Young Living Melissa Harvest Report – July 2010

This email was sent to me from one of the distributors that participated in the first Young Living Melissa Harvest (July 2010).

Enjoy!

P.S. Many thanks to Jean Dukes for sharing.

Many of you have asked about the Melissa Harvest…
Here is my “report”. If you ever get the chance to participate in a lavender or Melissa Harvest or even just visit one of our farms, I highly recommend it.

Also, January 2011, will the Idaho Balsam Fir harvest (and I think they are also going to distill Western Red Cedar, too).

Enjoy! Jean

Young Living Melissa Harvest July 2010
St. Maries Idaho


A little about Melissa (Melissa officinalis): It is also known as Lemon Balm. It is delicate & feminine and grows into large bush-like plants with a lemony fragrance. Properties of the oil are: POWERFUL antiviral. Anciently, Melissa was used for nervous disorders and many different ailments dealing with the heart or the emotions. Dr. Dietrich Wabner, a professor @ the Technical University of Munich, reported that a onetime application of true Melissa oil led to the complete remission of Herpes Simplex lesions.
Today, Melissa is the most potent anti-viral substance known. It helps:

  • Herpes
  • Shingles
  • Hives
  • Colds
  • Flues
  • Coughs
  • Sinusitis
  • Fevers
  • Warts
  • AIDS

It has an extremely powerful antihistamine action and is helpful for:

  • Asthma
  • Bronchitis

It is also good for allergy relief. (Ocotea & Basil, too, if you can’t afford Melissa).
Melissa has excellent cancer reducing properties, especially for leukemia.
It is calming and regenerative for all nervous disorders.
It alleviates depression, lifts moods and restores hope.

YL Blends which contain Melissa: Awaken, Brain Power, Forgiveness, Hope, Humility, and White Angelica.

My personal testimony about Melissa: I had a wart between 2 of my toes for several years. It kept growing up and would rub against my other toe and become very painful. I had to keep shaving it off with a single edged razor blade. I finally looked on the oil testimonials website ( <http://www.oil-testimonials.com/2094> ) and saw that a lot of people used Thieves oil to get rid of their warts. I faithfully applied Thieves for 2 months, twice a day, with no results. Then I remembered that I heard Dr. Young say that Melissa was the most potent anti-viral there was. Since a wart is caused by a herpes virus, I decided to try Melissa. I applied it twice a day, and the wart totally disappeared in 2 or 3 days—never to return.
I also developed a case of painful shingles on my chest, underarm and back and used Melissa in a blend with some other oils and was completely over them in 2 weeks and only had one day of REALLY bad pain. Here is the blend I used:

My Shingles Formula
5 Exodus II
10 Elemi
10 Forgiveness
7 German Chamomile
10 Helichrysum
10 Lavender
10 Melissa
5 Peppermint
10 Ravensarsa
20 Thieves
Apply frequently until gone.
REMEMBER: Melissa is a POWERFUL antiviral!

THANKS TO SUSAN & AMANDA FOR THESE PHOTOS.

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Entrance to the Young Living Farm, St. Maries, Idaho

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There are photos of the early days of the farm all over the walls in the common area.
This is one of Mary, Gary’s wife. I imagine it’s pretty challenging being married to Gary!

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Dr. Gary Young in his early days @ this farm. He is definitely a visionary.


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Sunrise on the farm. This was taken by Susan… you can bet I was in bed @ 5am!

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Weeding the lavender fields. YL oils are all grown organically and all weeding is done by hand. NO chemicals. It’s very hard work, and dusty, too.
There are 5 workers who do the majority of the planting, weeding, etc… on the farm.

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The real workers on the farm!

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The first day we were there, the wind was blowing about 50 miles an hour and one of the tents blew across the lavender fields. Marcie, Jessica & Christian retrieved it!


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Here is a field of Melissa officinalis (also known as Lemon Balm). The farm up until now has been mostly lavender, but as the lavender plants get older,
they will be replaced by Melissa—eventually the farm will be primarily growing & producing Melissa oil.
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More beautiful Melissa fields with breathtaking scenery all around

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The lavender fields are beautiful, also. Every day, the fields became more purple.

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This is the machine that cuts the lavender and tosses it into the container at the back.

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Up in the Idaho panhandle of Idaho in the middle of nowhere, is a beautiful stand of Western Red Cedars that were just seedlings when Columbus discovered America.
Much of the forest was destroyed by fires in the early 1900s, however this grove was not touched.
There is a lovely 1-mile loop trail through the forest full of TALL cedars, and waist-high ferns. We spent about ½ a day there.

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Some of the trees are >500 years old. It took 9 people to span this big tree. The knots are burls—large, warty lumps which grow on the trees.
They are caused by accelerated cell or malformed bud growth. They are similar to tumors in humans.

