In this week’s issue of A Dose of Aromatic Wisdom, I offered a challenge to my subscribers. I’d like to offer the same challenge to readers of my blog, but I’m going to raise the bar a little higher.
How familiar are you with the countries of origin of our beloved essential oils? Many essential oils are formed in plants that exist in remote and exotic locations. Of course I’m speaking from my own North American perspective.
Regardless of where you are in the world, it’s easy for an essential oil user to detach from the origins of our aromatics. I sometimes think people believe that essential oils form by magic right in the bottle! The more we know about an essential oil, including country of origin, the better aromatherapists we will become.
To that end, I’m offering two challenges to help you become more connected to essential oil geography. Today, see if you can locate some countries. Tomorrow, I’ll offer a second, more difficult challenge.
Challenge #1: Find the Country
Below is a list of 10 countries that grow a plant(s) that produce an essential oil. Look up each country on Google Maps to see where they are located on our planet. You might even want to look on a globe.
Learn Five Things
Now, either do a name search or go to Wikipedia.org, and see if you can learn five things about each country. It can be anything that is of interest to you.
Here are some suggestions: What is is their language? Do they speak more than one language? What is the topography of the country? What can you learn about their government and politics? On what continent does it reside? What hemisphere? What are the largest cities in that country? How about demographics – what is the population density? What does their national flag look like? Does the country have any specific historical background that interests you?
1. Nepal 6. Morocco
2. Macedonia 7. Sri Lanka
3. Corsica 8. Siberia
4. Madagascar 9. Slovenia
5. Bulgaria 10. Croatia
Now, pop down to the comment section below and tell me what you discovered!
