moringa oleifera...moringa ole-what???

Thursday 20th November 2008

so what do you do when you find that you have one of the world's most useful trees growing right in your back garden? well you make sure that all those people who aren't in the know...get in the know...because it doesn't get much better than the moringa oleifera, my friends. this tree packs a punch of the most healthy kind. read what wikipedia has to say about it...

Moringa oleifera, commonly referred to simply as Moringa, is the most widely cultivated variety of the genus Moringa. It is of the family Moringaceae. It is an exceptionally nutritious vegetable tree with a variety of potential uses. Considered one of the world’s most useful trees, as almost every part of the Moringa tree can be used for food, or has some other beneficial property.

The leaves are highly nutritious, being a significant source of beta-carotene, Vitamin C, protein, iron and potassium. The leaves are cooked and used like spinach. In addition to being used fresh as a substitute for spinach, its leaves are commonly dried and crushed into a powder, and used in soups and sauces. The tree is a good source for calcium and phosphorus. Moringa leaves contain more Vitamin A than carrots, more calcium than milk, more iron than spinach, more Vitamin C than oranges, and more potassium than bananas, and the protein quality of Moringa leaves rivals that of milk and eggs.

so don't you think, after reading that, you just have to have one of these trees in your garden.. you can use it in soups, salads, casseroles and you get all that incredible goodness..i mean imagine, you might never have to leave home again...everything you need, right there, on one tree...now if only we could get it to grow money...hmmm...

a beginning seedaholic!

so, one of the projects i am REALLY looking forward to starting when i get to Green School is planting a herb garden. i have developed a real love of herbs these past couple of months and more so with fresh herbs which just have such a wonderful flavour and are so great in a variety of dishes from savoury to even sweet ones. you can see some of those experiments over at my baking blog ~airy fairy cupcakes~ where i have been enjoying the effects of herbs in cupcakes to great results!

the herb garden will be located in the garden of my classroom and i have been thinking that rather than creating just one space to grow the herbs in, i will plant them all over the space so that the whole outdoor area itself will become a herb garden with scents wafting all over the place. a real stimulation to the olfactory sense! and hopefully from there, will encourage my prospective students to explore and learn about all those amazing herbs out there - we can dry them, create collage pictures with them, cook with them, oh it will be so exciting - i can't wait!

hopefully with all those seeds i can also set up a little window box herb garden in the bamboo cottage that i will soon be calling home and be able to experiment more in my own baking adventures.

just a word about where i got the seeds from...i was so excited to discover the website for Seedaholic - a site selling such an array of seeds and with so much information on each seed telling you about the medicinal properties, culinary uses...as well as how to grow them. and when the seeds arrived each packet had that information sheet attached to them which will really help me in the 'herb garden project'. the best part is that when i mentioned to the owner of the company that i was bringing the seeds to a school, she offered to send me surplus seeds at the end of the season. so i will definitely be turning into a seedaholic!