Once you really begin to plan how to eat a homegrown/local diet you will soon realize that cooking oil is something that is not coming out of your garden or is available from local growers, unless you live in California in olive territory. If animal products are in your diet, that could be a source of fat. I buy bacon locally from a farmer who raises his hogs on pasture and save the drippings for cooking with. Having homegrown oil, however, would be nice, and it just happened that I visited Lehman’s Hardware in 2010 when they first began to carry the Piteba oil press. I bought one and played with it long enough to know that I needed to spend more time learning all the ins and outs to put it to the best use. I was busy building my solar dryers and learning more about them, however, so the oilseed press got put aside. With my 2011 hazelnut harvest and homegrown peanuts, I decided it was time to get it out. Another source for the Piteba is Bountiful Gardens.
The photo shows it all set for action. The press comes with a small bottle with a wick that holds colored lamp oil that you provide. The first photo shows blue lamp oil, but in the closeup photo you can’t see colored oil because it is almost empty. You also need to provide a container to catch your pressed oil as it drips from the slot. Unfortunately, a jelly jar is too wide to fit the space, but I have a small juice glass that is just the right size. There is a small hole in the frame where that glass sets. A funnel could be placed there with a tube that leads to a larger container. You also need to provide the seed hopper, made from a soda bottle. I used a bread pan to catch the oilseed cake after it was pressed.
The small lamp heats up the press cage to help with the oil flow. Light it 10 minutes before you begin pressing. Once things are flowing well, you might be able to extinguish it. Beware! Only have the wick showing the slightest bit or the flame will be too big. If it is too big and you have to adjust the wick, DO NOT grab the wick holder with your fingers while it is hot! Wait until it cools. I’m speaking from experience here.
The first time I used my press I tried some old sunflower seeds that I had here. They were the striped culinary ones, not the black oilseed variety that you should use for oil. Being old they were probably somewhat dry and they immediately stopped it up. The handle stopped turning easily, in fact, it became impossible to turn. When that happens, and it will, you need to take off the large cap and the adjustment bolt. If you’ve had the lamp lit, they will be hot, which is why I keep handy a ¾” wrench to use for the adjustment bolt and a monkey wrench for the cap. Take them off and immediately clean out the cap. You will need a knife to dislodge all the packed seed residue. Wash everything thoroughly, making sure the threads of the cap are clean. If your seeds are too dry, the directions suggest mixing some water with them and leaving them in a plastic bag for two days, then try again.
Immediately after using the Piteba, dismantle and clean it. If you wait, the press cake inside will become hard as stone. If that happens, you can soak everything in water until it softens enough to take apart. Depending on how it is, you may need to leave it soaking overnight, but it will soften enough to clean. Be sure to read all the directions. There is a washer that needs to be coated with edible oil before it goes on the expeller screw when you put it all together to use.
You can go to the health food store and buy any number of seeds to try in the Piteba. There is a performance chart available on the Piteba website that allows you to compare the percent of oil in various seeds. If push came to shove, however, and you needed to provide cooking oil for your household, you would do well to learn as much as you can about using seeds you can grow or find locally. Keep in mind that these seeds aren’t as convenient as the ones from the store. You will need to clean and process them yourself. If you are using sunflower or pumpkin seeds, use oilseed varieties. The seeds of oilseed pumpkins are hulless. The seeds from oilseed varieties of sunflowers are black.
I was anxious to press my homegrown hazelnuts and peanuts. It took forever to shell the hazelnuts, since my nuts are the small native variety. Find out more about growing hazelnuts at Hazelnuts / Filberts In My Garden. The yield for one cup of homegrown hazelnuts, weighing 5 ounces, was 3⅓ tablespoons oil. The yield for one cup of homegrown peanuts, weighing 6 ounces, was 4 tablespoons oil. I used my Master Nut Cracker for the shelling for both the hazelnuts and peanuts. The peanuts went pretty fast with that. I’ll be writing about that nut cracker one of these days.
If you wanted to produce enough oil for one tablespoon a day per person, you would need 1.4 gallons of oil per person per year. In the Master Charts in How To Grow More Vegetables (HTGMV) by John Jeavons, the beginning yield for peanuts is 4 pounds per 100 ft² and the intermediate yield is 10 pounds. The average U.S. yield for peanuts is 7.2 pounds per 100 ft². Let’s consider the conservative 4 pound yield. I need to sow about 8 ounces of peanuts for each 100 ft² planting, so a yield of 4 pounds leaves 3.5 pounds for eating or pressing for oil. At that rate it would take 960 ft² to grow peanuts to produce 1.4 gallons of oil, plus the seed to plant back. Just think, if you had that 7.2 pound U.S. average, it would only take 500 ft². I battle the voles at my place, so my best yield of peanuts has been 3.75 lb. per 100 ft². I’ll have to see what I can do to get my peanut yield up. The HTGMV beginning yield for hazelnuts is 7 pounds per 100 ft² planting. Since hazelnut trees are perennial, you don’t have to save out any seed to plant back, however, some trees may not produce every year.
