I was just up in Oregon a little while back.
One of my aims is to spend a little time in nature each day. This is great to be deep in the heart of a forest, but just a park inside the city is better than nothing.
One study I just read about with hospital patients, showed that those simply having a window with trees outside had less pain and shorter stays than those whose windows looked at a brick wall.
So I walked out to a park a few blocks from where I was staying.
The park was called Hawthorn Park.
I thought, “Hmmmm, I wonder if there are any Hawthorn trees here?”
I knew a little bit about Hawthorn berries. Amazing heart benefits. You can read a bit more about them in our big Heart Health Index article here.
Also good for the liver. That’s the way the Chinese use them a bit more.
I’ve had a couple tinctures over the years but hadn’t gone deep into this plant medicine.
Throughout the park there were a bunch of trees but I didn’t see any. I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for. I saw that the street name was Hawthorn Ave which made me feel like my chances were low.
The park could be named after the avenue which was probably at one time named after this tree, but who knew if it still had any.
Yet, when I was leaving I noticed a small tree fully covered in berries.
Not actually knowing what a Hawthorn tree looks like I punched it up on Google image search on my phone and sure enough that was it.
I popped the fruit into my mouth. Surprisingly, the small berries have a very similar taste to apples.
I spent some time with the tree, reflecting on berries and how wonderful they are. In addition to tasting good these small fruits tend to pack a lot of healthy nutrition.
Now, we don’t sell Hawthorn in any form at Lost Empire Herbs, at least not yet.
But we do have a couple other berries. Lately, I’ve been using these a lot more as the foundation of drinks along with other herbs. Why? Once again, because they taste great and are loaded with nutrition.
Goji berries are sweet. This comes from the LBP’s, this polysaccharide which is under study for the benefits.
Seabuckthorn is sour. This sourness helps cut bitter flavors. Lots of nutrients, known to be great for skin and hair.
Schisandra is also sour, along with notes of all the other flavors. A truly unique taste experience. And schisandra does a bit of everything.
Berries of all types are great, though some have more to them than others.
I’m a fan of a good strawberry, but your commercial version, which happens to be one of the most pesticide sprayed crops out there, doesn’t hold a candle to any of these others.
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Louis R Dyson says
Given your reputation for quality I would really like to see Lost Empire research, and provide Hawthorn Berry.
Logan Christopher says
Thanks for the feedback.