Heavenly Scents from the garden-various versions!

I often co distil where I use a commercially produced hydrosol as a base (usually lemon geranium or lavender) and redistil with fragrant plant materials. I often to this when I don't have enough of the raw material to make a decent single distillation. For this experiment I decided to mix it up totally to try and create something completely different. As with all of my distillations I do not attempt to remove any of the essential oil which may be present. I only use a small copper alembic still (3 litre).
For this complete fragrance experience I first prepared the base hydrosol, using lemon geranium hydrosol from a commercial distillation and re distilled this by itself (2 litres hydrosol to obtain 1 litre more concentrated hydrosol). If you are not familiar with lemon geranium it has a sweet, honey like quality to the aroma.

In to this I added the following my garden:

osmanthus blossoms
lemon blossom
rose geranium leaves (young tips only)
dried Rosa damascena blossom from earlier in the year.

I then added 65 gm frankincense resin I had stashed away and a chopped and crushed vanilla pod (not from my garden!). I then added these to the still and covered with the litre of double distilled lemon geranium hydrosol and distilled for 30 minutes.

Very quickly a milky distillate emerged which had strong aroma of frankincense. I even was able to extract about 4 mls of an essential oil, which i suspect was mostly frankincense. the end hydrosol I froze in case there was any more essential oil present (a few drops) and I got almost a litre of a beautiful rich aromatic hydrosol which had several layers to it, resinous, sweet and tangy all at once. Definitely an experiment worth conducting!Wendy

A week later I repeated this experiment, but mixed up the aromas.
I used about 50 gm myrhh resin and used commercially produced lavendula angustifolia hydrosol as the base. Into the hydro distillation I added osmanthus flowers, lemon blossom, white lavender flowers. The aroma after 30 mins was again the most delicious, sweet aroma, with a soft resin base (not as over powering as the frankincense). I filtered and decanted into spray bottles and use as a perfume! Interestingly the lavender is not a big presence at all, the osmanthus and lemon blossom seem to have command of the blend. I am loving the mystique of these blendings and there is probably enough for one for mixed distillation, which I will do using lemon verbena hydrosol- watch this space for next weeks attempts!

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Lemon Verbena Harvest & Distillation December 2013

Aloysia triphlla (Lemon verbena) in flower Lemon verbena (Lippia citriodora) or Aloysia triphylla is a precious essential oil which has a low yield and is quite hard to come by the genuine oil. Details as to its origins and habitat can be found here on Wikipedia. It is believed many so called lemon verbena oils on the market are heavily adulterated with lemon thyme, Litsea cubeba (May chang) or synthetic citral. Previously I have used lemon verbena hydrosol my friend produced on his lavender farm ( www.lavender-impressions.co.nz ), with only a tiny amount of oil obtained. Most of his lemon verbena leaves are destined to be dried and sold as a herbal tea. On the 29 December 2013 I was able to take part in the harvest and distillation of his organic lemon verbena. The key difference this year is that it is the flowers and leaves which are being distilled, not just the leaves. Leaf only essential oil can produce a high (up to 35% citral) content which, being an aldehyde may ...

Geranium Distillation for Hydrosol

This is a the first run of my small scale back yard set up on various geraniums distilled for hydrosol, using a pump to reticulate water through the condenser to save water. It means I do not have to stay close by every second for two or more hours. (I am still in the vicinity though in case of mishaps!) Day 1: Harvest of lemon geranium ( Pelargonium crispum ) this morning, stripped leaves from branches (approx 500gm plant material) and added to 3 litres of commercially distilled lemon geranium hydrosol so I get double the benefit. I don't extract any essential oil out of it. https://youtu.be/LFVPV6WHCIg . I achieved about 600 ml good quality hydrosol after 3 hours on the hot plate. (leaf 1 in picture below) Day 2: First up is rose geranium ( Pelargonium graveloans var. roseum ) with pure water (leaf 2 in picture below). Hydrosol appeared very quickly and prolifically, obtaining 200 ml within first 20 minutes of the distillation. This was distilled for about two hours and...

Harakeke-NZ Flax-An iconic Plant

Harakeke, Phormium tenax , isn't exactly an aromatic plant, but it does have plenty of healing properties. Nothing screams out 'New Zealand' more than an image of our native flax in flower! Further background about the plant can be found here Currently I am surrounded by a variety of them in my garden- planted as short a time as two years ago and they all have swung into a tremendous flowering action, some with spikes almost 3 metres tall. Like a triffid the spikes seem to appear almost over night. My plants have a number of very practical uses- firstly to assist with drainage of a heavy clay soil with a high water table; secondly for shelter and privacy; thridly to attract more nativve birds (like our TUI ) who feast of the nectar; and lastly (but by no means least) I collect the seeds and use as a co distillation with lavender hydrosol to incorporate into products. The uses of flax historically is entrenched in Maori culture and history, and early Maori could not ...

Aromatic Adventures

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