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Lavender Harvest

Lavender Harvest Festival at Sacred Mountain Farm
Last month I had the pleasure and honour to witness (and micro-participate) in lavender harvest at an organic lavender farm on Saltspring Island, BC. No amount of photographs of lavender field in full bloom could have prepared me for the tremendous multi-sensory beauty that they bestow upon those who visit them in person. 

Lavender Harvest & Steam Distillation Festival at Sacred Mountain Farm

Lavender Harvest & Steam Distillation Festival at Sacred Mountain Farm

Lavender Harvest Festival at Sacred Mountain Farm 

This summer I had the pleasure and privilege to witness and micro-participate in the lavender harvest and distillation at Sacred Mountain Lavender Farm. Nothing could have prepared me for how wonderful the aroma of hundreds of lavender shrubs simultaneously blooming would be. It's an all-immersing experience that is hard to describe in words.

Everything about those bushes - stems, leaves, buds and petals - contributes to a whole experience of a living, breathing lavender, the reassuring presence of the essential oil content, like a whiff at a lavender sachet in one's linen closet, promising a good night's sleep; and the smell of wet twigs and coumarin that emanates from the rest of the plant. I won't lie to you: it smelled quite familiar, like a rich green, paste-like lavender absolute, or an all-natural Fougère fragrance which would at least have some lavender absolute.

The fields, even though relatively small in size (only 2 acres), stretch upon the hillsides of sacred Mount Tuam, and create a very impressive view of Mediterranean-azure against the natural habitat of Canadian. They really are more blue than any other lavender I've ever seen. So saturated with colour, they are almost fluorescent. Nothing like the dull greyish-purple I've been accustomed to seeing.

As expected, the lavender grows in neat rows of puffy blue shrubs, with plenty of space between the rows to stroll around and tend to the plants. The earth between them lined with black sheets to conserve moisture (a most important thing especially with the drought this year!). Another pleasant surprise: As you walk through the rows, golden honeybees are abuzz on every step you take. They are very friendly, and won't disturb your harvest as long as you don't squish them. It was such a rejuvenating experience, that even my daughter, who usually gets rather puzzled and distressed about any agricultural tasks, knew exactly what to do and walked herself gracefully around the bees and made a beautiful lavender bundle all of her own.

Lavender Harvest & Steam Distillation Festival at Sacred Mountain Farm

This farm grows 60 varieties of lavender in their educational demonstration plots, including some less known cultivars, such as a "Melissa" white lavender, and Maillette. They had a "U Pick" which is how Miss T and I were able to scavenge the rows of buzzing angustifolia bushes (which they called "English Lavender" for some peculiar reason; their Lavandin, by the way, was called "French"). To be perfectly accurate, this lavender is about as Canadian as could be. And I'd also like to mention: this is not the first lavender farm I've come across. There was one in Quebec near my dad's country house; there's one I heard about in the Okanagan near Osoyoos, and there is also  the Montrose Family Farm nearby on Bowen Island, who comes to the market every August with their lavender bouquets, sachets and handmade wands which they weave on the spot.

What's unique about this farm is that they are fully dedicated to lavender and also distill the oil and hydrosol on the spot. Every year in mid-July they hold a Lavender Festival to commence the lavender harvest season (which normally lasts between July 20 - September 1), and I was lucky to be visiting Salt Spring Island with my mom exactly that weekend. They had live concerts and dance performances, and this year they had an Italian theme so most of the music was arias from Italian operas, and an Italian chef created an entire menu using fresh lavender flowers from the farm - there was pasta with peas, fresh mozzarella, lavender and basil; pizza with eggplant and lavender, and a Sicilian ricotta pie that was on the drier side (a little like a bar with a shortbread-like crust on the bottom and top), and had a ricotta filling dotted with candied lemon peel and the non traditional addition of lavender, of course.

Lavender Harvest & Steam Distillation Festival at Sacred Mountain Farm
There was a distillation demonstration for a couple of hours, in which you could see how they separate the buds from the branches (after they dry them) for filling sachets, etc.); and also how the freshly harvested lavender is being fed to the still and see a little bit of the oil forming on top of the water (see below).

