Herbalists, Gatherers, Distillers
Verdon Roses & Arômes
Born and raised in the lush Verdon Gorge in southern France, Yann Potié has adopted his parent's farm to grow and distill organic plants into high-quality organic healthcare products shipped worldwide.An Interview with Yann Potié
My parents created Verdon Roses and Aromas fifteen years ago. At this time, I was very far from the plants; I worked in masonry before entering training for films and music. And then, I taught piano lessons in an associative school for five years.
Starting in 2009, I began helping my parents occasionally at first, and more and more as time went on. In 2019, I had already done a lot of the work on the farm (picking, distilling, crop maintenance), and I did a farming course that lasted over one year.
“I was born and raised in the Verdon Gorge. I am a child of the country and the countryside.”
I am very attached to this huge area, which is one of the rare regions still preserved. The valley where our farm is located is exceptionally protected, and I will do everything I can to keep that preservation intact.
The Business of Healthcare
My parents' goal when they started was to grow only roses and wild lavender (which grow in the immediate vicinity of the farm). As I took over, most of the current scope of plants were already curated, even if we developed some new cosmetics: the climber's balm, the rose cream, and the mallow soap (not yet released, but we are working on it!).
Organic practices
My parents, Lucille, and I are fundamentally anti-chemical treatments. I trained with Eric Petiot, a formidable craftsman of vegetable treatments (fermented extracts of nettle and other plants), who still creates an enormous amount of research. We have used some of his protocols for the past two years with good results.
Farming in France
Organic Practices & Challenges
At the end of my trainings, I officially took over in April 2021 and was joined by my companion Lucille a few months later. My parents have since retired but still help on the farm and support us as much as possible.
Training and Research
My skills were acquired mainly by practicing, with my parents' advice, but also by exchanging with fellow growers of the SIMPLES union of which we are part. I also learned about soil functioning and bio-indicator plants, which help to adapt cultivation practices.
What are your current challenges?
The challenges are multiple. Among the most important, I could mention are weed control. We have about 10,000 rose bushes to weed. My parents tried several methods.
Initially, we used to weed the rose bushes by passing the grelinette (A grelinette, biobêche, biogrif, or aérofourche is a tool that allows you to aerate and loosen the soil without turning it over, composed of two wooden handles, connected by a metal crossbar in their lower part.)
So we decided to keep the row weeded and to put green manure (plants) between the rows. It is very long, physical, and tedious work. It is necessary to pass the grelinette, to remove enormous clods of grass with the pickaxe. Then it is essential to regularly maintain it with a small electric pickaxe.
Climate Change
Another challenge that is currently unresolved is adapting to climate change. We have had warm winters for four years now. The problem is that these warm winters are followed by a return of the cold in spring, which destroys a large part of the crops.Adapting to Change
To make matters worse, extreme heat and drought often follow this cold snap without transition. In short, in 3 days, we can go from - 7 °C to + 35 °C.
Our last harvest was catastrophic compared to normal. To fight against this, we try different approaches: herbal treatments, protection against cold wind (but it can be freezing without wind), and grafting on local wild roses, which are very vigorous).
To succeed in the future, we need to maintain the diversity of our range while increasing our production, while always remaining on a human scale. We only hire people during specific harvest periods.
We are relieved to see that despite the climatic difficulties and Covid, we have managed to keep our clientele and even to increase it a little.
International Shipping
Verdon Roses and Aromas offers international shipping on many of their products.
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Achieving the Organic Label
As for the organic farming label, we are lucky to be in a remote, wild area that has never known chemical pesticides. Our practices are following the specifications of the Simples union (except for the cosmetic part, where we use some exotic oils), which is much more demanding than the organic one.
Skills & Technique
The Distillation Process
We keep the two products of distillation:
Hydrolat and essential oil for aromatic plants (lavender, thyme, savory, wild carrot, juniper, Scots pine, Damask rose).
Hydrolat for plants that do not have essential oil or for which we do not have sufficient production to make essential oil (cornflower, Centifolia rose, calendula, yarrow, hyssop, elderberry, Italian helichrysum, and some other plants).
The Alembics
We have two alembics (an apparatus used in distillation):
A copper one of about 200 Liters.
A stainless steel one of 500 Liters.
