Witch hazel harvesting at Great Mountain Forest

FALLS VILLAGE — Generations of Americans can recall their mothers pulling out a small bottle of Dickenson’s Witch Hazel to swab a bee sting or a small cut. But what’s in that yellow liquid? Does it really come from Great Mountain Forest?

American witch hazel is a hardy tree that likes rocky, well-drained soil under diffused sunlight. It also thrives in the New England climate, all conditions that exist in Great Mountain Forest in Norfolk and Falls Village. For years, foresters have been harvesting witch hazel trees on GMF’s 6,000-plus acres to produce the extract as a certified organic wild crop.

Bryan Jackowitz, president of Dickenson Brands, Inc. of East Hampton, Conn., and his brother, Kevin, creative director and vice president, spoke Saturday, April 9, at the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village on the history of witch hazel. They described its role in the medicinal and cosmetic marketplace for the past 150 years. The talk was part of GMF’s ongoing lecture series.

Native North Americans knew about witch hazel, and used it to treat tumors and inflammations. Bryan Jackowitz said that when the early English settlers exhausted their medicinal supplies they adopted the native American use of the plant’s extract to treat colds, sore throats and as an eyewash.

The plant’s name derives from Old English, Jackowitz said. “Wyche” means soft and pliable and “hazel” is a reference to the color of the bark, and also has Old English roots.

The species taken at GMF is the Hamamelis virginiana and is harvested over the winter when it is dormant and has lost its leaves. It also blooms in the winter, sprouting yellow flowers, and for that reason is sometimes called winterbloom. The cambium of its bark contains therapeutic and aromatic constituents that, when distilled, create the clear, fragrant, natural astringent.

The Dickenson brand dates to 1866, and today the company harvests witch hazel plants across 33,000 acres of state forests and private lands in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont and Massachusetts.

American Distilling Inc., of East Hampton, is family owned and produces witch hazel under the Dickenson brand and is the world’s largest manufacturer of witch hazel and extract. Its extracts have been formulated into many cosmetic and over-the-counter pharmaceutical products.

Bryan Jackowitz said 90 percent of the world’s witch hazel is harvested in Connecticut, with the work done by a handful of families who for generations have performed the back-breaking manual task of hiking through the forest to cut and haul the trees. The witch hazel tree typically grows to about 20 feet and regenerates every seven to 10 years.

Kevin Jackowitz documents all the tracts where the plant is harvested and ensures that it remains a certified organic wild crop.

“Every plant is certified as 100% organic,” he said. The foresters who cut the trees are provided vegetable oil for their chain saws—instead of using standard bar oil—to preserve the purity of the product.

Ann Bidou of Falls Village, who attended the lecture, said she uses witch hazel on mosquito bites, but doesn’t know why the area around the bite would swell up as soon as she applied witch hazel.

Bryan Jackowitz explained that witch hazel first would hydrate the wound, causing it to swell, but then would shrink the pores, closing it up.