The yield at the farm is about 0.4%-0.5% oil to fresh plant matter in lavender (L. angustifolia), which means you'll need between 200-250 lb of lavender to make only 1 lb of lavender essential oil and 1% for lavandin (L. latifolia), which will require 100 lb to produce 1 lb of lavandin oil. This is low in comparison to a good lavender yield (110 lb to produce 1 lb of oil - which is about 0.9%) and even lower than an average one (150 lb, or 0.66%). I'm guessing there could be a few reasons for that, one being the climate, which is perhaps Mediterranean in Canadian terms; but rather not in Mediterranean terms. No matter how you slice it, the sun pattern is not the same on the 49th parallel as it is at the 43rd (where the Maritimes-Alpes in France are, for example); and moreover, even if there is less rain on Salt Spring than in the rest of the Lower Mainland - it's still plenty of rain, even in a drought year like this year.
Lavender distillation
But more important is the terroir, and in particular the altitude. The farm is situated just a little above sea level. However, lavender that grows in high altitudes not only produces more esters, but also more of them make it to the finished product. The reason is, that in high altitudes, the boiling point of water lowers down to 93c. Therefore, the oils can get produced at a lower temperature, and without destroying as much as the delicate components (such as esters). This is the two-fold reason why lavender grown in high altitude has a superior quality. Nevertheless, the oil at Sacred Mountain Lavender Farm is quite lovely, with hints of an almost chocolate-like sweetness.

Lavender harvest


At the farm's shop you can get all their locally made lavender products, including lavender and lavandin essential oils and hydrosols, body butters and creams, culinary lavender products (herbal blends, lavender-scented teas and tisanes, etc.), and of course - lavender sachets. 

Lavender Harvest Festival at Sacred Mountain Farm

Lavender festival
Miss T and I are the king and queen of lavender, at least for the photo! 

Tuberose Pommade and a Flower Meditation



The other enfleurage pommade I ordered from Dabney Rose was a tuberose one. If you've smelled fresh-cut tuberose before, you'll be appreciate the glorious beauty of the living flower that has been captured in the vegetable oil base of this pommade. You can read more about the process and what pommade means in my post about the equally stunning Butterfly Ginger pommade.

Capturing a living flower's true scent is an enormously challenging feat. Dabney Rose does an incredible labour of love growing her own plants in a glass hothouse and her own little garden, and she must be tending to each blossom and petal with much care while growing them, and of course handpicking and placing them in the coconut-base vegetable alternative to enfleurage.

The Tuberose Pommade brings to mind spring eternal when the entire room is intoxicated from a single cut stem. It transports you to a hot summer night on the beach, adorned with a lei of tuberoses and gardenias. I am yet to experience this in real life, but my imagination is quite satisfying and a dab of real tuberose is enough to make it feel real. All is needed is to close one's eyes and surrender your senses to this beauty, for it is fleeting.

The pommade is not a solid perfume, but a pure, single note extraction - a rather antique method, like the one invented in the city of Grasse. It does not last long, which demands you do pay attention to it while it lasts. With such rare beauty, a floral meditation is in order, once you apply this white unguent to pulse points or even finger tips. Take a few moments off your stressful day to appreciate this beauty. Or better yet - start your day that way. Dedicating the beginning of your day to gratitude and appreciation is the best way to start the day. Invite life's blessings and pause to fully appreciate it, and more will come your way.

Butterfly Ginger Pommade



Dabney Rose's Butterfly Ginger (Ginger Lily) Pommade is nothing short of a miracle. But for you to understand, let's first explain what pommade is. And no, it is not spelled "pomade", much to my autocorrect's disapproval. This is the French word for a step in the enfleurage process. Enfleurage is the fat (usually from an animal source) that has been fully saturated with a flower essence. Once this is achieved, the pommade will be washed with alcohol and produces an extrait (an alcoholic dilution of flower extract). When this alcohol is removed by evaporation, it leaves behind the pure flower absolute (much like any other extraction process).

There are a few things that are unique about Dabney Rose's pommade: first of all, she makes them by hand from plants that she lovingly grows in her garden and hothouse. Secondly, it is sold as is, without further washing in alcohol - thus offering a pure, fresh flower scent in a solid perfume form. Thirdly, the fats she uses to absorb the living flower's beautiful perfume are vegan (I believe it is coconut oil, but it might be mixed with other vegetable oils).

Specifically, the Butterfly Ginger Pommade is stunning. Even though it is made of just one plant, it smells like a complete perfume, yet also smells very alive. As a point of reference, thing of a floral green such as Laura Ashley No.1, sans all the sharp and headachy notes that this genre tends to give me (much to my dismay, as I do admire green florals). It also reminds me of a certain fancy soap that was the household name at my best friend's home: a fine white soap with a very clean yet floral, exotic aroma.

This ginger flower is not at all ginger-like, even though it could be described as slightly spicy. I haven't smelled it in real life, so forgive me if my points of reference are commercial items. At the same time though, I'm sure this is very true to a fresh living flower. It perfectly retains that character and authenticity. This is the kind of thing that you may not be able to describe, but you certainly can feel.

Dabney Rose's offerings are seasonal in nature, and are made in very small batches. The website doesn't a catalogue or shop yet, so it's best to follow here Facebook and twitter stream, and order immediately when something that strikes your fancy is out of her still or enfleurage trays.
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