A new neighbor and more moringa

By Matt

When we arrived back in Catacamas we were happy to find a new volunteer living right next door with Doris and the family. Jordan Fox has been to Honduras before on short term trips with the Carpenteros and now is spending about 5 months here as a volunteer. I am happy to have him around because I have all kinds of ideas about how he could help us out with the agriculture program.



In fact, he has been helping out already by harvesting Moringa seeds. After we became familiar with the Moringa trees that were produced from seeds that came from ECHO we noticed that there were some very similar trees in the neighborhood. I took pictures of the leaves, seeds, pods, etc. and sent the data back to the scientists at ECHO to verify that it actually is Moringa Oleifera. We were happy to find out that yes these local trees were Moringa. The best part is that we now have a local (cheap) source of seeds for the program. Anyway, before leaving for the states I had told a local family that I would pay them for the seeds if they would harvest them for me. When we got back the kids came over and told me the seeds were ready. I was able to purchase them with a little bit of the money we raised with the greeting card fundraiser back in the US. Jordan and a few kids from the barrio helped to shell and sort the seeds.

We also found some moringa that had branches big enough to be cut and planted (producing a new tree). We paid the neighbor about $15 for 70 branches and brought them out to the folks involved in the hog raising project in El Guanabano. Moringa can serve as part of the diet for the pigs so, they are planting as much as they can right now.

We were also able to see how the moringa seedlings they had planted earlier are doing: at this point; Todo Cheque! (its all good!)