# distilling your own eo's



## Lauralynn (Mar 19, 2009)

Has anyone ever distilled or made their own essential oils from their own homegrown herbs? I had a lady tell me yesterday, when we were looking at her soaps, that she does this. I don't know anything about doing it so is it possible to do at home?


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## Guest (Sep 26, 2010)

Wow, she must be an amazing lady is all I have to say.. it takes pounds and pounds of the plant.. the right equipment and the right process just to get an ounce of pure oils.. 
Barb


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## linuxboy (Oct 26, 2009)

You also need to harvest at the right time. And the extraction process is different based on the herb. But yes, very possible, and you can buy surplus lab equipment to do the distillation.

I can help give you some instructions and get you started if you let me know which herbs you want to distill. It depends on the oil content of the plant. Something like eucalyptus a handfull of plant base will give you a few ounces of oil.


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## Lauralynn (Mar 19, 2009)

You answered my question Barb, I kinda thought it was that way. She is on older lady, I mean in her late 60's to 70's, lives in Frederick, Md, farms in Michigan, and grows herbs, distills them, makes soap, lip balms, lotion and was very proud to tell me that her products are animal free.
I kept my mouth shut like my mother taught me too, but I wanted to say, "Bless your heart, you don't look like wonder woman to me" And then tell her that I make all natural, full of all animal products like milk, lard, and anything else I can get my cotton pickin' hands that that comes from an animal soap. And I use those nasty FO's too.
But then she told me I didn't cure my soap near long enough when she asked me and I told her 3 weeks. She cures hers 6-8 weeks so instead of being a smart mouth, I was good and told her that I can't keep up with my customer's demands but I hope to catch up this winter after the markets are over and I have more time.

I must be getting older, I surprised my self.


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

I was friends for many years with a person who did all that and raised a commercial herb crop as well.
She attended 15 or more festivals all over the states and set up an incredible educational display and honestly did raise her herbs-extract and make her own products including herbal blends for health. She was someone who did not spend time on media or anything but her garden and her products and lived like 100 years ago but with modern conveniences so it can be done. People doubt they can feed themselves either but once you get into the rhythm of it all it takes is time and you have to steal that from elsewhere until it is your priority and focus and then it can be done. I realized being around her that learning from our elders is often wiser than being smarter than they are no matter how current our info seems. She was one of the calmest more fulfilled people I have ever known.


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

I have heard of people doing this too so I don't know that I would doubt someone who says that they do. I think it would be way cool to learn. My dd is taking an family herbalist course this year and we're hoping to expand our line to include more herbal *concoctions* from home grown herbs. (I find herbs much easier to grow than veggies. LOL)


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Tom has some old posts on here about this, he used to do it for a job, laughed at our purchasing 'triple distilled' peppermint oil from Lil  Now to remember his username...all of you and your darn usernames!!!


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## linuxboy (Oct 26, 2009)

There are four common methods to do it. You can

- Extract in water for those oils that are soluble, then concentrate
- Extract via steam in a distiller
- Extract by using a solvent like ethyl acetate or ethanol or hexane
- extract via supercritical co2 extraction. usually not practical

To do it by steam, you just buy a glass lab distiller on ebay, load it up with your plant material, fill with water, and go to town distilling. If you have a small essential oil still, it's not very hard.


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## Terri-Lynn (Nov 7, 2007)

There is a video about half way down this page that shows a big still at a lavender farm
http://guerilla-distiller.blogspot.com/


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Isn't Tom "MadFarmer" or something like that?


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Yes, thanks, I am emailing his partner to see if he feels well enough to chime in. Vicki


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