Lavender is
the plant that sells Provence. Without it we’d have to fall back on Sunflowers
or Thyme but you can find them elsewhere, not like the huge expanses of
lavender on the Valensole Plateau or the Plateau d’Albion. There is a problem
however, lavender is in flower for only 4 weeks, although I have read on many a
so called “expert in travel” to France websites that it flowers from the end of
May to mid-August. The truth is : end of June to third week of July, no more,
no less.
I have
spent many an hour in meetings for the local end regional tourist boards
debating on the best way to market Provence, and lavender crops up very quickly
every time. It’s an easy sell and therefore should be used, but at the same
time there is a strong movement against it, as there is so much more to
Provence than lavender.
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| La Haute Provence with its emblematic fields of Lavender |
For myself,
I love it, and every year for four weeks it never ceases to amaze and enchant
me, the different hues, the neat tidy (probably treated) fields, and the ones
with about as many weeds growing as lavender plants and the vibrant green
leaves of the wild almond trees growing at the ends or in the middle of the
fields, witnesses to a not so distant past when almond orchards outnumbered
lavender fields.
A bit of
history
It wasn’t until the start of the 20th
century that lavender was cultivated in fields. Up until then it was picked in
the foothills of Provence by hand, but the growing demand from the perfume
industry, and later the industrial sector for washing powders, shampoos etc.
gave rise in about 1905 to the experimental planting of wild plants. It took
many years to perfect the process and after experimenting with cross breeding
and grafting with the strongest and most prolific plants, the first successful
fields came to be around 1925-30. It was still picked by hand however, and even
if taking on a row of lavender with a scythe is easier than picking individual
stalks in the mountains, it was still a tough job in the July heat of Provence.
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Lavender fields on the Plateau de Valensole
with wild almond trees |
In 1952 the
first mechanical harvester saw the day, and things quickly changed. In 1920 the
annual production of essential lavender oil was 70 tonnes 90% of which was wild
lavender and 10% cultivated. By 1959 the annual production was 130 tonnes but
this time 90% was cultivated and only 10% wild. The lavender production moved
to areas easy to harvest and they are still there today, mostly on the
Valensole Plateau, and on the Plateau d’Albion . Today the production is all
cultivated and the annual production is 800 – 1000 tonnes of essential lavender
oil.
The main
production today is Lavandin whose essential oils are used in industrial
products and the main production comes from the Valensole Plateau. To find fields of True Lavender (Lavandula
angustifolia) used in cosmetics and herbal remedies you have to climb above 800
metres to the Plateau d’Albion around the villages of Revest du Bion and Sault.
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| Lavender fields on the Plateau d'Albion |
Your own Lavender Experience
Alternatively
you can still find True Lavender growing wild on the hills of La Haute
Provence, and I wanted to put together a simple, interesting travel experience
that would take you back in time, and allow you to experience a day in the life
of the Provençal Lavender Pickers, with a few modern comforts thrown in of
course, this travel experience will soon be available on the Unique Provence
web site for the 2013 lavender season.
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| Wild lavender growing in Haute Provence |
One of the
components of the above travel experience is experiencing the lavender distillation
up close, for this we have secured access to a marvellous still which we have
been testing this summer.
The still
is supplied by the European University of Scents and Flavours, and our master
of ceremonies in the photos is Olivier Bagarri, the director of the afore
mentioned place of learning and a personal friend.
The process
is simple water is heated in the bottom of the still, the steam rises and
passes through the lavender capturing the essential oil, it rises out of the
top, and condenses in the condensing coil where it comes out as lavender water
and oil mixed together. The oil rises to the top of the water and is
recuperated. The lavender water is also kept and can be used in the house as it
is very rich in lavender oil. Below you can admire my stunningly detailed
diagram on how it all works!
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| How to distil Lavender (click to enlarge) |
The amount
of essential oil produced during a distillation is not huge, especially using
lavande fine (True Lavender) which was the case in our experiments. The ratio
of weight of lavender to weight of essential oil produced is 0.5% and with
Lavandin it is 1.0% to 1.8%, so you if you join us next year you will be taking
home a very small amount, but this experience isn’t about producing gallons of
oil but about the way it is made.
Here are
some more photos of lavender distillation, with a little anecdote at the
bottom.
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| The Still in Action |
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| Olivier with some of the ingredients |
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| A live distillation always attracts attention |
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| The Essential Oil floating on top of the Lavender water |
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| Olivier inspecting the result of the mornings distillation |
The
Thieving Tourist
Last week
we distilled some lavender and the final quantity was 7ml, which was quite an
honourable amount. A lady from a passing cycling tour group came to see what we
were doing, and we showed her. She looked at the 7ml of essential oil, and
shouted out to her friends “this is the stuff you can buy on the market!”
pulled a small bottle out of her bag, poured in the oil and walked off! We were so stunned by this “robbery” that we
remained speechless, as the efforts of an entire mornings toil disappeared into
the distance. But we can distil again, and she has a lovely souvenir even
though she had forgotten to ask if she could take it, and she had also
forgotten to say thank you after she did, which would have been nice…
Learn more about our travel experience - A Day in the Life of a Lavender Picker
