 When harvest
time comes mint is swathed. Mint lies in the swath for a few days
to dry. Proper dryness is important when the mint gets to the still.
It is hard to extract oil from mint hay that is too green. If the
mint hay is too dry, leaves fall off, and oil is lost before the hay gets
to the still. Both quality and quantity of mint oil are affected
by the dryness of the hay. |
 When
the mint is dry enough it is chopped. This is the same chopper that
chops hay and other forage crops. The chopper blows the chopped mint
into the mint tub, filling the tub. |
 Trucks
pull the tubs to the still. Here steam lines are hooked to the bottom
of the tubs. Vapor tubes are hooked to the top. Steam moves
through the mint hay, taking oil off as a vapor. About two hours
are required to cook the hay in the tub. After the tub is cooked,
the truck pulls the tub from the still. The residue from the mint
hay is dumped out, and the truck takes the tub back to the chopper.
This is an eight bay still, and will cook about forty tubs in a good fourteen
hour day. |
Rainbow Gardens-2500 Whitefish Stage-Kalispell, MT 59901-http://rainbowgardens.net