1000 Moringas: What does the future hold? Will this post get 919 votes in the next 7 days?

#1000Moringas: now at 81 votes. 81 trees will be planted and donated to food banks, schools, senior centers, Habitat for Humanity, plus given away on Craigslist.

The Fortune Teller says: I see many Moringa trees in your future.

It's been a week since I decided to plant 1000 Moringa Oleifera Trees. Moringa Oleifera trees are very fast-growing edible perennial trees that produce nutrient dense leaves and seeds.

The leaves are great in stir fry dishes or soups. Moringas produce large amounts of pods that can be eaten like okra or asparagus; they produce so many pods that Moringas are known as the "Drumstick Tree" in some countries. The pods hold large, edible seeds that can be pressed for oil. Even the flowers of this tree are edible.

Today I'm including photos of flowers, leaves and pods both on the tree, and ready for market.

Young Moringa Oleifera tree. You can purchase one of these for $24.95 at http://paisleyfc.com/, price includes shipping within the continental United States. I purchased 1000 organic Moringa Oleifera PKM1 seeds from Linda at Paisley. They are waiting for me in my PO Box as I write this.

Tree bearing flowers and green pods.

While this is a good photo, I've see pictures of trees with more prolific crops of seed pods that belong to various website owners. I'll track down a better photo and request permission to use it here.

There's a Moringa farm in Hawaii that sells vast quantities of huge bundles of these leaves every week. I'll include that video in an upcoming post.

Wait until you see photos of these pods cooked in sauce. Nom-noms.

I haven't seen a recipe for the flowers...yet. I'm curious about that one!

Next week: progress report, link to video of amazing Moringa tree farm/plantation in Hawaii and interview with the great farmer/businesswoman who grows, markets, and sings the praises of Moringa trees high and low, everywhere she goes.

Hope to see you then.

Authors note: Photo of fortune teller, public domain; all other photos licensed under Creative Commons, free to share.