This is How  Organic Witch Hazel is Harvested

The key component in certified organic wild harvest is plant integrity. These are the guidelines we use in our wild harvest plan:

George Frazier weighs hand harvested witch hazel and either carries it back or loads it on the company's donkey.  Donkeys do not ruin stream banks and are great partners in our witch hazel enterprise. 

1. The plant population are not decrease because of the collection.

4. For each plant/part of plant a detailed description of the collecting methods should be available (we harvest the tips of the new growth by hand)

5. For each plant/part of plant there is the need to be defined how much of each plant/of the whole

6. The collection does not damage other plants nor encourages erosion (VERY IMPORTANT TO US!!! We are careful and aware of all the species, together with being very aware of the stream bed)

7. As a general rule the following percentages are given for the plants/part of the plant that need to be
left untouched:
. Roots, bulbs: 80% of the population
. Leaves (bushes, trees): _70% of the leaves_
. Flowers: 30% of the flowers of each plant and additionally 20% of the whole population
. Seeds/Fruit: 20-30%

Understanding this criteria, we attempted to create a semi fool proof system for our wild harvest sustainability documentation.

We take before and after harvest photos,

Use GPS coordinates for daily harvest records

Log daily manhours per harvest area (this is _key_ to determining whether the yields are reasonable because people can only harvest so much per man hour)

(*_Currently 500 lbs per acre on a pristine, _*on a 186,000 acre forest which has been sustainable managed for dead, diseased and dying timber for the last 60 years - witch hazel stands are intact and have never been logged).

Everything is done by hand. The people who harvest with us make over $100.00 day.  We harvest with deep respect and apperciation for the life force of the trees and accept responsibilty as a caretaker for this species.

Entire trees are NEVER taken and we hand harvest no more than 20 % of new growth on any particular specimen population can be collected without endangering the whole plant population.

   (Hamamelis virginiana)

Shipped Overnight or Next Day fresh from the Forest 

- Now taking orders for

This How Industrial Witch Hazel is Harvested:

 The witch hazel industry requires hundreds of tons of brush per year, and it's all supplied by about eight families of cutters, most of  whom live in central and eastern Connecticut.Witch hazel is purchased by the ton with landowners paid based on weight slips  provided by the mill.The price is influenced by many factors including the size and concentration of the witch hazel, accessibility of the property, and market conditions at the time of harvests. One family cut about 80 tons a year within a few miles of home.

Witch hazel is harvested from the late fall through the winter. Contractors purchase and harvest raw material from local forests,

 where it is chipped and then transported for processing. On a brisk day in January, the harvesters are working in privately owned woods,

 where they hope to harvest 30 tons.

Men move quickly from trunk to trunk. One flicks away snow at the base with his chainsaw, then cuts while the other holds.

The trunks at ground level because stumps could puncture loggers' tires. If you leave six inches, you're leaving a few cents.

That isn't much, but over 30 tons, it adds up.  The harvester even cuts trunks no thicker than his finger and not much wider

 than the credit cards in your wallet. "Collect enough feathers, you've got a pound," he says. They pull the brush to a sled

 attached to a skidder, which hauls the load to a clearing. There, a man operates the claws of a log loader to grab a pile of

 brush and guide it into a chipper. A stream of chopped witch hazel shoots into a big dump truck. Access is critical since the

 stems of the plants must be moved (manually or with tractors) to a landing.

The witch hazel industry is still centered in Connecticut with, American Distilling and Manufacturing, of East Hampton,

 producing the worlds supply (2 million gallons per year).After the Essex plant closed in 1997, and American Distilling

 became the world's sole industrial supplier. The plant runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The ingredients remain

 unchanged -- witch hazel chips,pure water, natural alcohol added as a preservative. Ten stills empty into 10 tanks holding

 25,000 gallons each. The distillate may leave the plant in a 6,000-gallon tanker truck, a 55-gallon drum, or a 16-ounce

 bottle, among other bulk and retail sizes, headed for Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea

, Hong Kong,or manufacturing plants throughout the U.S., not to mention almost every drugstore in America.

The industrialization of the harvest of witch hazel is why it is so difficult to find certified

 organic product. A certified organic wild harvest is done entirely different.   

Sources and more information on industrial witch hazel harvest: 

The witch hazel industry is still centered in Connecticut with, American Distilling and Manufacturing,

of East Hampton, producing the worlds supply (2 million gallons per year).After the Essex plant closed in 1997,

and American Distilling became the world's sole industrial supplier. The plant runs 24 hours a day,

 seven days a week. The ingredients remain unchanged -- witch hazel chips, pure water, natural alcohol added as

 a preservative. Ten stills empty into 10 tanks holding 25,000 gallons each. The distillate may leave the plant

 in a 6,000-gallon tanker truck, a 55-gallon drum, or a 16-ounce bottle, among other bulk and retail sizes,

 headed for Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong,

This is NOT how witch hazel is commercially harvested

sales@organicwitchhazel.com

A Wild Crops Farm

Rt. 4 Box 523

Salem Mo 65560

Producer

Goods From The Woods
Box 61
Licking Mo. 65560
573.729.6725

Distributor