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!