Interesting Opportunity

[Mr.P]

The owner of the shop that I am making some perfumes for approached me about an interesting project in the town I live in. In a nutshell, the plan is to turn a large historic building (that is currently owned by a museum, but not getting any use) into a maker-space and work space / resource for local artisans who would offer classes on their craft. It would feature a shop to help those artisans sell their creations. He asked if I would be interested in setting up a combination perfumery / herbal extraction facility to make items for sale in the shop, and also as a resource for educating people in the community about these crafts and offering classes on herb cultivation, extraction, distillation, and perfumery. There is a moderate herb garden on one side of the building that would be pretty easy to revitalize, are used to grow things to extract and distill. This is a project that will take some time but of course I am 100% on board with making something like this happen.

The first thing we have to do is get some engineers in to do an assessment because it’s a very old building, all brick and stone. It was a workshop in the 1700s and there’s actually an aqueduct that goes near the building and defunct water wheel on the lower level that provided power for machines in this and nearby buildings.

Anyway, I have no idea what the likelihood of this succeeding is but the guy has demonstrated success as an entrepreneur and seems to have a plan. Going to be helping out in one way or another. When it is up and running I will let you all know the location in case anyone feels like checking it out. I’m pretty excited about this as you can imagine.

The building is across the street from there the site of the first pharmaceutical plant in the United States, called the Tilden pharmaceutical company. They were the main manufacturer of herbal medications in the United States for some time and were an extraction and manufacturing facility, and they cultivated and wildcrafted herbs for extraction and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

 

[Goodness Nose]

stuff of dreams man. if that ever came to fruition, i'd love to find a way to come visit! i should have a good crop of vetiver to to juice by then. that would make for a proper adventure right there! 😆

 

[mesOUD]

The owner of the shop that I am making some perfumes for approached me about an interesting project in the town I live in. In a nutshell, the plan is to turn a large historic building (that is currently owned by a museum, but not getting any use) into a maker-space and work space / resource for local artisans who would offer classes on their craft. It would feature a shop to help those artisans sell their creations. He asked if I would be interested in setting up a combination perfumery / herbal extraction facility to make items for sale in the shop, and also as a resource for educating people in the community about these crafts and offering classes on herb cultivation, extraction, distillation, and perfumery. There is a moderate herb garden on one side of the building that would be pretty easy to revitalize, are used to grow things to extract and distill. This is a project that will take some time but of course I am 100% on board with making something like this happen.

The first thing we have to do is get some engineers in to do an assessment because it’s a very old building, all brick and stone. It was a workshop in the 1700s and there’s actually an aqueduct that goes near the building and defunct water wheel on the lower level that provided power for machines in this and nearby buildings.

Anyway, I have no idea what the likelihood of this succeeding is but the guy has demonstrated success as an entrepreneur and seems to have a plan. Going to be helping out in one way or another. When it is up and running I will let you all know the location in case anyone feels like checking it out. I’m pretty excited about this as you can imagine.

The building is across the street from there the site of the first pharmaceutical plant in the United States, called the Tilden pharmaceutical company. They were the main manufacturer of herbal medications in the United States for some time and were an extraction and manufacturing facility, and they cultivated and wildcrafted herbs for extraction and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

This is really very good 🤩

 

[Mr.P]

I found this picture of the building online. I left my camera at my father’s house so the pictures I took aren’t with me.

The engineers will tell us if it can be made safe. There’s a second building on the site that kind of goes with this one so if this one proves to be unusable, there are other options. At least is has a recently rebuilt slate roof.

The crazy thing is my first legit job was working for an architect / developer who had an office in that building, and I was sorting out his papers, making deliveries, doing odd jobs and things like that. Weird to come full circle after 35 years on the west coast. Even weirder the hits from the 80’s and 90’s seem to be popular these days and I’m single again (thank goodness) and so here I am in the same place I was when I headed out to Colorado in 1992 hearing the same music and trying to figure out what to do with my life… not everybody gets a reset so I am grateful.

Now I am living in a house nearby below this massive spring and it provides 500 gal/min of free mineral rich spring water for the houses in the immediate area - showers, bath, tap everything is spring water. I will be able to use this water for distillations and extractions, and feel good about that. It’s actually a famous spring that has been visited by Native Americans for thousands of years and European settlers later because it’s mineral rich and there are anecdotes of people being healed by the waters. 30 stage coaches a day came through the town in the early 1800’s, there was a huge “water cure” facility… now you would never know it.

Things are looking interesting here for sure, but it will be at least a year before we start and a couple more before it will be fully in motion.

 

[Goodness Nose]

I found this picture of the building online. I left my camera at my father’s house so the pictures I took aren’t with me.

The engineers will tell us if it can be made safe. There’s a second building on the site that kind of goes with this one so if this one proves to be unusable, there are other options. At least is has a recently rebuilt slate roof.

The crazy thing is my first legit job was working for an architect / developer who had an office in that building, and I was sorting out his papers, making deliveries, doing odd jobs and things like that. Weird to come full circle after 35 years on the west coast. Even weirder the hits from the 80’s and 90’s seem to be popular these days and I’m single again (thank goodness) and so here I am in the same place I was when I headed out to Colorado in 1992 hearing the same music and trying to figure out what to do with my life… not everybody gets a reset so I am grateful.

Now I am living in a house nearby below this massive spring and it provides 500 gal/min of free mineral rich spring water for the houses in the immediate area - showers, bath, tap everything is spring water. I will be able to use this water for distillations and extractions, and feel good about that. It’s actually a famous spring that has been visited by Native Americans for thousands of years and European settlers later because it’s mineral rich and there are anecdotes of people being healed by the waters. 30 stage coaches a day came through the town in the early 1800’s, there was a huge “water cure” facility… now you would never know it.

Things are looking interesting here for sure, but it will be at least a year before we start and a couple more before it will be fully in motion.


View attachment 32624

paradise! its perfect 😱

 

[Mr.P]

I’ve got to say - what you’ve got going down there seems like paradise as well. I would like to have some land beyond a quarter acre lot and the tropical/subtropical climate is so ideal for growing so many interesting fragrant plants.

 

[Goodness Nose]

I’ve got to say - what you’ve got going down there seems like paradise as well. I would like to have some land beyond a quarter acre lot and the tropical/subtropical climate is so ideal for growing so many interesting fragrant plants.

lets team up! what can i grow that you cant where you are? I'll put it a planter and get it going

 

[Mr.P]

I’ve got to get a Rose garden going, I have space for that. If i had the chance I think I would love to have Jasmine lots and lots of jasmine, and possibly gardenia, plumeria you have covered , mimosa, cassie, Szechuan pepper, patchouli. Some of these are idealistic as opposed to realistic choices. For example, I have absolutely no idea what is literally involved in growing enough jasmine to get enough oil out of it to be worth messing around. Patchouli is a difficult plant to distill requires long times as the good smelling stuff is heavy and slow to boil off.

Someone posted about the fact that there is some naturalized sandalwood in the area, probably you were the one. How cool would it be to track that down? Bring home a couple of saplings… you mentioned camphor, I wonder if it would be possible to get a dryobalanops seed or sapling (this is Borneo camphor)?

I’d also be growing whatever ethnobotanicals/entheogens I could get away with.

 

[Goodness Nose]

I’ve got to get a Rose garden going, I have space for that. If i had the chance I think I would love to have Jasmine lots and lots of jasmine, and possibly gardenia, plumeria you have covered , mimosa, cassie, Szechuan pepper, patchouli. Some of these are idealistic as opposed to realistic choices. For example, I have absolutely no idea what is literally involved in growing enough jasmine to get enough oil out of it to be worth messing around. Patchouli is a difficult plant to distill requires long times as the good smelling stuff is heavy and slow to boil off.

Someone posted about the fact that there is some naturalized sandalwood in the area, probably you were the one. How cool would it be to track that down? Bring home a couple of saplings… you mentioned camphor, I wonder if it would be possible to get a dryobalanops seed or sapling (this is Borneo camphor)?

