Canola Oil

Canola Oil: The Canadian Cooking Oil

Canola oil is pressed from the seeds of a plant in the Brassica family, which includes mustard and cabbage plants. The plant is a specific type of Brassica napus, which is the rapeseed plant. The canola strain was developed to solve certain issues with rapeseed and rapeseed oil. Rapeseed has …

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Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Extra Virgin Olive Oil: A Healthy Kitchen Staple

 Extra virgin olive oil is the term for unrefined olive oil with less than 1 percent oleic acid. There are many theories on the origin of olive oil, but the olive tree originated in the Middle East and spread from there to Greece.  The oldest storage containers for olive oil …

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Olive Oil

Olive Oil: An Ancient, Versatile Ingredient

Olive oil comes from the olive fruit harvested from olive trees, which some historians believe first grew in the Iran-Turkestan area. Other historians believe that olives began in multiple locations. Olive oil most likely originated in the Mediterranean region around about 6,000 years ago. Olive oil comes from the olive …

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Sesame Oil

Sesame Oil: Ancient, Versatile, And Flavorful

Sesame oil was used in Mesopotamia and Assyria, with the sesame seed prized as a crop in both places. Sesame oil was the only oil that the Babylonians used. Historians believe that the sesame seed may have been the world’s first cultivated oilseed. While there are different claims as to …

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Avocado oil

Avocado Oil: A New Oil From An Ancient Fruit

Avocado is a member of the laurel family, which also provides us with bay leaves and cinnamon. Botanically speaking, the avocado fruit is considered a berry. There is archaeological evidence of wild avocados being gathered and consumed 10,000 years ago in central Mexico. Mesoamericans were cultivating the trees 5,000 years …

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