Knowing how we cultivate and harvest what we consume goes a long way to helping us to better understand a particular product. Harvesting Graviola (aka. Soursop or Guanabana) leaves is no exception. We have put together this short video to demonstrate what goes on when harvesting our products, and helping you to better understand how we work.

Harvesting graviola (soursop/guanabana) leaves

As you can see from the video a lot more than what one would initially think goes into the harvesting process. Here are some of the key points:

• Graviola is a tree that is both cultivated and found wildly in the jungles of Samosir Island in Indonesia. Because the tree has many uses, including eating the guanabana fruit, we do not want to harm the tree when harvesting leaves.
• Therefore all leaves are hand-selected and picked only when the leaf is mature and a new bud is ready to take the old leaf's place.
• Also, mature leaves are considered to have the highest quantities of Soursop's beneficial properties.
• By hand selecting the guanabana leaves we also ensure that only quality leaves are selected.
• We have to be careful when harvesting because we do not use any pesticides or chemicals, and we do not want to be bitten by any of the trees other residents!

Another point of note is that when sellers of soursop leaves promote "young leaves" as being better for you, they are actually promoting a simpler harvesting technique. Many growers selling young leaves are most likely chopping down the young soursop plant and stripping the branches of their leaves. This method may be faster than hand selecting mature guanabana leaves, but it kills the tree.

Our mission at the Graviola Tea Company is both to help preserve the local environment from which we harvest our leaves, and not to cut down or destroy existing jungle and trees. We therefore encourage all farmers hand select and harvest mature leaves as in this video, thereby enforcing a sustainable way for villagers to supplement their incomes.

We hope that you enjoyed this video and article. Let us know if you have any requests for other videos and articles about Graviola, Guanabana or Soursop.

Thanks for reading and watching!