Seabuckthorn 2014 – more plants and quality decisions

This blog continues to follow the progress of growing seabuckthorn at Devereux farm. From November 2011 until now monthly updates have been on the family farm’s website – ( www.onthewildsideproducts.co.uk ). The change is appropriate as the seabuckthorn plants at Devereux are now successfully established and a more focused blog site seemed appropriate.

For those that have not been following this project – the concept of growing seabuckthorn was conceived in 2006. The farm needed a new enterprise that would provide economic growth through the ability to add value with on-farm processing. The farm has been in the Eagle family since 1921, although it was rented before then. With 600 acres of arable land on the Essex coast adjacent to the very beautiful Hamford Water National Nature reserve, it is coming under increasing threat from tidal flooding.

The East coast of the UK was substantially flooded in 1953. Half of our farm was flooded then, following which the seawalls were raised to 5m high. Recent surge tides have brought the sea level close to the top of even this wall height. Government support for seawall maintenance has been falling year on year. It is widely recognised that a repetition of the 1953 flood is not a matter of if it will happen again – but when it will happen. Climate change, whether man made or a natural cycle is happening and with it increased sea storminess and the potential of long term sea level rise. So investing in a high value crop that  requires a small area of the farm is a response to both the need to give the farm business an opportunity to grow and absorb the risk of losing land to the sea in the future.

The seabuckthorn project started with the support of the InCrops Enterprise hub, based at the University of East Anglia. In 2009, Dr Mark Coleman from InCrops and I attended the International Seabuckthorn Conference in Belokurika, Siberia. Following on from that, InCrops formed a collaborative agreement with the Lisavenko Institute of Horticulture for Siberia. Lisavenko started developing commercial seabuckthorn breeding in 1933 from the local Altai wild stock. This makes them the foremost breeder of seabuckthorn worldwide.

The collaborative agreement allowed the supply of Lisavenko varieties to be supplied to set up trial sites in the UK to test the viability of growing Siberian seabuckthorn as a commercial crop. The condition being that these plants were for crop trials and there should be no propagation or breeding work without prior agreement .

Prior to this, in 2009 we had planted 150 mixed German and Finnish varieties at Devereux farm. This included seven German and three Finnish female varieties.

In 2010 the first shipment of seven Siberian female varieties arrived, to be established on two sites – Devereux farm and one in Thetford Forest. Each year following this there has been a further importation of plants. Two further locations have been established. Additional Siberian varieties have been added to bring the total to ten.

In 2012 400 Latvian plants were imported representing four varieties. It has been widely reported that Siberian varieties had been susceptible to a fatal disease in the Baltic States several years ago. Planting Siberian seabuckthorn carried risks as our fam soil is heavy clay and our winter temperatures are mild. So these environmental challenges to the imported plants may create threats to the plant vitality which are not predictable. Growing European varieties from Germany, Scandanavia and the Baltic spread the risks to the success of the project.

In 2014 plant numbers will rise to 5000 at Devereux farm. The German plants have been producing berries since 2012,  I am hoping that this year will be the first year for the Siberian plants to produce enough berries to analyse for quality.

Quality is my goal. With seabuckthorn quality is governed by choice of variety; environmental conditions; crop management; harvesting efficiency; post harvest handling and processing. At each stage there are opportunities for quality changes.

The question is – what is quality? When growing wheat or other commonly grown crops the market need dictates the optimum qualities needed to aid processing of a food product. With seabuckthorn the market is poorly established. Growers and researchers define the common phtyo-chemicals found in seabuckthorn – flavonoids, polyphenols, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. Marketing statements are made that suggest the health benefits that have been associated with seabuckthorn. The products from seabuckthorn are still sold as commodities without standardised qualities that define specific use.

In 2012 we sponsored a meta-analysis of the benefits of seabuckthorn for cardio vascular diseases, undertaken by the Medical Research Council. It is clear that research is extensive but lack of funding does not seem to generate  clinical trials  that provide conclusive cause and effect results to substantiate specific health claims.

Having taken seabuckthorn oil capsules since September 2009 I firmly beieve that seabuckthorn provides overal improvement to my personal health. A number of friends have also taken up the product and report, less winter cold issues. But this is not a process that satisfies the European Food Safety Agency to allow a health claim under the Nutrition and Health Claims regulations.

So without the evidence to link a particular benefit to a particular compound it is difficult to specify which of the 190+ nutrients identified are the most beneficial and can therefore donate the quality of a berry. To the grower, specified quality is normally associated with the price per kilo. If you cannot specify quality then the crop becomes a commodity and the price is governed by global availability.

Until we can define quality the returns on growing seabuckthorn will not necessarily reflect the amount of work that goes into growing and harvesting the crop. It also means that unless there is specific agronomy research to identify how to improve flavonoid/polyphenol/fatty acid quantity the crop will remain based upon growing the best varieties available and as with all crops, hoping that the environmental conditions provide a perfect set of conditions to provide a good crop of clean berries.

Seabuckthorn is, in my view, a superfruit. It may not have unique compounds in it, but it is the way those compounds work in synergy with each other that matters. The modern consumer with access to the internet is sophisticated, educated and also cynical to false marketing. Those developing seabuckthorn for the market place need to quantify the compounds in the berry/leaf that will deliver consistent benefit to the consumer. Identifying those compounds will identify the often asked question – what is seabuckthorn. Furthermore it will be those compounds which will identify the quality that will substantiate the price for the grower’s crop.

Happy New Year.