More, More Moringa Harvest

Mixing the moringa leaves while they are air dried is important so the leaves will dry easily.

It's finally rainy season! Rainy season for us means more moringa leaf harvest. More leaf harvest means more moringa dried leaves and powder that we can process further into various products.

Harvest day. This is just one of those days when we harvest moringa leaves....

This is Jemboy busy getting leaves that will be further sorted by our leaf sorters in the processing facility.

Moringa leaves still attached to the stems. They will be placed in the plastic crates afterwards.

Moringa harvest now being loaded to our three wheels.

Careful unloading of freshly harvested moringa leaves from the farm.

Gle, our farm staff unloading the harvested moringa leaves. The sorting ladies can't wait to get their hands on those leaves!

The leaf sorters now busy at work sorting bad moringa leaves and stripping the good ones.

Moringa leaf sorting and stripping in progress

Serious at work. Look at how fresh those moringa leaves are!

Moringa leaf harvest on another day.

Moringa leaves are mechanically dried using a dehydrator after air drying them.

               

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Moringa Harvest Day

It's moringa harvest day! We have been finding ways to combat the dry spell here in Palawan for the past months, and today, we are finally able to harvest some leaves for drying.

We use organic and natural fertilizers and pesticides on our trees and plants in the farm, so our moringa trees produce leaves in smaller amounts, BUT in the long term, we are contributing to the protection of the environment. :)

We don't let our trees grow higher than 3 meters, so that it is easy for us to reach the stems for harvesting. 

Fresh, green, all natural and organically-grown moringa leaves ready for drying!

Dried Malunggay (Moringa) Leaves and Powder

Our second harvest! This time, we harvested malunggay (moringa) leaves from 400 malunggay trees in our farm! It's the second time we harvested and dried malunggay (moringa) leaves straight from our farm. To maintain the freshness of the moringa leaves, we wash, dry and process them immediately after harvesting. 

Dried Moringa Leaves

Dried Moringa Leaves

Dried Moringa Leaves, ready for processing into tea

Moringa Powder ready for consumption!

Mechanical Drying of Malunggay (Moringa) Leaves

Three days after air drying, our malunggay (moringa) leaves are ready for mechanical hot air drying. Humidity these days is very high due to the rainy season, so we spread out the moringa leaves that have been stripped off the stems on trays to make sure the moringa leaves dry completely. 

The finished product: Dried moringa leaves! These leaves can now be made into powder, added to any food or beverage, or any meal to make it more nutritious.

Drying Malunggay (Moringa) Leaves

Immediately after harvesting the leaves, we transported them to our drying area. We harvested the leaves in the morning so we have plenty of time to sort and clean the leaves. Our workers then wash the leaves in water with salt solution to get rid of insects, dust, and dirt.

          

Air-drying the moringa leaves. We hang the leaves to dry in our drying area protected from sunlight, dust and pests.

Day 2 air drying. We hang them in net bags so that it is easier to remove the leaves off the stems.

First Malunggay (Moringa) Leaf Harvest

We started planting moringa seeds in February this year, transplanted the young seedlings in April, and now we are harvesting for the first time. We harvested a total of 700 trees, but we forgot to weigh how much fresh leaves we were able to harvest. We will weigh the leaves next time we harvest again. 

1. Pruning and harvesting at the same time

2. Trimming selected branches. We left some branches for our next harvest.

3. Transporting the leaves to our drying area

Moringa Leaves Drying Room

Moringa leaves should never be dried under the sun. Sun drying strips the moringa leaves of Vitamins A and C, Folic Acid, and essential B vitamins. In addition, the chlorophyll which is responsible for the antioxidant benefits we get from consuming moringa leaves is reduced when the leaves are sun dried.

The best way to dry moringa leaves is to dry them first in a clean facility, away from direct sunlight and protected from rodents, insects, and dust.

Since we are in the testing stage, we made a small drying room where we can dry the moringa leaves.

Our drying room is a construction in progress. We will paint the floor of this drying area to prevent concrete dusting and install doors soon.