It's been a long time dream of mine - to grow enough roses - the fragrant, damask roses for distillation. The idea was/is to schedule mini-retreat soul renovating experiences - where retreat guests would gather baskets of roses from the gardens, bring them to the distillation center (what we call the Sanctuary) - and then together - experience the beautiful process of distillation.
A light lunch of garden salad, farm baked sourdough and mint tea would be served. Before leaving the retreat, each guest would receive a small bottle of rose hydrosol.
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Up until a few weeks ago, I was still staring at and overwhelmed by this huge 20L alembic copper still (used for these sacred distillations), and then Ryan and Samah Schumacher of Essence of the Earth came into our lives. (Ryan works with Bakers Creeks Seeds). Unbeknownst to us, Ryan has spent years in Kenya, working with farmers, growing roses for Rose oil and Rose Hydrosol - using stills far greater than ours.
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The sacred drips of perfectly distilled Rose Hydrosol begins. 🌹
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So we set a morning - on a recent Friday - I connected with friends of the farm who love roses and were more than thrilled to arrive at the farm at 6 am - knowing Samah's fresh roasted coffee would be ready and they'd be part of something a bit epic - experiencing the farm's first rose distillation.
The Thursday evening before, I talked to God and asked if he'd cover the farm with a blessing for this special experience. Well, my heart just about exploded Friday morning. It was if Creator God blew love on each rose bush and the buds all opened perfectly. So perfectly. I'd never seen such rose volume before.
The ladies arrived, connected with each other, a few bottle fed the baby goats )(who have now gone to their new homes), grabbed coffee, baskets and in teams of two - took off to the gardens and began to put their faces into the roses selecting all the fragrant ones. There was more than we had anticipated. The 20L still needed to be filled and it was.
In the near future, we will distill our Immortelle, Yarrow, Lavender, and Roses. The Friends of the Farm donors will be receiving a small gift/thank you of one of our farm’s beautiful bottles of distillate. 🌱
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Beautiful Samah from Sudan Mission & Essence of the Earth
