Grow your own oil

I didn't know where to put this thread about growing oil plants in your backyards. I don't want to talk about animal fats here, that's another topic.
Which oil plants are suitable for the backyard? The question here is not so much about growing these plants but about easily processing the oil.
The problem here is mainly how to process oil on a household scale. We do not have any oil presses near us.
I have planted some olive trees, all named cultivators and they start bearing (not enough to press oil from), they actually start much earlier than I thought.
How about sunflowers, pumpkin, camelina... What are the yields?

how big a space are we talking and how much oil are you thinking of needing?

Here are 2 links that may help you decide what will work best for you in your climate.

This first link is to the Piteba oil press site's table regarding yields of oils from various crops:
http://www.piteba.com/eng/performance.html

This link has a good article about Sunflower seed oil production, including a Do-It-Yourself press design.

Had any of you actually used the piteba press?
I actually had a look at amazon and the press got very bad reviews.
We could maybe spare hundred square meters or so.
There is actually a second press on the market which looks quite similar: webpage
And here some guys write how they press their olive oil: olive oil, they use an insinkerator which is something some people use for putting garbage down the sink.

Hi Angelika
The second oil press you link too is frankly a chinese rip off of the Piteba oil press .
I am going to be buying a pitbea this year . Yes its a faff on yes you will need to do some work but it seems do able for only 115€ anything larger /different you will have to make yourself or pay quadruple for. I would buy direct from Holland if I was you
I already have acsess to walnuts and intend to grow black seed sunflowers . Also as I grow lots of pumpkins already I may try them .

David

Here is a link to an article about using the Piteba oil press.

http://homeplaceearth.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/using-a-piteba-oil-press/

Looking at Amazon, I would not say the press got very bad reviews. What I found showed an average rating of 3.5 stars, with more people giving 4 to 5 star reviews than any other level.

It has also come up here on Permies before.

I read some reviews at amazon and the original press does not seem to be of a great quality either. It seems to me very small. A bit like grinding flour with a corona mill. Building home scaled oil presses would really be a nice income for permies.

Angelika Maier wrote:I read some reviews at amazon and the original press does not seem to be of a great quality either. It seems to me very small. A bit like grinding flour with a corona mill. Building home scaled oil presses would really be a nice income for permies.

Interesting. It is small, but it is not intended for commercial purposes. I read all the reviews, many of which were quite positive about the quality of the construction. The negative ones appeared to have been talking about the Chinese knock-off, as they described different materials in the construction than are used in the Dutch product.

I am not ready to try one yet, and when I am I might go looking for one of those dissatisfied customers who found it too complicated or too much work, and get it at a discounted price.

Hi,

Anybody think that some of these oils you discuss might be used as a replacement for kerosene in lanterns?

We are talking old school, Ms O'Leary's cow kicked over, type of kerosene lantern. Think Amish.

I partly look at permaculture as a way to survive should something happen to bring down our house of cards. Having a natural substitute for crude oil based products like kerosene might be very helpful, especially when one turns on the light switch and nothing happens but question marks.

YLE

Yes And then nô . It dépends for making say 20 litres a year for cooking then yes .
More than that that you are looking at differing kit And more plants etc etc.

David

Vegetable oil burns fine in lanterns and oil lamps. Works fine in the little burner to heat the expressed unit, too. And, vegetable oil is less likely than kerosene to burn down the house if you knock it over. Not that you do not need to be careful, but it is less volatile.

Here in N. FL, we have a wonderful resource in Brandy Cowley-Gilbert at Just Fruits in Medart, FL.

Brandy is a world-class expert --decades of experience-- on fruit trees that do well in our Gulf Coast area; from Kiwi to Olive.

She even mixes custom fertilizers for each variety!

I've planted two of her Arqebina (sp?) cultivars... a year later they're still alive even after the record cold spells we've had this winter.

The idea of my own EVOO drizzled on top of my own kiln-baked bread REALLY motivates me.

Thanks for what you've done; and please continue to provide info and links on this (growing your own oil) subject.

I think nuts are a great resource. I have walnut trees, grow sunflowers, and am planning on planting hazelnuts. All of these have high oil content. However, I would recommend hazelnuts due to the fact that they are perennial and produce quickly in comparison with walnuts.

Here's another oil press that I don't think has been linked to. http://www.easyoilpress.com/ Don't know if it's any good.

I think this is another chinese model . The Piteba looks more solid and I think would cost less .

David

Thanks for the feedback, Heidi! (I too have hickory and walnuts... several hazelnuts....as well as chinquapin, pecan and sunflowers planted.)

I had not heard of that press before, thanks!

Here's another oil press that I don't think has been linked to. http://www.easyoilpress.com/ Don't know if it's any good.

