English Clary Sage harvest has now been completed and we are sharing some of the “in field” pictures from this season with you. The crop was mown and laid in a swath to dry for 2 to 3 days to allow the crop to wilt before distillation. Traditionally advice is to harvest and process right away but that does produce allot of reflux in the distillery due to the amount of water in the plants. We have found that drying in field is not detrimental to yield and also allows a faster and more efficient distillation. The close-up picture of the flowers shows the tiny seeds in the flower base that contain the oil, there can be up to 4 unripe seeds in each flower and this is the location of the oil, there is none in the stalks and leaves although we have to process all of this material. If the seeds start to turn brown and ripen then oil yield will fall away so timing can be quite critical especially in the UK weather and optimum is when the majority are swollen and milky ripe. We are now in the process of airing our English Clary Sage essential oil and it will be available from the website soon. Possibly the only English produced steam distilled clary sage oil available. Visit www.neoils.com