One of the fun things about our job as missionaries is seeing the wonderful things around us that God has provided Africa (as well as many other developing countries). The one that we are focusing on at the moment is the Moringa tree. From one seed that we planted about three years ago, we have planted now about 50 more trees. The entire tree is edible by humans and livestock and is highly nutritious. Just as an example, Moringa fresh leaves have:
7 times the Vitamin C of Oranges
4 times the Calcium of Milk
3 times the Potassium of Bananas
2 times the Protein of Yogurt
4 times the Vitamin A of Carrots
Dried leaves (gram for gram) contain:
10 times the Vitamin A of Carrots
1/2 the Vitamin C or Oranges (vitamin C loses its potency with the processing)
17 times the calcium of milk
15 times the potassium of bananas
25 times the iron of spinach
9 times the protein of yogurt
But there is so much more! God has provided this wonder tree to prevent and treat malnutrition. It provides so many vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, we are now using it instead of our expensive vitamins that we get from the US.
Starting with our workers, we are trying to introduce this nutrition with those we know within our scope of ministry. We have no capsules to use for distributing the powder, but we are adding it to foods we normally eat. Moringa powder has very little taste, so it works well with mixing it with our food.
We strip the leaves off the tree (they are pretty small). Then we dry them in an empty room free from dust and pests. They dry for about 2 or 3 days. After that we pick through to remove stems and discolored leaves.
We use an attachment that came with our blender to grind the leaves into powder. It is small so it can take an entire day to process this way. Hopefully we will find better ways to do this processing. Since Malawians don't have this machine, it will be better for us to use methods they would use to teach them.
Then the powder has to be sifted to remove pieces of the stems, etc. that didn't grind. This produces a fine powder that is rich and green in color. One grocery-sized bag of leaves produced only three snack-sized bags of the powder. One of these small bags would provide an average healthy adult with nutrition for a few weeks.This tree can cure malnutrition and many diseases. The seeds can be used to purify water and oil can be extracted for many uses. For more about moringa, click on this link: http://www.treesforlife.org/our-work/our-initiatives/moringa/moringa-tree.
