Hi, everyone! My name is Cody and I have created this (casual) channel as a way to share my videos on basically any topic I find interesting. I am particularly interested in plants and gardening, but I also love music, adventure, obscure foods and teas, insects/spiders, and just nature in general. There will be many videos about that (or any related subjects for that matter). Many of these videos I can see myself making will be in vlog, tutorial, updates, educational, and entertainment styles, but I am willing to adapt to other kinds of videos as well. Feel free to discuss any thoughts or ideas related to any of these videos, I will be happy to hear from you :).
Now I hope you enjoy the show!
Пікірлер
I picked one of these just this evening, the flowers reminded me of the purple flowering verbena. I was surprised to learn all the health benefits. It is growing all over the ditches here, hundreds of plants. Im going to go and pick many more of these for my property to plant 👌
@@user-ql5hu1nl5d sounds like a great idea, and the good thing is they transplant well!
😮washing is good but need to sanitize
Can a person use regular table sugar instead ? I am just a beginner and I like simple 1 gal. recipes. Thank You Tom Doyen Minnesota
Yes, you can absolutely use regular table sugar! I would say about 1 cup of sugar per gallon. Happy brewing! 🙂
Thanks for the video! Can I use the crowns to make tea? I mean the bits that you saved to plant to see if they'd grow . Did they grow for you??
Hi! The crowns that I saved in the video did not grow in the spot where I planted them. Perhaps I cut them too short and they didn't survive. Oh, well, I still have Valerian growing in the original spot where I harvested them, likely from self sown seeds/leftover root clusters. As for making tea with the crowns, you probably could, although I would dry them first. Valerian root is supposed to be dried before consumption, so I've heard. I hope that answers your question. 🙂
I'm in the army and in sere school we learned a lot about herbs and natural medicines to make use of when in non permissable environments, on my morning walks, off mission, I noticed a bunch of valerian growing and had never heard of it, very informative video, thank you very much for your thorough nature!
I have a similar machine as the one in your video. I bought it on line it came without a manual and I’ve been WANTING to make essential oil with it. Thank you for your video!!!
banger
Could you start off with boiled water to shorten the time?
Good question, I'm really not sure. I don't see anywhere in the instructions that says you can't, so I'd imagine it would probably be fine.
where did you get those lagochilus inebrians
I got the seeds from www.gardenshaman.eu/# while supplies last. 👍
Hi :) Some Bee Balm can be a biennial! Planting this year should cover you on that front Great repurpose of your greenhouse shelving! Since plants grow to the light, would you consider lowering your LED arms closer ot the plants? That might help the leggy-ness. Just a thought. Or perhaps put your shelving stacked together down the middle and light both sides... you can access from each side while pointing your lights around from the back? Again, just some thoughts :)
Hey, thanks for the thoughtful tips! Just a few things to consider about those ideas and why they may not be as practical as they sound. I could probably move the LEDs a little closer, but they can only reach so far and I want to make sure that the lights cover all levels, especially as I start more seedlings. I'm not sure how well having the shelves back to back down the middle would work, because then there wouldn't be room for my large seedling mat, which is essential for keeping loose pots in and catching excess water. That would also complicate my main grow light bar, because where would it go? I could just have my LEDs wrapped around from the back, but that could cause more legginess as all the seedlings grow way towards the back trying to reach the LED light. The system I have now is working fine and it will only be another month or so before I can move all the seedlings to my new outdoor greenhouse which will include its own heating system. Does that make sense, or have I misunderstood some things? 🙂
hydrosol will collect first and the essential oil will float and need to be separated.
It occurred to me that you might get a better (and easier) oil extraction from your hydrosol if you simply froze it. The ice would form as pure water while the oil would remain unfrozen and more easily separated.
Hey, did you just buy the air still by itself? I am looking into buying one and trying to figure out if I need other things in order to use it. I am planning on using it purely for hydrosols. Any help would be greatly appreciated :)
Hi, yes, I bought the Air Still by itself. I know the company makes accessories that are sold separately, but those are mainly for if you were distilling Alcohol, but they are not necessary to do so. If you are only making hydrosols, then all you will need is the Air Still, your Herbs, Water, and something to collect it in. Hope that helps! :)
@@codysmovies100 Yes it does. thank you so much :D
What a great video I cried great tribute still am over my best friend
Really interesting approach
What a boring slow talking man, by the time he made this video i grew a beard.
What a beautiful girl I'm so sorry for your loss thank you for taking such good care of her ❤️ RIP beautiful soul Heidi run free girl 💕
Thank you, she is greatly missed. 💕
im surprised you don't scorch the still bottom
😂😂😂
She REALLY was the BEST dog ever! Beautiful tribute, Cody!
Thanks, Mom! 💕
Do you think freeze the masaon jar will work
Possibly, I'm not sure. If you'd like to give it a try, I'd be interested to hear the results.
Yeah. No
PLEASE... Be careful with Rhubarb, it is not a very good thing to eat for SOMEONE with kidney issues, can cause more problems.
