If you want to have a sustainable oil source (that’s not from animal fats), then consider growing and pressing your own seed and nut oils at home.

In this post, my guest Bevin Cohen and I are breaking down everything you need to know about pressing your own seed and nut oils.

We’re clarifying the misinformation that all seed oils are unhealthy, as well as discussing the supplies needed to press your own oil and the sustainability of pressing enough oil for your family each year.

Why Pressing Seed Oils is Important

When thinking about how to be prepared on the homestead, as well as building up a well-stocked pantry and long-term food storage supply, one of the things that I began thinking about is what I would do if I couldn’t get access to my favorite olive oil.

Here in North Idaho, the climate isn’t conducive to growing my own olive trees, and while I love our lard, I’m not willing to melt my home-rendered lard or tallow to pour onto a salad for dressing. Yuck! This led me to look deeper into what it takes to produce my own oils at home.

That’s how I first found a book written by Bevin Cohen called The Complete Guide to Seed and Nut Oils: Growing, Foraging, and Pressing. After reading his book, I knew I needed to get him on the Pantry Chat podcast to discuss this topic.

About Bevin Cohen

Bevin is an author, herbalist and educator and he offers lectures and workshops across the country teaching about the many benefits of locally grown and wild harvested plants, seed saving, oil production, and much more!

Bevin’s garden is the heart of Small House Farm. This is where he and his family meditate, harvest seeds and learn about Mother Nature’s many wonders. Bevin and his family are avid seed savers and amateur plant breeders. They believe that each seed is a connection to every grower that stewarded that variety before us.

Bevin also wrote the book, The Complete Guide to Seed and Nut Oils: Growing, Foraging, and Pressing.

Are Seed Oils Healthy

Seed oils have really gotten a bad rap. If you take to the internet to search whether or not seed oils are healthy, you’re likely to find that they aren’t. In fact, seed oils are getting blamed for multiple health issues.

However, Bevin shares that when you’re comparing commercially produced seed oils to home-pressed seed oils, they may as well be two completely different things. How oil is processed and produced plays a huge role in the health of the actual oil itself.

For example, many commercially produced oils aren’t pressed, they are chemically extracted using hexane. Then the oil is sent through a process of deodorization, bleaching and degumming in order to be shelf-stable. This process alone turns a healthy product into one that I don’t want to find on my pantry shelf.

In comparison, pressing oil at home is a simple mechanical process of squeezing oily seeds to remove their oil content. It doesn’t use any chemicals, but rather a simple, old-fashioned press (or even a simple electric press). You can even grow your own seeds at home so you know exactly how they are grown!

Homesteading Hack: If you’re not ready to jump in with pressing your own oils quite yet, be sure to check out Bevin’s website. They sell their oil online and don’t even press the oil until the order comes in. You can also look for expeller-pressed oils at your local grocery store or farmer’s market. Be sure to check expiration dates and choose the freshest oil as possible.

Do Seed Oils Go Rancid Quickly

We do know that seed oils tend to go rancid quickly, and rancid oils are carcinogenic. So how do we know how long our seed oils are safe to consume?

Bevin mentions that in his book, they go into great depth of proper storage temperatures, how to store the seeds, how long the seeds can be stored, etc.

But the beauty of having your own seed and nut press is that we’re never storing the oil, we’re storing the seeds. The seeds will have a much longer shelf-life than the oil. It’s similar to flour vs wheat berries. The wheat berries can be stored almost indefinitely, whereas once ground into flour, the flour will go rancid much more quickly.

Bevin recommends pressing a week’s worth of oil at a time. Then you’ll always have the freshest and healthiest oil at all times. There’s no need to sit down and press a year’s worth of oil at once and when you only press a week’s worth it takes just a few minutes.

What Plants Can Be Turned into Oil

When it comes to producing oil on the homestead, there are many options available for pressing into oils. In fact, in Bevin’s book, he lists fifty different plants that can be grown or harvested for their oil.

A few of these plants include:

