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Sea Buckthorn – a rich source of antioxidants

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Thoughts from our registered nutritionist, Lucy Williamson DVM BVM&S MSc

It’s almost a year since I began working with British Seabuckthorn – as a Registered Nutritionist with a particular interest in sustainable foods, healthy for people and planet, this journey is an exciting one… British Seabuckthorn (BSB), responsibly farmed in Essex, contains an abundance of nutrients vital for long-term health and wellbeing. Packed with antioxidants, natural prebiotics, vitamins, minerals, unsaturated oils and many other beneficial phytonutrients, it’s a berry with fabulous potential.

The best food choices not only nurture human health but support the biodiversity of our ecosystems too, from healthy soils to thriving flora and fauna with essential roles to play in maintaining nature as it should be. So, as the British Sea Buckthorn Company nurture these principles in continuing to work hard to develop a crop adapted to our rather unpredictable British climate, here are a few ‘need-to-knows’ about British Sea Buckthorn!

A rich source of antioxidants 

Our everyday metabolism uses oxygen. By-products of this process are known as free radicals, which can cause damage to cells in a process known as Oxidative Stress – a key factor in ageing and chronic illness such as heart disease, stroke and cancer. We produce antioxidants all the time in our body cells which, by removing these radicals, keep our cells healthy. Many of the antioxidants we make require Vitamins C and E and British Sea Buckthorn is an excellent source of both. Our recommended daily intake of Vitamin C is 45mg; British Sea Buckthorn often contains more than 400mg/ 100g so it’s a very rich source! (current regulations concerning nutrient claims state a food must contain more than 24mg/ 100g to be ‘high in’ Vitamin C, EU Regulation No 1047/2012) Oxidative stress is higher in Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes so antioxidant need increases here too as it does after endurance or high intensity sport. BSB also contains other, powerful antioxidants including Superoxide Dismutase and Flavanoid polyphenols which have an important role in nurturing our all-important gut bacteria too.

As well as eating a more plant-based diet, we’re encouraged to eat fish at least twice weekly in order to benefit from its Omega 3 unsaturated oils. Many years of firm evidence now show the links between a good intake of Omega 3 and protection against heart disease and stroke in particular due to its anti-inflammatory role. Fish contains particularly beneficial types of Omega 3, DHA and EPA. These aren’t present in plants but a good intake of plant

Omega 3 (ALA)

Omega 3 can be used by the body to make EPA and DHA. Too much Omega 6 in the diet can restrict this process but as sea buckthorn contains far more Omega 3 than Omega 6, it has real potential here too.

Seabuckthorn as a natural Prebiotic: Fibre

FIBRE is a type of carbohydrate that can’t be digested in the small intestine. Instead, it passes to the colon (large intestine) where it’s fermented by billions of gut bacteria to produce many compounds essential for our metabolism. Collectively, the genetic make-up of these bacteria is known as our ‘Microbiome’. With 150x our own genetic makeup, our microbiome is to be nurtured; in fact, our ratio of human cells to bacterial cells is 1:1 so we’re just as much bacteria as we are human! We now know these gut bacteria have key roles in our long-term health, from optimising our immune system to protection against certain types of cancer and weight control. In addition, fibre maintains our ‘digestive health’, helping food to pass more quickly through the gut. In 2016, Public Health England, advised increasing the recommended intake of fibre for children (18g/day) and adults (30g/day), as a result of firm evidence for its health benefits, collected over several years. Sea buckthorn, along with other fruit and veg (diversity is the key to good microbes!) is a great source of fibre and also flavanoid antioxidants mentioned earlier, both of which are an important energy source for our microbiome and our gut health.

With an abundance of nutrients, too many to mention here, I’m excited to be involved with the British Sea Buckthorn story as we work together towards a sustainable food choice with so many potential benefits to our longer-term health.

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The Tree

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First thing in the morning I take our dog for a walk before breakfast. The route is always the same but it is always very special. The path cuts through a group of silver birch trees that we planted about ten years ago. It then passes what has become an old friend – a small turkey oak. This tree was a sucker off the root of its 350 year old “parent” that crashed to the ground on December 31st 2000 – a millennium moment. This little tree is growing in shape and character just like the old tree that we had grown to love as a massive feature in our landscape. It is amazing to think it could live until 2300.

