Elevate your culinary game with these easy-to-grow backyard plants.
Before I started my permaculture plant-nerd journey and learned about sea buckthorn, I used to think that exotic fruit grew only in the tropics. At least only south of where I live in Upstate New York. Mangoes, kiwis, pomegranates, the exceedingly hyped açai berry which was ostensibly discovered by a single mom and is going to flatten my stomach and cure Alzheimer’s for me, these are fruits that are grown elsewhere. They also absolutely must be imported and then packaged and then sold to me at a dear price. Without them, my body will wither from a lack of anthocyanins and antioxidants. Woe is me, the north country dweller, doomed to sup on potatoes exclusively, shivering in the cold.
In case you haven’t picked up on my sarcastic tone, all of the above is merely myth. (Except the fact that the açai berry is exceedingly hyped, that’s true.) In reality, the north country has a myriad of beautiful, exotic fruits that are easy to grow, attractive to look at, delicious, and highly nutritious. Just look at this beautiful thing!
Sea Buckthorn/Seaberry – Hipphophae rhamnoides
I just recently had the good fortune of stumbling upon one of these trees as I drove to work. Luckily, the owner of the tree was generous enough to let me have some.
The best way to think about sea buckthorn is that it is cold hardy citrus. If you just pop one of these into your mouth, get ready for a pucker, because these things taste like Warheads candies. We’ll use a little creativity though, and come up with some uses for the fruit.
Beverage enhancer
I love a little lemon in my water, and this video shows how you can make sea buckthorn ice cubes by juicing the fruit and freezing the juice for a summery treat. Sea buckthorn is extremely high in Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid. It’s an antioxidant, and it’s also what gives the sour taste to both citrus fruits and Warheads candies–that powdery white coating on the outside.
Lemonade
In a similar fashion to the lemon water, the juice from sea buckthorn can be used in place of lemon juice to make lemonade. Alternatively, make Oxymel if you’re into the crunchy stuff.
infused vinegars for salad dressing
Check out this video for a tutorial on how to make an infused vinegar, which is beautiful decor. Naturally, you can use it for a delicious vinaigrette as well.
in cooking
The juice from sea buckthorn is a drop-in replacement for lemon juice. You can use it to season fish with a little butter and tarragon. It brightens up a fruit pie. It can be used in muffins (if you make them fairly sweet muffins).
Conclusion
There is so much to be excited about with seaberry. This incredibly nutritious fruit can reduce our reliance on imported citrus fruit from the south. Did I mention it’s a nitrogen fixer? That’s right, in addition to feeding people, sea buckthorn feeds the soil and the plants around it. There are so many layers of benefits to the plant!
If this kind of stuff gets you excited, please consider dropping your email into this handy little email robot that I built. Nothing thrills him more than the opportunity to deliver notifications of new content to your email inbox. He never delivers anything else, having been programmed to find all advertising and similar nonsense deeply distasteful.
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