Saturday, February 21, 2009

Moringa!

I will place bets that 90% of you (Ok, I know about 10 people read my posts, and my mom knows what this is-so she will be the one who knows...) do not know what this plant is. Until I visited ECHO in Florida a few years ago, I didn't know either. My sister-in-law now works for ECHO and mailed me some dried leaves from her personal plant today. I was so excited to get them! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???? Oh yeah...what it is. It is a Moringa tree. The leaves on it are highly nutritious and used in third world countries to help nourish people in poverty.

I happen to know it is super good for babies, and asked my sister-in-law to mail me some. #1 thinks it looks like pot. Especially since I got it in a baggie :o) So I ground it all down...


Then it was reduced to just a powder...and not much of it! Oh well. Baby J will be getting 1/2 tsp. every morning in his superporridge. Tonight though, I had to try it out so I put it in his sweet potato/tofu meal.

Oh, and it was so well recieved by one small boy. Even if it did make for a green sweet potato meal. I have done a little research on it and found that it helps with weight gain (yeah!), and increases milk supply in animals by 42-55% (yeah!). I know I'm not an "animal" in a crude scientific term that dehumanizes humans, but I am a mammal and trust me, I can use all the help I can get! So I will be rationing it out between the two of us...and plotting how I can grow my own plant here at home. THANK YOU Danielle for the 'pot', we will use every last bit...even the little bit you could see that spilled onto my stove in the picture got used.

4 comments:

Deb said...

How very interesting and educational! How big are these trees? Is it something that could be grown inside?

This has nothing to do with your post, but I was wondering what kind of liners you use in your diapers. I'm going to have to order more in the next few weeks, and all of the descriptions for all of the different kinds are pretty much the same. But you made it sound like you can wash yours more than the kind I have now, and that is always a plus.

Jess said...

Hey Jenney,
We get our toothpaste, Neem, from ECHO. We love it, and love what they stand for. It's a great place!

MamaBear said...

You said superporrige - Do you use the Super Baby Book recipes too?

I've never heard of Moringa - very interesting!

suzannah | the smitten word said...

this is so interesting! we need a little help in the weight-gain dept, too.

also, tell me more about this superporriage...not that i'd likely be able to get dylan to eat it--she's super wary of anything on a spoon.