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~~~~~~~~
Learn more about
our France Study Trip
Come harvest wild lavender in Provence, France like it has
been done for
centuries. Ooh la la!
When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy. -- Rumi
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“When we plant, we plant three seeds: Para yo, para vos and para los animalitos de Dios (For me, for all of us, and for all the animals of God.) -- Miguel Santistevan, Agricultural Activist
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The harvest is sweet. The work is long and hard, hot and exacting. It can’t be put off until tomorrow, for what is ripe today will be rotten tomorrow. -- Susun S. Weed, Herbalist
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Meet A Few Of Our Farmers
Michel
and his wife are Native Americans living in Canada. They produce many
of our beautiful conifer essences, such as Spruce, White and Fir, Balsam.
He is Abenaki, and she is Micmac-Pawnee; he is a sub-chief of their tribe
and his wife is a medicine woman. I will never forget the time Barry and
I visited them at their home in Canada. The tribe was having a Pow Wow,
and Michel had their leadership and elders officially recognize us and
welcome us to their dances and their land. The next day, we traveled with
them to the dense forest where they distill White Spruce. They deeply
honor the life-giving and life-saving properties of the medicinal plants,
and bring this respect and gratitude to their distillation process. They
distill in ceremony … drumming and praying during the process, and
giving thanks to the beautiful trees who share their medicine with us.
Alain
& Sylviane live in a tiny village high in the mountains of Southern
France. They produce our exquisite Highland Lavender from lavender hand-harvested
atop Mt. de Cheiron. They distill in their home, using a still they had
made according to their own specifications.
They cut the lavender with a hand held scythe, just as it was done hundreds of years ago by the peasants who provided the cut lavender to the perfume industry in Grasse, France. Students who are studying medicinal plants and the process of distillation work for them for a few weeks each summer, personally experiencing the back-breaking, extremely demanding job of hand-cutting hundreds of pounds of lavender under the hot, Provence sun. Alain & Sylviane also produce our highland Mt. Savory essential oil.
Photo at left: Cutting wild lavender on Mt. de Cheiron
Ernest, a dear friend of Margrit, our interpreter/farmer liaison, is
a German living in France; he lives simply among ancient olive trees high in the hills above Entrevaux. He used to work for the German government, researching ways to naturally purify toxic land and water. After he left the government, he brought his love for the plants and trees, and his respect for all they can do for us, to France. During our 2008 France AromaTour, we all attended Ernest's 70th birthday party, a truly international affair, with his friends from Germany mingling with his friends from France...and the Wisdom of the Earth folks in the middle of it all! Barry gifted Ernest a beautiful Native American flute, which delighted him.
An integral part of the Entrevaux community, Ernest proudly participates in local cultural pagents with his beautiful donkey. Ernest produces our exquisite Rosemary Hydrosol in very limited quantities.
Photo at right: Barry teaching Ernest how to play the Native American flute.
Ernest and Margrit with his donkey
Ange
is an Italian living in Provence; his grandfather moved there over a century
ago to grow his fruit trees. He and his father, Georgio, who is in his late nineties,
produce incredible essences from their fruits (Orange, bigarade), their
blossoms (Neroli) and their branches (Orange, petitgrain). He still loves
to walk among his orange trees, proudly pointing his cane to the orange
blossoms, from which they make the rare essence, Neroli, and our Neroli
hydrosol, wonderful for skin care and emotional uplift.
It is so enjoyable to visit his "office" area, where friends and family are applying labels to the products, drying them with hair dryers...a very "mom and pop" operation. We can definitely identify with that, and honor these small scale farmers and the beauty and healing they bring to the planet by living their passion.
A sumptuous lunch lovingly prepared by Sylviane.
From left, Leonardo, me, Cynthia and Barry
Farmers picking Jasmine petals in Provence, France
We have a lovely couple in Southern Utah who are distilling our Ponderosa Pine and our Pinyon Pine. Meet Eric & Cypress, who walk their talk of love for Mother Earth like no one else I know. We also offer hydrosols of both essences...the Pinyon Pine is incredible for cleaning, deodorizing, disinfecting, and creating an sweet energy of grounding and connection with the earth that is impossible to describe.
Both Eric and Cypress are advanced students of ours, and the essences have literally changed their lives. They live sustainability every day, and we are honored to have them in our family.
Eric & Cynthia (Cypress)
These are just a few of the wonderful farmers who are like family to us…and whom we trust to bring us the rare and exceptionally pure essences that are part of the Wisdom of the Earth line. Most of our essences are bio-dynamically farmed; many are wild-crafted (i.e., gathered wild, not cultivated). These two types of production are a step above Organic, and are rooted deeply in the natural rhythms of Mother Nature. Small-scale farmers such as these are often the only people producing essences by these methods.
Shining Sun Aromatherapy
(505) 438-0855
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