Distilling herbs

[Laurie Sheppard]

Hi, I have began experimenting with distilling herbs for essential oils. I have tried peppermint, spearmint, lavender and wintergreen. I got a little oil and a lot of lovely hydrosol. I was wondering if others have had success?

[Chris Devincenzi]

Hello Laurie, I tried distilling peppermint years ago and got very little oil. The process was fun and intriguing. You really have to have a lot of plant material. So it was not cost effective for me. I think that I’m really after the hydrosol and the wee bit of oil is a bonus then it’s worthwhile.

Cheers, Chris

4 users thanked author for this post.

Marie Snook, Charlotte Chumlea, Laurie Sheppard, Arlene Hege

[Joelle]

I don’t know anything about distilling but it has been on my list to learn. Where did y’all get your knowledge from? And what is hydrosol?

[Laurie Sheppard]

Hydrosol is the liquid you get from distilling. You remove the essential oil from the top and you are left with an amazing smelling liquid. I use mine for room/linen spray.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Joelle

[Charlotte Chumlea]

I purchased an Alembic still last fall, but have not yet used it.  I have planted rosemary, lavender, and chamomile in hopes of having enough plant material to begin distilling this year or next depending upon the growth of my transplants.

[Yolanda Pretorius]

Hi Charlotte, I don’t know what type of still you bought but I have also been experimenting with a copper one. One thing I quickly learned was that it requires a lot of water to keep cooling down the steam in the second pot so that it can condense. After Googling around I found a solution to this problem by adding an extra 40L container with a small water pump to the system so that the water can keep recycling and you don’t use that much.

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