the harvest of fir cones has begun

In the Canigou massif (Pyrénées-Catalanes), at an altitude of 1700 m, you climb the tops of the trees to pick the cones of white fir trees. At the end of summer, their fruits have matured. “The fir cone is born in May and will mature for two to three months, and there, we are at its maximum resin”, says Michel Baylocq, harvester of vertigo. For two to three weeks, the pickers collect the cones of the abies alba, a variety of fir that grows on 600 hectares, only in the natural park of the Pyrenees-Catalanes.

Once harvested, the cones are covered in sugar for two months to extract the resin. The 2022 season looks good. “It’s perfect, we find the notes of blueberries, strawberries, small red fruits and small black fruits”, notes Claude Sarda, founder and president of “Abies Lagrimus”. The syrup is then filtered and bottled by hand. According to Claude Sarda, the syrup has many health benefits. Available in several forms, products from the tree are making their way to starred restaurants.