Winter Oil

They say if you want the best oil, you have to get up pretty early in the morning. A few years ago, I took a trip up to Sequim, Washington. They grow a lot of lavender there. It is home to one of the largest lavender festivals on the West Coast in July. Anyhow, I was talking to one of the growers, and she told me that the distillers like to start early. They would be up before sunrise to begin distillation. Well, I do want the best oil, so why question what is already known. I got a break in the weather. A full day without rain. So I went outside at 6 in the morning to start up the distiller. It was quite a beautiful morning. Imagine if you will absolute silence. No sound whatsoever. Absolute stillness. To the west, just over the lavender fields, a full moon was quietly setting. With this backdrop, I started my business, turning on power and water, filling the boiler, lighting the furnace. And I sat in the darkness and waited for everything to warm-up. To begin making golden lavender oil from the lavender I had picked up from Ann a few days before.

Opening the sacks of lavender releases some of the wonderful scent. Here you can see a handful of the loose buds contained inside. This is the good stuff. I loaded buds from the sacks into the basket, taking care not to pack them too firmly down. The warm steam will need to permeate each and every bud to release it's treasure, therefore, the more loosely packed the load, the better.


As the buds go into the distiller they have a delicate purple color to them. They are quite pretty. Much different than when they come out, as you will see later in the process. In the photo to the right, you can see the vibrant color and life the buds contain. Our extraction will condense this vitality into the oils that we remove. Pure concentrated tranquility, ahh!


After loading the distiller with the lavender buds, I got to take a break. The sun has now been up for a while. All of the mist and clouds of the morning seem to have disappeared. The air temperature is already about 70 degrees in the sun. Wow, what an amazing day this is turning out to be. In the middle of December too. I took a break from the morning work of setting up the equipment and unloading lavender to take in the warmth and beauty of the day. It is still quite calm out, though the stillness is disturbed by the birds flying about and occasionally chattering at each other, as well as the bees which seem to have emerged to take advantage of the warm weather for a cleansing flight and perhaps a serendipitous forage venture.

Suddenly, my senses were overwhelmed. Now, I've been working with lavender all day, so it's not like I don't know what it smells like. But suddenly there is an intensity that is unlike anything experienced yet today, including when I opened the big burlap sacks shown above. Looking over at the condenser emitter, I see a faint mist, and then shortly thereafter, fluid begins to flow. Here on the right, you can see it coming from the emitter and dripping into the essencier. Now this fluid contains both the essential oil, as well as the hydrosol. The essencier will separate the two from each other, as we see below.


Inside the essencier, the oil and hydrosols are separated. The oils come bubbling up into the glass tube and cascade over the top, where it is collected and bottled. It is always fun to watch the "eruption" as I call it when the oil first starts flowing. It bubbles up in the tube like a fantastic smelling lava lamp. I don't have a video camera, but I wanted to capture what this is like for you. So I put my camera on autodrive, and try to capture the motion in this image. Now, if only there were a way to digitize smell!

When I am at farmers markets with my lavender, one question I get a lot is: "What can you do with essential oil?" I should dedicate an entire blog entry to this question some time. But to help people enjoy lavender and the amazing properties of the essential oil, I started carrying pendant diffusers. These are little terra cotta pieces stamped with different designs (mine has a kokopeli dancer on it). The terra cotta is porous, so a drop of essential oil is absorbed into the pendant, and it's calming, de-stressing effects can be absorbed all day long. Really something useful in these stressful holiday times, and especially so in these times of economic uncertainty which is gripping the world. We can't always fix everything that's wrong with with the banks, with the auto industry, and even the impacts this has on our own local economy, but we will be much healthier and able to do what we can if we can keep a calm perspective on events that are sometimes out of our control. Here you can see me anointing my pendant with a sterile cotton swab directly from the fresh oil. Ahh. I am wearing it now, and can smell the sweet scent even as I type this blog.

While I was distilling, my friend Tara paid me a visit to see the operation. Tara is an aroma therapist. (You can visit her at her website at www.taraspa.com) She knows everything about scents, and how to use them for health and well-being. While we were watching the oil bubbling out, she said that one of the big challenges in here work is educating people that aroma therapy is important to their health, not just a luxury. That is so true. Health is not a luxury. Without health, what do we have? I package a terra cotta pendant with a bottle of lavender oil together in this all natural Carmel Lavender gift box. What better gift to give a special friend or lover than tranquility and health! We will have these available at a Holiday Faire this Saturday, December 20th, from 4pm to 6pm at the Monterey Stone Chapel, right next to Tarpy's restaurant in Monterey. Or you can contact me through this blog. Okay, commercial is over :) Hey, I have to make a living too, you know!

