Every spring, Céline perpetuates an ancestral know-how: the harvesting of birch sap. It is from her forest located in Gironde that the birch water comes from which some of the wild active ingredients in our formulas are extracted.
For her, wild harvesting is an emotion. Complex, unpredictable, and ever-changing, the forest is not easy to read. It takes great skill and patience to “harvest the energy of the forest” while respecting and preserving it.
Céline generously agreed to tell us her story and her passion for wild harvesting.
What is your background?
I have owned a forest since 2016, I have been doing environmental consulting for 30 years and I have a background in plant physiology. I am very interested in ethnobotany and botany. Three years ago, I had a health problem and I decided to do a “forest bath” to benefit from its soothing virtues. The forest is a path to healing, it is therapeutic . Through wild harvesting, we feel like we are taking the energy of the forest.
Where does your love of nature come from?
I am passionate about plant molecules because they have passed the test of selection and life. They have been around for millennia and still retain a part of the unknown today. We have always tried to study plant molecules, to exploit their virtues, but we are still blacksmiths when we should be watchmakers. That's what I love about plant physiology. It is an extraordinary precision, a complexity that we still perceive very little and which requires a lot of patience.
What do you like about wild foraging?
For me, wild harvesting is an emotion: it is receiving gratitude from nature.
The picker's emotion lies first and foremost in uncertainty, that of never knowing if there will be anything to pick. When you open a tree, you don't know if it will yield. This year, for example, we had the impression of having a very early spring, but in the end, the birch sap harvest began two weeks later than expected. The quality, however, is always there. This year again, we have a very beautiful, very crystalline sap.
The other emotion of the gatherer is to feel that one is part of biodiversity. As long as one does not feel this connection with the forest, one analyzes nature and organizes the gathering rationally, but one does not act in connection with the environment. The forest is a society of trees, like a human society. One must learn to feel the relationships between them.
What are the properties of birch sap?
Birch sap has been used since the dawn of time, particularly in all northern regions. It is the tree that rises in sap in spring. It symbolizes the awakening of the forest, but also that of bodies and souls. Birch sap is both a purifier, a detoxifier, and a gentle drainer. It participates in the skin's purification and regeneration process. Finally, birch sap has an effect that is not physiological, but that I find essential: it allows you to take in the energy of spring.