For a few days now I’ve been rubbing lavender oil on my temples before going to bed, I’ve installed a diffuser in the guest toilet and in the morning I walk through the house and spray lavender room fragrance. Lavender is said to reduce stress, helps with insomnia and relaxes. I imagine it will work. I’m totally relaxed. My family less.
“Please don’t do that,” said my husband only yesterday and looked sternly. “It smells like a beauty salon here.” That’s nonsense, of course. First, because it’s not true, and second, because the man has never seen the inside of a beauty salon in his life, let alone smelled it.
My acute soft spot for the fragrance is no coincidence. Last week I helped with the lavender harvest. You know, my main job is a garden reporter for television, and of course I would have loved to go to Provence in France. But I don’t speak French and ZDF might have found such a long journey a bit over the top. So I rattled a train ride to Ostwestfalen-Lippe out of my boss’ ribs.
There are thousands of lavender bushes on 16 hectares of land
Because, in an inconspicuous industrial area near the city of Lage, lavender is also grown. And how! Thousands of lavender bushes are neatly lined up on 16 hectares of land. Very early in the morning, before the bumblebees and bees, I stood in the middle of one of these fields and tried to imagine the 1960s houses in the background as a castle. It couldn’t be nicer in the south of France, to be honest. I was framed by a sea of purple flowers, the intense scent hit my nostrils, and if I had to try to describe this moment in one word, it would be the term “Quiet”, which spontaneously comes to mind.
The variety in Lage is the same as in France: Lavandula Angustifolia. This is true lavender, the one used to make essential oils. And exactly such oils are produced by the fragrance manufacturer “Taoasis” in the middle of East Westphalia. The boss, Axel Meyer, had shoveled the day off for us, drove the tractor with me and knelt between the fragrant bushes.
Imago
When it comes to harvesting lavender, almost every minute counts.
“Look,” he said, snapping off a woody stalk, “when the flowers are two-thirds open, that’s the right time to harvest.” – “So right now?” He looked up at the sky. “Another hour or so, when the morning dew has dried.”
That when it comes to harvesting lavender, almost every minute counts was one of the many things I was able to learn that day. Likewise, it takes about 300 kilograms of flowers to obtain a single liter of lavender oil. 300 pounds! Imagine that! Meyer is the first farmer in Germany to grow lavender on a large scale for fragrance production. Climate change makes it possible.
In France, the summer heat is almost too great
“In France, the summers are now almost too dry for lavender. While here, the conditions work better for the plant year after year,” Meyer said. On the one hand, I think that’s terrible. On the other hand, I have respect for the daring of people like Meyer. He grabs the opportunity by the horns and takes full risk. The fact that lavender cultivation can work in East Westphalia is not a matter of course, the soil is actually unsuitable. Too clayey, too fat and too rich; Lavender likes it barren and sandy.
But the plant is adaptable. Just like the people in the region. Initial skepticism was followed by enthusiasm, the blooming lavender fields are now a well-known attraction in the area. As in Provence, busloads full of garden-loving pensioners come, but also yogis, plant lovers and Instagrammers walk between the fields and snap photos.
My team and I filmed all day. We interviewed the boss, filmed the plants, the distillation process, the bottling machine and finally the fragrance shop. And even though I’ve never been particularly interested in olfactory gimmicks, in the end the horses got away with me a bit. When we were done, I bought: three organic room sprays, a fragrance diffuser with a refill pack, a lavender oil roller for the handbag, the “sauna essence to get to know” and a joint well-being spray for my husband.
Well, what can I say? The whole stuff has to get to the people here in the house now. Of course, my husband stinks. But he shouldn’t be like that. Maybe I’ll secretly spray his pillow tonight so he can relax a bit.