I have planted some olive trees and plan to plant some oil crops (all must be netted).
Sunflower, anyone tried safflower, camelina or similar? I guess the oil seed pumpkin takes too much space although the oil is sooo yummy and it would cross with the other more edible pumpkins. On the other hand you could use the flesh as stock feed. Any figures how much oil per square meter? From what I googled up olives give you about 2 litres per tree. But I think you would need a different press than the piteba.

Angelika Maier wrote:
The problem here is mainly how to process oil on a household scale. We do not have any oil presses near us.

If you are mechanically minded, here's a wind-powered press that accepts larger containers than the Piteba. Problem is, the press in these pics doesn't come with instructions for the build, just pics of the parts needed:
https://inhabitat.com/dave-hakkens-wind-oil-machine-produces-cold-pressed-oil-from-nuts-and-seeds-with-every-passing-breeze/dave-hakkens-wind-oil-machine-1/

As for olives, I read that you need to crush both fruit and pits to get the max amount of oil. A screw-type press won't work for olives, though.  I've seen presses made from hydraulic shop presses, like you can get at a tool store. Not on sale, they're about $170 for a 12-ton press but Harbor Freight has awesome sales, or maybe you could find one at a garage sale.
Again, if you're mechanically minded, you could build a press using some scrap metal and a hydraulic bottle jack ($45 for a 12-ton jack at Harbor Freight).

I purchased a Piteba press when I was trying the 100 mile radius food availability. I'm on the cusp of the Cascades and Hazelnuts orchards are readily accessible within that distance.  Hull less pumkin seeds black striped "Kakai" is the only pumpkin seed I have tried. My hazels have started to produce that I planted after my initial experiment. I plant sunflowers as well so even though I haven't pressed any quantity of them that would be an option. i'll see if i noted yields in my journal

I don't have a lot of expertise in this area, but if I had to produce my own oils - cooking oils, lantern oils, household lubricants - my first instinct would be to rely on animal fats and dairy fats.  For sure they are the easiest and are highly productive.  But that is not the area in which the OP expressed interest.

My second instinct would be to use nut oils.  For one thing, they are generally good for you.  For another thing, once you have ground the nuts into butter, the oils naturally want to separate.  No extra processing or solvents needed.  Peanuts would probably provide the greatest yield per acre, as nuts go.  Tree nuts - hazel, walnut, almond - are also possibilities.  Once you have a healthy grove established, they represent less work in maintenance.  However, they also require a larger commitment of land.

I think someone above mentioned avocado trees.  That is a definite possibility, and avocado oil is also very good for you, but avocados grow pretty exclusively in the tropics and subtropics.  Also, how does one extract the oil from an avocado?  I don't know.  I should point out that, while I use refined avocado oil for cooking all the time, raw avocado oil is a different animal.  Both are healthy oils.  Refined is flavorless and has a high smoke point.  Raw has a distinct avocado taste and a very low smoke point, which makes it good for salad dressings but not for cooking.

I watched an interview with Bevin Cohen. He wrote a book on pressing seed and nut oils. The Piteba press is the one he recommends and sells on his site with his book. Smallhousefarm.com. the Piteba oil press and his book is on my list to "Santa" 😁

Unless someone already has nut trees, it takes too long to grow them.

My choice would be sunflowers.

I have read a lot of folks use sunflower seed oil in cooking.

Peanuts would be my second choice.

I really like the idea of "grow your own oil"!

the thing is, nut trees are growing all around many of us! it’s just a matter of collecting what falls. i took a little time this fall to gather some, a besides lots of other things i collected more than 200lbs of bitternut hickory nuts.  they’re very thin shelled, and while you do need to crush them up a bit first, totally piteba-pressable. i was actually pretty disappointed in bevin cohen’s dismissal of them in their book, given how thoroughly sam thayer has documented their usefulness in his books…cohen dismisses them as bitter, but the tannins that make them that way are water-soluble so the oil doesn’t have that problem (and is in fact truly delicious).

I would like to second the question of camelina growing. I have planted some as a cover crop with crimson clover. I won't know until spring if it survives my zone 3 winter. Right now it's 15 degrees F and no snow cover, so maybe not, but maybe.  I'd love to figure out the oil question..... Anybody else got growing experience with camelina?

Anne Miller wrote:My choice would be sunflowers.  I have read a lot of folks use sunflower seed oil in cooking.

Yes and no.  Based on what I've read, refined high-oleic sunflower oil is very healthy and frequently used in cooking.  It has a very high smoke point and is thus suitable for just about any use, including deep frying (though it's a bit pricey for that).  I use it myself, albeit sparingly (again, due to the price).

