THE LAVENDER WAY
Lavender Links
Our Distillers - Babis and Janina
When we started the lavender farm it was Gill's ambition to produce an exquisite essential oil of lavender and while planting, caring for, and harvesting the lavender were major taks they were at least in our control. Getting the biomass turned into an essential oil with the same love and attention was a different kettle of lavender altogether.
We were fortunate in the extreme when Maria, who stocks our products in her shop Botanica in Xania, put us in touch with Babis and Janina who have been collecting and distilling wild herbs in a sympathetic and sustainable fashion since 1994. They were convinced by our ways and agreed to distill our oils for us (they distill for no one else) when we could produce sufficient biomass and they have distilled for us ever since we achieved viable mass.
Their methods are exemplary and the results likewise. Our oils are unique in no small measure due to their expertise and technical know how and love. For a history and explanation of their distilling go HERE
It would be fair to say that when we started the farm our knowledge and understanding of sustainable horticulture and agriculture was practically zero. We were keen to learn but it wasn't until the cameraman who filmed a local TV programme on the farm pointed us toward the teachings of Masanobu Fukuoka that the zen of it all gelled.
Fukuoka developed a no till, no fertilizer, do nothing agriculture and spent his life proving and promulgating his methods throughout the world as a buttress against increasingly mechanized, industrialized, and unsustainable farming that held sway when he started his way. His Wikipedia article is to be found HERE.
Reading materials
We love the internet. It is an amazing treasure trove of information - some useful, some less so - but there really is no substitute for a good reference book. These are the 4 books that we regularly revisit. Indispensible reading :