acceptable standards
We harvest only from the Lavandula Angustifolia plant, and apart from our own lavender, we also harvest from local gardens in the Languedoc where we know that no pesticides have been used. After cutting the flowers and stems at midday on sunny days in July and August, we hang small bundles free in a shady place for a few days, and then gently shake the slightly dried flowers to dislodge them. The remaining flowers are then carefully removed by hand. The fact that we do not utilise ANY of the stems in the distillation process removes the possibility of any off-flavours in the resultant oil. Although the stems do contain some lavender oil, they also contain other components undesirable in the final product (resulting in strawy fragrances, for example). Most larger enterprises distil the flowers AND stems.
We distil in a small traditional copper alambic made by artisans in the North of Spain, with a swan neck and cooling coils as condenser. The alambic is filled with the flowers, water added, and distilled for about 1 hour. After separation of the oil from the water distillate, the oil is stored in flasks in a dark place. After a few months, the oil is carefully decanted from the remaining few drops of water which slowly accumulate with time, and then bottled in small brown bottles. Prior to sale, we allow the oil to mature for a few months. This improves quality. We do not distil using steam (which is normal nowadays) and there are many arguments as to which of the two methods is superior. Our belief is that the slightly higher temperatures attained by using steam is not an advantage for the resulting quality of the lavender oil.
For cooling the lavender oil/steam mixture, large quantities of water are required, and in many enterprises this water is wasted. We ensure that prior to distillation, our swimming pool water-level is at a minimum (natural evaporation in Summer), and we thus can pass the used cooling water into the pool.
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