Big name, powerful plant. The essential oil from this plant is a thick blue liquid. The yield is small, about 9 ounces from 200lbs of flowers. Crazy but the skin care company who wants it has already paid us a chunk of money ahead of harvest. If you google this plant there are claims that it fights skin cancer. There is no doubt that it is a powerful anti inflammatory. We add it to one of our healing salves. Unfortunately I have had to use it with my cancer on my back and now I am a believer.
We picked this on Monday morning after which I drove it to Sonoma where our good friend Wally distills it for us. The flowers are put in a large stainless steel container into which steam is injected. The oil is carried in steam to a Liebig condenser where it is cooled and the oil separated from the fully saturated Hydrosol (water). The oil stains the steel so when we have finished distilling this crop we will run two bins of lavender through it to clean away the blue oil. The 'blue lavender' oil produced during this cleaning process is developing its own following too. We will provide a sample of this oil free to any member. Watch the Friday emails for the release date.