Visiting a Scottish Lavender Field!

Like many of you, I've spent lockdown venturing no further than my neighbourhood and don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed exploring and getting reacquainted with the area I grew up in. However, now that lockdown is easing, it's been such a treat to venture out on short day trips. So, when my lovely friend Ildi (@edienthusiast on Instagram) alerted me to the fact that there's a lavender field just a short drive from my parent's home, I couldn't wait to head out on another outing! After a little online research, we discovered that Scottish Lavender Oils host open days to give the public a chance to explore their lavender field and learn a little about the process of converting freshly cut lavender into their various products, like soap or lavender essential oil. I'll leave a link here to their store if you'd like a browse.

The main field consisted of two main types of lavender Folgate (ornamental) and Grosso (more functional). There were also a few rows dedicated to their 'experiments', consisting of different lavender varieties, some of which were successful and some not so much. One of the things that really caught our attention was the number of bees and butterflies we spotted. We later learned that the farm is also  home to three honeybee hives - which I think you'll agree with me is simply brilliant!

After a thoroughly enjoyable wander around the lavender field, we headed back to their shop to pick up a few products and learn about the distilling process. What I gathered was that the first step is to grow the lavender which is then hand-cut, and transported to their nearby distillery where the distillation process begins. This consists of steaming the blooms till the pressure in the copper still causes the blooms to burst and produce oil. I'm definitely oversimplifying the process but I think that's the general gist!

We ended up leaving with a small bunch of lavender, a bag of dried lavender (which smells divine), and a bar of their soap! It was both my mum and I's first time to visit a lavender field and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and would just like to thank Scottish Lavender Oils for opening their home to the public!