News from the Farm

The wonderful rain that we had in late 09 has rewarded us with beautiful crops of succulent herbs, roses, chamomile and particularly the lavender. It is visually spectacular and so fragrant that with a light breeze the perfume fills the air.

At the moment our drying shed is brimming with roses, calendula, and of course the lavender.

We have been harvesting the roses for over 2 months and the lavender is harvested late January, so we are in the middle of full harvest season.
Our roses will continue to flourish until late May, so there will be plenty of petals to pick over the coming months.

In the most part all the picking is done by hand. A small hand held cutter is used for the lavender crop because the lavender flowers will drop form the stem during the drying process.

The drying shed is exactly as it sounds – a large corrugated iron shed lined with wire drying racks. The raw heat of the Australian summer that heats up the iron cladding is ideal to dry out anything inside the shed…no need for any technology there.
Once the drying process is complete, all plant material is stored in large drums until required for manufacture.

This is all just part of the magic that happens in the process of making JANESCE.