Sea Buckthorn Time!!!!

One member of our branch and his wife have an incredible garden. There are many vegetables, fruit bushes, trees, etc. He has some serious health issues from working in a Russian fiberglass factory for many years. He struggles to take care of his beloved garden and with the good rains we've had there is a bumper crop this year. A group of us helped them harvest the Sea Buckthorn berries. They are small, golden yellow when ripe, somewhat sour, but not as sour as gooseberries. Sea Buckthorn is used to make drinks from the juice. The juice offers 10-15 times more vitamin C than orange juice. The oil from the plant has a number of medicinal uses, for sun burns,  acne,reduce blood pressure and cholesterol and many more.

Sea Buckthorn juice is a traditional Mongolian drink that is served in most homes on special occasions and when guests arrive. It is delicious! We even enjoy it when there is no sugar added.      It is very healthful.

The family served breakfast with, of course, fresh Sea Buckthorn juice, bread and homemade blackberry jam with whole berries. Now, the blackberries are different than the typical ones in the states. It looks more like a blueberry only black. It's even more tart than those back home.

It is time consuming to pick these berries. The whole group picked this amount in about 3 and 1/2 hours. After this picture was taken we picked for another 30 minutes. You can only pick one at a time.

This is our interpreter, Munguntuya, and her beautiful family Their boys, Aidan and Mason, are so cute. They come up with the funniest comments! Munguntuya served a mission in Russia. Her husband serves in the Branch Presidency. They lived in the U.S. for 7 years and her English is great! She is wonderful to work with and so fun to be around. Always smiling.

If you look closely you can see all of the sea buckthorn berries at the tops of the bushes (that look like trees). Unfortunately, they are too hard to harvest so the birds get to feast on these.

This is Zoloo from our Branch and the Sister Missionaries. They are such hard workers.

This is the wonderful, faithful couple, Galmagna and Oyunstetseg and their granddaughters. It is a pleasure to be their Home Teachers and have the opportunity to visit them each month. They have a great spirit and really want to understand the scriptures.  He serves in the Branch Presidency too. What a relaxing and enjoyable day picking berries and visiting.