For a farmer, there's almost no greater pleasure than reaping what we've sowed - literally. You know the feeling when your hard work is finished and you can enjoy the results? Distillation is that time for us.
Many of you have had a chance to visit the Farm and see our Distillery -- yes, we have many folks ask if we create moonshine. No, something far more valuable -- 100% pure lavender essential oil!
As of this morning, we have harvested over 800 pounds of Grosso lavender buds and have run our stills for 80+ times. This year's "Team of Teens" is outstanding -- thoughtful, hardworking and fun to be around.
Our harvester cuts the flowers off the plants, we measure in 10 pound increments and begin the process: clean the copper stills, fill them with 10 pounds of material, add 2.5 gallons of liquid, turn on the burners so that steam will rise through the flowers and extract the essential oils. The steam travels into our cooling tower and a beautiful (and fragrant) distillate will flow. The distillate has both essential oil (which rises to the top) and also hydrosol, which is water with lavender molecules. Then we start all over again!
This June we offered a Distillation Workshop each Saturday. They were a hit with the students, who went through the complete process from harvest to bottling. (And of course I was so busy with the workshops that I have no photos!). We will plan to offer this workshop each year.
