So it is with American Distilling.īaptist minister Thomas Newton Dickinson wanted a new venture after making a fortune supplying uniforms to Yankee troops during the Civil War. Naturally an American company whose business revolves around a product with the mystical qualities and long history of witch hazel would need a mystique and interesting story of it own. The world's largest manufacturer of witch hazel products happens to be right in their hometown of East Hampton. When he's not dowsing for water or enjoying retirement from his career as an electrical engineer and farmer, Curt Strong and his sons can be found - at least in the late fall and early winter - in the "boonies" of eastern Connecticut, harvesting the 80 tons of witch hazel they sell each year to American Distilling. "An Old Timer showed me how it works," says the 72-year-old Strong, "and I have used it to find water, 20 to 30 wells, and every one of them had water right where I told them it was going to be." "They say it's a bunch of witchery," says Curtis Strong, a fourth-generation witch hazel harvester, better known as a "brush cutter." A native of East Hampton, Connecticut, Strong's family has been in the area long enough that his ancestors had land grants from the King of England before America was a nation. In fact the name witch hazel is believed to have come from the Middle English "wicke" for "lively" - the dowsing stick bends toward the ground when water is detected below - and "wych," an old Anglo-Saxon word for "bend."Ī lot of people poo-poo the idea that a witch hazel stick can actually detect subterranean water. The Mohegans are also believed to be the first to show English settlers how to use Y-shaped witch hazel sticks for dowsing, an ancient method for finding underground water. Many modern witches consider witch hazel a magical herb, using it to keep away evil and to heal broken hearts.īut it isn't only distillations made from parts of the witch hazel shrub that have mysterious histories. Given its versatility, some believed tea made from witch hazel leaves and bark would heighten occult powers as well. The same witch hazel bark tea that was sipped to stop internal bleeding was also injected into the rectum to reduce the pain and itching of hemorrhoids. Since then s tudies have found active compounds in witch hazel such as flavonoids, tannins (hamamelitannin and proanthocyanidins), and volatile oil that give it astringent action to stop bleeding. The Osage used witch hazel bark to treat skin ulcers and sores the Potawatomi steamed twigs over hot rocks in their sweat lodges to soothe sore muscles the Iroquoi brewed a tea to treat dysentery, colds, and coughs. Beyond being used in the first mass-marketed American-made toiletry (originally called Golden Treasure, then renamed Pond's Extract) - and being one of the only medicinal plants approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a non-prescription drug ingredient - witch hazel has been pressed, boiled, and steamed into the service of human health for centuries. The golden flowers blooming in the dead of winter may have been the first clue to Native Americans that there was something unusual about witch hazel.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |