright yellow colour always seems so cheery, and I also like the smell! Sympathies to those for whom it triggers hay fever though, I know that can't be much fun for you.

The farmers round here call it oilseed rape but are growing less of it because of finding it difficult to control the pests and diseases with what they have available (several pesticides are now banned).
I love the smell but not the colour and use it as much as olive oil. I definitely prefer it in dressings.

Same difference?

Rapeseed oil is the bane of life in this house! My husband is very allergic to it both in bloom and horribly in foodstuffs. It is my understanding that RSO was never intended to be used in the human food chain but for agricultural purposes. Its prolific use since sunflower oil became hard to obtain due to the soviet/Polish war is causing havoc for thousands of people. We can no longer eat anything out and even some common beverages are tainted by powdered milk. I have to bake all our bread, cakes and savouries. The effects of this stuff causes explosive diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain and throbbing headaches and lethargy amongst other things.
It looks beautiful but it brings misery to thousands now.

Georgesgran

It’s not early here - just bits of yellow, but not in full bloom. I don’t have hay fever, so to me, it smells heavenly - just like honey. I’ve ditched olive oil for rapeseed oil too.

Is there a reason why you’re using rapeseed instead of olive oil. I have both. Is one better than the other.

Didn’t think it was particularly early? I’m in Kent it’s usually about now
Fortunately it doesn’t bother me, just as well as have on two side of us.

My first husband suffered badly with hay fever to the extent of having to have a blue light trip to hospital a couple of times. He had all the tests but while silver birch was a major problem , sadly another was grass!!
But the tip I wanted to pass on to hay fever sufferers, which doesnt stop it all together but is definitely a help is Dont go out of your house without putting sunglasses on if you dont wear glasses. So you are not allowing the pollen into your eyes as you open the door. Dont know if they are still made now but for people who wear glasses there were some sunglass lenses that you could put on that went behind your normal glasses, and they went right round the corner, thus keeping pollen out of your eyes. It really does make a difference as he proved over time.

Obviously if you can avoid going out when it is very windy as that blows the pollen around too, is a good idea. He actually used to prefer it when it was very sunny and all the blossom came out at once. That way you have a rough couple of weeks but it doesnt go on and on over a long time., which he found less draining. Now with shops being open until much later or all night, going shopping very early in the morning or late at night is better.

This was quite a long time ago , but is of course still a major problem for some people. I think one of the few good things you might take from it is feeling able to ask for help, and for now avoiding shopping or going out much at all. Repaying that in the winter time perhaps for those who helped you so you do their shopping in icy weather etc.

I'm not too far from you by the sound of it. Itchy eyes and grotty sinuses here. Very pretty though.

Across the lane in front of my house they used to grow hay. It was lovely on a warm night to still watch them harvesting at midnight. Now it's all fields of rapeseed . I'm not an hay fever sufferer but this makes my nose and eyes run 😩

Hate the smell

Someone once described the smell as a sweaty person trying to mask the smell with talcum powder. Which imo just about nails it. I must admit that the view going up to the Cheviots with the fields full of it does look beautiful, though.

Olive oil has become so expensive lately so I now use extra virgin rapeseed oil instead. Half the price of olive oil and does the job although I have to admit I'm no connoisseur!

Here in the south it’s out several weeks early, as are the bluebells and apple blossom. It’s a lurid alien yellow and stinks like glue.
The beautiful blue fields which appeared a few years ago then disappeared were flax, which yielded lovely linen and named our children’s flaxen hair.

It’s very early early and the pollen count is high! Prefer rapeseed oil to olive oil though

I confess I like to see the bright yellow fields. However, I believe the crop may have been indirectly responsible for even more health problems than those of hay fever and food allergies/ intolerances.

I have a scientist friend who attributes her Parkinsons disease ( where she has some expertise) to the chemical sprays used on such fields close to her family home over many years ( some of which are now banned, as has already been mentioned). I am inclined to believe this, having had a mother who died of Parkinson's. Mum was a keen gardener who used - and no doubt breathed in - many now questionable pesticide sprays throughout the 50s, 60s and 70s.

And, even with more controls, the problem may not have gone away. A neighbour - only a few years ago - had her small, local honey making business destroyed. Investigations appeared to show that her bees were damaged and disoriented by the pesticides still used on the nearby oil seed rape fields. The bees were not killed outright visiting these flowers - but their homing systems were permanently damaged.

Living in Wales, I must admit to seeing no fields of rape. I used to love that amazing, sort of throbbing yellow colour, when we lived in the Home Counties.

I’m in a rural farm cottage and there’s a field of rape right outside my front door. The old spaniel and I both suffer with streaming eyes, she has cetirizine, I take loratadine and fexofenadine. Most of the other fields around the village are wheat this year.

I thought seeded oils were bad for the digestion- I won’t use it. Only olive oil

Mt61

I thought seeded oils were bad for the digestion- I won’t use it. Only olive oil

It depends which report you read or which advice your medical practitioner gives you.

For example I found these two quite easily.

Neither rapeseed oil (also known as canola oil) nor sunflower oil is inherently bad for digestion.

Or

Olive oil can cause hypoglycemia, sweating, trembling, weakness, and other health issues by lowering blood sugar levels below normal.

We have noticed just how much and early the oil seed rape is flowering here in Lincolnshire. The sneezing and snuffling is annoying to say the least.

Scribbles

I think the blue stuff was flax, Sharon . I remember seeing beautiful fields of it in north Essex and Cambridgeshire 20 to 30 years ago. Now, I wonder where the weavers of linen get it from. 🤷

Thanks for the info Scribbles. I've learned something today.
Yes it was a lot of years ago.

sharon103

Being in the countryside here, the fields are full of it.
Worse luck.
I've been allergic for the last 30 years.
Before the rapeseed the fields used to have blue stuff in them but I don't know what that was. Corn and wheat.
The weather man on Anglian news said that it's a bad year for pollen. The bees will be happy though.
Antihistamine and nasal spray help.

Flax is the blue stuff.