As many people are starting their health journey or want to make minor changes to their diet, one simple place to start is your cooking oil. Over time, the FDA has lessened or created more loopholes for companies to get around, allowing them to implement ingredients into their products that aren’t safe for human consumption. Ingredients such as seed oil and canola oil. These common cooking oils lack health benefits, and the process of creating these oils involves chemical use.
” We pride ourselves on selling stuff that we always use and give to our kids,” Tommy Tickenoff, farmer and company owner of Fresh Vintage Farms, said about his locally sourced artisan cooking oils. ” You never know all the stuff these other companies are putting in their products, but with us, it’s simply the nuts and using a cold press technique that gives our oils a unique taste with the healthy benefits that other oils lack.”
Fresh Vintage Farms is an agricultural food products company focused on old-fashioned quality with innovative product offerings. They make premium cold-pressed artisan oil from locally sourced tree nuts grown in the Central Valley of California.
Tommy and his wife Tara are 3rd-generation farmers, with Tara on the agricultural side and Tommy on the business and marketing side. ” Getting enough land for a farm is long and drawn out. You have to inherit, purchase, or work your way up like I did. Working at other farms in the marketing and sales department until we had enough to get our ranch,” Tickenoff said about how he acquired his farm. ” We purchased about 20 acres in 2019 and built two warehouses where we produced and sold our oils.”
All Fresh Vintage Farms Artisan Cooking Oils are made using cold-pressed extraction, similar to the machines used to produce Virgin Olive Oil. Although more time-consuming and expensive to use a cold-press, it is the most effective way to consistently produce artisan oils that are tasty, versatile, and nutritious. There is a huge difference between Cold Pressed (Virgin) Almond/Walnut Oil and the “sweet almond oil” and “sweet walnut oil” you see on shelves at low prices.
” Over the last 15-20 years, I’ve seen almonds used for everything from human and animal consumption to cosmetic oil. Almond oil is equally good for cosmetics as it is for cooking oil and compares closely to coconut and avocado oil, which have become popular over the recent years.” Tickneoff said as he spoke about what led him and his family to create and sell oils. ” I noticed that almond and walnut oil weren’t used in the culinary space and decided to take a chance on it.”
Cold-pressed oils are extracted by pressing seeds, nuts, or vegetables using low or no heat. The extraction method does not require harmful chemicals since it only involves obtaining oil by naturally crushing it. Hot-pressed oils are prepared by squeezing seeds, vegetables, or other ingredients using external heat, friction, and continuous pressure. Before extracting oils, the seeds are heated by roasting. Since the seeds tend to lose their fragrance by roasting, chemicals are added. Adding chemicals also helps to increase the yield. Hot-pressed oils lose most of their nutritional value during high-temperature processing. The use of additives, chemicals, and extensive heat tends to destroy the plant cells, denature protein, and reduce oil viscosity. Bioactive substances such as carotenoids, vitamin C, and sterols endure massive loss.