Hi, thanks for subscribing. No need to worry, I don't have kidney issues. I don't eat a whole lot of rhubarb either, just as an occasional snack. I appreciate your concern though. 👍
Hello, new sub here. I have clay dirt, for my garden. I use forest leave dirt (leaf mould), Pine needles, grass, wood chips, and I use rabbit & chicken 💩 as my fertilizers. I have a very small place to plant that is some what safe. My chickens, & Elle-May eat &/or dig up my plants without fencing. I try anyways. 😆
You could add compost only to the holes where plants are going to be grown. I am using the garden rocks to put around fruit trees to act as a mulch/dew catch system. ANYTHING to save a drop of water!
That sounds like a great idea, only I plan to have plants everywhere. Most of them will be direct sown anyways, but I think I will have enough compost to make it work. 🙂
"PromoSM"
Do you clean it with a vinegar run ?
I haven't done that, but I imagine that would be fine. Normally I just run it with water afterwards.
I have only used mine for distilling water so far and use white vinegar to clean it, I was wondering if the strong smell might taint the still for future use of water or other plants? Would using the vinegar be enough because you can only really clean the drum and the inside of the lid.. Also - would you still leave the carbon filter in do you think?
@@mariaking81 from my experience, yes, it does leave a bit of a flavour for future water use, but it goes away after a couple runs of just water. I haven't needed to use vinegar, but I don't mind my water tasting a bit herbal, as long as those herbs are safe to consume, of course.
@@codysmovies100 thank you so much for replying, appreciated
Crazy brew
After watching other videos on essential oils, I'm surprised you got that much yield on such a small amount of herbs. I'm wanting to try my hand at making essential oils myself, unsure of which still I want, so thanks for the information on this one!
can you at least show us the end result through a clear glass?
In hindsight, that would have been a good idea.
Is your fermenter an imperial or a US gallon?
I'm not sure, it doesn't say. It just says ONE GALLON on it. I would imagine it would be US gallon, because that seems to be the standard for measuring this type of liquid.
Instead of a "carrier oil" people use solvents. Use a non polar solvent, salt solution to help separate the oil, then distill or drive off the solvent. It is twice the steps but the yield increases. Just the salt should be fine. The solvent would need a lower boiling temp then the chemicals in essential oil.
Thanks for the tips. There is definitely always more to learn for sure! My still doesn't come with a temperature control, it's at a fixed temperature, which can be inconvenient in terms of different boiling points. When I made the video originally, I had no idea that absolute oils were created using solvents. It really is interesting to see everyone's different ideas on how this can be done!
@@codysmovies100 I watched your video to see if I should get one myself for both alcohol and essential oils. It's a tough call considering the leakage. If I do get a glass one it'll be more useful for chemistry, just not compact. It really helped to shed light on the product's good and bad points thanks. Some timestamps might help with a video this thorough.
Seems like an issue with only using air to cool in a small package. It's not getting cold enough to capture a lot of the odor (oil), so it's rather wasteful.
Does the water have a strong smell?
Yes, very strong. It is pretty typical with every hydrosol/essential oil I've attempted to make. I've discovered recently that the hydrosol water itself goes great on it's own in a diffuser! It makes just as much scent as having the pure essential oils drops in the diffuser and I think makes a great excuse not to go through the hassle of separating the oil in the first place.
@@codysmovies100 The oil is in suspension with the water. Use salt to help separate them (dissolve the salt).
@@freehat2722 do you just put the salt in the separator or in the collection jar?
@@mariaking81 In the separatory funnel with both layers. It helps to kick out oils from the water layer. If you have an emulsion layer between them some people use a vibrator to break it up or a lot of time to allow them to separate. After that collect the layer you want.
Thanks for your video, sir! Usually a person needs a lot of herb to make a very small amount of essential oil. Pretty much a full chamber for a fairly small amount. The water that comes along with the essential oil, is called a Hydrosol; it has therapeutic properties as well. You probably know not to throw that out, but to get the use out of it, but just in case I figure I’ll mention it.
No problem, thanks for watching! I have yet to try with a full chamber, but I suppose fresh herb would be better for that as it's a larger volume than dried. I would need to find the right herb as well, that is one with a higher concentration of oils of course. I did put my hydrosol to good use though, used it in used spray bottles for cleaning with a pleasant scent which worked nicely.
