A Tale of Two Essential Oils Producers.

After another super breakfast at the Hotel Hoerger, we piled back onto the bus for the first of two days of visiting essential oil growers/producers. Naturally, the clouds threatened. We were scheduled to go out into the fields and help harvest the Melissa (Lemon Balm) and no-one was looking forward to a muddy mess.

Wolfgang Burger's small farm.

First on the agenda was a trip to Lower Bavaria where Georg's business partner, Wolfgang Burger, owns a small farm. The drive through the forests and towns of Bavaria was absolutely enchanting. Everything was so clean and, as always, everyone seemed to have a vegetable garden in the backyard. When we arrived at Wolfgang's farm, the bus driver let us off at the bottom of the driveway and we walked up the rest of the little hill to the distillation room.

A long table just inside the distillation room displayed the essential oils available for purchase. Most were oils produced by Rotaller Aromaole, the company owned by Georg, Gudrun, and Wolfgang, but there were also some citrus oils from another source. (When it came time to make my purchases, I chose only ones distilled by RA.)

Wolfgang and Georg showed us their distillation equipment, a stainless steel version of the glass units we saw at TUM. Of course, theirs was much larger and had two retort columns. Although these columns are much larger than the ones we saw at the university, they still produce only a small quantity of oil. Rudolf Rinder told us the other day that the tall column design doesn't allow for massive, industrial quantities of oils to be distilled, but the small batches apparently create a better quality product.  Wolfgang swung one of the retorts out of the way to let us see how the steam rose up from below to enter the column.
   

Wolfgang and Iveta filling the retort.

He also climbed up onto a platform (with Iveta) to fill the other column with plant material in preparation for distillation. The separator had a unique, coiled tube at the top that gently placed the essential oil and floral water into the receptacle. This allowed the oil to float and not be mixed into the water.

Coiled tube at the top of the separator.

Previously, when I've seen essential oil distillation, the oil and floral water are dumped into the separator together rather quickly, which results in the oil bubbling up from below. Eventually it does float on top because the oils are lighter than water.

Hooking up the clipping bag.

Georg and Wolfgang took us out into their fields to let us have a chance to run the "lawnmower" as Kurt called it. The machine does resemble a lawnmower in that it has cutting blades at the front and a large bag attached at the back to catch the cut herbs. Yukari and Wolfgang pulled it up the long row of Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) and then Julien made the return trip. By then, the catcher was full of plant material. This became the next batch of oil to come out of the distillery.

Julien gets a turn.

Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis)

Melissa, for those who aren't familiar with it, is in the mint family. It doesn't yield much essential oil and so is very expensive. The delicate citrus aroma is calming and uplifting. It is also highly anti-viral because of its citral content. According to Dr. Dietrich Wabner of TUM, one application of this lovely oil has been known to cause complete remission of Herpes simplex lesions.

Bergamot mint (Monarda didyma?).

We walked amongst the rows to see other plants that Rottaler Aromaole distills. Georg showed us German chamomile, Bergamot mint, Melissa, and Angelica.

Photographing German chamomile.

After we walked back up the hill to the distillation room, it was time to fill the chambers with our newly mowed Melissa. Each retort chamber held three plastic tubs-full of plant material that had to be weighed for accuracy. I helped to fill one of the tubs, then all three were weighed at once. It was a bit iffy picking up the greenery without gloves on - I later saw a humongous spider waltzing among the leaves. I think I noticed Seoyun (a young lady from Korea) extracting the oil from the separator with a pipette, which means she probably bought some of what we distilled that day. Lucky her!

Weighing the Melissa tubs.

All that physical labor created a desire for lunch, which was served under the tent in front of the distillation room. By then, the clouds had opened up and it was pouring rain. In fact, it rained so hard that some of the tent material separated a bit under the weight of the puddles that had formed in the canvas. Gudrun had put together a lovely spread for us, including home made salads and bread, and her home-smoked fish. It really hit the spot.

As we were digesting our meal, Georg began telling us about some of the plants he had brought from his nursery. Most notable to me was a healthy looking Vitex tree (Vitex agnus-castus). I had known about the benefits of using Vitex for hormone balancing during menopause, or for PMS, but I never knew what it looked like. The tree also produces an essential oil. I think it comes from the leaves.

Leaves of Vitex agnus castus.

Monarda fistulosa.

Just before his talk, Georg came to me with a fresh Monarda fistulosa flower in his hand so I could see what they look like when they are fresh. What a sweetheart he is! How great to have the experience of first distilling the dried flowers and then seeing the fresh plant up close.

Oils for sale!

We made our oil purchases and then it was time to climb back in the bus for our journey to Burghausen in Eastern Bavaria, right on the Austrian border.

This was a typical view of Bavaria through rain spattered glass. Sigh...

Bavaria through the rain drops.

On the way to Burghausen we were supposed to stop in Marktl, the birthplace of Pope Benedict XVI. Perhaps because of the rain, or maybe because it was getting late, we kept on going to the town of Burghausen. Above the town, on a bluff, sits the longest castle in the world, Schloss Burghausen. It consists of six linked courtyards, making it over a kilometer long.

Carrying our variously colored umbrellas, we wandered from one end to the other, except that we arrived at a gate at the far end just after it closed. We decided instead to turn around and go back to the restaurant in one of the other courtyards for our dinner. The building that houses the restaurant was supposedly the stables and the armory back in medieval times.

Looking over the walls at the soggy town.

Along the way, we saw homes and churches still being used.

Quaint building with it's colorful garden.

A church inside the walls.

Looking over the ramparts at the tow

The town of Burghausen was settled by the Celts around 100 BC, then occupied by the Romans before the Bavarian aristocracy moved there from Landsfeld. Apparently, the town gained it's strength from the importation and distribution of salt. This makes sense because of its proximity to Salzburg, Austria (Salt Town). When I was a pre-teen, my family visited both Salzburg and the nearby salt mines.

The town is proud of the fact that Napoleon supposedly quartered over a hundred thousand troops inside the castle in 1809 while waiting a few days for a pontoon bridge across the Salzach river to Austria to be built to replace the one the Austrians had destroyed. (I didn't notice any signs saying "Napoleon slept here"!)

After dinner, Kurt suggested we might want to take a photograph of the sun setting from the walls of the "longest castle in the world". Here is a photo across the Salzach river and another of our two love-birds, Georg and Gudrun:

Sun setting over the Salzach River.

Georg and Gudrun.

The sun set long before we got back to the hotel. After a quick stop in Freising for people to change some money at the bank ATM, we arrived back at Hotel Hoerger ready for bed. Gudrun said she wouldn't be joining us tomorrow as she will be selling her smoked fish at the farmer's market. We'll miss her!