Once the oil stops flowing, it is time to remove the spent lavender and start a new batch. I have included an "after" shot of the basket with the lavender buds that have been processed. Look at the difference in color. The vitality that it had going in is entirely gone. The buds no longer have a vibrant purple hue, but rather are a pink-tan color. They have given up their essence and life. The buds will be taken over to the compost heap, where they have a chance to bring new life to the soil. The essential oils and hydrosols will be used to make our lives more rich and healthy. I guess that is what it is all about. Let us take a moment and be thankful to these flowers for bringing us such magical benefits. Thank you, Lavender!

Mesa del Sol Lavender

At a farmers market a couple of months ago, I met Ann, the owner of the Mesa del Sol winery. Ann said that she had quite a bit of lavender that she harvested from their lavender plants at their winery in Arroyo Seco. At their winery, they have a long drive alongside the vineyard leading up to the house, and both sides of the driveway is lined with lavender!

The lavender has been harvested already, and Ann needed help distilling the essential oil. So I took a ride out to Mesa del Sol, which is actually fairly close to my farm. It is quite a stunning property. If you are interested, you can check it out on their website (http://www.mesadelsolvineyards.com/). There is an adorable historic farmhouse. Ann is an architectural designer, so the whole place is done esquisitly. There is even a very charming rock-walled workshop and a gorgeous pool and grounds. My son and I got the grand tour. There is a stunning view of the Arroyo Seco river (which is going quite nicely). And an ominous view of the burned hillsides from this year's Indians Fire which got quite close. Ann grows her own vegetables there as well, so we got a wonderful tour of the private garden.

The lavender was sacked in very large burlap coffee sacks. We stuffed the truck full to the brim on our first load. In the photo on the right you can see the sweet smelling load. We called them giant sachets. The ride home was absolutely intoxicating. We played loud music to keep us from slipping into a lavender induced coma while driving home.

I'm preparing the distillery now for the distillation. This should keep me busy for the rest of this week and most of next too most likely.

I have a feeling my truck is going to be smelling mighty fine for quite some time!!

Fall Markets & Winter Gardens

Well it's been a while since my last post. For this I must apologize. I've been spending quite a bit of time outside and haven't been turning on my computer as much. Good for farming, not so good for keeping up w/ the blog ;) Anyhow, I'll try to catch up with what's been going on.

September, October, and November have been a time for going to market. Working with the Carmel Valley Co-op (http://www.carmelvalleycoop.org/) we've been trying to get to as many markets and craft faires as we could. So a lot of time has been spent preparing for and going to these events. To the right is a photo at the local village market. We had a great spread, with essential oils, soaps, dried bunches and sachets. It is always enjoyable to get out in the sunshine and talk to people about lavender.

The home garden has been another focus these last couple of months. Next spring I plan to expand the garden. So I've been preparing a new field for growing vegetables. Fortunately I finished tilling the field and sewed a cover crop just before my tiller blew up. Unfortunately, my tiller blew up. Threw a rod right through the side of the crank case. Anyone have a spare 5hp motor they want to sell? Oh well, I have a month or so to get it fixed before it gets critical. That's the breaks when working with equipment with "personality" :) I'm still getting good carrots and peppers. If you can believe it, it's December and we haven't got a frost yet. So even my tomatoes are still going, albeit very slowly. Everything else I've turned under. I've sewn turnips, cabbage, and fava, radishes and lettuce amongst others. The little plants are all doing fine. Tonight Daniella made a Bulgarian meal from our garden tomatoes and peppers called paprikash. Yum!

December is a busy month. I'm working on my distillery, making it a bit more comfortable for year round use. Also, I'm distilling essential oil from lavender grown by a local winery (more on this later). And of course, being the Holiday season, I have been spending time organizing the local Santa's Parade. Santa comes in on helicopter to a crowd of screaming kids. (http://www.santaflyin.org/)

What fun is that!

Hidden Apples

Many Carmel Vally residents over the years have had the wisdom to plant fruit trees on their property. Sometimes a single tree, and sometimes even small orchards. These trees provide shade in the summer, and delicious fruit too. Apples, apricots, peaches, pears, almonds, figs. The variety is quite extraordinary. And every year, these loyal trees do their job making their fruit. I'm always amazed when I discover yet another hidden treasure of sustainable food located in some private place in Carmel Valley.

Our friends the fruit tree however are sometimes more efficient than we are. Producing more than their owners can possibly consume at once. And of course canning for the winter requires some set-up and more significantly, time, a commodity in short supply in today's modern life. The bottom line is that there is a tremendous quantity of food in Carmel Valley, that is ripe for the picking!

