Saturday, January 17, 2009

Moringa - I Love Moringa!


If you haven't discovered Moringa yet, you are in for a treat! Take a few moments to check out

http://www.ilovemoringa.com/

Moringa - botanical name - Moringacea, is also called "Mother's best friend", the Drumstick tree, the Horseradish tree, and the Miracle Tree. It is one of the fastest growing trees you can plant, and it packs a powerhouse of nutrition in its leaves, flowers, pods, and seeds. Here is a photo of one of our Moringa oleifera seeds, that we have affectionately named "Morey"...


He has become very near and dear to our hearts, as he helps us educate people about the wonders of the Moringa oleifera tree. We grow 3 varieties - Moringa stenopetala, Moringa oleifera, and Moringa ovalifolia, on a small scale. They are such beautiful trees, and supply a constant harvest of delicious nutrition. You can eat the leaves, the flowers - if you cook them - and the long, green pods. This is a photo of one of our Moringa oleifera trees, a young one...



In the raw leaves, Moringa packs more Vitamin C - gram for gram - than oranges, which almost everyone thinks are the best source of Vitamin C. It provides more potassium - gram for gram - than bananas, again - what everyone usually thinks of as having the most. It contains more calcium than milk - gram for gram - and THAT is in LEAVES! The leaves contain contain all 8 of the essential amino acids necessary for life, and that is rare indeed in the plant kingdom. Quinoa does also, a marvelous grain, and so do amaranth, another incredible grain. Very few other things in the vegetable kingdom can boast so many health benefits.


In India and Africa, and a few other places in the world, Moringa is being successfully used to combat malnutrition and disease. Many mothers have been able to carry their infants to full-term, and they give birth to healthy babies. There are documented incidents of malnourished children, deprived of proper nutrition almost to the point of death, who have revived and thrived, by adding Moringa leaf powder to their diet. Seeds from Moringa trees have been used to purify drinking water. They have the capacity to remove over 99% of the bacteria and turbidity, by merely crushing them, and agitating the resulting powder in the water for several minutes. What a valuable tree!


Our favorite way to eat Moringa, is to strip the leaves off several branches, and lightly steam them for a few minutes, until they are tender, add a touch of seasoning (garlic salt or Spike is what we usually use), a bit of butter, and enjoy! Pick plenty of leaves, because they cook WAY down, like fresh spinach does. Put them in omelets, salads, soups, dips, or just eat them raw, right off the trees. The beautiful flowers, which bees LOVE, have to be cooked - they taste like mushrooms. The pods taste a bit like asparagus, and the seeds can be lightly roasted in a skillet, with a touch of oil and salt, and taste like - roasted seeds. WELL... I don't know what else to compare them to!


We currently have about 400 Moringa trees growing here in Florida. They are young, but they are growing up "real fast"! Just in the last 6 months, I have stripped about ½ of the leaves off most of the trees, so we could eat them. The more you pinch the tops, and cut the branches in ½, the faster they bush out, and produce more leaves. Moringa thrives in temperatures between 70°and 95°, but they can withstand 115° for short periods of time. They may lose all of their leaves when the temperature drop below 60°, consistently, but only temperatures below 40° really harm them. You can successfully grow them in large containers inside, and put them out when the temperatures warm up.


Even though most of the varieties of Moringa can grow into very tall trees, in order to keep the bountiful harvest within arm's reach, they should be pruned back to about 5½ - 6 feet. The tops can be taken off, repeatedly, and they will branch out along the trunk, and give you a wide canopy of bright green leaves, wonderfully fragrant white flowers, edible green pods, and seeds galore!


We hope you enjoy Moringa as much as we do!