The stainless steel one is a model that allows two kinds of distillation: indirect steam (for all plants) and hydro-distillation for roses. For the indirect steam process, the steam comes directly from the boiler, passes through the plants, and is loaded with their most volatile molecules.
This mixture is cooled in a condenser and comes out as a distillate. This distillate is stored in an “essencier,” where the lighter essential oil separates from the heavier hydrosol.
For the hydro-distillation (specifically for roses, although it can also be distilled in direct steam), the tank is filled with water for this process, and the roses are bathed in this water.
A double jacket allows the water to be heated slowly, on the same principle as a water bath, without the steam passing directly from the boiler to the plants. Then it works the same way: the steam is condensed and is collected in the gas tank as above.
How does your process work? All your products are hand-picked, do you have a large team?Farming by hand, with love
The two of us share most of the work. Only for certain pickings can we hire people. For the roses, it happened to us to be about ten people to pick. For the lavender, we are generally 6 or 7. For all other plants, we are 2, or each one on our side.
We choose the moment when the plants deliver their most subtle quintessences to harvest them and thus obtain the maximum of active principles. Picking happens around flowering time for most plants.
For the rose, we harvest as soon as possible once it has just bloomed. We wait for lavender, savory, thyme, and hyssop until the flowering begins to pass slightly. For the juniper, we pick when the berries are blue.
For wild carrots, we wait until the seeds start to dry, but not too long. For the Scots pine, we have more time, as long as it does not rain. And for the cornflower and the calendula, we wait until it is in full bloom.
What is an average day like?
It is very variable. In the middle of the harvest period, it's 6 AM to 8 PM, or even 10 PM. non-stop, seven days a week. In the off-season, we can afford to let go entirely for a few days, which is essential for our balance. From May to September, we are at our peak. It is a very intense and exhausting period.
For the other periods, it's a little calmer, even if there is still a lot of work: transformations, bottling, labeling, orders to be shipped, various fieldwork, and some distillations that we prefer to do during the "quiet" moments (like the Scots Pine).
If our readers wish to learn about medicinal plants and grow their own, what advice would you give them?
I recommend the works of Christophe Bernard on his YouTube channel and his blog Althea Provence. It's a goldmine of very serious yet accessible information (someone who knows nothing about plants can find their way around).
Thierry Thevenin and Pierre Lieutaghi have written many rich and exciting books on the recognition and uses of many plants.
There is also Gérard Ducerf, an agronomist botanist who has done a lot of work on so-called organic and eco-indicator plants; to summarize very briefly, plants that grow spontaneously will give clues on the state of the soil. This allows us to know the soil's state and what can improve it - if it is polluted, rich, poor, calcareous, acidic, destructured, compacted, etc.
Finally, there is the work of Eric Petiot and his colleague Patrick Goater (Purin d'ortie et Cie). They have put together a lot of protocols on "How to heal plants with plants."
Their work is of public utility and rather earnest alternatives to the synthetic chemical treatments of conventional agriculture.
Do you have a recipe to share with our readers?
"I can explain a method to make an oily macerate of a plant. We take a vegetable oil of our choice (for example, olive, jojoba, or hazelnut) and fill a jar with the most "interesting" parts of the plant."
We cover it completely with oil. It would be best not to fill it to the brim; otherwise, it may overflow after a while.
Let the jar rest in the sun for about twenty days. If the sun is too intense, we cover the top of the jar a little. Of course, it is necessary to regularly stir the contents (once a day) with a clean utensil, ideally disinfected with alcohol. The lid must be on but not closed.
Every evening, after wiping with a clean cloth any water condensation that has settled on the lid, place the jar undercover. If it starts to rain, the jar must be put under cover.
After about twenty days, we filter. It is essential to press the remaining plant mixture well to extract as much oil as possible that is still present.
We then store it, ideally protected from the light, and we use it as we wish.
We can add some essential oil of our choice according to the desired utility (for example, macerated St. John's wort + essential oil of wild lavender to heal). It can also be used to make a balm, where you need to mix the oil a little heated and melted beeswax. After that, it's up to each one's choice and creativity.
For St. John's wort: fresh flowers. This oil has healing properties but is photosensitive: avoid exposure to the sun when using it. Curiously, the oil becomes red while the flower is yellow. Lavender: flowering stems. Calendula: fresh or dry flowers. Rose: fresh petals.
