From Grandma's Desk:
Today I went to the Post Office to pick up my new Essential Oil distillation still!
It is beautifully made from copper, and works really well. I cleaned everything and put it all together. I gathered some cedar branches from a fallen tree in a cedar grove near our home on Six Mile Creek. Since I knew the still was coming I thought this would be the perfect hydrosol to make my first batch with the new still. I kept the cedar in my herb room sink in a bit of water to keep them fresh. Then I drained off the water to let them dry out as I was putting the still together.

Isn't she beautiful. I think I will call her the "Copper Swan". I love the long neck and the copper condenser that has such a beautiful shine.

I then filled her with filtered water and cedar fronds that were cut into small pieces. This is a 3 liter still so I added about 2000 ml of h2o and then filled the rest full of cedar. I put everything together following the directions. 2 Hours later I had about 750 ml of cedar hydrosol. I have not extracted the oil off the surface yet, as I am waiting for it to settle out. My next distillation will be a batch of lavender that I picked this morning before the sun hit. I will let you know how that goes later today!

From Grandma's Desk: Ginger Cherry Jam

6 cups pitted sweet cherries
1 1/2 cups honey
1 Tbls. finely grated fresh ginger

Have clean jars ready this will make about 6 cups of jam. While the jam is cooking you should have your jar lids ready for putting on the jars. I heat them in a sauce pan of water that I bring to a boil for 5 min. then let them sit in the hot water until you are ready to use them.

Put all ingredients together in a large 2 qt saucepan and heat over medium until it comes to a boil. I let it simmer stirring often until the liquid is clear and the cherries are soft about a 15 min. slow simmer. I then take my hand held blender and blend for 1 min.to reduce the cherries to a nice textured pulp. Then I whip it for 6 min with a wire whip. This releases the natural pectin. I warm the mixture back up to a bubbling brew. Then using a metal measuring cup I pour it into the waiting jars. Clean off the rim of each jar with a damp cloth. Place jar lids on each jar tighten down the lids and place in a waiting water bath let this bath boil for 1o min. then remove jars and let cool. It takes a few weeks for the pectin in the fruit to fully set so don't be surprised if the jam is a bit watery at first.

From Grandma's Desk:
My how time flies when your having fun. After a wonderful 3 weeks on the Big Island of Hawaii, we came home to much needed rain, and more rain and then some snow, and then some more rain. I finally stopped raining around the 4th of July. We have had beautiful cool weather until about a week ago when it warmed up to almost 100 F. But then it rained the last few days and is cool and green and beautiful. The lavender is blooming the salsa garden is abundant with tomatoes, tomatillos, and peppers. The cilantro is coming up everywhere. All the rain has brought us so many blessings and I feel so blessed here in the Six Mile drainage, with the rest of the U.S. having such high temperatures and storms.

Yesterday I spent the day canning organic cherries. They are soooooooo delicious. I have been eating them non-stop since Saturday when I got them at the farmers market. I am so amazed at how great they taste and because they are organic and did not get sprayed down with chemicals I am not experiencing any of the usually intestinal discomfort from eating to many! Yumm, Yummm, Yummmmmmm! But I was afraid I would eat the whole box so I did some canning yesterday to save a little summer goodness for the winter months. I also made cherry ginger honey jam and chocolate liquor soaked cherries are steeping in a jar for later use. Recipes to follow!

We are counting down to the Six Mile Lavender Festival, just 26 days to go. I will post another blog for the Lavender Festival later today!