Yellow crop (flowers) grown in vast fields
 

What is the plant and what is it used for? It is blooming now in northern France and Germany. Vast fields of the stuff along the highways. Looks like wild mustard we see in the spring in California, but this is a comerical crop.

It's all over Europe in the spring. It's rape seed and very beautiful to look at.

commercial mustard - and yes unending fields of yellow make it a sweet sweet site.

German Mustard Description and Use - Senf oder Mostrich
This is made with a yellow and brown mustard seeds and is the most popular style in Germany. Sometimes it is mixed with horseradish in the Eastern German ...
germanfood.about.com/od/.../g/mustard.htm -

I was told it's rape seed used for canola oil. So which is correct?

I'm pretty sure it's rape seed, aka canola. That's what I was told by a local German tour guide several years ago when I was in Germany around this time of year.

adrienne you are correct. Rape which produces an 'oily' seed is primarily used for oil as in canola and is also used as a feed crop. There are several different types of rape and therefore several different uses.

I've always called it oil seed rape and I'm allergic to it but it looks pretty from a distance.

It's name is COLZA. Rape is one of the plants in it's family.

Thanks everyone, now I know.

It is rapeseed aka Canola. Although it is grown for human and animal food purposes its main use is in bio diesel.

Latin name : Brassica napus

It is not subject to any restrictions, so is a very popular crop.

Some are allergic to the pollen.

I've seen it throughout UK and down to about the centre of France.

Peter

Mustard is also from the same family, as are cabbages and turnips.

Canada actually produces 90% of the worlds mustard seed. Saskatchewan alone produces 50% of it.

It is rapeseed. The oil made from it is called "colza" in France.

It's definitely rape seed and it is sprouting up all over the UK as well. Probably due to the huge incentives that the idiots in Brussels are paying farmers to grow the stuff. It produces amounts of pollen and leaves myself and my wife in agony over the summer months.

The scientists deny any link over and over but many people report a reaction to it. We certainly do.

Those fields grow all the way to near Lapland. Rape oil is very healthy, it has even more good stuff in it than olive oil. And it is the best oil for fish because its taste is very neutral.

Kerouac: Do you know how widely colza oil is used in cooking in Paris - or for that matter olive oil? My system is sadly becoming increasingly intolerant of butter and, while I don't want to annoy any of the chefs by going so far as to make such a request, I'm just curious as to whether it's unheard of to use the other oils as alternatives. (At least in Provence, I know it'll be easier to find huile d'olive.)

Elina, you're right about the neutral taste. I only use either olive, soybean or canola oil at home. Canola (rapeseed, colza) is the best for baking. (Note: I am not a California health guru or vegan by any means; this is by necessity rather than choice.)

Canola oil is nutritionally very controversial in some circles. This link provides both sides of the argument.

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/canola.asp

It is rapeseed (Brassica napus). 75% of the rape oil is used to produce biodiesel fuel. Another large portion is used to produce soap, detergents, plastic and industrial lubricants.

A small percentage is used for animal food and human consumption. Rapeseed used to be bitter and toxic and therefore it was not suited for consumption. Newer sorts (the 00 variety) are not bitter and used to produce colza oil. The downside is that rapeseed has a narcotic effect on hares.

Good grief, Cimbrone. That's alarming! (So, canola is crapola, huh?) Oddly, DH asked me a couple of weeks ago what seed or plant canola came from and I didn't know. Guess it's back to olive, soybean or safflower for me.

sap, make sure you read the rebuttal to the original email/article. The email on the evils of canola contains some dubious statements (someone's arm was split open like a rotten fruit because she had been ingesting canola oil??!! Doubt it.) One of my dearest friends, however, insists the stuff is poison. That's how I know about this.

It's all over the English countryside.

It stinks. Makes you sneeze and the eyes water. Chest and throat go tight and breathing becomes difficult.

Some days when the wind is in the (wrong) direction I can smell it inside my house and have to close the windows.

Thankfully the fields round here that were planted with oilseed rape last year don't have it this year, so I can breathe a bit easier. There are others but they are a bit further away.

Horrid stuff.

colza (käl′zə)

noun

any of several plants (genus Brassica) of the crucifer family, esp. rape, whose seeds yield an oil used in lubricants, salad dressings, etc.
this oil
in full colza oil
Origin: Fr < Du koolzaad < kool, a cabbage (akin to cole) + zaad, seed
Webster's New World

The scientists deny any link over and over but many people report a reaction to it. We certainly do.>>

they need to listen to the Archers. Linda Snell goes through the same agonies as you, Mark, so it much be true.

Sap, canola oil is not supposed to be used for cooking.

Rapeseed is very allergenic - and is banned in some parts of Europe for that reason.

(Tecnically, it's the GM strains that are banned in some countries, but it's the allergy aspect that's the main concern not the genetic manipulation per se).

Olive oil should not be used for high temperature cooking either. The principal French cooking oil is sunflower oil and in the coming months you will see just as much of that in the French fields as rapeseed in April and May.

Why shouldn't olive oil be used in cooking? I use it at home all the time but don't really cook on high heat as in deep frying. Only sauteing or roasting.

Olive oil is widely used for cooking in France, especially in the South, as it withstands very high temperatures. Other cooking oils are peanut oil, grape seed oil, sunflower oil, corn oil.

Yes Olive oil is used mainly in the south but NOT
the virgin olive oil.

>>>It stinks. Makes you sneeze and the eyes water. Chest and throat go tight and breathing becomes difficult.<<<

Must be some different rape from the one grown here. It does not stink. It has no smell at all. And I have never heard of anyone being allergic to rape oil. And no, it certainly is not gene manipulated.

sap, see also the beginning of that stupid mail. It says in red "false". The writing below the email says for example: "Rapeseed oil has been used for cooking for centuries in Europe, India, China and Japan." At least where I live it is in the lists of healthy eating, right next to 100% rye bread, berries and fish.

''And no, it certainly is not gene manipulated.''

There are both GM and non-GM strains of rapeseed. And the dietary aspect and allergenicity are two entirely separate things. No one has said it is unsafe or unhealthy to eat. The pollen is however, highly allergenic to many people.

>>>There are both GM and non-GM strains of rapeseed<<<

Sure, but gene manipulated only in countries where it is allowed.

i have never heard a european say anything good about fields of rape seed. generally (at least in my experience) it is very much frowned upon for the reasons mentioned here but also many people think these vast fields are ugly and unnatural looking...a scourge to the natural beauty of the countryside.

i'm pretty neutral but things like >>>It's all over Europe in the spring. It's rape seed and very beautiful to look at.>>>> i have certainly NEVER heard before!!!

Canola fields are part of the landscape in the far North of Germany and have been for decades, and no one complains about them - on the contrary, everyone loves the colour. People travel this region on purpose when they are in bloom.

In France they are photographed alot because of their beauty.

Well, I'm just completely confused now (sigh).

walkinaround is always offended whenever anyone tries to romanticize europe. endless fields of yellow blossoms? pah!!! hideous!!!!

for those who have neever seen these fields here are some
photos:

http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/colza,scenery

The farmers like them well enough.:)

As to not cooking with olive oil, I've been doing it for over 20 years and hadn't noticed that it didn't work. :-?

So, do French chefs use sunflower oil quite a bit, or is it frowned upon as un-gourmet?

Maybe I'll be reduced to eating my food raw.