In 2008 I took this picture of a primitive oilseed press. I don’t know any more about it than what you see in the picture.The seeds are in a small basket. We were at a folklife festival and came upon it at the end of the day. The only person around was a volunteer who said it was for pressing seeds for oil. If you don’t have a Piteba, it might give you some ideas. In The Self-Sufficient Life and How To Live It, John Seymour suggests using a cider press to extract the oil from seeds. You would need to crush the seeds, then wrap them in a cloth. Obviously, you would need to work with a larger quantity of seeds. It might be, now that you have taken a closer look at what’s involved to produce your cooking oil, you might adjust your diet to use less than before. Steaming vegetables might become more desirable than stir-frying. Last week I used my solar oven to bake some snap beans, potatoes, and garlic together with only 1 tablespoon of my newly pressed oil drizzled over the vegetables. It was delicious.
That was interesting article. I have never heard of anyone actually pressing their own oil.
the piteba is available on amazon and ebay for a little cheaper
I used ours
in Hawaii for years making a great deal of mac nut oil
Not to be picky, but it’s a pipe wrench you have, not a monkey wrench.
Yep, you’re picky all right, but you’re correct. I have always used the terms “monkey wrench” and “pipe wrench” interchangably. I probably learned the term “monkey wrench” from my dad growing up. He was a mechanic and I’d ask him about it now, if I could. If he was still living he would be 89. I now know that a money wrench has smooth jaws and a pipe wrench has serrated jaws.
[…] your diet. In addition, they can be used for cooking oil. More information about that is at my post https://homeplaceearth.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/using-a-piteba-oil-press/. Sunflower stalks, like the cornstalks, are used in the […]
Have you seen this nutcracker? http://www.photomagnets.com/theworldsbestnutcracker.html 1
I have not seen that nutcracker, but it looks interesting. The website doesn’t mention black walnuts which are tougher to crack than English walnuts. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has actually used this one.
Hi – thought I’d share what I just learned about oil pressing from the Seeds of Sustainability site – where they first soak the seeds to germinate, and then let them cure (slowly dry). This is done twice, and can more than double the yield of oil. This oil is also non-acidic reactive and makes is very digestible and has more healing energy.
I would love to see a video on the above.
I have heard of people soaking grape seeds as well to make them softer so that the Piteba can press them.
There are videos on YouTube showing the Piteba in action.
Can I press olives with the stone in them is it possible with my piteba
Is there some who could help me
I got my piteba as a gift and I have heaps of olives
Thanks
Paris
Paris, it would be best to inquire at piteba.com. Olives are not on the list of things they show for extracting oil.
This is all new to me/us. I just planted 100 peanuts yesterday (I plant by the moon, we live in Central Arkansas). I made the mistake of buying only one Hazlenut tree this early spring, shame on me! So we have to wait to order another one in the fall, but our lone one is doing very well. I want to make my own nut butters, and had not thought of pressing for oil until I read this article! I will look at my Lehman’s catalog for one. I have a question….what do you do with the pressed nut meat? Thank you!
They are cheaper on Amazon and Ebay. And they are shipped same day the order is made in most cases
I’m not familiar with what’s on Amazon and Ebay. Whenever ordering any equipment from there that appears to be the same as somewhere else, make sure you know what you are getting.
Same seller on Ebay and amazon for years, me.
Good to know. When I bought my Piteba, Lehman’s was the only place I keow offering them. I bought the first one they sold.
Jackie, the pressed meat is really dry. I feed it to the chickens.
[…] possibility of making oil from the black walnuts that are prevalent in the area. That was before the Piteba, a home-scale oil press, was available. Even with that press, I’m sure the novelty of making oil from walnuts would wear […]
Even so, it is munual operation, still very labor cost, there are new type of electric oil press available online now, you can visit http://www.homeuseoilpress.com/
I have been using the Piteba for about a year and have bought parts to make an electric drive. This is either by using a bicycle or the motor from a treadmill. Either way, it isn’t more torque than hand turning it. More like leg power.
Yes to soaking seeds before you turn. This softens the outside hull to make the seeds more able to slide through the press. Learning how to work the seeds is a process with some learning curve but very worth it.
My favorites are pistachio oil, shelled Organics purchased from sun farm Organics in California. Then sunflower is easy with the shells off.
Yes, shells on is better but you will need a mechanical sheller as well. So for beginning, use something easy like pumpkin seeds from a health store.
I also found chia seeds at costco for an amazing price. They make a fine oil.
Once I have my oil, I let it separate for a day. Heavy material goes to the bottom. I pour the top into my glass jar. You might want to save your salad dressing bottles for the job. I use Miron glass. It’s a violet glass that adds energy and vitality. (I can tell the diff with water from this glass. Wow.)
I bought the press to lower the cost for the kings of oils I want to consume. I use black sesame oil to do oil pulling for healthy. It safely removes toxins from the brain through the roof of the mouth. This lets me avoid dementia and Alzheimer’s which my family tends towards. The black sesame has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years! It supports myelin sheath health where coconut oil does not!
Mimi from Healthy Energetics
Hi Mimi,
Thanks for the information, I am wondering how did you make you piteba electric driven, can you explain what parts did you buy and some pictures if you can. I am also planning to do the same, please help.
Hi, I have a question.
Can piteba press oil from bergamot peel?
I am not familiar with bergamot peel. The only things I have experience using with the Piteba are what i mentioned in the post.