Monday, July 14, 2014

What We Did This Weekend

On Saturday we went to a Lavender Festival in Paso Robles. I took no photos - it was HOT! We did have a good time, didn't stay too long, and got some good ideas as well as soap, olive oil and hand cream.

On Sunday - we did a little experiment.


We harvested lavender from the one bush we have growing by our mail box.


The flowers were a little too far gone for what we wanted to try, but we harvested anyway.


The Lovey got out his old water distiller and we packed that with flower buds.


Then we filled it with water and started the distillation process. We wanted to see if we could get some oil out of those old flowers.


We filled it too full at first. The top came off and water got into the the distiller part instead of steam. So we had this really nasty colored water and the smell was like - um, burnt eucalyptus.


But The Lovey was determined to keep going with the experiment.


After the brown water cleared through the distiller, we actually got some nice smelling liquid come out. In the distilling biz I learned this liquid is called 'hydrosol' or flower water. We did not get any essential oils. Either the flowers were too far gone or our lavender is of a variety that doesn't produce much oil. Or both!


And because we were out in the back yard, Lola thought we should play with her. Because it is all about Lola. "Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets….."

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