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.