Basil Water

While this did produce something, it felt a little bit like an epic fail. Found a way to distill herbs into essential oil that sounded easy and like it might just work and to a degree it did.

Started with a big old Dutch oven on the stove, a little bit of water in the bottom and lots and lots of basil as in the end of the season, grab it all picking laid and smashed into the pan. Next step, I put a ceramic bowl on top of the whole mess and put the lid on upside down. The upside down lid is important as the distilled liquid will collect on the lid and the concave shape of the lid will let the liquid drip into the bowl.

Here is a picture of what the whole setup looked like for me.

Once this is all setup, let the whole mess simmer down. The house smelled amazing while this process was going on and I did end up with about an ounce of liquid. The liquid can be stored in a small tight sealing jar and in a cool dark place.

This process can be used to distill most herbs. The key is that you need a lot of whatever you are distilling.

Have fun experimenting with this one!