Reporting live from Oleron to learn all about the harvest of the Melifera immortelle

Who hasn’t one day brought their little bouquet of immortelle back from the beach, hoping to keep their scent all summer long? Being an essential factor in the anchoring of the dunes, it is forbidden to pick immortelles in the wild. At Melifera, we are aware of these environmental issues and want to do things well and respect nature as a whole. Thus, by planting our own immortelles, rather than harvesting them, we fulfill our role as protectors of the ecosystem. Melifera, a brand committed to biodiversity, is the first gin brand to use organic immortelle plants, harvested by hand. Come on, even with this heat, gear up! We’ll take you on a unique guided tour of our garden where you’ll learn about the harvesting of Melifera’s beloved immortelles.

©Melifera

Harvesting the Melifera immortelle: a rigorous and all-organic task!

From the start, we entered into an all-organic approach, which is why we obtained the Ecocert certification which guarantees better environmental practices for the cultivation of our immortelle flowers.

When we started out in 2019, we planted 300 plants in collaboration with local gardeners in organic farming, on their land in Oleron. It was also part of a strong desire to anchor ourselves to the territory and establish valuable exchanges with the people of the island. Today, this partnership remains an integral part of our history and our philosophy.

Growing organic immortelles requires special care. The very first harvest only takes place two years after the first planting. You have to be patient then constantly watch out for the growth spurt in the spring.

On the long run, everything, or almost everything, is a matter of time! In addition, the picking takes place over a very short period, this special opportunity should not be missed. The last weeks of May and the month of June are decisive, and, between heat waves and hailstorms, the weather can be sometimes unreliable in these essential months.

On our land, we grow other plants we use to produce our artisanal French gin: juniper, artemisia, maceron, absinthe or even angelica, there is a total of nine plant combinations added to the production of our aromatic gin with organic immortelle from Oleron. For our Corsican Edition, we’ve use up to 18 aromatic varieties.

Everything stems from a desire to be as autonomous as possible in our Melifera immortelles harvesting process.

Thus, in 2022, we planted 700 new plants of Helichrysum italicum and Helichrysum stoechas for a total of nearly 1,800 plants, altogether.

Concretely, how is the harvest of the Melifera immortelle going?

The sun points the tip of its nose above Les Sables Vignier, in the north of the island of Oleron. Already, small hands are busy with meticulous work in the midst of bright yellow fields surrounded by wonderful scents.

Only the flower heads are recovered, delicately seized to the nearest centimeter before being gently placed in the baskets. Our knees and lower back are put to the test in this task but it’s the only way to be precise in our gathering.

The harvest of the Melifera immortelle is above all convivial and family focused. From the first harvest in 2020, small teams of 4-5 people joined forces and meticulously apprehended each corymb. Our distillers, friends and families all helped out, combining ecological values ​​with convivial moments. This is our philosophy of life and brand we try to convey. Moreover, we aim to welcome our customers and partner wine merchants during our next picking…but this can wait until the summer of 2023.

Making the gin takes two to three harvests per year and 15 to 20 kilos picked up per harvest. In 2022, we recovered a total of nearly 47 kilos of immortelle from Oleron.

At the end of each harvest, we meet with Maxime Ceyral, our expert distiller, brewery, and distillery manager at SVE. The latter is equipped with its tubs of alcohol marinating at 63 degrees in which our organic immortelle flowers are immersed. It is essential not to wait too long to immerse them in alcohol, in order to preserve all their properties. They will then macerate for a few days and be distilled with wheat alcohol.

©Melifera

Harvesting the everlasting Melifera in Corsica

For the harvest of the Melifera Edizione Corsa immortelle, it’s a whole different story. We collaborate with an organic producer who cultivates vast fields of immortelles in Saint Florent. We attended the two harvest types: that with the tractor in the fields and with the sickle in the maquis.

Harvesting the Melifera immortelle: did you know? A little trip back in time

It would seem that in the past, the washerwomen of the island of Oleron spread their sheets over the petals of the immortelles to capture their essence. The custom has persisted over time because today, who is not tempted to capture this unique perfume by keeping their summer bouquet to embalm their wardrobe or their car’s glove box?

Immortelle has such a natural and perpetual fragrance!

©Melifera

A special brand from Charente for an atypical Melifera immortelle harvest

For those who are discovering the brand, it is through a very particular signature that Melifera claims its singularity.

Pioneer of artisanal French gin with organic immortelle, our brand from Charente knows how to demarcate itself.

Our aromatic gin has a unique, floral and tangy taste, which makes our spirits exceptional beverages appreciated for their originality.

To succeed in producing an exceptional spirit that respects the environment, Melifera can count on the expertise of Ethel Gauthier, agricultural engineer and responsible for biodiversity and sustainable sectors, for the close management of crops, and their maintenance. More than an essential element in the cultivation and harvesting of the Melifera immortelle, Ethel also takes care of the garden cultivated in agroecology and ecograzing (in collaboration with the donkeys of Oleron, favortite local partner). She also uses the harmony of several spaces (plantation, meadow and soft marsh) by considering the rich biodiversity of each of them.

Harvesting the Melifera immortelle: the black bee as an icon

At the origin of our name stands a little black bee.

Although threatened, the Apis Mellifera Mellifera, from its scientific name, is very present on the island of Oleron, especially in the north of the island, a real sanctuary for this species.

Thus, in association with the Conservatoire de l’Abeille Noire in Oleron, and with the local beekeepers, Melifera marks its strong commitment to nature, the preservation of biodiversity and the protection of the black bee.

It is therefore quite natural that to strengthen our desire for involvement, we wanted to set up some hives from the Conservatory on our land, to welcome the black bee and fully integrate it into the harvest of the Melifera immortelle.

Our Melifera Garden is a paradise for insects! Bees particularly appreciate it for its biodiversity and its areas of brambles.

Manu, our partner beekeeper, ensures that each of the hives has its queen. In recent weeks, he has moved several colonies of black bees to our garden in order to create a new apiary. We will tell you more about this in a future article. To this date, Melifera is proud to be able to count five colonies of black bees which have made their mark on our land. And this is just the beginning.

©Melifera