Planting 15000 trees in Madagascar

For a quick visual reforestation sucess Moringa olifeira is a fast growing tres are ideal. Once established within a few months Moringa leaves and seedpods become a renewable and constantly available rich source of much needed nutrition.  

Moringa will hopefully become a ‘normal’ addition to most meals in our villages over the years. In project reports for the last year you can see quite a few photos about our sucessful moringa planting projects. Convincing people to eat (and for that purpose alone grow more) Moringa requires creative approaches, such as solar cooked noodles soup with Moringa leaves for our students. Children enjoying a meal might convince parents that it is 'worth a try' better than talks by the head teacher or paramedic.

We still plant Moringa oleifera first and foremost as a vegetable (tree). The best way to introduce a new food is by eating it, letting your taste buds be the judge (yes, many of us know the power of free food samples…)

Sharing food with others in Madagascar is a challenge due to customs and cultural traditions that elaborating goes beyond the scope off this project report. To make a long story short: you cannot just prepare a Moringa dish and take it to a meeting e.g. at the ministry of health and let everybody try this ‘new’ food. Since “learning by eating’ is complicated, we chose the next best route: a YouTube video. Madagascar is no exception, in the cities, especially decision-makers and department heads, make use of their Internet access a lot. We created this video that explains step-by-step, from three to plate, how to make a Moringa omelet that basically requires two ingredients: eggs and Moringa leaves. Both available for free, if you grow Moringa trees and raise chicken next to your house.

It is our hope that people in Madagascar, and now you as well, click on the video link and watch our four-minute video “A Moringa leaf omelette by Zahana”. Some of you might hopefully feel compelled to try it out for yourselves. It is indeed very tasty.

PS: In addition we created the Instagram account moringainhawaii that shows pictures of dishes using all parts of the moringa plant - in a real kitchen. Instagram allows a visit and a peek into possibilities for anybody around the globe.

Links:

• Cooking with Moringa on Instagram

Planting Moringa trees is a long-term strategy. Getting school children involved means planting a seed (literally) that will hopefully provide them with a lifelong food source, for them and later their children.

Growing Moringa from seed can be tricky. Many experts recommend to grow the seedling for at least three months, in a pot first and then transplant it to its final location. 

The Moringa seedlings planted by the students in one of the beds of their school garden, is such an experiment. After all there is no better learning experience than putting it to the test in a garden they visit every day.

After a month or two when the tree has taken root, the first leaves can already be harvested. These leaves added, for example, into the school’s soup, provides all the nutritional benefits, grown right there on location.