Ok, I know, the title says it all. I have tried, and failed, miserably I might add, at making pine oil. I figured I would try PINE oil, because there are lots of spruce trees around here. Is spruce a pine tree, or just an evergreen tree? Anyway, what I was really trying to make is spruce oil I suppose. Forgive my lack of knowledge, but whatevs. I'm new to trying to be healthy, and less dependent on man made chemicals and stuff. At least I know the difference in essential oils, and infused oils. haha Anyway, I followed this how to on Instructables. I do know that I sometimes have trouble understanding things. I followed the instructions as best as I could and I found that it didn't work. I would end up getting all this scented water but there was no oil on it. From what I can understand from the instructions, there was supposed to be oil on top of the water. So, I figure that I must be doin it completely wrong.
I so, I'm going to tell you exactly what I do, so that you don't do the same thing. I want to save you some of the frustration that I'm going through. What I do is gather the plant material in my case it was pine needles from a spruce tree. I have no idea what kind of spruce it was. the next thing that I do once I have the pine needles gathered, is a boil a kettle of water. Once the kettle of water is ready, I pour it in the bottom of my multi cooker. Then, I put the plant material in the second strainer portion, then I put the top strainer looking thingy on top of the plant material. Then I put a pie plate in that top strainer thingy, and then I will put the multi cookers cover on top but upside down.
I make sure that the temperature is between low and medium. I let it boil until almost all the water out of the bottom of the pot, and has condensed into the pie plate at the top of the multi cooker. From what I could understand from the Instructables tutorial, the stuff that is in the bottom of the pot contains the oil. I'm supposed to let the waters of his content of the top and the water that has left at the bottom, cool down. Then, I'm supposed to gently pour the water from the top into a jar, and then the water that's left at the bottom I'm supposed to pour that on top. Then put it in the freezer. This is where it all goes bad. Instructables tutorial says that the oil won't freeze. everything that I put in the freezer, in that jar, completely freezes solid. does this mean that there's no oil in it? How can that be? What am I doing wrong? I've tried it 5 times! I even tried it with dandelions. Still nothing! Yes, I do have trouble understanding things but I'm not a complete idiot! So, how can I ever embark upon this new journey of being healthy, if I can't figure out how to do these things that some people find extremely simple.
If anyone else out there reading this has any advice whatsoever please let me know! I'm really desperate to figure this out, and I don't want to spend 200 to 300 dollars on a professional still for this. I want to be able to figure out how to make these essential oils, without breaking the bank.
Maybe I will break down and buy one of those countertops distillers, but I really don't want to because they are over 200 dollars Canadian. Sigh, wish me luck! I will be sure to update you if I actually succeed at making essential oils with my multi cooker.
No comments:
Post a Comment