These trees are personal. They are almost family. At this time of year particularly, as the leaves are so fresh they add a vibrancy of life to my walk. I should not have been surprised when I heard the news this week that one of the ideas to control climate change was to create forests of artificial trees. Trees to suck the CO2 out of the air. The reporter said they would do this just like trees “but better”. It is a great technological idea, but it is not a tree.  It will not provide a natural living landscape.

Alternatively, it could be one solution to global warming – and the capability to do that is impressive. It is an indication that there are great minds at work to mend our world. We have grown to rely on technology. For me, springtime has a vibrancy as the farm’s crops start to mature. In the sea buckthorn field, the area between the plants are thick with grass, thistles, docks, nettles and other broad leaved weeds. They are weeds but they are also full of insects that potentially are controlling insect aphids that could devastate my crop.

The last few weeks have been incredibly dry and we are all becoming aware that climate change brings with it long hot summers. Summers that slow plant growth, create poor crops and can kill the plants we care for.

So the weeds are a problem because they compete for precious water in the soil. If I cut them down the insects I also look to help in controlling others will lose their habitat. The fact we grow the sea buckthorn organically is a choice, but it is a choice that makes you think holistically about the environment you work in.

The area between the rows of sea buckthorn provide a similar haven to the area under the plants providing a refuge for beneficial insects. So the weeds can go and I have started to remove them. In the past this has been done by hand, then by strimmer. Last year, at a Soil Association seminar at the gardens of the Belmont Manoir aux Quat’saissons in Oxfordshire there was the ultimate solution to weeding – a Karl Ladurna cultivator. It is the boy’s toy for an orchard.

Its capacity to weed is unchallengeable, but all machinery needs handling with respect. Its capacity to rip up weeds is matched by its capacity to pull up everything else in its way.

I have to admit that as I merrily drove up and down the rows of sea buckthorn, seeing the weeds surgically removed I was horrified to find how easy it was rip whole sea buckthorn bushes out of the ground. You soon learn to concentrate and respect the power in your control.

Last week saw the release of the IPBES Global assessment report on biodiversity. Valuing biodiversity is not easy in our technology based lives. I recognise that I could not farm my sea buckthorn organically without the beneficial insects and the complex of species that live in a healthy soil. Every species is reliant on another. One of the commentators on the report said, the problem with biodiversity – even with all our knowledge is that we just do not understand its complexity.  We have not even identified all the species on our planet so how can we understand what they do, how they interrelate to others and help to complete a healthy ecosystem.

We all appreciate biodiversity differently – it never fails to amaze me how much green space there is in London used by millions as natural space to relax. Technology is a modern wonder, but it will not replace the natural world – a natural world that feeds us.

Technology provides our quality of life, but the natural world allows us to live. We just need to respect and enjoy both – in balance.

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Inspiration and reality

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It’s nearly May. Potentially there are 64 days before we start our first sea buckthorn harvest. This is the culmination of ten years work. Ten years of working with like minded others with the passion to deliver a natural crop that encapsulates a power pack of nutritional quality. I too have that passion, but it is not emotion that will deliver the crop.

In 2017 our orchard was laden with berries. The realisation that handpicking was so time-consuming led to abandoning the crop – but it inspired two years of investment in machinery. Designing and developing a harvesting system that reflected on the success of being able to grow a crop.

So here we are. Two months to go and the plants look really healthy. Mid-March was the crucial period for pollination. It will be three weeks before we start to see the berries forming and can assess the size of crop. The memories of the icy storm of March 2018 that rampaged through the plants destroying the viability of pollination are still vivid in our minds. But that is nature and this is another year.

This coming week the design team are testing the harvesting equipment which has been through a development phase of test and modification. Our Landini tractor gets its full service. The Ladurna cultivator – our weed control solution after years of manual strimming will be put to work. Applying foliar feeds has also been a manual job, but two weeks ago the backpack was replaced by a 400lt tractor mounted sprayer. Finally, our sea buckthorn can be managed to an effective and efficient plan.

