To brighten your mood on this rainy day I have some wonderful information on the benefits of Sunflower Oil!
At this week’s market I walked around observing the wonderful variety of products being sold. 
One particular product caught my eye due to its rarity as a local and sustainable product in New Hampshire. This product is cooking oil, more specifically sunflower oil.
I was lucky enough to have Carol Hutton owner of Coppal House Farm talk me through the process of how they create their sunflower oil. The sunflowers are grown on their farm in Lee, New Hampshire and then harvested and fully dried. A cold press machine is used to extract the oil from the sunflowers seeds. The oil then goes through another press, one similar to maple syrup making, where all impurities are separated from the oil. No chemicals are used in this process. Carol also informed me that the byproduct known as the hull of the seed becomes meal, grounded and then pelletized to feed their hogs on the farm.
The sustainability around making this product and the appealing taste of the product is what has won this sunflower oil a Good Food Award of 2016. As Carol excitingly explained to me, this national food award is like the “academy awards” of food. Congratulations to Carol, John and their team at Coppal House Farm!
Sunflower Oil Notes: It is a multipurpose cooking oil that can be used for salad dressings, sautéing and even baking.
Let’s talk Sunflower Oil nutrition! This oil is full of what we like to call the “healthy fat” or unsaturated fat. Based on a fatty acid content normalized to 100%, Sunflower Oil contains over 80% of monounsaturated fat, that’s about 10% more than olive oil contains. Monounsaturated fats are the types of fats you want to be consuming, these fats improve blood cholesterol levels which can decrease your risk to diseases like heart disease.
If you like sunflower seeds then this is the oil for you! The silky texture along with the seedy taste makes this oil an appetizing ingredient for many meals.
For more information about Coppal House Farm and their products please refer to their website at: http://www.nhcornmaze.com/
Wondering where I get some of my nutritional information from? Check out USDA National Nutrition Database, a free resource providing food nutrition content on over 8,000 food items! http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods