Grow Your Own Magazine

HeyWayne · #1 (**permalink**) 01-04-2008, 01:23 PM

On my drive home through the lanes I pass several fields, some of which are growing oilseed rape. I noticed the other day that some are already flowering. Always makes me feel summery.

Headfry · #2 (**permalink**) 01-04-2008, 01:33 PM

Me too HW, I can see flowers on some of the fields round here!! seems to get more early every year!!

petal · #3 (**permalink**) 01-04-2008, 01:42 PM

I hate the stuff, my 12 year old son is allergic to it.

roadkill · #4 (**permalink**) 01-04-2008, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by petal

I hate the stuff, my 12 year old son is allergic to it.

same here but i spend most of my time in it or next to it protecting it from those damn pigeons

zazen999 · #5 (**permalink**) 01-04-2008, 03:30 PM

j'kno what - i was in Leeds this morning and on the way back; spotted exactly the same thing.

lainey lou · #6 (**permalink**) 01-04-2008, 03:35 PM

It's flowering round here too, unfortunatly it sets my husbands hayfever off flowering!).

Two_Sheds · #7 (**permalink**) 02-09-2008, 11:04 AM

I think Oilseed Rape is going to blanket the UK in years to come, due to its importance as a biofuel and as a healthy cooking oil.

However, it is a significant cause of hayfever 1 , and I believe it is increasing the number of pests we gardeners have to contend with, eg. wood pigeons 2, cabbage white butterflies and cabbage moths, cabbage root fly, mealy cabbage aphid, flea beetle, pollen beetle and turnip sawfly.

1) Oilseed Rape Allergy Syndrome
2) Since the 1970s the population has increased rapidly, which may be a result of the expansion of oilseed rape, which allows them to feed all year round
3) In late summer there is a significant migration of adult beetles from oilseed rape fields into gardens & allotments

Headfry · #8 (**permalink**) 02-09-2008, 12:29 PM

There are site around that say OSR is not good for you?

zazen999 · #9 (**permalink**) 02-09-2008, 12:46 PM

I also noticed that veg oil in shops isn't veg oil anymore, but rapeseed oil.

Polly Fouracre · #10 (**permalink**) 02-09-2008, 01:24 PM

I love the sight of a field of oil-seed rape. It glows, even on the dullest of days, but it does awful things to my sinuses.
Also it makes me think of G.M. crops and so seens a bit sinister!

andi&di · #11 (**permalink**) 02-09-2008, 01:36 PM

I've not noticed any OSR but my sinuses have been really playing up today!maybe.....

smallblueplanet · #12 (**permalink**) 02-09-2008, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Headfry

There are site around that say OSR is not good for you?

Interesting article in the Guardian from last year:

Quote:

....oilseed rape is a newcomer to our tables. It has been cultivated for thousands of years, but as a lamp oil. It took the highest level of plant breeding after the second world war to make what was a toxic substance fit for human consumption. Greedy for nutrients and notoriously dependent on nitrogen-rich fertilisers, oilseed rape is among the worst arable crops for leaching nitrates into waterways and polluting aquifers. It is one of the crops that led to the setting up of nitrate sensitive areas and nitrate vulnerable zones across the EU.

Oilseed rape is also plagued by a long list of pests and diseases - everything from cabbage stem flea beetle and peach potato aphid to black leg fungus and white stem rot - all of which require chemicals to keep them under control. A 2004 report from the Office of National Statistics states that oilseed rape crops receive on average three herbicides, two fungicides and two insecticides during the course of a growing season.
As a consequence of the intensive way in which they are grown on vast swathes of land, oilseed rape varieties are developing resistance to many of the pesticides routinely used. "For all these reasons, it is almost never grown or recommended as a crop on organic farms. It is a classic example of a crop designed for intensive agriculture," says Richard Sanders, policy and communications director at Elm Farm Research Centre, which develops and supports sustainable land use.

Some of the chemicals used in the growing of oilseed rape also cause concern. Nick Mole, UK and Europe coordinator for the Pesticides Action Network, points to the herbicide glufosinate ammonium and vinclozolin, "a fungicide that is also suspected to be an endocrine [hormone] disrupter".
"Neither of these chemicals are now commonly used as the farmer's first choice," insists Richard Elsdon, technical director of the industry body United Oilseeds.

And what of all those people who are adamant that exposure to oilseed rape triggers breathing difficulties, streaming eyes and hayfever symptoms? Every year the Department of Health receives complaints about eye and upper respiratory tract irritation in people who live near fields, possibly due to an allergy to pollen, direct irritation caused by the volatile organic compounds emitted by the plants, or airborne mould spores. Some doctors have suggested that oilseed rape may sensitise people to pollen or cross-react with grass pollen to cause problems. No other British crop exposes people to such an overpowering presence of pollen....