So Tuesday, Elizabeth and I headed out to pick apples. We collected enough apples for our current orders. The apples were weighed and bagged back at Elizabeth's Farm, and I distributed them to CSA subscribers with my usual rounds on Wednesday. Fresh apples are always nice, but just as important is knowing that they were 100% natural, and come from a local, sustainable source.

Today we will cook down some of the bruised and damaged apples for our own enjoyment. Some day we hope that the Co-op will be able to build a commercial kitchen and we can offer locally grown and canned apple butter and apple sauce to our CSA subscribers too. In the meantime, you'll just have to believe me when I say that it is delicious!

The Art of Local Soap Making

This week Elizabeth, my neighbor and co-op partner, called to tell me that she was making Castile soap. Castile soap is a soap that is made exclusively from vegetable oil, and commonly used to refer to soap made from olive oil (you can find more information about Castile soap on Wikipedia here). Elizabeth is a soap maker, so making soap is not necessarily a unique event at Lizard's Creations, but today it was different. This particular batch is a milestone in a concept that she and I have been exploring with our Co-op: How to live more local?

Living the Vida Local

So how do we live the Vida Local? With vegetables, the answer is simple. We set a geographic radius (50 miles) and receive all of our vegetables grown from within this area. My lavender is also rather straight forward, the lavender is grown here on my farm, and the essential oils and hydrosols are manufactured here. A radius of zero. But when you go up the chain and start thinking about applying local to things like soaps, what does it mean? Elizabeth has of course always crafted her soaps locally. And as we started working together, she began integrating my local lavender oils and buds into the process. This got her to thinking: how far can I go using all local ingredients?

Many of her soaps include ingredients include oils such as palm oil, and other ingredients that are just not produced locally. But with creativity, there is always an answer. That is where a serendipitous meeting she had w/ Carmel Valley Olive Company created an opportunity. This local farm and producer of olive oil less than ten miles away. Elizabeth asked the essential question, can I make this into a locally made, and locally grown Castile soap? If the olive oil and the essential oils were local, then the bulk of the primary ingredients (save the lye used to induce saponification) would be entirely local as well. Imagine the carbon savings if gallons upon gallons of heavy oils were no longer shipped from abroad, but rather obtained locally from a few miles away!

Today was the day to put this ideal into practice. Being such a significant event, I grabbed my camera and headed over to watch and record the history.

Making Soap

Dressed in her blue and white soap making smock, Elizabeth had already prepared the lye mixtures according the careful measurements. I carefully handed her my contribution, Carmel Lavender essential oil from this year's harvest and distillation (read my previous blog entry on the Lavender Oil Harvest here). She was about to begin measuring the bounty from Carmel Valley Olive Company, so we went into her soap workshop to begin making local soap.

With soap making, the measurements are absolutely critical. Without precise measurements, the saponification process will not be right. And if the saponification is not right, the soap will not be right. Elizabeth began measuring out the oil very carefully on here scale. Look at the beautiful golden green color of the oil. The smell of delicious olives filled the room. What a wonderful way to start a soap. We also measured out the essential oil, and set it aside for later.

Next the oil needed to be heated to a precise temperature. For this, the oil was placed on the stove, and Elizabeth carefully monitored the temperature with a thermometer. Likewise, the lye solution I mentioned earlier needed to reach the proper temperature as well. interestingly, the reaction of the solution had naturally preheated the solution, so for this, it is a waiting game for the temperature to cool as the reaction slowed down. She told me that at times she could float the mixture in cool water to help cool it. But today, that was not necessary.

Once the oil and the lye solutions reached the proper temperatures, they were mixed together. This is where it got tricky. Elizabeth told me that the soap now needed to "trace". I.e. when saponification started, it should begin hardening. As you mix the solutions together, this leaves traces behind the spatula. The tricky part is that usually the soap recipes have other oils and fats in the mixture. Pure olive oil was a new experience. And apparently some of her research told her that the tracing stage could take some time. Or maybe never? We really didn't know. So we mixed. And mixed. And mixed. And mixed. After a few hours of mixing, Elizabeth made the call that the saponification was going to take some time if it were going to happen. She would monitor it through-out the day, and give me a ring if it started to trace. So at this point, I collected my camera, and called it a day. I left with a lot of anticipation. The idea of locally grown ingredients is very compelling. I very much wanted to get a good shot of the hardening soap in the mold. But this would have to wait until the soap is ready.

