Laurus nobilis, bay laurel distiallation and Penoel

Well, its been a long time since I posted.. so many things have happened, so many plants got collected and distilled..its just been a very busy time, however, I will try to follow up.

In early september we collected and distilled Bay Laurel leaf, Laurus nobilis. The leaves have to dry before distillation, and then the plantmaterial has to be 'comminuted', that is shredded or cut just before distillation. That is, because the small glandular structures accumulating the essential oil in the leaves are hidden inside the leafs structure. You might have noticed, that laurel leaves almost do not smell, if you sniff the entire leaf or just touch it. You'll have to crush it, before it releases its aroma. This is different with aromatic plants which accumulate essential oil in hairlike glandular structures situated on the surface of the leaves, like thyme.
















Anyway, we shred the bay leaves at the distillery, just before filling them into the stills. We use an electric shredder, as you can see.. one of those used for shredding twigs and leaves for compost in private gardens..

This is the only distillation that initially involves noise due to the shredding...
On one of these distillation days, we had a visit from Dr. Daniel Penoel and his wife Rosemarie. Dr Penoel is one of the pioneers in medical aromatherapy, having worked with essential oils in medicine for over 30 years, as a practitioner, writer, researcher and teacher. So we had a very inspiring time together, while the Laurus leaves were distilling... Many inspiring thoughts on essential oils to use for holistic, integrative healing.. On quality, analyses and uses...

Babis, Daniel and RoseMarie at the distillery...

That day, during distillation, we experienced a water-cut for the very first time.. The water supply was cut of centrally due to maintenance.. Luckily RoseMarie noticed straight away, as we were washing greens for salad, that the water had stopped running... so we had to carry water in large barrels from the next village and improvise a funnelsystem to constantly add cooling water
into the container by hand..

However, we managed that problem, and a few hours later we drew the oil...
Here you can just see it starting to come from the separator



We had a very inspiring day with Daniel and RoseMarie, they are dedicated, knowledgeable, curious, and genuine nice persons.. and then, Laurus distillation is always wonderfully fragrant, uplifting..

A few days later, we went back towards the South: the many weeks of Vitex agnus castus (chastetree or monkspepper) fruit collection were to commence...

Thymus capitatus collection

Finally the story of Thyme collection..

We went with friends to collect on the western most coast of Crete, a splendid unspoiled biotope.. It was a hot day, a merciful wind was blowing from the sea..the thyme beings were ready for us. In full bloom they stood..

Here a closeupThe bees were busy on the plants, and the view is fantastic.. towards our back the mountains, in front the sea.. nothing but us, the thymes, the bees, some cicadas... again I tried to shoot a video, here it is. Again I must excuse the poor quality, colours are better in the pictures, and the wind blowing distorted the sounds. Haven't had time yet to figure the camera out. Maybe in the winter..?

In the video you can see the bees on the thyme just in front of me, then the view over the biotope and the mountains, passing over a few collection boxes, then the sea in the background.. then it ends again full circle by the thyme I just have been cutting.. you might notice the cut parts of the plant..

Mario is collecting a thyme, just below an amazing structure of a windblown pine-tree.. we are just cutting the flowering tops, always leaving enough flowers..

And here, she hides with Babis under a giant thyme.. well, almost


Since it was a hot day, we went to the sea to have a swim..
Here you'll see the sea, a thyme.. we are swimming just beyond the rocks to the left.. Welcome refreshment..

It might just seem like a lot of fun, a day out.. but it is as well hard work.. The Cretan thyme is an almost thorny bush, carrying leaves and flowers just on the very top of its spiny branches. However, here we are out in the quiet and solitude of nature..

As we were a few, Maria, Giannis, Mario, Babis and me, we managed to fill our boxes in time that day..and went off for dinner at a good friends place.. at 'ta Platania', a taverna near Vlatos situated under age old platane trees.. After the blazing sun during collection, this place is a real treat..

Here we draw energy from the ages old platanes..
Then, offcause, a good meal is waiting.. Kostas, the third from left here and his brother Michalis are real lovely people, good friends and great cooks...

So we ended the day in the shade and good company before setting off home to discharge our harvest..

Hello there again, I just found some more pictures and even a short video I made while we were collecting oregano the other days..

