At Grasse, 2nd August the celebration of the Jasmine harvest: during the first weekend in August, when the harvesting season begins, the town of Grasse, becomes the theatre of a festivity entirely dedicated to jasmine, with processions of allegorical carts, flower battles and the “Miss Jasmine” competition. In Grasse, every flower is called by its name, whilst jasmine is simply called “the flower”.
The jasmine harvest is still carried out manually and is therefore extremely reduced and costly. Each worker – usually women – collects between 18 to 25 ounces of flowers per hour (10,000 flowers are necessary to make a kilo weight). The harvest begins early in the morning, so as to avoid over-exposing the petals to the heat of the sun. The flowering period and therefore the harvest continues for about three months. Once the petals have been collected they then undergo the process of
extraction with volatile solvents. This method enables the collection of the maximum amount of odorous material from the precious jasmine.