As we mechanise our sea buckthorn it might be efficient but this comes at a time when Greta Thunberg is showing the leadership that we all must focus on reducing our impact on the environment. It is sad that it takes a 15 year old Swedish school pupil to remind us of the critical nature our environment is in. Mr Gove, at DEFRA has driven the government 25yr Environment plan, but as Greta has highlighted it is not a 25yr policy plan we need but action.

Yesterday, as I walked our dog I thought about the whole issue of sustainability. Plants growing in the wild need the rain, the sun and the soil to grow, thrive and return year after year. Such a simple but totally sustainable system. One of the reasons for growing sea buckthorn was its low need for resources. No sprays, compost to improve the soil that feeds it and a low requirement for water. Hand picking would have been an environmentally low cost way of harvesting. It is fine for foraging wild plants, but not a commercial crop.

Our harvesting system is largely based on needing electricity. It is easy to say that is more efficient than direct use of fossil fuels, but electricity still comes from gas power stations.  As we develop our crop we need to not only be aware of how our actions impact on the wider environment, but take action to minimise those impacts. Whatever we do, we will use resources. The issue is questioning their use. Minimising their use. Compensating and mitigating for their use and ensuring that the process is true to its goal of ensuring we tread lightly in the environment that we need to work in.

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Harvest 2018: German plants perform better

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Last week we started to harvest our German sea buckthorn varieties. The emphasis at Devereux farm has been to focus on growing the thornless, sweeter Siberian varieties, but the initial orchard started with 180 mixed German and Finnish plants represented by nine female varieties.  The eccentric weather has impacted on these plants by later ripening. Varieties normally harvested in July are up to four weeks late in ripening. Berry size is good and it will be interesting to see how they analyse.

Having had a long hot summer nutritional analysis may see better than average concentrations of key nutrients but with 190 to choose from which are the most relevant. There are key vitamins of A, B, C and E; omega 3,6,7,9 fatty acids; phyto-sterols; and myriad polyphenols. But if we analyse what do we need? Single headline nutrients are not the reason why any fruit provides health benefit. It is the synergy of the total mix of nutrients that is important. The interaction between nutrients contributes to the nutrient driven health package that contributes to the make-up of balanced diet.

As a farmer I want to grow a quality crop. Analysis will indicate whether growing methods are creating consistent quality. Research indicates that as fruit ripens so does the concentration of individual nutrients within it.  Some increase, some decrease but this will be influenced by variety and weather making management difficult if one is looking to grow a consistent quality berry. The old adage of eating an apple a day cuts some truth here. It is not the fact that you eat a natural ingredient, but the fact that you eat it regularly and often building up the supply of fresh natural nutrients for your body. If fruit quality is down in a particular year it matters less if you carry on eating it day in, day out regardless.

One quirk in this year’s harvest is that some German varieties – habego in particular are ripening consistently on the north side of plants, but the berries on the south side are yellow on the top exposed to the sun, and orange underneath. Is this a form of bleaching, or lack of ripening? Brix measurements on all berries are around 8, much lower than the figures for Siberian varieties which when ripe are between 12 and 14.

We have started harvest on some nine year old habego plants, some of which will not have been harvested last year. The first of these plants yielded 27kg gross – including the weight of the branches. We are trimming off leaf and cutting berry bearing sections of branch approx. 40-50cm long, so the wood content is small, so this yield is impressive.

The berry separator machine has been put through its paces and has worked well in its primary task of removing berry and leaf from branches. Like all prototypes the best way of testing a design is to use it, and then work out how to perfect it. We still need to improve the flow and channelling of leaf after it has been removed. The operation can be messy and within a food processing environment, spillage of waste leaf is undesirable. When it takes so little time to remove the berries by machine, it is frustrating to spend so much time clearing up after the job. This will be sorted for next year – it is another part of the development process.

So that is progress on the sea buckthorn. This all comes at a time when the rest of the farm has also been busy with the arable harvest being cut. Over this summer we have also been a partner in building a 250m sea wall to protect a neighbouring Anglian Water treatment works. The final job of the engineers involved on the wall was also to dig some scrapes in two fields to improve our local habitat for breeding birds and waders. It certainly has been a year to remember.

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Harvest 2018

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Harvest 2017 showed great prospect for our sea buckthorn. All the Siberian plants across the site produced heavy – predicted yields of berries. Having produced a crop the next challenge was to create an efficient, affordable means of harvesting. Winter 2017/18 therefore focused on delivering this process.

One can formulate the best plans but in agriculture there are natural variables that have the capacity to undermine concept based on theory. We all have experiences of weather and the seasons but these now have to blend with considerations as to the impact of a changing climate and how much to risk manage this position.

We still have mild winters. I am told that the severe weather incident in mid-March should be taken as a one in fifty year event. Its impact disrupted the pollination of our sea buckthorn resulting in no Siberian crop, although we still have a yield of Latvian and German varieties. The climate might be changing but unless this is repeated within the next three years, we have to discount this as a novel event.

The prolonged period of hot, dry weather over June and July is a different matter. This has been predicted by climate change scientists and it seems to be repeated across the globe. We need to look at our sea buckthorn crop and assess the impact of this phenomenon.

After a solid two months of no rain and temperatures up to the mid-30 deg C has left the majority of the plants still looking healthy. As our soil is clay and our water table is high plants have a capacity to reach down for water. This does not mean that all plants are healthy. These conditions create stress and there are possible 15% of the plants shedding leaves and looking very sad.

Our investment in a Ladurna cultivator this year must have helped in both reducing weed competition, but also combining that weed growth back into the soil around the plant. The use of compost to improve organic matter in the soil is an on-going concept to improve the health of the soil and potentially improve its moisture retention. We will be using a combination of wood chip and green waste compost this autumn to keep this process going. The ability to combine it into the top tilth with the Ladurna will hopefully increase the incorporation and benefit process.

Irrigation is an option. It is my personal belief that if we are going to see more long hot summers then the plants have to work harder, their roots need to go deeper and the soil needs to retain more available moisture. Irrigation will be useful in establishing plants in their first two years, but as a tool for yield enhancement I am personally not convinced that there is benefit.

This year our Augustina were irrigated every two days to see if the few berries there were might improve in size. Unfortunately there seemed to be no response. A more technical approach might be worthwhile with a nutrient irrigation package but strictly on a trial basis. As we have limited capital investment available this can probably be better focused elsewhere.

Investment capital is a precious resource and this year it has been channelled into developing a facility to mechanically harvest our crop. The fact the crop has been tiny has strangely been a real advantage. The development of any new system takes time to plan, but it is the practical implementation that reveals the real issues.

The harvest processing site we have built from a collection of two refrigerated lorry bodies, two large portacabins and five containers. The temporary nature of the site is with an intent to develop harvesting/processing ideas from concept to full development on a small, low cost scale that can then be moved into a new building once we fully understand what we need. The site will comply with food hygiene regulations and this will also cover how we operate in the field as well as within the buildings.

We started harvesting our Latvian berries a week ago and each day the process has been refined. The process requires the cutting of branches and them being brought back to the site for freezing in a new cold store. The cold store temperature is set at running down to -24 deg C, with a concept of wanting to freeze the berries as fast as possible. We have found that with an ambient temperature in the 30s, simple issues such as loading branches into the cold store requires skill to prevent the store temperature from rising and compromising its ability to blast freezer the incoming crop.

The newly designed berry separator has arrived and is being operated in a chill room at temperatures of between 2-5 deg C. The machine is designed for this, but as a prototype it will require on-going improvement to create the ideal machine for the job.

We are already looking to a redesign of the linkage between the cold store and chill room to ensure a consistent working cold temperature. We have been told that we are a low risk operation in terms of food hygiene management, but even so maintaining high standards is our target and each practical step requires refinement to achieve the right level of practical approach.

It is this transition of working to create an efficient, workable harvesting system that is taking time. If we had had a heavy crop this process of developing the harvesting system on the job would have been challenging.

