48. Sunflower Seed Oil

One of the country roads outside of my village with a harvested wheat field and a sunflower field close to harvest time.



The most popular and used oil in Moldova is Sunflower seed oil. Sunflowers are a very common crop in Moldova. I sometimes feel like I am in Kansas. Some people wish that Moldova would not grow so many sunflowers because the soil is rich enough to grow anything else, and the root system of the sunflowers is harmful on the soil makeup.

In my experiences, there is a lot of oil used in the cooking in Moldova. I believe it is because if you prepare food with a lot of oil, it is less likely to stick to the pan and it makes it easier to clean. I am glad that most oil in Moldova is sunflower seed oil, because at least it is fairly healthy for you.

My host family’s garage, there is press that makes sunflower seed oil from the pressing the seeds and hulls. The byproduct, compressed see hulls, is supposed to be very good for feeding hogs and for fishing.

A large barrel sits above this auger which feeds the machine with sunflower seeds.

 
There is a barrel that sits under the machine to collect the oil and on the left side of the picture is were the pressed sunflower seeds come out of the machine.