Lavender harvest and distillation

Thought maybe some folks would be interested in how some essential oils are made.

We've been growing about 350 lavender plants for 8 years and each summer, we make one cutting and take the cut lavender to a local farm that has a distillation set up. We distill the fresh lavender and get pure essential lavender oil and lavender hydrosol.

Our field this year is not in as good of shape as it has been due to the rainy spring, but here's a couple pictures of the lavender field from before, one with a bumblebee and one from this year.

We harvested 3 days ago in the evening, and distilled the next morning.








Usually we cut around July1st. This year, we cut on the 15th, and even that was a week too early, but with the schedule for us and also for the farm where we distill, we had to cut early. They will start cutting tomorrow, July 19, and even that is still a little early for their plants.

I use an electric hedge trimmer to "shave" the plants. I can use the electric trimmer since our lavender patch is so small. The farm where we distill uses gas hedge trimmers for their 5 1/2 acres of lavender. I try to use the bar of the trimmer to lay the sprigs onto the top of the bush to make it easier to pick up the sprigs. We cut the top 1/3 of the plant, which is mostly new growth from that season.

Below is a picture of some of the harvested lavender. I ended up with 4 large tote boxes, about half of what we usually harvest.




Out at the farm, the cut lavender is placed into a stainless steel 55-gal drum that has hose connections for the steam to come into the barrel.

This barrel is not even full, and I didn't compact it. Usually it's stuffed to the brim.


A SS lid and ring are bolted onto the barrel and then the hoses are connected to the steam generator and to the condensation chamber.

The steam generator is the gray box on the left. It has hose connections for 2 barrels to be run simultaneously, a vent hose, and a water inlet.

The steam comes out of the generator and into the bottom of the SS barrel.

Below you can see the barrel on the left and the condensation chamber on the right. The low-temp steam comes out of the barrel and into the top of the 6' tall glass chamber. The double-walled cylinder has an inner chamber for the stem to enter and an outer chamber for fresh, cold water to flow, which cools the steam that is now carrying the oils from the lavender plants.



After the condensed steam drips down the chamber and into the separator, the oil rises to the top of the water. You can see the oil layer in the picture below. The water level is monitored and kept low until there is sufficient oil to draw off. The water level is then brought up to the top of the separator so the oil can flow out the pipe on the left into a jar.



As the water level is being maintained, the condensed steam/water is drawn off the bottom of the separator chamber through the pipe and valve on the right to jars set in a hole in the ground. This condensed steam still has the aroma and some of the essential elements of the lavender itself and is called Lavender Hydrosol or Lavender Water. It is often used and sold in spritzer bottles to freshen up oneself on a hot day, to freshen linens/pillows at bedtime (which is a great relaxer!) and as a simple air freshener.



The steam distilling process takes about 2 hours per barrel. When Sunny Pine Farm starts their distilling, they work 24/7 for about 4 days straight to get all their lavender done. The plants I have are from their seed stock which they got from France, Lavendula Angustafolia.

Different lavender varieties are grown for different properties. This particular strain has the highest ketone levels of any variety and is one of the "healing-est" varieties around, which is why they chose it in the first place.

Below is this years harvest in the bottle on the left, and 2 other years oils to show the difference in the color. The other years were harvested when the blooms were way further along, and we also got way more oil out of the past years. In the back are some jars of hydrosol.



Lavender essential oil is one of the most popular essential oils, used for everything from beauty care to aroma-therapy to homeopathic medicine. I, however, always seem to end up in the kitchen, so my oils are used for-
Lavender Mustard and Lavender Vinaigrette dressing, both are sold at the local grocery stores.




Hope you enjoyed a little "behind-the-scenes" info.

Wow that's a lot of work to do for the amount of oil you get!

Very interesting seeing how it's done, thanks!

The best year we did, we got about 3 cups of pure essential oil from one barrel. Usually it's around 2 cups. This yeas was the worst because we didn't cut as much and the lavender didn't yield as much because it wasn't fully open.

But just to give you and idea of the potential, doing the conversions-

5ml= 1 tsp organic oil which sells for $8-$12

2 cups oil=96 teaspoons= (avg) $960.

The income is there, I have never pursued that avenue and use the oils in foods.



And as for the amount of work, once the field is prepped and the plants are in, they will grow and produce for 12-16 years. All that's required is using an in-line sprinkler feeder (we use alaska fish fertilizer through the sprinkler once a year) and watering it as needed and then the harvest.

Harvesting/cutting usually takes 3 hours for enough for 1 barrel and the distillation process for 1 barrel is 2 1/2 hours.

Plus weeding, etc....it's not that bad for time~

Very cool SL! Beautiful field of Lavender you have there. I hear ya about the craptastic weather this year, Really has delayed growth. Thanks for sharing the pics and info. Very informative

Boy that is a lot of lavender!

thanks for sharing us info on how lavender oils are made.