Bought an oil press It gives meaning to the value the ancients placed on oil

[bilmac]

I bought an oil press from Lehman's. Now I understand a little better why pouring oil over someones head till it dripped off his beard was a big thing. I pressed about a gallon of safflower bird seed and got maybe a 1/2 pint of oil. Add that effort to the work of growing harvasting and threshing the seed makes oil  pretty valuable stuff.
 
I believe being able to make my own oil could be important in my future if going to the store becomes out of the question though. I've only got 3 acres that I can grow anything on so raising any kind of livestock for fat would be pretty inefficient, a few chickens at the most.

[BUGEYE]

can you grow olive trees where you live??

[spooked]

I bought an oil press from Lehman's. Now I understand a little better why pouring oil over someones head till it dripped off his beard was a big thing. I pressed about a gallon of safflower bird seed and got maybe a 1/2 pint of oil. Add that effort to the work of growing harvasting and threshing the seed makes oil  pretty valuable stuff.
 
I believe being able to make my own oil could be important in my future if going to the store becomes out of the question though. I've only got 3 acres that I can grow anything on so raising any kind of livestock for fat would be pretty inefficient, a few chickens at the most.

Maybe potbelly pigs, butchered three that I finished on all the corn they could eat and they had this humongus fat layer when I slaughtered them. render'd
Over 12 gal lard from 3 potbellie bars, never seen anything like it before in my life...

[BUGEYE]

I bought an oil press from Lehman's. Now I understand a little better why pouring oil over someones head till it dripped off his beard was a big thing. I pressed about a gallon of safflower bird seed and got maybe a 1/2 pint of oil. Add that effort to the work of growing harvasting and threshing the seed makes oil  pretty valuable stuff.
 
I believe being able to make my own oil could be important in my future if going to the store becomes out of the question though. I've only got 3 acres that I can grow anything on so raising any kind of livestock for fat would be pretty inefficient, a few chickens at the most.

Maybe potbelly pigs, butchered three that I finished on all the corn they could eat and they had this humongus fat layer when I slaughtered them. render'd
Over 12 gal l;ard from 3 potbellie bars, never seen anything like it before in my life...

yeah, we rendered a lot of lard when we killed hogs.  nowadays, most hogs are the bacon type, long and lean.  you're the first I've heard that butchered pot-bellies.  I thought people just had'em as pets.

[blind ear]

After you pressed the seeds did you try to extract any more oil from the pulp? May be able to recover more oil if you boiled or pressure cooked the seed and then let the stuff settle and the oil float to the top. IF that works you might be able to extract oil from soybeans, I have never tried it. Most oil extraction in commercial facilities uses a solvent to extract the oil but those places have a recovery system to get the solvent back, not a cold pressed process.
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Pot bellied pigs were bred to produce small pigs that a family could consume before the meat and products would spoil. I have never eaten any but have heard that they are quite tasty. I would try one but not one that I had raised as a pet and named of course. ear

[PowPow]

Seems like boiling to get a little extra oil take more energy that what you get out.
Does not seem very sustainable

I have heard that olive trees don't bear fruit for the first 100 years; you plant item for future generations to enjoy.
don't know if that is true; heard it from a preacher, not a botanist..

[BUGEYE]

the official olive tree web site said 3 to 12 years, depending......
I just know that I love olives and their oil.

[bilmac]

No olive trees in Wyo. The cake after I pressed it seemed totally dry, like you couldn't get another drop of oil out of a bushel of the stuff. Supposed to make good animal protian suppliment, it's kind of like the cake some cattlemen feed. Looks like a dog t!!!! though.
 
 I hadn't thought about mini pigs that could be a good idea, I can't do any livestock [well I have some bees] because we don't live out to the place. If the country doesn't get destroyed by the politicians, we may never move.

[blind ear]

What kind of press did you buy?
A comercial press on utube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8EW0-k30zk
This guy said he presses soybeans. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25ibz2WnP5Y&feature=related

[bilmac]

No no my press is just a little hand cranked job. Lehman's has their catalog on line. Their press costs a couple hundred bucks. It is made largly of standard pipe fittings, but the screw auger would probably cost $150 to have a machinist make.
 
 It works pretty good, but you have to have a a little oil lamp heating it. This caused some of my first oil to get sooty. I learned better, but the little lamp and all the oil around makes me worry safety a bit. I will change things around a little next time I press.

[spooked]

No olive trees in Wyo. The cake after I pressed it seemed totally dry, like you couldn't get another drop of oil out of a bushel of the stuff. Supposed to make good animal protian suppliment, it's kind of like the cake some cattlemen feed. Looks like a dog t!!!! though.
 
 I hadn't thought about mini pigs that could be a good idea, I can't do any livestock [well I have some bees] because we don't live out to the place. If the country doesn't get destroyed by the politicians, we may never move.

Two vienna weinie  cans of corn a day, supplemented by a little grass or weeds is about all it takes to feed one...On days they get the kitchen garbage , the corn is omitted @ that feeding...gotta find me some more pb's...bin eating peoples grown pets they tire of...:-)