At last enough rain to soften the ground – in fact the first true all day rain since April fool’s Day, making a total of 14mm in 38 days.
The last week or so has been dedicated to weeding around plants; spiking the surface of the ground with an even bigger fork (10″) and then surrounding the plants with a liberal covering of green waste compost. The process is – or has been, incredibly slow but I have to keep reminding myself of why I am doing it.
The sight of the diseased plants last year is still very fresh. Mulching covers a range of needs. It keeps down the weeds allowing the younger plants access to available food and water; but it is the thought of improving the soil health by feeding soil fungi that is my main focus. I certainly have no shortage of worms but improving the organic matter in the soil is the aim.
There is the theory that to have berries with high concentration of nutrients I need to keep the plants stressed. If this is so then my hard clay soil will provide this. Once baked hard it becomes impenetrable for surface roots that are the norm with seabuckthorn. But maybe this environmental pressure will have an impact on the nutrient concentrations in the berries – will it be better or worse – this summer will finally show the results.
Which raises the issue of the term “quality”,
Seabuckthorn produces a berry with 190 nutrients which work in synergy to provide a number of potential health benefits for humans and animals. As a statement this is fine for those that know about seabuckthorn or have a tradition of using it. To the wider market that have never heard about seabuckthorn one needs to provide a clear, credible and memorable message.
It is fact that seabuckthorn contains 190 or more nutrients. But is this relevant to the consumer? Seabuckthorn is a food not a medicine – that is its legal definition, but its composition and its past use indicate that it is more than just a food. It provides a concentrated resource of many nutrients that are recognised as providing benefit to the consumer. The supplement industry in Europe is huge. Consumers seem willing to take vitamins, minerals and omega fatty acids in recognition that these nutrients are an important part of their diet, but gaining acceptance of the importance of consuming 5 (or 7 ) portions of fruit/vegetables per day seems less deliverable. So what is so appealing in a supplement that is not in a natural food?
A supplement is a simple, concentrated product that by label declaration will deliver a daily requirement of a given nutrient.
Vitamins are an accepted necessity of life. Lack of vitamins is understood as being bad for you – therefore taking additional vitamins must be good for you and will make you healthy. It is a simple message and an easily resolved issue: One pill a day with minimum effort, cost and time. The message and product are simple and that makes it trustworthy and attractive in a world that demands solutions without penalties.
How do we achieve the trustworthiness of the simple, yet non-natural supplement for our highly nutritious seabuckthorn berry?
In my view we have to cut through the mass of information and make it relevant to consumers and consumer lifestyles. Health and the body are not simple and neither is seabuckthorn but the message that seabuckthorn is a natural supplement for overall health is as simple as the one conveyed by the purchase of vitamin C.
To understand that a natural product can influence health we have to understand the mechanisms that deliver the benefit. Natural products in their raw state have variable quality. These variables will impact upon the ability to deliver benefit. Therefore we must investigate what makes seabuckthorn special; define the important nutrients and the concentrations that deliver benefit and how to grow and process the fruit in order to deliver consistent, credible quality standards.
These quality standards are the key to delivering the trustworthiness that consumers see in supplements. They are the key to a simple message. The key to understanding what seabuckthorn is.
Supplements
