At the end of last May, we were in England for Bill's mum's 80th birthday, which happened to coincide with the Queen's Jubilee. Along with the mouth-watering roasted potatoes, sausage rolls, and wheels of fabulous cheese...
I drink my coffee with thick English cream when on the other side of the pond. Just the thought of it, wets my taste buds. The best cup of coffee I've ever had was at June's house some 15 years ago. Neighbors and friends were over one morning to visit. We sat on the patio outside in the sunshine and conversed over morning coffee: French pressed with English cream.
I was a little shocked last May to find no cream in the small English fridge when we arrived. Bill's family had been buying a lighter version of cream with lower fat. It just didn't work for me. It was missing that soft velvety thickness. I'm not in England often. I bought cream and allayed the guilt with an occasional walk.
Bill's family lives in a relatively new housing estate which backs up to a lane leading to farm fields. Set up for a walking nation -- or so it used to be -- public footpaths meander throughout the countryside, edging private property, including farmland. The first time I climbed over a stanchion and landed into a pasture where cattle were grazing, I fretted. "Is there a bull?" Apparently the English haven't met a Holstein or Herford bull. Or perhaps English bulls are of calmer ilk than Iowa bulls. On these paths, farmers are responsible for keeping paths clear; walkers are responsible for respecting property.
At the end of the lane and past a cluster of trees, a field opened up like a solar glare on this cloudy English day. Occasionally seeing this crop covering rolling fields, I only knew it had the unfortunate name of "rape." After this photographic outing last May, I tucked myself away in our bedroom overlooking June's garden and researched this crop a bit. The name is derived from the Latin word rapum, which means turnip. In the UK, farmers use it as a winter "break crop," it enhances the soil for the following rotation of wheat.
The leafy green stems shoot up spikes that blossom out buttercups. Like pumpkins, strawberries, and soy beans, the flower matures and the "fruit" begins to grow. In this case a pod of seeds forms and continues growing long after the flower has fallen off the end of it.
The leafy green stems shoot up spikes that blossom out buttercups. Like pumpkins, strawberries, and soy beans, the flower matures and the "fruit" begins to grow. In this case a pod of seeds forms and continues growing long after the flower has fallen off the end of it.
The raw oil from this crop, which is high in erucic acid, is used in industrial oils and lubricants. In the 70's, through cross-breeding, Canadian scientists created a version of rape with low erucic acid and low gluclosinates. A Canadian low acid oil suitable for human consumption and quite the hit due to being low in saturated fat. Now comes the puzzle: From that last sentence, can you piece together what this oil is called? Canola! (Canadian low acid oil)
Throughout the holiday, I continued my occasional walks after coffee. Each time the healthy cream and the real cream came to the table for coffee. Wanting to know what made this alternative cream healther, one day I read the ingredients. Full circle: rapeseed oil -- canola oil -- was one of the main ingredients. No wonder my taste buds rejected the lighter version.
I'm not overly interested in the on-going disputes between this healthy lower fat oil vs this non-healthy modified toxin. What I am certin of is that when in England, I want my English cream from those cows in the pasture, not from canola oil fields behind the house where I burn off some of those cream calories.
These are the sources I referred to in writing this story:
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-canola-oil.htm http://www.ukagriculture.com/crops/oil_seed_rape.cfm http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/canola.asp http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/canola-oil/AN01281 http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/grocery_shopping/crops/21.genetically_modified_rapeseed.html http://www.examiner.com/article/is-canola-oil-dangerous http://www.grainscanada.gc.ca/canola/cm-mc-eng.htm
(Back to the fields in Iowa... Spring's Gate Girl.)