When I lived in Northern New York I lived in the St. Lawrence County region and I lived there for a long time, first as the wife of a dairy farmer and then a widow of one and eventually, after moving away for eight years (though I visited the area constantly during those years), I moved back with my second husband and family to live there for a long while. So basically from 1955 to 1978 with the exception of my 8 year hiatus I observed a lot of people making a living at various industries and one of them was the harvesting of cedar oil.
Cedar oil basically comes from Juniper trees, the Thuja type cedars, and apparently it is distilled from these trees by steaming the wood chips and sawdust. If I remember correctly in our area Cedar leaf oil was produced from the ends of the branches and from part of the foliage of the Western red cedar and the Northern White Cedar.
The ancient Sumerians used cedar oil as a basis for paint. Today Cedar Oil is used for its aromatic properties in cleaning supplies, aromatherapy, insect sprays, soaps, floor polishes and cleaners and household sprays.
For over 1000 years Cedar Oil insecticides have been a very natural and effective non-chemical insecticide.
As the loggers logged the Adirondack forests and small entrepreneurs cleared the lands of trees for dairy farms throughout the St. Lawrence Valley this little industry hummed along even by the time I moved to the area. Today, it is not a very viable industry for the small forester as the distilling is done by large distilleries. Yet one can find questions on the internet from people now and then who have a small grove of cedars and who want to try their hand at harvesting the oil from them.
For me, one the many best memories I have of living in that area was tracking out in the snow during the end of November on cross country skies with our kids as one or more of them pulled a toboggan in our search for some cedar trees in our woods. The object of this annual trek was to gather the cedar branches, not for the oil, but to make Christmas wreathes for us and as gifts for friends. Often our kids would sell a couple to the neighbors and make a little Christmas money.
The cedar branches made great wreaths and especially if we had the Juniper type branches with their waxy bluish, green berries since they added an extra "punch" to the wreath.
Whenever I smell cedar oil in any product I use nowadays this little memory quickly comes back.
"Tread the Earth Lightly" and in the meantime May your day be filled with Peace, Light and Love,
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