Buckthorn Quotes

“Silflay hraka, u embleer rah!”
― Richard Adams, Watership Down

“A litre of frozen sea buckthorn juice, fiercely orange, as orange as marigolds in full bloom, is defrosting in the sink.
Sea buckthorn grows along the coast on sand dunes in Britain, but it is rarely used here--- unlike in Russia and Central Asia, where it also thrives, and is offered as a standard addition to hot tea in cafés. Legend hints that warrior-rulers and conquerors such as Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great, who stormed across the steppes of Central Asia and Mongolia, tanked up their armies on the berries, and perhaps their horses, too. Sea buckthorn's Latin name, Hippophae rhamnoides, means 'shiny horse', and some historians suggest that in ancient times, after a battle, when the horses were left to graze, they would come back with glossy manes, having feasted on sea buckthorn. Others link the name to the mythical flying horse, Pegasus.”
― Caroline Eden, Cold Kitchen: A Year of Culinary Travels

“It is late afternoon, darkness is falling and a stall in the town square is glowing like a candle. Tiny punnets of bright-orange berries on the twig-- sea buckthorn-- and jars of cloudberry jam jostle with honey and crimson lingonberries. I will not carry jars or bottles in my luggage, but I pick up a couple of cartons of berries to eat raw.
Buckthorn lives true to its name, and after a few minutes of parting the berries from their branches my thumb feels like a pincushion. I pick up a pocket-sized jar of jam and the fruit is tart, extremely so, and therefore right up my street. I nibble the berries as I walk. Cloudberry jam, in common with most berry preserves, has too much sugar for me but it is good too, bright-tasting and sharp. I will bring it down at breakfast tomorrow, to eat with Lapland yoghurt.
The buckthorn jam is pleasing, though not enough to risk bringing a jar wine in a suitcase. It does keep a little of its acidity when simmered with enough sugar to make it keep. That is probably why it works, like damson, blackcurrant, plum and gooseberry. The more tart the fruit, the better the jam.”
― Nigel Slater, A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts