Sitka Spruce Update

[Guest guest]

Hello Friends,

Jess Ring here with an update about Queen Sitka and her oil (see old

posts for info.) I wanted to thank everyone who responded to my post

about harvesting and distilling this amazing tree. I have had soooo

much fun setting up trades with you guys - soap, perfumes, tinctures,

dried herbs, body sprays, absolutes- everything I have recieved has

been beautiful. To be honest, the connections and friendships that

have formed as a result of these trades have been healing for me on a

very deep, spiritual level.

So now I am really stoked to say I am about to send out your gifts

now!! Queen Sitka yeilded and incredibly loooooow amount of EO.

Just to give you an idea - I obtained about 2oz of Rosemary EO from

one 7.5 gallon distillation. I only got 1-5 ml of oil per batch of

Sitka Spruce! This low yield is probably due to age (the tree was

over 700 years old.) I also attribute part of this low yield to the

season it was harvested in. Late January to early march would have

been a better time to distill (EO surge as a result of inner cambium

developement.)

In any case, I will be sending out small vials of pure EO, cologne,

oil-based perfume, and some very very strong hydrosols. Soap-makers

will recieve larger bottles of alcohol-free hydrosols. Everyone will

recieve cottonwood oil too! There will be other freshly distilled

surprises as well.

So anyway, I love you guys! You have made my holdiday season so fun

and meaningful. I hope that the spruce is as healing and grounding

for all of you as it has been for me. I believe that the EO from

Queen Sitka is her spirit in liquid-teacher form - that she has a

message for each of us. Enjoy.

From the Green Green Woods,

Jess Ring