It's been a busy summer here at Damali and it's not over yet !  With over 7500 lavender plants blooming between the end of June and the middle of August the harvesting, bundling, hanging and drying is ongoing, but most excitng of all is the arrival of a 100 gallon steam distillation systen for extracting essential oil.  We bumbled along with our 10 gallon still but could see that there was no way that we were going to be able to manage our whole crop while yeilding 40 ml of essential oil every 2 hours !  Marsha and Dave headed off to Oregon on Wednesday afternoon and were back by mid afternoon Friday with our new toy.  By 6pm the still was up and running and by 7pm we had our first load done and about 400ml of oil.   We''ll get as much oil in 1 hour as we were getting in 2 full days (5 loads a day) Now we will be able to process the remainder of our crop (approximately 5000 plants) by the end of next week. If you're in the area this week come and check it out,

We've been getting some good attention from the media lately.  At the end of July a film crew working for Tourism BC came to do some filming for their Super Natural BC promo video for the 2010 Olympics.  We were also on Shaw TV today and we are going to be in an article in the Globe and Mail later in August so we are excited that people are hearing about our farm and finding it interesting. We've been pretty busy in the lavender shop and the B&B has been steadily booked through July and August. We've met some great people who have really enjoyed their visit at the farm.

We've had an excellent crew of wwoofers this summer which has helped immensely. Most of them are from Europe but we've also had some from the US and Japan.

On a sad note....our lovely, sweet Golden Retriever, Kahlua went off to doggy heaven on August 7.  She was 12 1/2 years old and thoroughly enjoyed her golden years here on the farm.  Everyone who visited here was greeted with her quiet serenity and peaceful manor. We really miss her.

 In other news....the ongoing saga of the eggs. For 2 years we put our egg cooler at the end of our driveway with a jar for the money in the cooler. Then the money started to go missing so we built a little lock box for the money. The other day somone had come along with a screw driver and undone the hinges and opened the lock box. It was empty ! We put differnt screws in and the next night it was opened up again. Unbelievable ! We thought we'd put a note in the box for the next time and say "If you're that desperate or hungry please come up to the house for a good meal"

There has been a few events held here over the summer.  The 1st Lavenderfest went well and we have lots of ideas how to make it even better next year.  Patti, our Labyrinth Lady has held a number of events down at th labyrinth where our new gazebo is now finished.  The Grape Escape Bike Tour came through last weekend, I don't know how they cycled in the 35 degree heat,   Personally I'd rather be weeding.

Well I think that's all the news for now.  Come by and see our new still in action,  Oh,  and anyone who's ever said they'd like to help with the harvesting....now's the moment!

Alison @ Damali