You probably remember that I’ve written about moringa and it’s amazing health benefits before. I’ve bought dried leaves that have been locally harvested at both Naturalia (Zaragoza 807) and Mercado Verde (Avenida La Marina 24) and there are powders available in a variety of places around town.
In mid-June a friend gave me a moringa seedling that was about four inches high. I planted it in a flowerbed that I knew didn’t have very good soil but I had read that moringa did well in poor soil. I followed the pruning instructions on this fabulous website, and as you can see in the photo above it has branched out a lot. The tree is about 6 feet tall right now. The idea is to keep the tree low and bushy so that it’s easy to harvest and makes lots of leaves. I have pruned it twice already and have another coming up. After that the pruning will just maintain it’s optimal height when I harvest the leaves. (see the pruning & harvesting page)
I have used the leaves from pruned branches fresh in salads and smoothies. I’ve dried the leaves (out of direct sunlight for optimal vitamin retention) and put them in practically anything we eat. The moringa tree also makes pods that are nutritious and edible and I’ll be trying those in due time! I am excited to be incorporating this excellent food in our diet and love to be growing it for myself, too.
I have about 20 seeds if anyone reading this would like to try growing one. Just leave a comment on this post and I’ll get in touch with you.
Susan Jessup
September 9, 2015Thanks for this Nancy! Very interesting. I am moving to a house with a small garden patch and I assume bad soil. I would like to try to grow this too. When you go to buy the dried leaves at the market what is the Spanish name for it?
Nancy
September 9, 2015It’s called moringa here. I’ve only seen the dried leaves at Naturalia and Mercado Verde but there are moringa capsules in the downtown mercado and in a small tienda on the ground floor of Polimedica, athough I’m sure they are found other places too. I’ll save you a few seeds, holler when you get here.
Kim G
September 10, 2015This is an interesting post. A Mexican friend recently told me about his own, very positive experiences with Moringa, something I had never heard of. But after a month or two of taking a daily Moringa tea, his blood chemistry is much improved, and he’s noticed other health benefits too.
And now you’re using it and growing it too. Sounds like an interesting herb.
Saludos,
Kim G
Boston, MA
Where we’ll have to do a bit more digging around about this plant.
Florentino Gutierrez R
September 11, 2015Hi!
It is really wonderful! I wish everybody knew about the countless benefits of consuming moringa leaves. I have a cousin in Chiapas who has a plantation of moringa trees who sent us a bag of dried leaves. I started taking tea out of those dried leaves and after a couple of months I got another checkup and surprise!, triglicerides back to normal levels. I’ve experienced other benefits as well. I have married to moringa, and when I found out that the local university produces and sells dried moringa leaves in capsules, I went there and became a distributor on the spot. I’m making sure I always have a supply of moringa leaves for me and for other people too.