Sea Buckthorn

I've mentioned this in the thread on the Flu...but I figured I'd start a thread on it as I don't know how many people (at least here in the US) have used this or know about its properties.

What got me started on this was when I had read in my Republic of Tea magazine about Sea Buckthorn Green Tea - it is consumed by Germans and others living in the Baltic area (a place where I spent much of my life!...and even my Finnish lifetime!).

I went to try to find the 'fruit' oil, not just the seed oil. I managed to get some of the dried fruit encapsulated via Vitacost's site, but they ran out when I had wanted to get a refill this month.

I just went back again and instead purchased something a bit more - it is the fruit and seed oil encapsulated in a soft-gel form.

This year was the first year I've used the Sea Buckthorn and compared even to the Eleuthero/Siberian Ginseng that I used to use - for me this works far better concerning cold/flu protection.

What I bought from Vitacost was:

Balanceuticals Sea Buckthorn Oil - 120 softgels

Ingredients: Made of wild seabuckthorn Oil (seed and fruit oil), this product cotains more than 160 nutrients including essential fatty acids including linolenic acid (Omega 3), linoleic acid (Omega 6), palmitoleic acid (Omega 7) and oleic acid (Omega 9), carotenoids, flavonoids, phytosterols, vitamins A, C, E, B1, B2, K, P, trace elements, etc.

Here is the Wiki link for it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea-buckthorn

The common sea-buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) is by far the most widespread of the species in the genus, with the ranges of its eight subspecies extending from the Atlantic coasts of Europe right across to northwestern China. In western Europe, it is largely confined to sea coasts where salt spray off the sea prevents other larger plants from out-competing it, but in central Asia it is more widespread in dry semi-desert sites where other plants cannot survive the dry conditions. In central Europe and Asia it also occurs as a subalpine shrub above tree line in mountains, and other sunny areas such as river banks. They are tolerant of salt in the air and soil, but demand full sunlight for good growth and do not tolerate shady conditions near larger trees. They typically occur in dry, sandy areas.

On a side note - there are jams made with this too...different types of foods:

I'm so happy that you put the pictures, I then recognized it as tyrni, a very valued plant in Finland. In the resent years many farmers have started cultivating it because the demand is much greater than the supply.
My grandfather (who used to walk 10 km every morning when he woke up, and only then enjoy his milk, porridge and coffee) collected sap from the birch trees in spring time and froze it into ice cubes for wintertime.
Here's info of birch sap:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birch_sap

Hey Sira :)

Cool! Yes when I was a Finnish sailor way back in the 19th century - I remember the plant too. That's good news to hear about the cultivation of it!

Birch sap - I've heard of that, but I have never tried it. There are Birch trees where I live (the White Birch ones)...but unfortunately it's only been Sugar Maple sap (rendered into syrup) that I've had.

I do miss those things...those connections to the land there (the Baltic region) that I had...

Originally Posted by Kapitan_Prien

I do miss those things...those connections to the land there (the Baltic region) that I had...

You know, it is and will always be your land... it carries your light, too.

Awww...*happy tear*

I just can't relate to the American culture and way of life...not that it's wrong or bad, etc. but I can't relate to it. I wasn't born here...I didn't grow up here.

Even during my lifetime when I lived in Germany I visited Finland, but I can't remember what for...

I remember one life in Germany, thousands of years ago. I was a hunter and our family group would move with the game.
I had a very strong dream where I was also in Germany, I was standing in a forest at the river bank. Then I saw huge mallard ducks, human size, sleeping in the forest. While I was watching, they turned into humans, much like American Indians. The leader, an old man, walked to me, did not say a word, but blew air in my mouth. The message was, "you have hurt enough of the nature now, it is your time to start loving it". And slowly the group started moving deeper into the forest. Their presence felt... holy.

There is some bond between Germans and Finns, it feels like there has always been. Even the old Hakkapeliitta went to Germany to steal women to Finland! And Finland fought with Germany in the WWII.

Oh yeah that's cool. :)

When I was a sailor I had been from Rauma - and I had read some, my name was Jukka, and that came to me in a dream. I knew it was Finnish too before I even looked it up.

What I read of Rauma was there was a dialect that was a blend of German, Swedish and Finnish - but it's not really spoken anymore.

I do know about the WWII connections - on the one reenacting forum I visit there's folks that do WWII Finnish impressions and there are 'units' too.

I had even thought of putting together a WWII Finnish impression - just for walking out (no rifle or anything)...but I don't think it would be easy...and then the cost on top of that.

So - I keep two Finnish coins for now. Been trying to think of some other things I can do...

Now that I'm already totally off-topic, just this more. My favourite Finnish march (hmmm, feels like there's some release work to be done in this subject):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJWZT...eature=related

Cool! ...I recorded Sibelius' 'Finlandia' off of YouTube (I've managed to figure out how to record music from YouTube hee hee)

At 1.44 in the video - are those women Lottas?