But as it is, by next year we will have created a mechanically assisted harvesting process that will accommodate the crop that we had in 2017. That is farming for you. Each year is a new year, which is what makes the job worthwhile.

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The Trials of Mother Nature

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In June 2017 we were preparing for our potential first harvest of Siberian sea buckthorn. There were berries on almost all bushes, three to four kilos on some varieties – between eight and ten on variety Chuiskaya. Brix measurements started on June 22nd had figures of 6.5 to 10.5, with each variety jumping into double figures by the end of the month. The problem was that we had no means of harvesting the berries fast enough.

A trip to Siberia in September, then Warsaw to the Euroworks conference provided the opportunity to dissect the issues from harvest 2017. It seemed that the evidence was there that we could grow a good crop of berries – all we needed to do was develop a viable harvesting system.

Good fortune struck again with a trials harvesting equipment designer being based no more than 30 miles from our farm. Added to this, a grant application to fund 40% of the costs of the design and build was accepted.

What could possibly go wrong, harvest 2018 looked like being the culmination of nine years of work.

On March 17th the snow began – a storm now called the “Beast from the East”. The following days of snow and bitterly cold weather ran into what was pollination time for the sea buckthorn.

Sea buckthorn are wind pollinated, so male plants release pollen to be carried by the wind to receptive females.

The weather was cold and the wind was bitter. Of course the plants come from Siberia, where the weather is far more extreme. But our Siberian plants have adapted to our mild coastal climate in Britain. In their native environment they would emerge from winter in April/May. Our first plants start to emerge from dormancy in January, developing into full leaf by March. This development process triggers the development of pollination in mid March – just at the time when the Beast struck.

Hence the weather disrupted pollination. There are some berries on varieties Altaiskaya and Klaudia, but Chuiskaya plants– which were heaviest in yield in 2017,  now carry little more than 200 grams each.

This is the nature of farming, but in terms of timing this situation is an unprecedented setback.

Being positive the harvesting system is almost completed and the 200-300kg of what is left of the crop will be enough to test the equipment.

We are trying to irrigate some plants to see if it will improve the berry size. We will also be picking at different stages of ripeness to find the optimum brix measurement for the best taste. Waiting for full ripeness leads to falling vitamin levels and characteristic sharpness. We need to find a taste that is full of balanced flavour.

We have also tried digging up some of the suckers from Altaiskaya variety to pot on and use as replacement plants. Even though we used a mycorrhizal powder the result was a complete failure. The plants once potted died within ten days showing no recovery. It was worth trying, but we will look to buying in 2 year old plants from Siberia again when we expand the orchard.

Although it has been disappointing the vision of the 2017 crop is still firmly in our minds. The purchase of a ladurna cultivator for weeding; a mower and a tractor mounted sprayer for applying foliar feeds, and a harvesting system are all promising success to the future. It will just have to be 2019 not 2018 – learning by experience is often bitter, but are lessons well learnt.

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Soil Nutrients and Berry Nutrients

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The winter of 2018 has been a marked change from the norm of almost all the winters since we planted our first sea buckthorn plants in 2009. The norm up until now has been so mild that the Siberian plants have been emerging from dormancy in January. The variety Klaudia has always taken the lead, with the earliest having been December 31st.

This year however has been characterised not only by a week of dramatic snow this month, but also frosts through January and February. As a consequence even Klaudia decided that this was actually winter and finally only started to emerge on January 22nd. Growing any crop brings with it the issue that we have no control over the weather. It alters each growing season and that has an impact on the crop. Moving a plant from a country like Russia with its continental climate to the maritime environment we have at Devereux farm on the Essex coast was always going to bring with it an issue that the plants would need to adapt.

The principal first major event in the growing calendar is pollination. There were signs that our Siberian male plants where showing movement in the upper buds of the plant on February 23rd. The snow struck all through the following week, then thankfully it cleared, but as if to ensure that we did not forget it had happened a second dose came over the weekend of March 17/18. The relevance of all this is whether it will impact on pollination as some female varieties, particularly Sudarushka and Altaiskaya are not as forward with leaf development as some of the other varieties. As I write this now approximately 60% of the buds on the males are cracking open. This is a significant move from three days ago, so I suspect pollination might start towards the middle of next week.