But raw sunflower oil has a very different fatty acid profile, making it very NOT good for you.  Since most of us don't have the ability to process the oil at home - I can't even guess what that might entail - that puts a different slant on it.

If sunflower oil is bad for you why are there so many YouTubers and folks talking about making their own oil with it?

So I ask Mr. Google:

Fats used in frying emit cooking oil fumes. These fumes contain toxic substances called aldehydes that may increase one's risk of cancer. Deep frying produces the most aldehydes, but sunflower oil generates more aldehydes than other oils regardless of the cooking method. Experts recommend low-heat cooking methods when using sunflower oil.  Aldehydes have also been found in fried food and in the oil after frying.  

https://www.webmd.com/diet/sunflower-oil-good-for-you

It is really highly unlikely that I am going to make oil.

I still think growing your own oil is a good idea.

Nut tree oils are not within my lifespan.

Anne Miller wrote:So I ask Mr. Google:

Fats used in frying emit cooking oil fumes. These fumes contain toxic substances called aldehydes that may increase one's risk of cancer. Deep frying produces the most aldehydes, but sunflower oil generates more aldehydes than other oils regardless of the cooking method. Experts recommend low-heat cooking methods when using sunflower oil.  Aldehydes have also been found in fried food and in the oil after frying.

Okay, but are they talking about raw sunflower oil or refined?  You will note that it doesn't distinguish in this quotation.  Since they're two very different things, it means that the info here is essentially taken out of context, as the reader can't tell what context is intended.  Perhaps the authors knew what was intended, but they chose to speak generically (at least within the confines of the chosen excerpt).  That is how misinformation begins.

Perhaps the above statement is true for all types of sunflower oil.  I don't know.  And I still don't know.

And BTW...

Anne Miller wrote:If sunflower oil is bad for you why are there so many YouTubers and folks talking about making their own oil with it?

Since when are all YouTubers experts on what they publish about?  YouTube can be a good source of info for some things, less so for others.

For sure, people have harvested and cooked with raw sunflower oil for centuries.  That doesn't necessarily mean it is or ever was a healthy oil.  And frankly, what the research tells us is a healthy oil today is opposite what it told us 40 years ago.  So it's hard to speak with confidence on this topic.  Anything we say is inherently accompanied by the unspoken clarification that "this is the info I've chosen to accept, ignoring all of the conflicting info."

Not even to mention that I should say, "what the research tells us" as reported in the popular press.  These days, that is becoming more and more synonymous with whatever message government and/or corporate authorities want to promulgate.

So it's extra hard to know for sure.  When profit and politics get involved, even just bureaucratic politics, even just well-intentioned bureaucratic politics, science tends to get a lot less scientific.

Canola oil in the USA  is usually made from genetically modified plants and processed with chemicals.
Rapeseed oil, in the European union is made from non-gmo rapeseed, bred for low levels of  Erucic Acid.
Mustard oil is canola oil made from plants with high levels of Erucic Acid.
Are any of them good for you?
Oil is a concentrated source of fat calories that huge swaths of humanity depend on.
When we are forced to supply it ourselves,  we must accept the limitations of our immediate surroundings.
Sunflowers produce oilseed in one season, and can thrive under rather poor circumstances.
I think that is the main reason they are preferred by homesteaders.

My idea choice for oil here in zone 6 is a grove of dwarf chinkapin oaks.
I would sell most of what I produced, store coconut oil for hard times and eat lard on the daily.
If there was a collapse my tools for and experience in making oil and meal from acorns would be very useful.
Yes another project to pursue!

William Bronson wrote:Canola oil in the USA  is usually made from genetically modified plants and processed with chemicals.
Rapeseed oil, in the European union is made from non-gmo rapeseed, bred for low levels of  Erucic Acid.
Mustard oil is canola oil made from plants with high levels of Erucic Acid.
Are any of them good for you?
Oil is a concentrated source of fat calories that huge swaths of humanity depend on.
When we are forced to supply it ourselves,  we must accept the limitations of our immediate surroundings.
Sunflowers produce oilseed in one season, and can thrive under rather poor circumstances.
I think that is the main reason they are preferred by homesteaders.

My idea choice for oil here in zone 6 is a grove of dwarf chinkapin oaks.
I would sell most of what I produced, store coconut oil for hard times and eat lard on the daily.
If there was a collapse my tools for and experience in making oil and meal from acorns would be very useful.
Yes another project to pursue!

i love this! acorn oil really is astoundingly good. it’s one of the few products our nut-processing group has discovered people want regardless of price once they taste it.

and just a reminder to most in the eastern half of the u.s., you don’t need to plant trees to get acorns! many cities have productive oaks growing in parks, cemeteries, around parking lots, etc., some of which are excellent oil-producing species.