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We had a special time of quiet meditation among the trees & ferns.

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Enjoying the trees

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Nice picture of Jessica, Cherie Ross, & Marcie

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We went to a lake one afternoon and enjoyed the sun. It was a very peaceful and scenic setting.

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Speed and Marcie checking the BRIX levels on the Melissa with the refractometer to see if it’s ready to turn into essential oil.


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We all got a chance to look inside the refractometer. It was interesting to learn how the BRIX are measured. This is Tara, one of my roommates from California.

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I got a chance to learn to drive a tractor! Here I am on the Kubota taking the little Melissa plants out to the field. The farm is very dusty, so we frequently wore dust masks. You can see the greenhouse in the back right where the plants are started. Some people stayed in tents.

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Planting the little Melissa plants. This is Diane, a Massage Therapist from Montana. Unfortunately we didn’t have a chance to experience her expertise!

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Rows of Melissa we planted. I think we planted 41 rows with about 185 plants per row          (give or take—I’m not very good with numbers!)

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This is the “Swather”—the machine used to cut the Melissa.

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After it’s “swathed” It’s gathered it up by pitchfork and tossed it into the wagon. This is Greg.

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The guys mainly did this because it was really backbreaking! The distillery is in the background with the red roof.

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The distillery. Gary Young designed and built all of these. + there’s more you can’t see.

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Greg & Amanda from Calgary
The Melissa is brought to this concrete slab in front of the distillery to sit out for about 24 hours before it is “cooked”.
This allows the plant material to increase its BRIX level, which then yields a higher quality oil.

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It’s amazing how much plant material it takes to fill up one cooker.

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Some of my fellow harvesters playing in the Melissa.
Tara (lying down), MaryLouise, Susan and Karen (back of head)

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Loading the still.

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Loading the “cooker” with pitchforks of Melissa. Each fork full could be pretty heavy.

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Stomping down the Melissa:  Diane (top), Christian (left), Susan (right) & Greg (bottom) It was a dusty job.

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Here the “cooker“ is almost full. The plant material must be tightly packed.
If there are any air pockets, the steam will roll around in the pocket and burn the plant material—tainting the oil.

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Dan, jack of all trades on the farm & Brett, who also works on the farm. Both very nice guys. Brett is Tamara’s son. Tamara works @ the clinic in Ecuador.

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The condenser cools the steam before it enters the separator.

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Inside the distillery.

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The boiler which heats the water to make steam for the distillation process.
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The oil comes up in tiny little bubbles… once in a while you see a larger bubble float up to the top.

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Yes, I DO ♥ Young Living Oils!

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After all was said & done… 4 acres of plant material yielded 1 thumb-width of oil…

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… which is less than a quart of oil. Now I appreciate why some oils (like Melissa) are so expensive.
It’s a lot of time & labor involved getting to the end product. Less than a quart… How many 5ml bottles @ $150 per 5ml? You do the math…
This jar is VERY valuable. Luckily no one dropped it!

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Collecting the Melissa Floral Water. I was able to bring home a quart & a pint of this precious liquid.
Most of the water goes back into the ponds.

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This is “Speed” and his wife, daughter & grandson. He will be moving up the St. Maries farm to manage the farm full time.
It was his birthday on Saturday. He was our “boss” for the week. A very nice man.

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Some of the people who attended the harvest: Melanie, Tara, Jean, Amanda, Karen & Speed (Our boss)
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Former Chicken Coops. This one held 1 bunk bed for 2 people… the one to the left was the one I stayed in… 2 bunk beds / 4 people. Tight quarters but very adequate.

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The Common Area for meals & classes.

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Left to Right: Jessica, Susan & Marcie. Jessica came up for the week to help cook (here she’s making homemade ice cream!)
Needless to say, we ate VERY well (but HEALTHY, following YL standards!) this week. Marcie is the admin lady at the farm. She has the gift of hospitality, yet can fix a tractor.
She also rides horses & shoots elk. She cooked elk for us one night (delicious!). She’s an amazing lady with many talents! Susan in the middle is from NJ and took lots of wonderful photos.

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2 of my roommates—Diane from Chicago & Tara from California, and me.

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3 down, 1 to go! I’ve had the privilege to visit our farms in Utah, Ecuador and Idaho. YL is truly the world leader in essential oils…
I’ve seen it firsthand! We definitely are the best.



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July 23, 2010  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Melissa Harvest

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  2. Young Living Melissa Harvest Report – July 2010 | HansensChoice … center university - July 23, 2010

    [...] rest is here:  Young Living Melissa Harvest Report – July 2010 | HansensChoice … By admin | category: Technical University of MUNICH | tags: complete, dietrich-wabner, [...]

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