and more mountain tea..

And some more pictures of the Malotira or Cretan Mountain tea collection.. somehow I do not manage to get them in the right order, but anyhow.. this pictures just so that you can appreciate how difficult the collection is... and how amazing the nature...

Above, we are well back home with our collection, ready now to bunch them for drying.. so here we are starting at the end of the story...

and going back, we see the herbs in the sacks.. Malotira

Carrying the harvest down form the mountains.. if you look carefully, even trousers didn't manage the work....

above you see the end of the collection, closing the sacks containing the harvest, here we are at some 1500m altitude...

Collecting by hand...

A rest on a mountain top, a drop of water...

and walking...

up and up....

back home now, I am cleaning some soaps, the rest of the gang is getting ready to bunch the Mountain tea...

as you can see here...

This a picture of the last part of carrying the harvest down to the car below...

and carrying...

Oh, here some sheep on their way up.. but we were faster!!!!!

I have just updated the website, now you can find short infos about our essential oils also in German, Greek and Danish...

And we have added our dried herbs, our soap and shampoo to the webshop on our site as well, as there was a considerable interest out there, that these products should be available over the web as well as on Crete, where we have all our products in bio shops in Chania and Rethymnon.

By the way, if are you favoring ecological, bio products also when being on vacation in Crete, there is a list of Cretan bio shops and a short description of them on our site under 'where to find our products in Crete'...

Some weeks ago, we did make a new batch of soap, you can see the soap drying and curing here to the right..we didn't take any pictures while making it, but next time you'll get a full description of the process, pictures inclusive. We use certified biological olive- and avocado oil, our hydrolates and essential oils. Nothing else, except the lye, sodium hydroxide. We apply a cold production procedure, which is very rare to find employed in soap production, because it requires a lot more time. However, using biological fatty oils as well as hydrolates and essential oils, it is very important to not exceed a temperature of 28'C. This way, all the vitamins are preserved in the fatty oils, and all the quality of the hydrolates and essential oils as well.

Both the recipe and the production procedure result in a truly fine soap, which is naturally fragrant and soothing to the skin. It balances skin health, strengthens its barriers against pathogens, normalises skin in cases of rashes. Because of its richness and gentleness, it is well suited for children and babies as well..

Babis calls it 'the finest soap in the world', and he's not a man of many words. However, we have seen over the years, that whoever gets it once, returns back for more..

OK, enough about soap..

Next time we do a batch, we'll let you in on the production, with pictures etc..

Now, its time to make some food, the sun is on his way towards the horizon, its been a hot day.. and tomorrow we'll start to collect Thyme, Thymus capitatus, by the western coast of Crete, near Amygdalokefali... that means a few hours drive, so we have to get up early..