Aromatherapy Newsletter: February 2016

New Oils from Iceland

Dear Friends and Family,

Firstly, we would like to say thank you to everyone who purchased tickets for the Botanica 2016 raffle!  It was a great success and we are good to go. A special Thank You to Rhiannon Harris-Lewis, Andrea Butje, and their teams for making this all possible.

We are so pleased to be able to introduce 3 wonderful new essential oils from Iceland, distilled by our friend Hraundis Gudmundsdottir.

Hraundis works for the Icelandic Forest Service, and is involved in a major, countrywide reforestation project.  She herself has planted over 100,000 trees on her family’s property!

She came to visit us in January, 2015, on a grant from the Icelandic Government to learn about essential oil distillation.  After a little over a week of wildcrafting, distilling, plant walking and touring, she returned home and promptly hired her nephew to build her a distiller.  She then spent the rest of the Winter converting an out building into a distillery.

We went to Iceland in July and helped her set up her new distiller.  We were honored and thrilled to participate in the first essential oil distillations in Icelandic history!  We distilled Norway Spruce, Yarrow and Lodgepole Pine.  Hraundis has been very busy since then and has also distilled Sitka Spruce, Sub Alpine Fir, Angelica Seed, Birch Leaves, Sweet Grass, Stone Pine and more.!

Clare and Max

P.S. Coming Soon - New Hydrosols!

Iceland Photo Gallery

Lupines!	Distilling Norway Spruce
Collecting Norway Spruce	Raudsgil (Red Canyon), Hraundis' home
Balancing the condenser	Arabella with Lupines
Connecting the condenser	Hraundis in America
Patiently waiting for oil	She's a Bee keeper too!  What a woman!
Scouting for essential oil plants	Happy in her distillery
Hraundis' son, Snorri	Closing the retort
Lady's Mantle- prized by the Alchemists for the dew it produces	Icelandic Thyme
Icelandic wildflowers	Arabella in a dwarf Birch forest
On the Western Peninsula	Hot Springs!
Icelandic farmhouse	One of the thousands of fabulous waterfalls
Wild Violet	Traditional houses