Greg Cook made a trip to Corsican. Read his experience~ Corsican Helicrysum--I recently made a visit to the small island of Corsica and found what the locals say is, that special place between nature and emotion...which is our profession. Corsica is a mountainous French Island in the Mediterranean Sea and offers an incredible rich biodiversity with many medicinal plants. Corsican Helichrysum is a small, flowering bush that is both cultivated and wild harvested to make the oil. Locals refer to it as Immortelle or Everlasting...some on the island even called it the gold of the sun. Helichrysum grows best in sandy soil on hillsides near the coast. The harvest times are typically the first part of June and late September, but individual plants should only be harvested once a year. The stem (about 5-6 inches in length) and flowers of the plant are hand cut and collected, just before the flowers begin to bloom. Distillation happens immediately after harvesting, the sooner the better. The average yield of helichrysum is 0.14%-0.17%. It takes one ton of plant material to produce less than 2 liters of essential oil. The unique geographic conditions, the wildcrafting, the artisan style hand cutting process, and the sheer volume of plant material required, makes Helichrysum one of the more expensive oils and difficult to source on a consistent basis. New plants produce very little oil the first 2 years, after about 3 years the plants mature and produce the expected amount of oil. We are all very aware of the healing properties of Helichrysum. No where else in the world can you find a better example of nature producing such a beautiful and special gift of the earth!
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 21:42:08 +0000
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