Joanna Blythman investigates the effect of oilseed rape | UK news | The Guardian

Headfry · #13 (**permalink**) 02-09-2008, 04:52 PM

First bit of info, cant remember the name of the rapeseed cooking oil, it goes under something like 'sun oil' any ideas, I know I read a huge bit about it! and not all of it was good news!!

'Whats in a name?
Rapeseed has been around for thousands of years, primarily cultivated in Asia and Europe. But rapeseed oil is loaded with erucic acid, which has been shown to cause lesions of the heart - not a good side effect. So a little genetic manipulation by some plant breeders in Canada created a variety of rapeseed that produced an oil low in erucic acid. They called it LEAR oil, an acronym for Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed.'

Two_Sheds · #14 (**permalink**) 02-09-2008, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Headfry

First bit of info, cant remember the name of the rapeseed cooking oil

It's called Canola in the States. It's monosaturated like olive oil, is high in Omega 3, so is being promoted as healthy, by brands like Yellow Fields.

petal · #15 (**permalink**) 02-09-2008, 09:16 PM

However, it is a significant cause of hayfever 1 , and I believe it is increasing the number of pests we gardeners have to contend with, eg. wood pigeons 2, cabbage white butterflies and cabbage moths, cabbage root fly, mealy cabbage aphid, flea beetle, pollen beetle and turnip sawfly. Yes whenever it is grown next to our house my son's hayfever is awful and our garden is totally invaded by these bugs!!

JanieB · #16 (**permalink**) 02-09-2008, 09:37 PM

The university I attended let their land out to a local farmer. When I was doing my 1st year exams, in a very hot summer, all the land around the examination building was covered in flowering rape. It was totally miserable. I (and other hayfever sufferers) daren't take antihistamines as they can make you sleepy. It was also difficult when you are constantly wiping your nose and sneezing

.

Um, I was a mature student by the way. This wouldn't have been a problem had I taken my degree 40 years ago

.

vicky · #17 (**permalink**) 02-09-2008, 10:15 PM

"oilseed rape crops receive on average three herbicides, two fungicides and two insecticides during the course of a growing season."

and the rest! I live opposite a field, seems they were spraying it every other day!
Now it's all gone and the field is brown again

I miss it!

Hilary B · #18 (**permalink**) 03-09-2008, 09:03 AM

Some of us call it 'the yellow peril'.
It is foul stuff for a variety of reasons, not least that it stinks of rotten cabbage whenever a tractor is driven into the field where it grows.
The straw is useless, and while bees can extract honey from it (unless some prat kills them off trying to control pollen beetle) the honey is useless for bee-feeding in winter,because it sets so hard so soon after collection (if there is any near you, and you think your bees may be working it, extract the honey within a couple of weeks).
You may gather I don't like it......

Headfry · #19 (**permalink**) 03-09-2008, 10:03 AM

It brings in loads of honey, but..... it sets as quick as looking at it!
Even sets in the bees honey comb can be a real problem for bee keepers and bees alike!

Diving to work one year. On both sides of the road were fields of rape.
Foggy morning, rape was is flower .....yellow fog, it really was very strange! but kinda nice though.

SlugLobber · #20 (**permalink**) 03-09-2008, 10:57 AM

Can't stand the stuff. It stinks and affects many horses when in flower. Headshaking is a real problem with this stuff. I hope it's never grown behind my house. The dirty farmer spreads human waste, which is bad enough. That mixed with OSR? Yuck!

Flummery · #21 (**permalink**) 03-09-2008, 01:26 PM

Human waste was traditional - it was called Night-soil. Great crops - re-cycling. What's the difference which kind of bum it comes out of?

HeyWayne · #22 (**permalink**) 03-09-2008, 01:50 PM

Well, I like it (osr that is, not human poo). I don't suffer from hayfever, I don't like horses and it looks nice and bright on a summers day.

*starts up the CAMPOSR - Campaign for the Protection of Oil Seed Rape.

Actually CAMPOSR sounds like some gay modelling agency....

andi&di · #23 (**permalink**) 03-09-2008, 01:56 PM

I like it too & refuse to believe that my often coinciding symptoms of bad sinuses & sneezing could be any way related!!
On the negative side~& i have absolutely no idea where he's based his findings so no-one ask but a chap at lottie is convinced it contributes to blight?!Apparently the years it's grown near our site there's blight & the years it's not there's not!?