In Spring while visiting some local greenhouses, I found lemongrass! It is one of my favorite essential oils. The smell invigorates me and makes the air seem lighter somehow. It's like having sunshine in a bottle!
So I grew a pot of lemongrass in our greenhouse. It got HUGE.
I read that lemongrass won't survive our freezing winter temperatures so I brought it inside when I brought in the rest of my "house" plants in October. I still needed to figure out what I was doing with it though. So I did a little research and found that I could possibly make my own lemongrass infused oil! "That's perfect!" I thought. So I set out to do so...
I cut all the leaves down to the stems, wadded them up and packed them into a jar. I then covered the lemongrass in olive oil and sat it outside in the sun.
So I have left this concoction sitting outside for almost three months now. I checked on it after our last big freeze and found that the olive oil was trying to congeal. I brought it inside.
After many futile attempts at opening the jar, I got my husband to pop the lid off. I expected a huge rush of lemongrass smell...but alas. There was only a feeble scent. Mostly, it just smelled like olive oil.
So...what went wrong? Well, I probably should have chopped the lemongrass blades up. I would assume that the finer they are, the more of the oil that can escape. Also, because of the time of year I tried this, the jar wasn't exposed to much direct sunlight. I think that made a difference in the strength of the oils.
I know some of you are experienced in making your own oils. Can you give me some pointers on what I should do differently next time? I'm open to any and all suggestions to make this work!
Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate it!