Remember, I talked about, that the only sound where the cicadas around.. well, in the video you can just hear them.. I must say, that the video's quality is lousy.. its the first video I took with this camera, the first video I took anyway alltogether, and apart from my own inexperience of taking videos, I think that the colours are nothing like real..

Anyway, why not even share beginnings here, and maybe you can forgive, that quality and details are poor, but nevertheless get a feeling of the place we collected oregano.. The video was taken in the afternoon, when we had the benefit of the shade that the old olivetrees provided..

We were collecting, and I captured Babis in a photo, as above.. then I tried the video function..so here it is. As I said, no great artistic achievement.. but you might get an idea. And I'll try to get better at it.. but you can hear the cicadas..sound of the south. Maybe share the athmosphere we have been collecting in, the serenity of a remote biotope in the Cretan mountains..

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..

Hello there, we have been collecting oregano, Origanum vulgare during the last few days in the hills above Argyroupoli.. The finest plants are slender and have a multitude of white inflorescenses, the stems are cut one by one...

Its a beautiful place here, old olivetrees and abandoned fields... Its quiet, only the constant chirping sound of the cicadas, called tzitzikas in Greek, fill the air in those hot days now... Cicadas shed their skins as they become adults, and these delicate abandoned skins are found on many a oregano plant these days.

We do not distill essential oil of oregano, since the amount of herb required is large, and oregano is widely collected locally by the people for culinary use, so we just share with everybody else. That is, we collect only for 'herb', and a few days of collection gives us the amount we need and can offer for a year.

As with all our culinary herbs, we discard whatever might be left of last years herbs, when the new collection is in, has dried and is ready for packing. We believe, that herbs are best within a year after their collection, they loose most of their aroma and colour if kept longer, just as we can see with most commercial herbs, which mostly are given a shelf-life or 'best before' date of five
years..

Now the oregano is drying up in Kallikratis, hanging in bunches, and we went down to the sea near Frangokastello, to have a look at our Vitex agnus castus, chastetree population. The plants are in full bloom now, so beautiful.. Vitex usually flowers a beautiful mauve-lilac, but there are some rare plants, that flower white as well.. Already Dioscurides in his Materia Medica, 79 BC, describes a white flowering and a lilac flowering kind of chastetree.. Here you can see one of each, flowering by the beach...

We have eaten most of our artichokes, as we do when they are but buds, but some of them remained and were allowed to become flowers, the most beautiful flowers...

A colour as violet as change, as radient as life,..the pictures are poor...but the colour is vibrant...

Have you ever seen an artichoke flowering...

So back again.. well, we had our friends Willy and Johnny visiting from Holland, staying, working and sharing with us almost three weeks.. Together we collected and distilled Lavandula and Lentisk.. together we finished the details of the 'shop' in Kallikratis... Johnny especially was very active trying to attract attention from that lone car passing.. calling 'stop, shop' out when the whole place still looked like a buildingsite.. we had lots of fun together, as well as a lot of good get togethers and much work..

Then we got a call from a TV crew, they wanted to do a documentary about our work for the digital prisma channel..so we had to think about a herb that could be collected and distilled the same day, for them to film the entire process from collection to distillation. We went down to Modi and collected Lentisk, since there is a population just behind the distillery. From left to right you see Maria, Babis, Janina and Johnny cutting, Willy took the photo, and later Mario joined us as well in order to collect enough for a distillation.
You can click the photos to enlarge them...

We had a wonderful time with the crew that day.. Then as evening approached, they sat us down for an interview, here you see us and them through Willy's lense.. The documentary will come out sometime in January next year on prisma channel..

They were surprised though, that 6 people collecting most of the day followed by 3 hours of distillation only resulted in about 100ml of essential oil...but thats what Lentisk gives...

Back in Kallikratis the next day, we were preparing for Johnnys birthday party.. goats had to be caught in the wild and slaughtered, bread had to be baked and foodstuff prepared..

And we had a wonderful time... Kostas, who builds magnificent string instruments in Chania had brought his guitar, and Thoma joined in with his wonderful voice..

Willy (Wil deZeeuw) made two short videos, which I here post with her permission..maybe you can grasp some of the atmosphere...it was a truly fine and starry night, fresh mountain air... In the second video they sing Johnny's birthday song...Gianni is the Greek name for Johnny...