Fougere Workshop

Create the scent of the forrest floor.

There has been some interest amongst a small group of students in doing another Fougere Workshop.  I'm so happy to teach this class again on Sunday, April 12th, 1-4pm.

Fougere is a fragrance family that came into fashion towards the end of the 19th C.  The word means fern, which makes it a fantasy category seeing how ferns don't really have a fragrance.  Fougere's are meant to smell like the forrest floor and, to my understanding, must have three ingredients:  lavender, oakmoss and a coumarin note (found in tonka bean, hay, sweet clover, etc.).  Often herbs like geranium, linalool rich rosewood and more assertive notes like patchouli are added but it's the careful consideration of the other ingredients that makes the fougere your own.

In class we'll explore the genre and sample many perfumes including the original Fougere Royale and Jicky - the vanguards of the classification -  along with samples from some of the best natural perfumers working today. You'll be choosing from materials like tonka bean, sweet clover, concretes of lavender, geranium and clary sage, several lavender absolutes and essential oils, cedarmoss, cassia and ho wood.  You'll have the opportunity to create two perfumes.  $25 extra to make a third, time considering.

Sunday, April 12th, 1-4pm.  You can register here.

You can see the coumarin crystals forming on these tonka beans.

Once oakmoss is harvested it rests for seven years to develop it's wet forrest scent.

Clover also contain coumarins.

Lavender, one of the key ingredients in a fougere, also contains coumarins.

Capturing the Fragrance and Flavor of Winter

Nut Extracts

The spring thaw is upon us.  The icebergs are melting, the sidewalks are passable again and the smell of thawing earth and sap rising are in the air. This time of year is always a little melancholy for me. I love winter, no matter the cold and snow, I love it. I'm a big fan of warm and cozy.  I love the holidays, love snow days, thick blankets, warm stews and soft cashmere sweaters (and socks, cashmere socks are the best). I'm going to miss it in the long warm, muggy, glaring, big, fat summer ahead.  Most people talk about capturing the flavors of summer to be used during the cold, lean months.  I do my share of that, mostly so that I can enjoy the winter that much more, but just to turn things on their ear I've been trying to capture the flavors and fragrance of winter to be enjoyed during the summer.

What are the flavors I love most in winter?  That's easy.  Juicy, fresh citrus fruits, roasted nuts, and cups and cups and cups of milky black tea.  So that's what I've attempted to capture. I've made extracts of tangerine, blood orange, meyer lemon, vanilla/orange, toasted almond, hazelnut and pistachio and peach, blackcurrant and vanilla black tea.  Thinking ahead to chocolate ice cream with blood orange extract, or pistachio ice cream amped up with a bit of extract and glasses of cold seltzer with carbonated bubbles popping peach tea extract.

Drying orange zest

I've also started zesting my citrus before I peel them and drying the zest.  It's nice to have home cured rinds for recipes.  You can zest any type of orange, lemon or lime - or anything else you can get your hands on like yuzu or buddah's hand.  I lay them on parchment covered wicker trays but even laid out evenly on a dinner plate works. Leave them at least a week, depending on humidity, before you put them in a jar to keep. Make sure they're absolutely dry before you do, any hidden moisture could cause your rinds to mold.  On the other hand don't leave them out too long or they'll lose their potency. Don't forget to label them, you'll want to remember which is tangerine and which is blood orange, especially as they dry and their flavor concentrates.

Straining Meyer Lemon Extract

So, while it's still winter take advantage of the fruits of the season and keep them for the warm seasons to come.  If preparing them seems too mind-boggling and time consuming check out the selection of extracts in my Etsy store.  Everything is made in small batches so there is a limited supply. I love to tinker and experiment so expect some new arrivals.

To read more about making extracts at home look here.

Etsy.com

Quarter ounce nut extract samples

Tea Extracts

Nut Extracts Sample Set

Tangerine Extract

New Perfume! Foret de la Mer, a Fougere for Men

Fougere's have been my passion for the past couple of years and the last time I was in California I was inspired to create one based on the expansive coastline rimmed with forests. This is a bolder and more voluptuous fragrance than I normally create but I was so moved by the drama of the natural surroundings that I wanted to try to capture it in a bottle. I became haunted by the smokey, maritime essence of choya nak, a destructive distillation of roasted seashells, and was compelled to use it in the base which gave it a definite masculine feel. I personally love men's fragrances and have been wanting to make one for some time. The result, Foret de la Mer (Forest of the Sea) is a mossy, maritime fragrance with luscious florals and fresh citruses.  It's more bracing than what I normally go for, and sometimes the smokey seashell seems nearly too much, but I'm always glad I stayed with it.  It really changes in the drydown and that smokiness turns sweeter.  It's weird, and that's partly what appeals to me about it.

The traditional fougere ingredients, tonka and oakmoss, sit at the bottom with ambrette seed and choya nak. Champaca absolute and orange blossom concrete mingle with French lavender absolute to create a sumptuous floral heart. Wild lavender essential oil blends beautifully with bergamot and wild sweet lavender to greet the nose in a tangy floral welcome.  It's bracing at first but gives way to sexy champaca and a surprisingly sweet dry down.

Foret de la Mer

Top notes: bergamot, wild sweet orange, wild lavender
Heart notes: champaca absolute, orange blossom concrete, lavender absolute
Base notes: tonka bean, oakmoss, ambrette, choya nak
5ml, 1/4 ounce, 15ml and sample sizes available.

Interview in the Park Slope Food Coop's Linewaiter's Gazette

Laugh if you want but my food coop is badass.  We have 16,000 members working cooperatively to run a store based on good politics, good value and great food.  We members of the Park Slope Food Coop all work a two and a half hour shift every four weeks and with the help of our paid staff we run the coop. We are a model for cooperation and sustainability.

The coop has its share of critics.  There are people who think there are too many rules and find it punitive.  There are only two rules I'm aware of.  One is to show up for your assigned shift, or at least call and let them know you're not coming.  That seems reasonable considering we're trying to run a store.  If you don't call in you have to do a second make-up shift.  This is also reasonable - there has to be a deterrent to not showing up or finding someone to cover your shift.  The other rule is don't shop in line. That just seems like common courtesy.

Every time someone from The New York Times writes about us they always make fun of our organic food and "all of those rules" and the way we check out or the long lines.  Every article is the same, let's make fun of the vegan hippies.  I'm waiting for someone to write an article about what a miracle it is that 16,000 people can work cooperatively to provide ourselves with sustainable organic food at reasonable prices.  There's the real story.

Poet and playwrite Pat Smith was kind enough to invite me to be interviewed, I'm chuffed by his kind words.  Check out page four of the March 5th, 2015 Linewaiter's Gazette to read the full article.