Swim went out for a walk yesterday, went into the woods, took him about 10 minutes to spot some sassy saplings. As with most searches out in nature, it may take a while to find what your looking for, but once you see it- its all over the place!
He took some spray paint and made himself a little map as well, not knowing if he was going to harvest sooner or later (once the leaves fall off, identification will bee a bitch). Needless to say, it rained today, so swim went back out for a little walk bringing only a screwdriver for digging around roots.
He pulled a few saplings ~3-6 feet tall. Just pulling then straight up out of the ground is not advisable, as you will only aquire a few inches of root- those roots are fairly delicate.
Swim found that by first digging around the base (just his fingers, used the screwdriver if rocks/debris where present), then giving a semi gentle pull straight up on the sapling, he could locate the 'runner' and then carefully follow it. For most of the saplings he encountered, the runner (main root(s) that radiate from the momma tree from which saplings arise) is usually between 3 and 6 inches underground.
Swim is going to lazily work on this project and report to this thread. He also has a batch of store bought sass- gonna do a little experimenting etc using a sohxlet (glass) with acetone vs steam distillation.
Maybee eventually a separate thread can bee started- Bubbleplate and others who have harvested their own essential fragrances can compile data, we can figure out the most efficient way to do this, maybee make a write-up start to finish...