Summer at Penn Cove Ranch

Last week we were blessed by the arrival of Zooey Madelyn Halverson! Teresa gave birth to a very healthy little girl. Susan is in Eugene this week end helping out and getting to know her first grand child. Number two is just around the corner as Lindsay is due to deliver in mid-September. Pictures to follow….

The last several weeks at the Ranch have been spent cleaning harvest tools and the barns. Dale stripped 400+ pounds of buds from the remaining Provence bundles that were being dried. We have 1000 pounds still in inventory. Less than last year as we decided to turn much of the Provence harvest into oil. We are still waitng to harvest our Twickel. Alex, Mario and Javier Tenorio have been unavailable the last two weeks. The harvest and distillation should happen next Saturday. Year-to-date we have have about 220 kgs of oil. I am guessing we will distill another 20-50 kgs depending on the second harvest of the Angustifolia. My goal was 240 kgs or about 600 lbs of oil. All varities were chemically tested. Interesting is the fundamental difference between the Angustifolia and the Lanvandin. Lavandin contains quantities of Eucalyptol and Camphor and the Angustifolia does not. The aroma is much different and each has different product applications.

This was our first year selling fresh flowers. We sold over 1200 bunches. It was a good start and we learned a lot that should translate into a much bigger effort next year.

We are identifying potential users of our Hydrosol. We have collected and stored 1000+ gallons. I felt our later, lower temperature distillations produced a more aromatic hydrosol. Generally the amount of oil remaining in the hydrosol after distillation is so small it will be hard to confirm my suspicions.

The web site should go live in the next several weeks. We have several hundred beautiful wreaths and dried bundles in inventory. Katie has been working very hard to get the site and store up and running. She will firm up the product offerings this week. Our long term goal is to develop and offer a Home Spa product line. We are working behind the scene with a consultant to help us create our own unique and complimentary scent for each product in the lineup. Our time table calls for the first product to be ready for Christmas. We are all excited about the possibilities.

The boiler from hell. Doug and Bruce installed the final necessary piece on the boiler. It is the exhaust vent to the heavens. I am worried that it looks so much like the landing beacon for the Oak Harbor Airport that we may start getting unwanted traffic. It looks like other things too! We will paint it the color of the house trim at the end of the season. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow have and will be spent cleaning out the barns, The stable and hallway were finished yesterday. The insemination (cow) barn is in process of getting a face lift.

The bee man arrived today and stirred up the bees. Work stopped in that area. He says he will harvest next week. His reliability factor is low but I am hopeful. He would make no prediction on the potential size of the harvest. That has not given me confidence.