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Dan Fitts watches the final product from the steam distillation process, essential oil lifted from peppermint leaves, drain into a barrel for storage.
Just because the summer is almost over, it doesn’t mean your flowers have to die.
For a day or two every year, a local farmer sets aside his usual farming routine to delve into science. Dan Fitts stands on his mint still to oversee the steam distillation process to lift the plants essential oil for use in mouth care products.
“It is all simple ideas, it’s not that complicated,” Fitts said. “You just have to get it set up and make sure it’s all working the way it should be.”
Dan Fitts releases steam from a tub after essential oil has been lifted from peppermint leaves by steam distillation. Fitts hauls the oil barrels to Labbeemint mint company where it will be purity tested before use in gum, mouthwash and toothpaste type products.
The Fitts farm corn, dry edible beans and sugar beets in the Melbeta area and realized an opportunity to work outside the box when they took over a peppermint meadow.
“Well, long story short, a guy that grew up here went to Idaho and learned about mint, he came back here and started this,” Becky Fitts said. “He was going to tear it up and we just took it over.”
The peppermint plant is a perennial that is planted by rhizomes, or roots, not seed planted like many other crops.
Dan Fitts releases steam from a tub after essential oil has been lifted from peppermint leaves by steam distillation. Fitts hauls the oil barrels to Labbeemint mint company where it will be purity tested before use in gum, mouthwash and toothpaste type products.
“The biggest investment is getting the plant started,” Becky Fitts said. “You don’t plant every year, it comes back kind of like alfalfa does. You don’t plant by seed, ideally you have to use certified roots to plant. We’ve done some planting and we have expanded the acres out.”
The Fitts have taken the original peppermint meadow that is east of Melbeta and gradually added a few acres to the stand to reach 33 harvestable acres.
Peppermint and spearmint plants are mostly commercially grown in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Dan Fitts said the plant really likes water, and weather conditions in the Panhandle can be tricky for the plant and a timely harvest.
Dan Fitts points to a pot where mint oil is naturally separating from water after passing through a cold condensing chamber. The oil gradually bubbles to the surface while the more dense water molecules settle on the bottom.
“Usually in the spring, we get enough water to get going, but this year it didn’t start growing until we could irrigate,” he said.
Mint plants are similar in nature to the alfalfa plant and is harvest with the same type of equipment. Unlike alfalfa, mint is only harvested once a year. Depending on the weather conditions, the Fitts usually swath mint in late August but this year it was about two weeks later.
“Harvest depends on the plant – it grows up, lays over, grows again and then harvest is just before blooming,” Fitts said.
The peppermint plant’s commodity is it’s essential oil found on the underside of the leaves. Harvest time can be altered by weather because late heavy rainfall could potentially wash away the oil.
Once the harvest day is set, the plant is cut down similar to hay into wind rows. The mint plant is left to dry until it is just beginning to wilt, about half the time alfalfa is left down.
When the downed plant is near wilting, a forage harvester picks up and chops the rows, shooting the mint into wagons or tubs that are outfitted for steam distillation. The tubs are sealed and moved to a mobile still where the oil will be extracted.
“What’s unusual about the still is we can move it anywhere, it just needs a water source,” Fitts said.
In addition to water, the still uses diesel fuel to run a generator and boiler.
The unique still can support four tubs at a time, each taking around 90 minutes to process using steam. Heated water is pumped into the closed tub floor to reach 20 pounds of pressure.
“We start at 20 pounds of pressure until (the oil) breaks, then back off and cook it slow,” Fitts explained.
The steam heats the mint leaf to release the plants essential oil that will mix with the water vapor. Then the steam is collected from the top of the tubs.
The oil and water mixed vapors continue to naturally rise out of the heated tubs where it is funneled to cold condensing chambers. The vapors flow through coils surrounded by cold water in condensing pots.
“I’m always messing with the gauges to keep the flow right, keep the temperatures where I want them,” Fitts said. “To little flow, the water gets too hot, it starts baking off and too cold, it will also do that.”
Cold water changes steam back into an oil/water liquid blend. The clear liquid flows from the cold condensing chambers into a pot for separating. Water molecules are denser than oil so the two naturally separate. Fine bubbles of the peppermint oil gradually pop to the surface of the liquid pool and water settles on the bottom.
Once the separated oil reaches a spout near the top of the pot, Fitts increases the flow to skim the final product off and funnel it into the storage barrel.
Water from the steam distillation process is pumped to the ground and the mint sludge by-product is used for compost on fields in the spring.
