Human Flower Project

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Get Your Goat: Labdanum

A farmer in Crete gathers an ancient perfume ingredient the hot (and sometimes hooved) old-fashioned way.

Ladanesterion, used to gather resin from Crete’s rock rose
Image: via Niktaris Dimitris

Will wine taste better if the grapes are stomped by barefoot virgins? How about cheese made by silent monks? Cookies baked by elves?

And will perfume smell more delicious if the labdanum in it has been scraped off the beards of Cretan goats?

Niktaris Dimitris hopes you will think so, as he harvests this perfume ingredient the traditional – as in, ancient – way. Actually, Dimitris does appear to raise goats but he gathers labdanum resin using this goat-simulator – a 1st C. tool called a ladanesterion.

It’s a kind of short handled mop, with a drape of leather strands. In the very hottest months of the year May-August, stalwart gatherers head to the hills and literally mop the resin off of blooming Cistus creticus flowers. (Dimitris stresses that “only the crimson flowers” produce high quality resin). The mops then dry several days in the summer sun and the resin hardens. Historically it was used in cosmetics, medicine and even food, but today it’s a prized ingredient in perfumes and incense.

Labdanum gathering
in Sises, Crete
Photo: Niktaris Dimitris

Niktaris says his region of Crete (about twenty miles west of Heraklion, near the north coast) is the only place on earth where labdanum, a base note of in our favorite chypre perfumes, is gathered from this particular variety of rock rose, in this way. And the fragrance?

“The odour is very rich, complex and tenacious. Labdanum is much valued in perfumery because of its resemblance to ambergris, which has been banned from use in many countries because its precursor originates from the sperm whale, which is an endangered species. The odour is variously described as sweet, woody, ambergris, dry musk, or like that of leather.”

Labdanum is still gathered by grazing goats, who pick the resin up on their necks and beards
Photo: Niktaris Dimitris

Now, while we’re skeptical about the advantages elf bakers might bring to cookies, we definitely allow how labdanum gathered by billy goats or leather mops would be preferable.  It’s a matter of FUNK. In our opinion, any perfume that lacks this funky note isn’t worthy of the name (might as well spritz on apple juice).

Niktaris has a sumptuous multi-lingual website that includes videos of labdanum gathering, Biblical references, maps, drawing a chemical compounds, and, naturally, several goat photographs.

Cistus creticus, the rock rose that produces labdanum, May-August
Photo: Niktaris Dimitris

If you’re headed to Crete in the next several months - well, lucky you! It sounds as if Niktaris welcomes visitors to see the labdanum harvest with their own eyes, an easy trip from the capital. You can, of course, buy his labdanum, too.  But from what we’ve gathered on our own beards, he really is welcoming a greater interest in this mysterious and ancient floral resin and the lovely flower that produces it.

“I will be cheerful if we have a contact.” He writes, “My e-mail : ladanum@gmail.com”. He is also in the process of creating an online group called “Friends of Labdanum.” As such a friend you will likely receive messages like this one:

Came the spring

The plant Cistus Creticus or Cistus Incanus has flourished.

It is a beautiful plant.

Indeed it is. Thank you for staying in contact, Niktaris, lo, these many months. And good wishes to you and all your labdanum gatherers, human and otherwise, in the heat of harvest time.