I’d also be growing whatever ethnobotanicals/entheogens I could get away with.

i have jasmine on my list of things i need to grow. theres a particular type of sambac called "maid of orleans" thats supposed to be phenomenal and bloom year round from a nursery near me. jasmine is listed as invasive in florida and it grows like 6 feet a year. seems like plenty of flowering material to work with on a few 8ft trellises heheh

"Gardino" has em if you wanna check out their website. ive sent them inquiries about their orange champaca recently too

 

[Mr.P]

Might be worth trying grandiflorum as well - you can get clones of the French jasmine cultivar “Flora Plena”

 

[Goodness Nose]

Might be worth trying grandiflorum as well - you can get clones of the French jasmine cultivar “Flora Plena”

I'll add it to my shopping list! looks like a place called Logee's has em online. they seem a little cold hardier than sambac too just in case we get a cold one they should still be fine.

i need to take pictures of my camphor tree tomorrow se we can maybe identify it. maybe i can get clippings to root with the banana trick if you want a grafted tree 🤔

im keen on trying to have at least one of all the fragrant trees that can grow here. gotta pay the aquilaria smuggler lol

 

[DubOudh]

I found this picture of the building online. I left my camera at my father’s house so the pictures I took aren’t with me.

The engineers will tell us if it can be made safe. There’s a second building on the site that kind of goes with this one so if this one proves to be unusable, there are other options. At least is has a recently rebuilt slate roof.

The crazy thing is my first legit job was working for an architect / developer who had an office in that building, and I was sorting out his papers, making deliveries, doing odd jobs and things like that. Weird to come full circle after 35 years on the west coast. Even weirder the hits from the 80’s and 90’s seem to be popular these days and I’m single again (thank goodness) and so here I am in the same place I was when I headed out to Colorado in 1992 hearing the same music and trying to figure out what to do with my life… not everybody gets a reset so I am grateful.

Now I am living in a house nearby below this massive spring and it provides 500 gal/min of free mineral rich spring water for the houses in the immediate area - showers, bath, tap everything is spring water. I will be able to use this water for distillations and extractions, and feel good about that. It’s actually a famous spring that has been visited by Native Americans for thousands of years and European settlers later because it’s mineral rich and there are anecdotes of people being healed by the waters. 30 stage coaches a day came through the town in the early 1800’s, there was a huge “water cure” facility… now you would never know it.

Things are looking interesting here for sure, but it will be at least a year before we start and a couple more before it will be fully in motion.


View attachment 32624

We walk for years and years just to arrive at where we started only this time with a tonne of life experience.
Not achieved by many @Mr.P
Exciting times 😇

 

[Al Shareef Oudh]

The owner of the shop that I am making some perfumes for approached me about an interesting project in the town I live in. In a nutshell, the plan is to turn a large historic building (that is currently owned by a museum, but not getting any use) into a maker-space and work space / resource for local artisans who would offer classes on their craft. It would feature a shop to help those artisans sell their creations. He asked if I would be interested in setting up a combination perfumery / herbal extraction facility to make items for sale in the shop, and also as a resource for educating people in the community about these crafts and offering classes on herb cultivation, extraction, distillation, and perfumery. There is a moderate herb garden on one side of the building that would be pretty easy to revitalize, are used to grow things to extract and distill. This is a project that will take some time but of course I am 100% on board with making something like this happen.

The first thing we have to do is get some engineers in to do an assessment because it’s a very old building, all brick and stone. It was a workshop in the 1700s and there’s actually an aqueduct that goes near the building and defunct water wheel on the lower level that provided power for machines in this and nearby buildings.

Anyway, I have no idea what the likelihood of this succeeding is but the guy has demonstrated success as an entrepreneur and seems to have a plan. Going to be helping out in one way or another. When it is up and running I will let you all know the location in case anyone feels like checking it out. I’m pretty excited about this as you can imagine.

The building is across the street from there the site of the first pharmaceutical plant in the United States, called the Tilden pharmaceutical company. They were the main manufacturer of herbal medications in the United States for some time and were an extraction and manufacturing facility, and they cultivated and wildcrafted herbs for extraction and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

With your years of teaching experience and passion for all things fragrant, perfect combination.

All the best brother hope it works out