Magic Moringa

Thanks to a gift from our friend Iris, who brought us a tiny tree she got on her trip to the Echo Farm in Ft. Myers, we are growing moringa! 

While most everything else is shriveling in the heat, the little moringa tree is now six times its size, and seems very happy in our little front yard garden of questionable soil. Last spring, we added its leaves to salad where they were eaten largely unnoticed. This summer, although I have been shriveling in the heat myself and not much in the mood for cooking, I've added it to rice like you might add parsley. It's pretty, and it packs quite a nutrient-punch - especially vitamin A, iron, calcium, and protein. This Discovery Channel piece was so effusive about the benefits of moringa that it began to sound like an infomercial (but they weren't selling anything, just genuinely impressed with the plant and its benefits, especially for malnourished people).

According to a lot of experts, we in the U.S. are becoming a seriously malnourished people. That fact, combined with the growing concern that our food system, reliant on transportation (the average vegetable still travels over 1600 miles to arrive on our plate) is going to be seriously impacted as the price of oil rises, motivates me to learn more about nutrition-dense food like moringa that can be grown here. 

Plus it's kind of fun to eat leaves off a tree.

Comments

[laia]

Thanks for sharing about this plant, I had never heard of it. I am a fan of leafy greens and these leaves look tender and delicate. They would make a nice addition to a salad.

[Jessica Zolondek]

Thanks. I'd never heard of this!!!

[rob]

I have read about the Moringa tree in a publication 'Lost Crops of Africa'. It's sister publication 'Lost Crops of the Incas' is an equally good read. There are a lot of nutritious fruits and vegetables out there that are sadly unrecognised and underutilised.

Something that has bothered me a lot in recent years is how willing the UK and other first world countries have been to sacrifice their food security to the developing world. I see a great deal of risk in entrusting the majority of our food production to unstable regions of the world. In this sense the US is better off than the UK in that you still grow a lot of food on home soil. Hopefully more people will become aware of this issue and force a change in how food is seen and where it is produced.