Provence Day 4
Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 9:25PM Our last day. So sad. But talk about saving the best for last, we did the coolest thing today. We actually distilled (or rather watched farmer Monsieur Rolland) distill essential oil from start to finish before our very eyes!
Monsieur Rolland turns up with a blanket full of plants
Voila! The plants turn out to be thyme geraniol (quite rare) 
Monsieur Rolland packs the thyme into the vat which will soon be heated (a spritely man for his 72 years)
After the plants have generated steam, which then condenses, the flower water or hydrosol runs out. This makes a great toner for the skin or can be drunk for medicinal purposes. I thought it tasted like drinking moldy grass but I'm sure it was good for me.
by putting your finger here, you stop the water from running out and it pushes the yellow oil up and down into another tube (which you can't see)
but which comes out here. and from all that
you get the yellow bit. ta da! Look Mom we made essential oil!We actually got a much higher yield than we thought we would, a whole 20 ml. I'm so glad that we got to see the whole process. Thank you Farmer Rolland!
Reader Comments (2)
Please, can you PM me and tell me few more thinks about this, I am really fan of your blog...
tanning
Would love to tell you more! Send me an email to Katherine at naturalbeautee dot com and I'll give you whatever extra info you'd like.