Alpine Essence Lavender Farm

For this week's field trip I went to Alpine Essences. Alpine Essences is a lavender farm. We went to our local one down in Berthoud. They have land in Madisonville. Alpine Essences grows all sorts of stuff. Mainly lavender. They have tours in summer and spring. We are thinking about going to one of them! Because we went to the farm in the winter most of the plants were covered up. But they had some awesome sullions to keep the plants growing! They grew some of the plants in the window cell covered by a piece of plastic. They also had a green box sorta thing. It was like a box shaped greenhouse. It was pretty awesome to see all the ways you could grow plants in the winter. The lavender was under a big tarp. It grew pretty well under there! The lavender plant normally grows pretty tall. I can't remember the right number. Anyways then it has a tall part coming off from that with the actual lavender on it! Imagine how stunning that must be in the summer.

We got to see this awesome room in the basement of the house where they store all the hydrosol. Hydrosol is the liquid that is in plants. Have you ever bought essential oils? Well, the oil is normally taken off the top of the liquid. Well the hydrosal is often not used or thrown away. Some people believe that it is better for the hydrosal to be in the oils. I personally agree. But everyone has different opinions!

I got to smell all sorts of hydrosols! It was super interesting! My favorites have to be the rose, lavender, and peppermint! I'm guessing you didn't know but one of my favorite scents and tastes is peppermint. They actually grow peppermint plants there! We got to smell it toward the beginning. She said that in the summer they would just go out and chew on the leaves! They can do that because they grow all their pants with no pesticides! I think that's awesome! They also use all parts of the plants in their essential oils!

Towards the end she gave me a facial! She used “ I am Radiant '' which is a natural sunscreen and natural face spray! The other one she used is called “I am Love” which is a face and body mist! My mom bought “I am Radiant” and she gave me “I am Love.” She also gave me a peppermint essential oil rub and she put some peppermint hydrosol in a water bottle. Which is supposed to keep you cooler when you hike or go outside!

At the very end she showed us how they take the hydrosal out of the plant. They will take the plant and set it on this metal piece in this big tube like machine, then they will turn it on and it will sorta process the oils and materials from the plant. From there it will turn to steam and head through a tube. In the tube cold water from the hose will turn it back into liquid and then there you go! They will then put it in the jars to settle and get it ready for using!

In the end, this was a fantastic field trip and I had so much fun learning about how they make these awesome things! I 100% want to go back! And I definitely recommend it. Bye!