Crosby Mint farms is the oldest growing and producing mint farm in the United States, making our family operation, a tradition that started in 1912 by my Great-Grand Father James E. Crosby at the age of 68. The tradition of growing and steam distillation process of both peppermint and spearmint essential oils has been passed on to three generations.
In my early years, I can remember this … the certain smells the mint has in spring, summer, and fall. I remember the mint buckling from the ground in early spring and the hot summer days in June and July. I remember the harvest in August, which neighbors say they can "Smell the mint up to 5 miles away ... in all four directions, and even farther with a gentle breeze." I remember the brisk early mornings helping my father start the fire in the large steam boiler and opening the door to the fire box, constantly loading wood to keep building steam. And I dearly remember waiting eagerly for my mother to bring my father and I, of all things, an egg sandwich (another tradition) so we could stay and keep feeding the boiler. I also remember that I started driving tractor at the age of 9, worked at the distillery clamping and unclamping mint covers, and graduated to wagon hauler at the age 12. Now that was quite the advancement up the employment ladder. That was then ... and this is now. This is the time that I will take our operation into the new age of technology, through the internet.
During those early years, the mint industry began offering so-called new technology to improve ways to farm and harvest mint. For example, the mint tanks were round steel tubs 15 ft tall with a 12 ft radius with rings that were placed inside the tubs. The mint was forked by hand into the tubs with the first ring being on the bottom. Mint was added and packed into the tubs. Then another ring was added and more mint was packed into the tubs. There were 4 or 5 lucky field hands called trampers. Their job was to walk in circles inside the tubs packing mint until they couldn’t add any more mint. Covers were then placed and clamped air tight, in most cases the mint tubs were placed at ground level. This was considered advanced! When the extraction process was complete, the covers were taken off and the distilled mint was hoisted on to the flat bed wagon so the waste could be taken to the field and disposed.
This process included up to 10 workers, not including field workers. In the 1940s, changes were rectangular tanks on a wagon wheel base with a hoist system. We were one of the first mint farms to embrace this advanced system. That seemed to be one of the last equipment advancements, and ironically our operation hasn’t changed much since then, except for the fact that we have replaced the removable tank covers over to built-in covers.