On the basis that we had a good yield of berries last year the Siberian males (Gnom variety) have proven themselves to pollinate successfully. My concern though is that of all varieties they are susceptible to disease, and even fully mature plants die over a season.

Yesterday I attended a Soil Health seminar run by the Head of Horticulture at the Soil Association, Ben Raskin. As the sea buckthorn is registered as organic there are limitations to what one can and cannot use when controlling pests and diseases. One of the options discussed was biochar. This is charcoal enriched with beneficial fungi, bacteria and trace elements gained from seaweeds.

Part of the issue of growing trials is the need to find solutions to problems, and I need to find a way of supporting the health of my males. If the males are failing because of soil based pathogenic fungi then Biochar might help – so this will go on the list of work for this year.

The soil health seminar also focused on the use of different composts and woodchip mulches. The woodchip trials being both with composted and un-composted chip. Woodchip for our soil at Devereux will provide a great source of organic matter in a form that should improve the soil ecology, structure and nutrient content. Better soil will reduce stress on the plants and reduce the risk of disease. The other half of the reason to improve the soil is the hope that we can improve the availability of nutrients available to the plant that might increase the quality of the berries.

The nutrient quality of our berries is important as sea buckthorn is recognised as a “super fruit”. With this label it needs to maintain its capacity to contain higher than normal levels of vitamins, carotenoids and myriad of polyphenols that are the basis of its potential to deliver benefits. Omega 3 comes into this category – an important nutrient so often associated with fish oil, but now being increasingly provided through plant sources.

We always have to remember that like all crops, sea buckthorn is a natural product that is a product of the environment it grows in. Every year the weather is different and that will impact on both the yield and quality of the fruit. Soil management can help to reduce the variability of a crop and that is something we need to work on to deliver a consistent quality, good tasting fruit to customers.

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The science of blueberries

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In 1963 the sea around our farm on the Naze froze. Lobsters and crabs crawled up the beach to get out of the cold water, only to freeze on land.

This week snow has again come to the UK. Maybe our Siberian sea buckthorn plants will feel more at home having some real winter temperatures but by next week it will return to normal. I hope it will because our plants develop early and it would be a disaster if these wintery conditions coincided with pollination.

Like the weather our world is changing, its human population is growing in number, sophistication and affluence. The world’s cities are growing and with growth comes the demand for global superfoods often driven by trend, fad and fashion. In the UK avocados have become a luxury staple food, but in China the demand is exploding with demand going from 1.5million kilos in 2013 to 30 million in 2017.

Here superfruits like blueberry have seen 11% year on year growth in consumption for a decade. All season demand has been met by investment in growing methods and plant breeding to respond to global trade. Fresh, good tasting foods with a declared high nutritional value must be a winner. But in this information age internet sites and media give so confusing viewpoints. Take blueberries for example. If you type in “Why are blueberries good for your health” you get the Telegraph, the Mail, Mercola.com giving glowing health benefit offerings on cell protection, reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, protection of brain neurons, anti-aging and so on – whereas the NHS says research is inconclusive, but valued as one of your “Five a day”.

We rely on scientific research for knowledge but its interpretation is often hard to understand. Last month the Commissioner for European Health and Food Safety suggested that there was a general mistrust of science by the public. This was not because science was not credible but in an era of evolving scientific advancement, communicating results in plain language was poor. People often do not understand research results and so it is easily rejected by negative, and false negative subjective views found on social media sites.

Sea buckthorn is a fruit similar to blueberry. Like blueberry it is nutrient rich, containing flavonoids, polyphenols, and anthocyanins and so on – but do we really need to understand the science of precisely how a fruit delivers a specific benefit to appreciate it is good for us. The internet site providing  views on blueberry, both those of the press and the NHS both say it is good for you, whether it is the anthocyanins and your brain, or the antioxidants and your cells does it matter? The principal issue is that the food is natural and not ultra-processed, is that not enough?