• Hemp Seed – 35-40% oil within the seed. You can press it in the shell. The seed cake (or the leftover pulp after pressing the oil) is completely edible and can be consumed or fed to animals.
• Flax Seed – Another incredibly nutritious oil that has an edible seed cake.
• Sunflower Seed – 30-35% oil within the seed. You can get approximately one gallon of oil from ten pounds of seeds. An acre of sunflowers can produce upwards of 200 gallons of sunflower oil, which means that about a 400-foot row of sunflowers can produce a few gallons of oil. Enough for most average-sized families for a year. The seed cake is also edible and can be ground into a flour-like powder and consumed or fed to animals.
• Sesame Seed – If you live in a place where you can grow sesame seeds, this is another great oil for home production.
• Pumpkin Seed – If pumpkins grow well, then consider growing them for their seeds. This is a high-dollar fancy oil that can be made at home for a fraction of the cost. You can even find hull-less seeded pumpkins, however, Bevin mentions these pumpkins tend to be bland and boring. Try a butternut squash seed oil instead! It’s one of Bevin’s favorites.
• Peanuts – If you can grow peanuts, this is a wonderful crop to use for oil. The by-product of pressing peanut oil is peanut butter. Then the oil itself has a very high smoke point, so it’s great for high-heat cooking or frying.
• Walnuts – Amazing and healthy nut oils can be made at home. While you do have to shell these first, they are a great way to use up your extra walnuts from a productive tree.

The easiest plant to grow for most people will be sunflowers. Oil seed sunflowers were developed in Russia and can grow in most climates.

No Waste

When pressing seeds into oils, there is virtually no waste. Bevin shares that they pressed mainly hemp seeds and would feed the hemp cake (what’s left over after pressing the oil) to their pigs.

This would produce extremely healthy pigs and they were actually able to sell those pigs for more money. We’d like to try feeding it to our Kune Kune pigs.

He also would grind up the hemp cakes into a flour and add it to pancakes, breads and other recipes. Furthermore, after pressing out the oil, there will be sediment that sinks to the bottom of the oil. If you filter that out, Bevin says this is the finest seed butter you’ll ever come across and it’s delicious.

Supplies Needed for Pressing Oil

There are a few options when it comes to pressing oil at home. We have an electric press that only requires me to push a few buttons, and the machine does its thing, then I wash a few parts when it’s done. I can literally press a week’s worth of oil while I’m cleaning up the kitchen.

Bevin mentioned that on his website, they offer a complete oil pressing kit that comes complete with a hand-driven PITEBA oil press and book combo. This is a simple setup that would be perfect for household use and can press up to eight cups of oil per hour.

Bevin also shares in his book how to hook the machine up to be bicycle-powered. With “pedal power” you can produce plenty of oil with very little effort (even the kids can press the oil)!

Here are the supplies needed for pressing oil:

• Oil Press: Bevin recommends the hand-driven PITEBA oil press. It’s a great starter press. There are some knock-off brands that Bevin says to avoid!
• Seeds or Nuts: You’ll need the seeds or nuts for pressing oil and proper storage containers for keeping the seeds and nuts fresh. Bevin mentions that the black oil sunflower seeds sold as bird seed are some of the highest producing seed oils you’ll find.
• 2 Containers: One for catching the oil after it’s pressed and one for catching the seed cake as it comes out.
• Jars & Bottles: Jars for catching the oil and letting it settle after pressing, then bottles for storing the oil.
• Nut Cracker (optional): You’re not going to want to run hard shells such as walnuts or hazelnuts through the press, so these will need to be cracked out ahead of time.
• Oven (optional): For some seeds or nuts, it’s recommended to either toast them or warm them slightly in the oven prior to extracting the oils. A baking sheet would also be necessary for this.
• Bicycle & Sprocket (optional): If you plan on attaching the oil press to a bicycle, there are a few other elements you’ll need to make this happen. In this case, I highly recommend getting Bevin’s book for step-by-step directions on how to do this.

Hand-Crank vs. Electric Oil Press

When it comes to small-scale production, Bevin says a hand-crank oil press will be all you need. Even for larger families, being able to hook the press up to a bicycle will produce plenty of oil with very little effort.

However, if you’re wanting to produce oil on a larger scale, or perhaps in order to sell for a business, You may be interested in an electric machine. Here is the electric oil press that I have.

How to Store Oil

The great news is that the seeds used for producing seed oils usually store really well, still in their husks or shells, at cool room temperature until you are ready to press them into oil.

How you store your oil depends on the oil you’re pressing. If you’re pressing hemp, flax, pumpkin, and sesame seed oils, you’ll want to store them in the refrigerator to extend the shelf-life beyond the one-week recommendation.

Sunflower and peanut oil can be stored at room temperature. However, Bevin never recommends storing it above your stove. That’s the hottest place in the house and the worst place for your oil. Store these oils in a cool dark location.

Tips for Cooking with Home-Pressed Oils

When it comes to cooking with home-pressed oils there are some things to be aware of. Those oils that require refrigeration are best used fresh and unheated. They don’t tolerate the heat well and will break down much easier.

Try making your own DIY non-stick cooking spray out of flaxseed.

Saute and stir fry with your peanut and sunflower oils. In fact, this is why Bevin recommends getting started with sunflower oils because it’s such a versatile oil.