@@codysmovies100 : That’s awesome! You know, while you’re Gaining experience with this, you could choose a biomass that’s not expensive and very abundant in your area. For example, in my area, during the warm times of the year, clean streams have lots of mint. It can be had in pretty much unlimited quantities, and would be an ideal Herb with which to start off. If you live in a more boreal area so that you already have snow down, and are unlikely to have something like mint, you could choose labrador tea. That’s super abundant, and you can harvest as much as you need in a fairly small area without affecting the environment. You are is an excellent point about dehydrated versus fresher. I think that’s gonna depend on how the herb was dehydrated. Because fresh herb tends to have a much higher moisture level, which I know you already know, but the reason why this is significant is because the end product is a lot less potent. If you use a dehydrated product, you get a much more potent and product, theoretically, but that would depend on how dehydration was accomplished. If it was accomplished at two higher heat level, chances are that so many of the aromatics and aerosols will have been driven out Along with the moisture. That’s not very desirable. But if you know that it was dehydrated at low temperature, then there’s a very strong possibility that it’s a very high-quality product. With most commercially-Dehydrated biomass, we don’t really know about that, except if they put it on their websites. And of course the other consideration is that with commercially prepared plant materials, we have no way of knowing exactly how long they were in storage or transit, and under what temperatures and conditions they have been. This also makes a big difference to the quality and quantity of essential oils that they’ll contain. Anything you could basically harvest from your backyard, assuming you don’t live next to a huge polluter, will probably be an excellent bet in terms of knowing that you’re not going to be concentrating any pesticides which may have been applied or environmental pollutants/toxins. The only point of it which I would really caution of person he is that certain resonance plants produce a nice quality resin/essential oil, but they can gum up the works. So just being aware of that might make a difference to what a person chooses for the type of apparatus chosen. I agree. You found one very excellent use for the hydrofoils. Not to mention, if you can use the Hydro cells freshening a room, you get to save the essential oils for other applications. Great thinking! :-)
@@daphneraven6745 I do have various herbs that grow abundantly in my garden, though it's practically winter right now, I would have to wait until spring to try with those. I suppose using something like conifer bows (fir, pine, spruce, etc) would be the most sustainable way for now. All I would need is to collect a large, preferably fallen branch and work with that. Thanks for your ideas, they open the door to a lot of possibilities. I'm sure I'll be able to make an absolute oil someday, it will just take a lot of trial and error.
@@codysmovies100 : You’re very welcome indeed. Even now, when it’s almost winter, they are good candidates to try with. If you find enough of something to pack the barrel of your installation unit quite full, without having it so densely packed that obstructs the flow of the steam through the biomass, you’ll end up with some essential oil. But if you only have a little bit of biomass, then you’ll end up with a lot of hydrosol and maybe no essential oil at all. If memory serves, you were using labrador tea as your biomass. I don’t know about where you live, but that grows wild in the woods, and it’s a type of rhododendron, so the leaves are green even under 6 feet of snow. While I am not suggesting that you go digging any snow, if the snow hasn’t arrived yet, you could easily Take your shears, and selectively pick a nice large bag of biomass, let it dry out a little bit, or even dehydrated, and then process it in your distillation unit. I think it be really pleased with the result. All the same, I’ve never known anybody to produce labrador tea essential before. I bet it’s awesome. :-)
@@daphneraven6745 yes, I did use Labrador Tea in the video, but it was dried material that I purchased from an online vendor. It does not grow wild in my direct area (that I know of), though I have found it in the past a couple hours drive away. Not practical with the current price of fuel these days. I think tree bows would be the easiest option for now. Of course it's the time of year my Mom collects branches to make Christmas wreaths, so I could get 2 birds with one stone and use the leftover branches to make essential oils.
Namaste ...Many Blessings in the Light of the New Earth...A'Ho!! 🙏
No sanitizing? No gravity readings? I hope nobody get hurt…..
In my experience, that hasn't been necessary. Soap and water works just fine to disinfect and I've never owned (or needed) a hydrometer. When it's done, it's done and usually turns out fine. I'm not concerned about knowing the ABV either as long as it's drinkable, no one gets hurt.
It's funny how people think there is o ly one way to brew
Thank you
You're very welcome :)
Thank you for the update. I look forward to watching your gardens and trees grow over time!
Very interesting. Thanks for your effort.
Make sure prior to starting you give all utensils a good thorough wash in hot soapy water, rinse and dry also a spray of 99% rubbing alcohol to sterilise everything will prevent contamination and bacteria.
Always a good thing to do!
Thank you for sharing, I've been looking for videos on stilling essential oil
Glad I can help :)
Cheers friend we just found your channel and subscribed. We love to home brew beer , grow some hops , make wine and mead and others on our channel . Stay thirsty and brew good beer .
Thank you so much! I'm growing my own hops this year too, I started them from seed actually 3 years ago and now they finally look like they are about to make cones! Glad you like the channel :)
put a tainless colapsable strainer in the kettle to susppend your dry plants....so steam is force thruto condense
Good to know, apparently there are accessories you can get for this unit that will allow you to do that more easily. Might have to look into that, thanks.
@@codysmovies100 : you can just spend a strainer in there that’s an expensive, commercially available locally. I’m sure they probably do sell accessories to go with it, but you may have a strainer or steamer Right in your covert that’ll fit in there no problem. Some of them are adjustable so that’s easy.
I just read the other comments. Did you try putting in a strainer? or freezing the hydrosoal yet?
better if dry herb is suspended in a screen above the boler chamber ...cuz steam is wayyyy hotter than boiling water
hsred that dry stuff in a food processr blendr or coffee grnder...really pulvrz....then give it time to steep .....in warm water...brew a tea slushy.....but be patient...let it steep overnight ...then run it thru your kettle
I’m going to have to try that sand planting!
Best of luck! :)