Soap History - The Soap Maker's Birthright

While we were waiting, Elizabeth pulled out an old dry cake of soap in a dish. "Here, look at this" she told me. She continued that this cake of soap was made by her grandmother in the 1940's. You can see the dry cake of antique soap in the photo to the right. It turns out that Elizabeth's grandmother was a soap maker. She made handmade soaps in Nebraska during the war. Her contribution to the war effort. Coincidentally, her grandmother was also called Elizabeth. And even though Elizabeth told me that she never had the opportunity to learn soap making from her grandmother, I felt that the connection was an important one. For 70 years soap had been made in her family. The basic process of saponification has remained the same, and so must have been the need for precise temperature and measurements. And yet in a world that is so different. Here we are today, trying to simplify life by making local products. A luxury in today's time, thought most likely a necessity in yesterday of 70 years.

Meanwhile, back in good ole' 2008...

I had returned home. I called that evening, but no trace. I called the next day, still no trace. We were starting to lose heart. Perhaps no amount of patience would bring saponification. On the third day, I called, and almost reluctantly asked, "well, did it trace?" YES! It had traced! Apparently we were a day short on the patience. Today it was hardening. Elizabeth had already poured the soap mixture into the molds. But I wanted a victory shot for this article. So I picked up my camera and headed over. Wow, what a color! The dark golden green had changed to a buttery yellow / beige. The soap was not solid and no longer even jiggling in the wooden mold. Here the soap will rest, probably for a couple of weeks to further harden and cure.

Once the soap completes the curing process, it will be removed from the mold, cut into bars, and wrapped in the signature wrapping of Lizard's Creations. The locally made and locally grown soaps will be available in locally owned retail shops, such as the Diamond Horseshoe in Carmel Valley, as well as through the Co-op (you can purchase Lizard Creations soaps at the coop website here).

A beautiful soap for a beautiful dream. I feel fortunate to be part of the journey to rediscover how to work together as a community to provide for the essentials of our life, be them food, soaps, or whatever.

Basil Pesto

I've got one word for you. Basil. This year has been a tremendous year for growing Basil. And I don't know why. Last year, I nursed one plant all summer long and would scrupulously harvest 3 or 4 leaves a day to chop into a tomato salad or some such. I dreamed of making bowls of delicious pesto for sandwiches, pasta, whatever, but alas, the poor little plant never really was able to make enough for such an enterprise.

This year was different.

First, in early April, I seeded about 30 or so plants in 3" pots and put them into the cold frame with the other starts. All took. In fact, by May / June when I planted them out, they were looking already better than my poor little plant from 2007. I actually had too many plants and not enough space to plant them out, so I had to give half of them away to friends and neighbors. Already the season was looking good.

When I did plant them out, I made a brand new raised bed with galvanized 1" hardware cloth on the bottom to keep the pesky gophers out, and filled the bed with compost and oak hummus that I collected from under an old oak cluster. They seemed to love it. They grew nicely all summer long, but in early August, for whatever reason, they exploded. And my healthy plants turned into a giant hedge of Basil. Oops. Now I have to eat it all. Way too much for Tomato salads, even every night. Time to make Pesto!

I have spoken to many different Pesto makers, and each have their own recipe and special tricks. I like to make a very basic pesto. It is easy, not too expensive, and very yummy to eat. I start with the following 4 ingredients:
- Basil
- Walnuts
- Lemon
- Olive Oil

In this batch, I made about 1-1/2 to 2 pints of Pesto, which took about 8-9 cups of basil leaves (essentially a two quart bowl almost full), about a pint of finely chopped walnuts, 4-5 lemons, and a few tablespoons (maybe a bit more) of olive oil.

Alright, I hear half of you yelling already "Walnuts! That's sacrilege!" I know, I know, everyone who is anyone uses pine nuts. Well my personal feeling is that pine nuts are just too snooty for my taste. They are typically twice as expensive as walnuts, and I just don't really think the difference is worth it. So feel free to substitute the pine nuts if you wish. Sniiifff. (smiles)

The lemon is absolutely essential. And it is not to be used sparingly either. Without enough lemon, the pesto will turn an unappealing brown color almost immediately. It also helps to remove the bitter edge that Basil can sometimes have (esp. if you don't trim the stems well enough!). If you don't have lemon, use lime, or SOMETHING acidic.

First clip the leaves from the stems and place the leaves in a big bowl. Make sure to get any large piece of stem, even if you need to cut the bottom part of the leaf off to do it. I've found the stems can add a bitter flavour. This can be somewhat neutralized w/ lemon, but not entirely. So it is best just to err on the side of caution and try to get rid of all the stem you can.

