Production method
Organic farming
The cultivation follows the strictly organic method.
In the season preceding the planting of the aromatic plants, subsoiling and harrowing are carried out, followed by a green manure crop. The seedlings are planted manually on baulate and mulched prose to reduce the development of weeds and, above all, to reduce the consumption of water for irrigation in the phases of taking root. Until the time of harvesting, several manual weeding operations follow in order to clean the plants of insects and weeds, material not suitable for distillation.
The presence of essential oils is not constant during the vegetative development, and each species has its own balsamic time - that is the moment in which the peak of essential oil content is obtained - which coincides with the harvesting time.
The distillation
The harvested aromatic plants are used fresh and immediately taken to the distillation plant in our headquarters. The extraction process exploits the physical property of essential oils to be volatile, i.e. easily vaporizable and dragged by a current of water vapour. The vapour/essence is then condensed in a coil cooled by a water recirculation and brought back to the liquid state: the oil, since it has a lower density than that of distilled water, settles and floats on the surface. Therefore, precisely because of the different densities of the two liquids, the complete separation of the essential oil is accomplished thanks to a Florentine vase, which will then be kept in a refrigerated cell.
Distilled water, on the other hand, is an aromatic water - hydrolat - containing a small percentage of essential oil, which gives it the fragrance of the plant used. It too can be used for fragrance purposes.
The Gli Spinoni farm
The plot
The plot, extending for about 25 hectares and in certified organic cultivation since 2002, is cultivated half with woodland and half with medicinal aromatic plants for the production of essential oils for food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and phytotherapeutic use.
In addition to being surrounded by 2,200 meters of tree-shrub hedge made up of native species, along the service carriageways that divide the plots there are ancient rows of mulberry trees of particular landscape, historical and cultural value. All this contributes to increasing biodiversity and favors in particular the presence of bees and other pollinating insects which play an essential role in ecosystems. It is also a natural refuge for sedentary and migratory birds, such as hawks, jays, woodpeckers and cattle egrets.
