Steam distillation of herbs transforms the spicy scents that enchant us in summer gardens into essential oils. These highly concentrated aromatic oils can be used year-round in massage, perfume, beauty products, and herbal relief of minor ailments. Most essential oils sold in the U.S. have been imported from Mongolia, Turkey, France, and North Africa. But here in the Pacific Northwest, there is good reason to grow and distill your own. Herbs grow exuberantly and develop high aromatic oil content in Northwestern summers. Log House Plants has done research to discover which varieties of herbs produce the highest quality and greatest quantities of essential oils. They include an unusually high quality peppermint, Murray Mitcham, and, we hope, a slug-repellant strain of artemisia.

Home production of most essential oils is a surprisingly uncomplicated process. To distill essential oils from most herbs, you need one relatively simple apparatus, a steam distiller, and an abundant - but not enormous - quantity of herbs. The ration of fresh plant matter to essential oil is usually 25 to 1. (Extracting essential oils from some herbs, shrubs and bark, is possible only with solvents, and this process is too complicated and too expensive for home use.)

Essential oils are strongly concentrated, and last well when stored in dark-colored glass containers in a dark, cool place. In nature, aromatic oils are vital to plant survival, as a means to attract and repel various insects and other animals. In arid climates, aromatic oils released by the sun's heat also help protect plants from desiccation. For thousands of years, humans have collected plant oils for medicine, cosmetics, and religious ceremonies. Ancient Egyptians used essential oils very skillfully, and the Greeks and Romans built on Egyptian knowledge. Many of the most valuable "riches of the Orient", travelling along secret trade routes into Europe, were Asian aromatic gums and oils - frankincense, myrrh, cinnamon, and cloves. Europeans learned to extract essential oils from native European herbs as well, such as lavender and rosemary.

Today, many people are interested in essential oils because of their role in aromatherapy. Aromatherapy uses essential oils to promote and maintain health and vitality - through massage, baths, compresses, cosmetic preparations, and many other methods. After the oil is absorbed by your lungs and skin, it enters the blood stream just as an herb tea does when you drink it, enabling the herb to stimulate or soothe various systems of the body. At the same time, the aroma of an essential oil can affect your emotions and your memories, conscious and unconscious. Many of us have had the experience of being carried back to a distant time and place by a long-forgotten scent. Lavender, rose, and orange blossom are among essential oils often used to relieve both depression and nervous tension.