I chop the Basil and the Walnuts separately in the food processor. I do it this way because I don't like to measure things out, but prefer to cook "to taste." Chopping separately, I can then blend the Basil and the chopped walnuts together in exactly the right proportion to my current mood. Typically, the ratio is about 1:1. I do, however add the lemon to the Basil just before I chop it. So put the leaves into the food processor, squeeze the lemons directly into the chopping bowl, then chop. I do this to try to preserve the freshness and color or the Basil as much as I can. it is amazing how fast Basil will turn brown when cut. Obviously, when making a batch as large as two pints, it is going to require several batches of chopping. Make sure you add the lemon proportionally, so each batch of chopped Basil is done w/ enough lemon juice.

Once the Basil and nuts are chopped, then mix them in a mixing bowl and add the olive oil, until the texture is easy to spread. Like I said above, 1:1 ratio of chopped Basil to nuts is a good mental starting point, adding the oil sparingly until the desired texture is reached. Taste, and add more lemon, basil, or nuts if necessary.

I'm sure many of you have your own yummy twist on Pesto making. Please feel free to comment and tell me how to make it better!

The Honey Harvest

Last Sunday, after my visit to Catalan Farms, my son and I prepared to harvest some honey. I've spoken quite a bit in previous articles about the difficulties that I've had with the new hives this year. The good news is that the established bees from last year seem to be doing quite well. So whatever the affliction, the stronger colonies seem to be able to withstand it. This year was not a complete bust. While very small, there was indeed some surplus honey for us humans to enjoy.

After collecting the frames of golden honey, we headed over to neighbor Steve's house. Last year, Steve and I, together with another fellow beekeeping neighbor, went in even on honey extraction equipment. Steve is a year ahead of me in terms of establishing his colony. Last year we got to sample his bee's miracle. This year, we get to see what mine can do. We decided the easiest thing to do was to transport the frames over to his house and do the extraction there.

Bees are orderly creatures. When they finish filling up a honey cell with delicious honey, they cap it off with a nice cap of wax. The first step in extraction is to perforate these caps so the honey can flow out. There are many ways to do this including electric capping knives that get hot and slice the caps right off. Well, we used the "poor man's" tool called a scratching tool. In the photo on the right you can see the tool; essentially it is a series of needles on a handle that you rake across the comb, perforating the caps so that the honey can come out.

Once the caps are scratched, we placed the frames in the extractor. The extractor is essentially a centrifuge. The frames are placed inside, and are spun at high speeds by cranking the handle. The centrifugal force (okay, for physics folks, there is no such thing, but this isn't a physics class now is it :) pulls the honey out of the cells where it sticks to the walls and slowly slides down the sides, collecting at the bottom. There it creates a gorgeous pool of honey. We repeated this step multiple times until all the frames of honey had been evacuated.

The evacuated frames are just the empty comb with scratched caps. These frames I put right back into the hive after extraction. One of the benefits of writing this article post-facto is that I can report that I peeked inside a couple of days ago, and the little bees had already finished repairing most of the damage to the comb from the extraction, and the had cleaned out and repacked the residual honey. Harvest season over, their work now is for them alone.

Back to the honey harvest, we can now open the gate at the bottom of the extractor and watch the beautiful dark amber honey flow out! This is strained through a double strainer to remove the little pieces of wax that came from the broken caps. The pure honey flowed through the strainer (very slowly that is) and collected in the honey pail beneath it. I must admit that we all took a little sample of the honey at this point (just to make sure it was good, of course). And it was absolutely fabulous. The biggest surprise was the subtle but very distinct taste OF LAVENDER! Yes! Lavender! The bees obviously were hard at work in the lavender fields and brought this back in the pollen they used to make the honey. It was truly a wonderful taste that I did not expect and was quite grateful for the experience.

Most of this work was done indoors, as with hives nearby, the process tends to attract the bees to reclaim the fruit of their labor. However, at the end, we brought the extractor outside and let the heat of the sun warm up the barrel. This helped get more of the honey stuck to the sides to flow faster.

Then we poured the pure honey from the honey pail into 1/2 pint
mason jars ready for the table! This year, I will share the bounty with our Co-op subscribers.

Given the limited quantity, it will have to be on a first come, first served basis. The price will be $8.50. If you are interested, you can contact the Co-op coordinator at http://www.carmelvalleycoop.org/, or you can visit Carmel Lavender Contacts by clicking here.

With all of the trouble that I have had this year with the bees, this experience was a reminder of the rewards of success. It has given me new resolve to try to work through the problems I have had and restart the colonies next year. This week I have checked the progress of the re queening I wrote about earlier. Unfortunately the re queening seems to have failed and the colony is dead. But the hive next door still lives and from the remaining I will get things going again next spring. Despite the trouble, it is a fantastic experience working with these amazing little creatures.