Lavender: a holistic approach form soil to bottle Lavenders of the angustifolia species dominate Snowy River Lavender’s essential oil production and coming to terms with what constitutes quality in these essential oils has been necessary to our ‘stock and trade’. At Snowy River Lavender, aromatic beauty and essential oil chemistry are both key factors in […]
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From field to cellar: a chronology of lavender distillation Once the harvested flower is brought to the distillery, it is important to make sure it enters the still in premium condition. The flower is laid out on tarps, cleared of any extraneous plant matter and tossed with a pitch fork, to assist air circulation around […]
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No, the crystal droplets pendulous on these young lavandin spikes are not hydrosol. This is simply an evocative image presenting itself in our top paddock one misty morning early summer 2012 HYDROSOL – CRYSTAL CLEAR POWER A bottle of lavender hydrosol has the appearance of crystal clear water and it is not until you smell […]
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The bountiful and beautiful lavender cultivar, Avice Hill, consistently produces an essential oil which balances toward the ester compounds with low linalool content. Avice Hill, summer 2013, being harvested from Roo paddock Deviations and chemotypes The Standards present the biodiversity of lavender as part of a predefined chemical balance and range of […]
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Gas Chromatography (GC) is a technical process for reading essential oil chemistry and presents each compound as peaks on a graph as they emerge across time. Each peak represents a phyto-chemical compound and mass spectrometry (MS) calculates the area under those peaks as an itemised and listed percentage of that compound in the overall composition […]
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Managing the temperature of the still’s condenser, in a manual system of distillation, is a task which requires the distiller’s care and vigilance. The sparkle of distillate sputtering out the condenser pipes, indicates it is appropriately cool. If allowed to overheat the distillate will emerge as vapour and precious essential oil will be lost. THE […]
Read moreLate frost is the biggest danger to our harvest. Frost burns the immature flower spikes and they wither and die. Frost burn can happen in varying degrees of severity. Usually damage is minimal and the bulk of our flower set is unaffected. However in October 2006 a severe frost (-10 ˚C) took our entire flower […]
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At 1 meter around, the lavandin cultivar Super in full flower is a daunting prospect to approach with sickle in hand. It takes 5 to 6 curves of the sickle to clear the flower from each bush. Hand harvesting lavender The traditional method of harvesting lavender flower is by sickle. Between 2003 and 2010 this […]
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MACHINE HARVESTING LAVENDER Since 2009 our primary means of harvesting is by way of a tractor mounted machine from Clier, a French agricultural engineering company located in the lavender growing region of Provence. Snowy River Lavender is definitely not a broad acre farm with many different sized plantings dotted opportunistically around our steep property. Thus […]
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Timing harvest for essential oil production Timing the harvest is a key determinant in achieving character, quality and yield in our essential oil production. The stage of flowering is pivotal in this decision with nectar feeding insects such as honeybees central in how the timing of the flowering process plays out. However, it must be […]
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