Trendy Nordic berry becoming popular on menus
This Nordic berry has gone from health food sensation to trendy menu ingredient
You know the old adage that if you buy a car you’ve never heard of, you’ll start to you see it everywhere? Well, this perplexing paradox is actually called the Baader-meinhof phenomenon, also known as the Frequency Bias, and I’ve got it bad for seabuckthorn. It started with the latest season of Top Chef Canada when Sébastien Laframboise from Quebec City repeatedly featured seabuckthorn in his dishes. The wave of seabuckthorn continued as I devoured the seabuckthorn semifreddo at The Ostrich Club in Halifax and scrolled Instagram drooling at Bog Water cocktails with seabuckthorn syrup in Newfoundland.
Turns out, it wasn’t an illusion. Seabuckthorn has been cropping up everywhere on menus throughout Atlantic Canada, and while this berry isn’t native to the region, the eruption of New Nordic cuisine appreciation on the East Coast has this trendy berry standing at the forefront.
So, what is seabuckthorn? The deciduous shrub, native Northwestern Europe and central Asia, produces bright orange-red berries that are tart and acidic in flavour (with a carrot-like sweet aftertaste) and gangbuster in the health department. Seabuckthorn has become a behemoth berry in the health food sector, packed with Vitamin C (15 times the amount in an orange), B12 and Omega 3. Take that, açai.
For years, health-conscious consumers have been blasting their smoothies with seabuckthorn, downing seabuckthorn oil supplements and rubbing in skincare products. Locally, Nova Scotia Fisherman has been using seabuckthorn as a primary ingredient for years but just launched a new body wash bar with shea, while in Bonavista, N.L., East Coast Glow offers a seabuckthorn eye cream with coenzyme Q10.
Unsurprisingly the Nordic berry grows well in Newfoundland and in the Maritimes; seabuckthorn bushes like ocean spray and sandy soil, so local farmers and homesteaders have started planting it. In New Brunswick, Big Sky Ventures Inc. has been producing and selling the berry since 2014, and in Central Newfoundland, the rise of the cranberry industry has coincided with the planting and harvest of seabuckthorn berries.
With the rise of New Nordic cuisine, seabuckthorn has transitioned from health food fodder to a bragworthy berry on the menus of Atlantic Canadian restaurants. The demand for seabuckthorn has increased tenfold in the past decade with the berry becoming more readily available in Atlantic Canada, and chefs are picking those precious orbs to plate at their restaurants.
Chef Jeremy Charles of the world-renowned Raymonds restaurant in St. John’s, N.L., one of the first chefs in the region to adapt New Nordic cuisine locally, uses seabuckthorn. At Little Oak in Halifax, they make cocktails with seabuckthorn, bourbon, mint and dandelion. In August 2019, Vogue reported the Fogo Island Inn served up desserts featuring sea buckthorn at the wedding of Catherine Kong Jed Feldman, where Karlie Kloss was in attendance.
The berry ripens in late August and early September when other Atlantic Canadian berries like the blueberries reach their peak. This better-than-oranges berry isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. With the late harvest this year, be prepared to see the seabuckthorn on your plate and in cocktails throughout the fall.