I seem to recall reading somewhere that to avoid using the the term rape or rape seed the "industry" changed it to Canola which comes from canadian oil. (?)

Just switch to cottonseed oil and your worries are over.

<i>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.</i>

I said "<b>high temperature</b>" cooking -- such as deep frying. I cook with olive oil as well and in fact use olive oil for about 75% of my cooking. In France, all of the various bottles of oil indicate the temperature that should not be exceeded for each oil, not that anybody really reads the labels.

Just look what I started with a simple question!

This is an interesting thread! Maybe fodors should use part of it for their weekly question:

Which would you rather see in Europe out of the car or train window - brown, fallow fields or luscious fields of yellow rape seed flowers?

High temperature. Yes, that's the difference of course. I haven't deep fried anything in 20 yrs.

Besides its toxic reputation, I can see why they would want to change the name. Obviously, it's not politically correct. /s

The votes are in and we have a winner. Looks like it ain't mustard.

In olden times, it really was mustard. When I first began to visit France as a child, my (French) mother always referred to the "yellow mustard fields." I'm not sure when the mustard mostly disappeared and was replaced by colza -- which is actually a much brighter yellow than mustard fields.

kerouac on May 21, 10 at 9:26pm
In olden times, it really was mustard. When I first began to visit France as a child, my (French) mother always referred to the "yellow mustard fields." I'm not sure when the mustard mostly disappeared and was replaced by colza -- which is actually a much brighter yellow than mustard fields.


Wouldn't have been down Dijon way ?

Peter

adrienne -

<<Which would you rather see in Europe out of the car or train window - brown, fallow fields or luscious fields of yellow rape seed flowers?>>

Well, living close to a lot of these noxious yellow fields, and suffering the physical consequences of the fumes given off by them, while they may look 'pretty' I would rather the fallow fields every time - and these are not necessarily brown, but more usually they are green.

"0 years or so ago when they first started to be planted in large areas we thought they were mustard fields. It was only later the word 'rape' started to be used. Certainly the hot tang of the smell is akin to hot mustard.

Whatever it is, it's horrible for those of us who live in the vicinity of the fields.

I grew up in Northern Germany, in the midst of huge rape seed fields.
The only disturbance I heard anyone ever talk about was the yellowish dust that gets on the windows when the wind blows heavily.
I never heard anyone call it "terrible" - total nonsense.

I'm allergic to wheat and rye -- what should I do: tell people to stop eat bread?

The first time I saw a yellow field like that was over 30 years ago and I will never, ever forget it.

I don't know what road our tour bus came in on, but we were surrounded by fields of this gorgeous yellow, and then suddenly the spires of Chartres rose up from the field! Even at the young age of 16, my heart skipped a beat or two at the sight.

The plant has been blooming in Maryland and other parts of the northeastern US for the past few weeks. Canola is often used in cooking although I suppose not for deep frying.

On the Champs Elysées today there is both a colza field and a mustard field in bloom -- and from a distance I absolutely could not tell the difference!

I'm trying to put together a photo report on the "Nature Capitale" operation.

I am surprised no-one has mentioned the smell. Rape flowers have a rather sickly sweetish smell, like honey. I don't think there is any smell after the flowers have died and the seeds are forming.

The other colourful crop in Britain is flax. The flowers show as a rather hazy purple colour. Very attractive.

It's that time of year. Again.
I think it's poisonous and noxious and ugly and so does my wife, a fellow sufferer of the toxic gas the plant gives off. For all those sceptics lucky enough not to suffer check out the runners, cyclists and athletes forums, many of whom can no longer train when it's in bloom. No one ever went into a shop and asked for rapeseed oil, the stuff they used to make mustard gas, made by steaming, solvent, bleaching and deoderizing...it is sold to us because it's cheap and profitable and is a bio fuel so we are less reliant on imported oil. As for eaten for 1000's of years try looking into that in more detail, rickets has been with us a long time but it doesn't mean we would want it in our own children. It was eaten out of sheer necessity not choice. When it first appeared it was a novelty and an attractive one. Now it's monoculture with no shades or texture just unending fields of yellow yeuk! And for those who can't smell it, envy envy envy, it's like drowning in a sea of honey.

Sorry Steve, rapeseed oil, as it's known in the U.K. is quite a fashionable oil now for culinary purposes, and you can even buy "designer" rapeseed oil.

Have a look here - www.rapeseedoil.co.uk

"<i>No one ever went into a shop and asked for rapeseed oil,</i>"

Oh of course they do -- all the time. That is what's called Canola Oil in the States . . .

E10 gas, the stuff is used to fuel Europes cars. Looks nice, doesn't it.

Super 10% Ethanol (E10) 1.559€ per liter

We import our food from the 3rd world. LOL
Egypt just has new potatos. Who cares if they have enough to eat or not!

but logos, just think about what happens to the egyptian growers if we stop buying their spuds.

I used to think just the same way about Kenyan french beans until I heard a radio programme all about the growers and the way that being able to export the beans [and flowers, apparently] has transformed their lives.

things are often so much more complicated than we think.

Hmmm annhig, let me think about it. There's only so much arable land in the nile valley. The whole crop of potatos is shipped to Alexandria and to Hamburg from there. It ends up in the German stores sold in 2.5 kilo bags at 2.39€ per bag. How much profit is in it for the farmer? The locals have to eat bread made from imported grain subsidized by their government.

Would it not make sense to produce at least something that can be sold at a higher profit, (cotton??), instead of shipping cheap potatos to Germany and importing grain from the US?

How can this ever work for the farmer?

but the Egyptians do produce cotton; perhaps it [and grain] can't be grown on the land that is used to produce potatoes.

I agree entirely with what you say but there must be some reason why this practice has grown up.

Thanks for letting us know--my husband and I have wondered for years what those flowers were, and every time we asked, we were met with blank stares or shrugs.