Sandoval Ranch & Vineyard

People often ask what attracted me to making my own natural products for beauty and healing. I would have to say the answer to that would be when I picked up a book published by Jeanne Rose in 1972 called Herbs & Things. I read it when I was a teenager. I was an anxious teen who had been sickly as a kid and was interested in the psychology and self- improvement books that were so prevalent in the 70s. I felt an attraction to the idea of healing the heart and body with plants. I visited a local herbal store and experimented with recipes in the book.

I have continued to experiment and read books on the subject throughout my life. After moving to the ranch, I knew I could use the space to grow my own plants to produce my own products.

As synchronicity sometimes leads the way, years later, I began searching for Jeanne Rose to see where she was. She had written 22 books by that time and was teaching a variety of classes. She was also leading the field in the art of distillation and had founded the Aromatic Plant Project.

It was during this time she began to promote the idea of lavender, and other aromatic plants, being grown and distilled at vineyards. When grape vines share the ground with plants and herbs, it helps to bolster sustainable agriculture. The crops are harvested at different times of the year and, when chosen wisely, mirror the same needs and terroir of the land.

Today, beside my husband’s vineyards, I have several distillation gardens. I distill Bulgarian roses, a variety of herbs, and flowering trees. I am also learning to make perfume. Something I find very inspiring is the similarity between the vocabulary used to describe perfume odors and wine tasting notes. They say the taste of wine is governed primarily by the characteristics of its aroma. Both crafts involve scent, taste, chemistry, timing, and alchemy before the harvest and beyond the bottling process.