This small Italian village is known for its mint essential oils. The land and environment in Pancalieri have provided excellent conditions for growing a variety of mints. In August you can smell the essence of mint wafting through the air as the plants are harvested to be made into essential oils.
I had the blessed opportunity to tour an essential oils Co-operative in the region. Many of you know I have a passion for plant medicines, including my extensive work with doTerra essential oils, so this was a REAL TREAT for me!
More from the Guru: What Are Essential Oils?
We started by touring the co-op. There were people there working on dehydrating passion flower for herbal medicine and tea. They had a new cutting edge dehydrator that takes a fresh plant and dehydrates it into a medicinal form within 3 minutes! Their previous method took 3 days! We have a video about that coming soon, I think you will really enjoy seeing this in action!
Making Mint Essential Oils
Next we walked to the essential oils side of the factory. This side was not in use as the season for mint had already passed for the year, but we were able to learn a lot about the processes and history of essential oils here in Italy. Check out the plant dust all over the equipment – GREEN DUST! This was in the air because they were currently working on dehydrating plants, not distilling oils.
I learned that they used to actually distill the plants in the field! They would load a tractor up and bring the distiller into the fields and make the oils right on site! This was inefficient and eventually they built this co-op for the farmers in the region to use. There are 3 main distilleries on site and wow did they smell GOOD.
More from the Guru: Self Sufficient Backyard Gardens are the Way of Life in Northern Italy!
The man giving us a tour only spoke Italian, so Paolo translated for me as we asked questions and got to know the facility. As soon as he opened the distiller, my headache started to alleviate! Powerful medicine! He was regretful that he didn’t have a bottle of oils on hand to offer me, but Paolo knew of a shop nearby that sells all things mint.
You can watch a video of the essential oils co-op in Italian here:
Once we arrived at the shop my headache found instant relief. I cannot describe the smell inside of this store. I could hear and see mint in the air, it was DIVINE!
Entering Mint Paradise
As you can see from my instagram photo, the place was decorated in mint, painted green, and displayed all sorts of relevant information. You could see all the different strains of mint, read about the history of the region, and smell all sorts of mint delicacies!
I really enjoyed looking at the old equipment they used in the fields and the distillers used before the industry grew so much. It made me realize that even though I LOVE doTerra because of their quality control and focus on medicinal oils, I also want to learn the art myself. There is something about being this close to the source of natural medicines that left me feeling inspired to learn and really build a stronger relationship to the plants that provide us so much healing.
If you are interested in growing peppermint yourself, we have an article published titled, How to grow and Harvest Peppermint.
Honestly, my one disappointment here is that they do not grow the mint organically. The man in the co-op who gave us the tour said the region has too many pests, so they don’t qualify for doTerra because their product doesn’t meet the quality standards. The truth is, I found the actual oil when compared side by side with doTerra’s to be stronger and more powerful! BUT….. pesticides. So for now I will cherish my Italian oil and honor the history and people who have worked closely with the land to create this powerful medicine…. and I will continue to use my doTerra pesticide free oils with my family!
I also found out that every September there is an essential oils festival that takes place in the region. No only is mint essential oil made here, but Chamomile and lavender! Next year I hope to attend this festival and get to know the producers in the region. Ideally, we will get to tour the actual fields for you as well!
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Much love and deep gratitude,
Catherine
[…] month I was able to tour a natural medicine co-operative in northern Italy. It was truly a divine experience. The smells, the smells! They were simply […]