End of an Awesome Week with yet a Bigger Week ahead!

Last weekend was a Blast! We distilled some absolutely Beautiful English Lavender on Saturday. Many times there was a crowd around the distiller "huffin" some precious lavender aroma. The response when our visitors catch the view of our distiller is widely diverse. If it is someone from the South or Midwest the common response is: "Does the Revenuers know you are doin that?" The corn in the garden kinda helps them come to that thought. I have even been asked if I was "brewin' coffee?" Seems Starbucks has caused us in the NW to be labeled. Heck of a large coffee pot.

Sunday was a real kick in the pants. First we cut 20 of my Artemesia Plants (pictured on the left) and hauled them over to the big distiller. What is hard to see is our dog "Sadie" laying in the middle of the Artemesia as I cut them. (Seems dogs like the happy effects of this plant too) Lucky for me I found a volunteer customer who was as happy as me to fire up the distiller. Somehow we crammed all 20 plants into the still and waited anxiously for some output flow. The aroma was incredible! I recruited as many folks as I could to dip their finger in the oil and describe the aroma. The responses were anything from "minty" to "heady" to "cinnamon" to "sage" to "what the heck is this stuff doing to my head?" We put the essential oil from the Artemesia away to rest for a bit, gain our head clear, and then I will send some off to get chemical analysis.

Had a great visit from Dr. Madora and his students from University of Montana, school of Pharmacy on Saturday. Dr. Madora was telling me the medical uses of certain Artemesia for Malaria treatment and intestinal worms. Seems to be a great use in 3rd World Countries. He, nor any of his students (me included) had any idea what chemicals were in the variety that I distilled. The seeds were sold to me as: 'Crammer's Edge Artemesia'. Would love to know if anyone has ever distilled & analyzed this variety.