GARDEN
Garden to Table
Growing and pressing your own healthy seed oils
By S. MICHAL BENNETT
By S. MICHAL BENNETT Photography By JOEL RINER
T here’s a wide range of fats and oils available on the mar- ket today for cooking, supple- menting your diet, skincare, wood treatments and more. Plant-based seed oils, like canola, corn, soybean, grapeseed and sunflower have re - cently come to the forefront as food health concerns and first came on the market in the late 1900s as cook- ing alternatives to hydrogenated oils, like vegetable oil. They quickly became common cooking oils along- side olive oil, and the high smoke point of some made them popular as frying oils. Seed oils are often criticized as be- ing high in omega-6 fats, which, in unbalanced forms can promote in- flammation, but alongside omega- 3s, they are also essential fatty acids not produced by the body. Addition- ally, as unsaturated fats, seeds oils can increase the risk of cardiovas- cular disease, but one of their great- est health down sides is that they are typically highly processed and refined, and then often consumed in highly processed foods. However,
incorporating extra-virgin, freshly- pressed seed oils into a diet balanced with other healthy fats, such as ome- ga-3, monounsaturated and poly- unsaturated, can help lower LDL cholesterol, support brain function, promote cellgrowth and benefit over - all health. Did you know that you can grow and press your own healthy seed oils right from your garden? In the Inland Northwest, our growing sea- son is noticeably shorter than other southern parts of the United States. Still, there are a few things we can grow here that produce seeds suit- able for oil-pressing. The top four that come to mind are pumpkin, wal- nut, sunflower and poppy. >> Pumpkin seeds Pumpkins thrive in this climate and are easy to grow. There are many local farms as well that open up pumpkin patches to the public for picking every fall season, and free pumpkin seeds are prolific at pump - kin carving events. Pumpkin seed oil has a smoke point of 320F (160C), usable for cold to low heat dishes.
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