Our first stop in Latvia was the country’s largest single-variety organic Sea Buckthorn Garden, Zelt! This small start-up creates high-quality golden berry products for nutrition, beauty, and health.
Sea buckthorn is a hardy, bright orange berry that has been prized for centuries across Northern and Eastern Europe. The bushes thrive in poor, sandy soils and along coastlines, making them perfectly suited to the Baltic climate. Packed with vitamin C—often much higher than citrus fruits—sea buckthorn is celebrated as a natural immune booster.
In the U.S., when we hear “buckthorn” mentioned, it is usually a type of buckthorn that is an invasive shrub that spreads aggressively in forests and fields. They grow tall, shade out native plants, and degrade habitats, which is why they’re considered major ecological problems in North America.
Sea buckthorn, on the other hand, is a completely different plant. Despite the similar name, it doesn’t even belong to the same genus
Sea buckthorn is a spiny shrub that thrives in sandy, coastal, or poor soils, and it produces the bright orange berries used in food, health products, and cosmetics. Rather than being invasive, it’s intentionally cultivated across Northern Europe and Asia for its nutritional and economic value.
Zelt is owned and operated by Elīna and Eduards Vilks. Elīna served as our host today; she not only gave us a demonstration and tour but also made this delicious treat using the sea buckthorn berries.
This young couple really has great passion, inspiration, and love for the unique properties of sea buckthorn. They continue to develop products and host festivals at their garden each year. We all walked away from their store buying some kind of sea buckthorn product!! Really a lovely visit!
