Thursday, November 5, 2009
An item in one of UB's English language newspapers caught my attention this week:
"The second consultation entitled "Organic Seabuckthorn - King of Fruits" urged the necessity to develop seabuckthorn industry as a priority among other natural fruits growing in Mongolia." (UB Post, Nov 3, 2009)
I was ready to learn more. Seabuckthorn? I'd never heard of it. Although we have seen something like blueberries for sale in the markets here, fruit is not your first thought when you think about Mongolia. Obviously, I still have much to learn about the flora and fauna of this country...
I share with you these four random facts from Wikipedia:
- Sea-buckthorn berries are multipurposed, edible and nutritious, though very acidic and astringent, unpleasant to eat raw, unless 'bletted' (frosted to reduce the astringency) and/or mixed as a juice with sweeter substances such as apple or grape juice.
- The plant is the regional flora of the Finnish region of Satakunta.
- When the berries are pressed, the resulting sea-buckthorn juice separates into three layers: on top is a thick, orange cream; in the middle, a layer containing sea-buckthorn's characteristic high content of saturated and polyunsaturated fats; and the bottom layer is sediment and juice.
- For its troops confronting extremely low temperatures, India's Defence Research Development Organization established a factory in Leh to manufacture a multi-vitamin herbal beverage based on sea-buckthorn juice.
Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons
