Making Lemongrass Infused Oil - A Failed Experiment
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!
See this is my fear in diving into making essential oils. You are a brave soul. Wish I could be of some help to you.
It didn't hurt to try. All I was out was a bottle of olive oil from Aldi. I think next time I'll try coconut oil. Its smell doesn't seem as overpowering to me.
I have no advice but plenty of commiseration! I created a somewhat gnarly and very disappointing infusion of oregano a few years ago. Last year I froze everything(oregano, basil, parsley, lavender and mint) in olive oil, coconut oil, and water cubes.
Thank you for posting your experiment!
I forget that you can freeze herbs as well. I recently snatched a disused dehydrator from my parents' basement and I plan on using that to preserve whatever I can't use immediately.
What do you use your lavender for? So far I've used mine for...nothing. Haha! I'm honestly not sure what to do with it other than pick a few leaves and enjoy their smell.
There are all sorts of applications I would have loved to try if my plants had flowered(the rain last year, ugh), but being left with just the leaves I made a lot of tea. I also just ate them straight up because I had a bit of an infatuation with herbs from my garden healing all my woes.
I wanted to make these, however: https://thebeachhousekitchen.com/2017/03/20/lemon-lavender-shortbread-cookies/ . There are other lavender cookie recipes, but that one looked delightful. Lemon balm can apparently be added to shortbread, but I also mainly ate and steeped my lemon balm leaves last year.
I'm totally bookmarking that recipe! Also, I had no idea you could just eat them.
This is my first lavender plant to survive this long. I've always tried from seed and got nothing.
Did you remember to shake the jar every day to help disperse the herbs and oils?
When I make mine, I pick up the jar and kind of roll it around a little.
I've made basil, oregano and dill infused oils- never had that problem. Unless the freezing temps and oil congealing somehow transformed the chemistry of the final product.
I barely remembered the jar was out there once or twice a month, let alone every day! Haha! Next time I'll chop them finer and remember to shake the jar at least once a day. Do you recommend direct sunlight or do you think placing the jar close to our wood stove would have the same effect?
I haven't done direct sunlight. A sunny area is all I did- window sill. I have read conflicting articles. Some say dark area, some say sunny area...
To me the sunny area helps to warm up the oil and extract more flavor then to store you would want a darker area (cupboard). That's where I store mine- cupboard next to pantry.
Drat.
:(
I make my own Loose Incense which is, rather surprisingly, not that easy but essential oils are way out of my comfort zone.
I'd be interested to hear what more experienced folks have to say.
The only thing that comes to mind is your choice of carrier oil ~ perhaps one used in cosmetics/soaps may be a better choice?
But then what do I know.
:)
From failure success is bourne.
xox
Loose incense? Is that the powder I've seen people sprinkle on like a little coal? I'm very interested to know how you make it! We use wood incense, such as alder, spruce, hickory, balsam fir. They get expensive though. Making my own sounds cool.
I wonder if I had used something like coconut oil instead. I really don't know either. I'm for sure going to try again this Spring once I learn more about what went wrong this time.
Thanks for stopping by, @ldacey-laforge!
Bummer. I hope you get it!
Not to high jack you post, but I nominated you for a top 5 personal posts for 2017 challenge. If you're interested You can check it out on my blog!
Oh cool!!! I'll go check it out! Thank you! I try so hard not to miss posts, but sometimes they just fly by. Haha!
Happy Sunday! This comment is to inform you that your article has been linked and featured in the most recent issue of the Weekly Homesteading Newsletter! Please check it out if you have the time! Thank you!
I've been experiencing similar with my infused oils. I'm thinking I might try doing the heat method as the slow infusion works, but not that well. I have also heard that you can strain the oil and put a fresh lot in to infuse again to make it stronger. I guess I just need to put a bit more time and effort in! Lol
I'll have to look both of those methods up. I can see how doing it with heat would help considerably. I was afraid I would accidentally deep fry the grass instead of infusing it! Next time I'm going to do this when it is hot outside and keep the jar in the sunlight. Unless I read that the sunlight will kill the oil since essential oils are usually stored out of the sunlight. Looks like I need to do more research! Haha!
Haha! I'm kind of worried about deep frying too! That's why I haven't tried it yet.