The must-have, miracle tree Moringa

Anyone who has spoken to me recently has probably heard me mention something about this special tree.

There's a lot that can be said about it, but to be brief, here are some pictures and a few words to give an idea as to why this tree now has a special place in my heart.

Let me introduce my personal (2 and a half month old) tree. They grow really quickly and in poor soils and as my mission is to replicate what is going on in the slums in mini-tests, this one is growing in a large water bottle. 

 So, what's so special about this tree? Well, there is almost too much to say. It has so many nutritional benefits, here are just a few:

It's used around the world and grows very well in the tropics - basically it grows in just about all of the countries where malnutrition is a problem. Handy eh? Also very handy is the fact that after doing some research and wanting to find a Moringa expert locally, it just so happens that one lives next door! He even helps publish book about the tree.

I'm not saying it definitely does all of the things below, but sometimes the wisdom of generations past can know best.

My plan is to trial growing Moringa in the slum communities, on roof tops in pots, in old jerry cans and water bottles. One great bloke called Fred is very keen on trying out some new ideas and so I'll be putting some pictures up soon of his home in the slum with pots on top and around the sides. I want to go slowly and carefully though, as the government tried to popularise Moringa a few years back and sold the idea as a get-rich-quick crop, but there was no market for it as people were not aware of it's many benefits. That's where we'll start - with telling people why it's so good.

If you want more info and a bit of hard evidence to back up some of these claims, try this site out.

Oh, and you can use the seeds to purify water too.....

Trial and error - by John

Before I start suggesting that people living in the slums try some techniques out, I want to try them out myself. 

So, my veranda and garden patch is slowly becoming a test bed for a few ideas to see if they work. I'm also very fortunate to be able to make videos for Send a Cow that are useful to them and me too. The solar tyre oven video below is an example of this. It may not be quite right for the slums, but the principles can be transferred to other materials.

The solar tyre oven works on the principle of reflection and a mini greenhouse effect. The glass costs about £5 and so is a bit too expensive for the people we are working with. So, I've tried out a smaller, cheaper (almost free) version that still works, just not as well (pic above). It's made out of a large water bottle, a little newspaper and silver foil. I cut the top off the bottle and inverted it and placed silver foil around this dish shape - this is where the black cooking pot sits. Then, I put the bottle base on top, creating a mini-greenhouse that heats food up, or even just generates hot water in the bottles to wash clothes with.

My other experiments involve growing plants in containers that you can get hold of in the slums. The idea is to keep the plants well fed with manure and 'plant tea' so that they do well in a small container. I'm also trying out growing an amazing tree called moringa (3 times the Potassium in bananas, 7 times the Vitamin-C as in oranges, 25 times the Iron in spinach, 4 times the Calcium in milk, 4 times the Vitamin A in carrots, 46 Antioxidants, 36 Anti-Inflammatories, Omegas 3, 6, and 9!) and an anti-malarial called artemesia that will both be very useful for the communities. Other than that, I'm drying out orange peels in the sun to use to light fires, and to repel mosquitoes. They burn really well due to their sugar content (thanks for the tip John and Sue Hill!) and are usually discarded and wasted in the slums. So, these are just a few things that I'm looking into during this research phase, as well as talking a lot with the community members and other NGOs.

I'll let you know how I get on!