RE: Cold Climate Permaculture Plants: Sea Buckthorn
Fantastic post. I've been growing 6 varieties for about 5 years now. They're just starting to get big enough to produce a reasonable crop. I use a lot of it, I'm finding it takes about 30 plats per person if you intend to have it daily, but the berries do freeze well.
In terms of propagation, I let my chickens scratch under them. That mild disturbance of the surface roots triggers suckers to come up by the thousands, which can be grown out for a season before being moved.
I'll be scaling up to about 600 plants this year. I'm definitely following your posts.
As for de-stemming the berries, if you can take the whole branch (pruning at the same time), just stick the whole thing in the freezer, and when frozen, wrap with a towel and whack it on the counter. Not helpful for large harvests but for anyone with 3-6 bushes in their backyard, it works great.
I haven't used the leaves for tea, will need to try that. However, the berries are probably one of the best-tasting fruits when they undergo a lactofermentation. Juice them and get a lambic beer culture from your local brew shop, and just pitch it in and leave it on a warm countertop for a week, then add in a bit of honey, cap the bottle and let it set for another two days to build some effervescence. Serve chilled. Also benefits from a cardamon seed in each bottle. It will be mildly alcoholic (<2%), but very refreshing.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks for reading and the support!
I was aware of the freezing the whole branch method but have yet to try it. That fermented juice sounds amazing will also have to try it.
600 plants? Are you planning some sort of commercial production?
I actively grow for a local charity that installs food-producing plants in low-income neighborhoods. The poor do have disproportionate health problems resulting from diet. When a quart of seaberry juice costs $18, I can't afford it, and someone in subsidized housing living off of fast-food dollar menus sure as hell can't. I'm generally against state-run welfare systems, but I can't in good conscience advocate for their defunding without offering a better alternative solution. Though I believe the dependence on those welfare systems is illegitimate in many cases, people are nevertheless dependant on them. Until that dependence is broken, those systems will only continue to expand. This is just the one alternative idea I'm able to meaningfully contribute towards.
Food is the highest expense of living, and medical care for disease brought on by poor nutrition is a close second. Our admittedly lofty goal is to get 10% of those below the poverty level to the point where they can eat from their gardens 1 day a week.
What I've discovered though, many of the people we plant these for haven't the time, experience or interest to maintain the plants. The group did a few hundred apple trees about 5 years ago, and maybe 10 of them are still alive today. So to move forward, we need perennial plants that grow easily, aggressively, and are very hard to kill. This hits all the criteria. Rugged, accepting of abuse and neglect, nutritious, and would normally be beyond the financial reach of the people we're planting them for. The nitrogen fixation is also a nice bonus, as the soil in many of the older city lots is so depleted, it requires major remediation. These will grow in anything.
Also, we need to scale up to get NPO status, which will make my donations tax-deductible (They technically are now, but it's contentious). I can turn 1 plant into 20 in two years, so it's a low-cost way to get thousands of plants out there, and move enough value through the organization that we can make a case for a legitimate non-profit status. I'm not really involved with that part of it, but will do my part as one of the growers... a tax break is always welcome, lol.
I followed you and expect to see a post on how you are cloning or starting these plants!
Sure thing...
I'll upload a better video when the weather is more conducive to it, but I've been wanting to run through the DTube upload procedure (test upload), so here's a short clip of the patch up near my house.
I'll be potting them up or transplanting sometime in March or April, so I'll do a complete video then.
:D
I didn't expect an immediate post LoL, I was thinking when you were ready. Thanks for taking the time to share though.
That's really great! So many good people here on Steemit.
Once I get the bigger house built this year the next major project will be to get a nursery going. In order to afford the amount of trees I want to plant on our land I am going to have to grow a lot of them myself. I planned to sell some too to cover costs. I will have to remember to set aside some for charity work too. I like this idea. The whole teach a man to fish thing.
Thanks for sharing.