The old-world challenge of how to economically separate craft and culinary lavender calyxes (flower buds) from the stems of lavender has been a bugbear for centuries. Before the Besel Lavender Processor, there were few commercial choices available to lavender farmers and few farmers were selling craft and culinary buds as a result. Ricardo Besel used his vast knowledge of machinery to design a purpose-built machine that was able to help clean 400-850 bundles per hour (depending on the variety of lavender and size of lavender bundles).
Ricardo spent several years perfecting the machine by custom debudding and cleaning for many lavender farmers throughout the Pacific Northwest. He was continually modifying his processing machine to improve its efficiency and quality. His first commercially available machine was rather large and costly which meant that it was economically feasible to large lavender farmers. Ricardo was quick to assess the need for a smaller version of his processing machine. His smaller model is about 1/3 of the size of the larger model and is much more cost-effective for mid-small farmers.
Now that Ricardo’s fabulous processing machine is available in two sizes, a huge influx of lavender farmers has become interested in targeting their growing varieties that are best suited for craft and culinary calyxes. This led to an increase in lavender farmers more particular in selecting lavender varieties.
Our first time using the processor!!!! Farmer Jim was very impressed! This machine did what took me a day to do, by hand, in one hour! We don’t have as many culinary buds as we wished for this year. Mother Nature and her rain made a difference in what we were able to harvest. This variety is mild and lovely and will be used for sugar and mulling spices. Yum!
This is how we wrap up our lavender season—a week of processing the dried lavender bundles through the stripping machine. The end product is very clean and dust-free lavender flowers ready for sachets, wedding toss, culinary use or crafting. The work is hot, dusty and noisy, but wow, does it smell good!! This clever machine is made and sold by @besellavenderprocessor