Frequently Asked Questions

By Admin Email , published Mar 18, 2016

Here are some great questions we have gotten from customers recently. We thought you might be wondering the same thing and wanted to share the answers with you! Every once in a while, we like to share some of the frequently asked questions we get from our customers. We want to help you better understand sea buckthorn and our products.

 

How Do We Harvest Our Berries?

We tried different sources of sea buckthorn berries at first. We settled on crops sourced from Tibet. The climate is perfect for growing this crop because of the harsh climate. It creates berries with much higher levels of omega fatty acids as well as other nutrients. Traditional agriculture is difficult in the area of Tibet that we source our crop from. We give our growers meaningful, long term employment which is scarce in the area. The demand for sea buckthorn continues to grow each year. So, we are glad to continue support for our growers who we have worked with for all these years. 

Also, Tibet is a great place to grow our crop because of the clean air and soil. Organic certification is important to us. Letting the crop grow in it's natural habitat makes it easy to grow Organic. You may know that we were the first company to bring sea buckthorn to the US. But did you know that we were also the first to get Organic Certification for both types of our oils? We don’t mean to brag but not just anyone has access to crops of this quality!

How Do We Harvest Our Berries?

Sea buckthorn is a resilient crop and is not the easiest to harvest. To keep a sea buckthorn tree healthy, pruning of the branches is a necessity. This works in our favor because that is also how we harvest sea buckthorn berries. Like the name implies, the plant has giant thorns that grow out of its branches. This makes picking berries on a large scale near impossible. We remove selected branches from the sea buckthorn trees. Then we harvest the berries from the branches. The process is the same as pruning your rose bushes or other plants if you are familiar with gardening. Pruning is great for the health of plants as you may know and helps keep them happy!

Since the Berries Are Grown in Another Country, How Are They Tested for Quality?

We do our own tests for microbes, heavy metals and other crop specific contaminants. Then, we have a third party company do testing as well. Passing testing is easy because of our Organic growing process. Also, it helps that our crops are grown in a pristine area. Our commitment to Organic farming ensures that our oils pass Non-GMO Project standards as well. It's important that consumers understand the significance of these certifications when purchasing products that originate in countries outside of the US. Though sea buckthorn is becoming a much more accessible ingredient to people in North America, it is still true that thebest crops come from overseas. Often, consumers make the mistake of looking for the cheapest sea buckthorn oils they can find or go for brands that do not have USDA Organic Certification. With sea buckthorn, it's important to know where it comes from, especially if it's coming out of Asia. Do you have a burning question about our products or sea buckthorn? Email us at info@seabuckwonders.com or just give us a call at 855- SEABUCK Monday-Friday 9-5pm central time