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<<13>> I grew up here, so I was born on the farm.
<<17>> I grew up just in the house next door.
<<19>> I remember long hours and when I was growing up we worked
<<23>> seven days a week, didn’t make any difference
<<26>> what day of the week it was – it was a work day.
<<29>> We’d go back to school in the Fall and the teacher always
<<32>> wanted you to write your first paper of, "what did you do this Summer?"
<<37>> Well, it was always, I didn’t have to write very much.
<<40>> Work, worked every day and that’s just the way it was.
<<44>> My first memories of farming as a kid were
<<47>> driving combines or helping burn fields,
<<49>> as soon as school was out I was headed home to the farm.
<<51>> My Dad got started farming when he was a senior in high school,
<<55>> he was renting about 150 acres and just kind of started farming
<<59>> from there, ended up going into a venture with some peppermint.
<<62>> The reason it’s such an honour for us to work with the Vernell family
<<66>> is because they take such pride in what they do.
<<69>> They love growing peppermint, they love harvesting peppermint.
<<72>> If you look at this distillery, this is a state of the art distillery.
<<75>> You won’t find anything like this anywhere else in the world.
<<78>> They understand everything that’s going on from start to finish.
<<83>> As soon as the trucks start bringing in the tubs we just watch
<<87>> for when they’re going to hook them up and make sure
<<89>> they get the steam going.
<<90>> When the steam comes up to pressure we’ve got different buttons here to
<<94>> regulate the steam and it’s just a lot of pacing back and forth in here,
<<99>> watching 16 different bays and making sure it happens right.
<<103>> This year we’re harvesting 520 acres of peppermint
<<106>> and we’re going to plan on doing that in 8 and a half days.
<<110>> We’re cooking right now about 102 to 103 tubs per day.
<<115>> The Willamette Valley tends to have an oil that’s more sought after
<<119>> than other places in the United States or around the world
<<121>> and a lot of it just has to do with the climatic conditions here.
<<125>> When the plant starts to bloom, the quality of the oil starts to change.
<<128>> We don’t want to end up with oil that’s not of the consistency that the consumer wants.
<<133>> Although we could get more oil by letting the plant get more mature,
<<137>> there’s a certain time in there when we have the best quality for the maturity.
<<141>> Because of the care they put into their fields
<<143>> and making sure they’re free of weeds,
<<145>> we get the finest peppermint in the world.
<<148>> We want to be the best in whatever it is that we’re doing so
<<152>> I love it when the Wellness Advocates come to visit our distillery.
<<157>> It’s such an emotional experience to me to be able to
<<161>> talk about something that we are so passionate about.
<<166>> To see the impact of our efforts, of our hard work,
<<169>> through the stories that are then told to us.
<<172>> I know it means a lot to them, and when they share with others
<<176>> about peppermint oil, they know exactly where it came from and
<<181>> they can be an even stronger advocate for the use of peppermint oil
<<186>> and you think, “wow, we really are making a difference”.