The barrels of pure mint oil are hauled to Idaho and sold on contract to Labbeemint, a company that supplies peppermint and spearmint essential oils for products like gum, mouthwash and toothpaste.
“You can smell mint when its cut, then it’s pretty potent when Dan’s cooking it, it really cleans out your sinuses,” Becky Fitts said.
Mint yields are calculated by gallons of oil and sold by the pounds of oil. The Fitts’ peppermint field typically produces 90 pounds of oil per acre.
“Hot and dry is a good condition to harvest in, but where it’s been so hot and dry the yields will be down,” Dan Fitts said. “This is our third year in a row with really dry, hot weather so we’re ready for a change.”
A peppermint meadow is harvested a lot like hay; the plants are swathed typically in late August just before the blooming stage.
After the mint plant is cut, it is left to dry in wind rows for about half as long as alfalfa is.
The nearly dry mint rows are forage harvested into wagons or tubs.
The peppermint plant is chopped so its commodity, mint oil or essential oil, can be extracted and collected in a still.
The chopped mint shoots into wagons or tubs that can be closed for the steam distillation process.
Dan Fitt’s mobile mint still will support four wagons at a time. The wagons or tubs are cooked for about 90 minutes.
Tubs with chopped mint are connected to tubes running heated water into their bottom level to create rising steam that will lift the plants essential oil.
Heated water is pumped into the tub to separate the oil from the mint leaves. The heat lifts the essential oils off the plant.
Dan Fitts monitors the boiler that works to heat water to 20 pounds of pressure to release the oil from the mint leaf, then pressure is backed off for tubs to be cooked slowly.
Tubs are attached to a tube with hot water flowing into the floor from the broiler while a second tube collects the vapors rising to the top of the tub.
Once oil breaks from the mint leaves, it mixes with the water vapors and continues to rise out of the box.
Overhead tubes funnel vapor with water and oil droplets collected from the heated tubs carrying chopped mint leaves.
Tubes intersect on the mobile mint still trailer leading to four condensing chambers.
The hot water and oil vapor travels through tubes to four cold condensing chambers where it will cycle back to liquid.
The collected vapor passes through coils in a cold condensing chamber filled with chilled water.
Cold temperatures in the condensing chambers change steam into a water/oil liquid mix.
Dan Fitts monitors the four cold condensing chambers, the liquid flow from them and the progress of oil separating from water.
Clear liquid with mint oil flowing from a cold condensing chamber before the oil will be drained off.
The oil and water mix begins to collect in the pot where the two will gradually separate naturally.
The mint oil gradually bubbles to the surface and is collected off the top to flow into storage barrels.
As the liquid mix naturally separates, the water remains on the bottom while the oil rises to the top. Water molecules have a higher density than oil.
Dan Fitts adjusts the valve to control flow of mint oil after it has separated from the water. The essential oil is sealed in barrels that are typically marketed by contract for use in gum, mouthwash and toothpaste type products.
Dan Fitts, on the mobile mint still, prepares to make adjustments on one of the four tubs in various stages of steaming. Fitts usually extracts about 90 pounds of oil per acre that is sold to Labbeemint Company that supplies peppermint and spearmint essential oils for flavor and fragrance.
Dan Fitts works to open the door on a finished tub to release the steam pressure after all of the essential oil has been lifted off the chopped peppermint plants.
Steam is released from a tub before it is pulled away from the mobile still.
Once all of the essential oil has been lifted from the peppermint leaves, the hot byproduct from the plant is dumped. The tractor will pull the tub back to the field and the process will begin again.
After peppermint oil is extracted by the steam distillation process, the sludge by-product can often be used in cattle rations. Dan Fitts piles the sludge in a compost pile to spread on fields in the spring.
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Nicole Heldt is a reporter with the Star-Herald, covering agriculture. She can be reached at 308-632-9044 or by email at nheldt@starherald.com.
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Dan Fitts releases steam from a tub after essential oil has been lifted from peppermint leaves by steam distillation. Fitts hauls the oil barrels to Labbeemint mint company where it will be purity tested before use in gum, mouthwash and toothpaste type products.
Dan Fitts points to a pot where mint oil is naturally separating from water after passing through a cold condensing chamber. The oil gradually bubbles to the surface while the more dense water molecules settle on the bottom.
Dan Fitts watches the final product from the steam distillation process, essential oil lifted from peppermint leaves, drain into a barrel for storage.
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