Moringa - the never-die tree

Life of a Tree is a brand selling pure moringa products which are vegan, organic and ethical.

Femi, the founder of Life of a Tree, started his journey when he left the concrete jungle of Brixton for his love of farming which led him on a path back to nature. A path which broadened his horizons, gave him more self-worth, and gave him the opportunity to connect his customers back to nature.

We took some time to speak to him and find out more.

WHAT IS GREAT ABOUT MORINGA?

Moringa is brilliant to grow and it sells itself. It is so jam-packed with nutrients. It has 92 different nutrients, 46 antioxidants, 36 anti-inflammatories. It has 25 times more iron than spinach, more

calcium than milk, more potassium than bananas, it’s a superfood. And it’s hardy, it grows really well in all types of soil if you have the climate. In Africa they call it the ‘never-die-tree’ which is great because if your crop is a weed then it’s going to grow easily and it acts as a self fertiliser. It also means that no one wants to steal it, so we have never had to think about security.

WHY ORGANIC FARMING?

I have always praised organic, labour-intensive, farming. In fact, it shouldn’t be called organic farming, it should just be called farming and the new methods should be chemical farming or genetic farming.

HOW DID YOU COME TO HAVE A FARM IN NIGERIA?

It started when my college friend and I started intercropping garlic and ginger in between fields in his olive tree farm in Greece. It was straight after the economic crisis and people weren’t keen to work on the farm. So that got me thinking where is there lots of land, lots of work and something to grow? So I thought about moringa, which is amazing to grow, it needs a tropical climate, so I thought about Nigeria.

I was born in Nigeria but I had only been there once, I didn’t have any family members that were farmers I just knew someone that knew someone that knew someone. So I went out there blind with a dream and hope that I would find a farmer who could get onboard with my idea. Sure enough I hit it off with a farmer and we started intensively farming moringa. The locals all knew moringa as a weed, they had never seen intensive farming of it before.

We now have a 38-acre farm in Nigeria where we employ mainly women who grow moringa trees and process the leaves and seeds into organic pure products.

MORINGA PRODUCTS

Teabags Winner of the Great Taste award for multi-vitamin superfood

Oil Antiseptic and moisturiser for lips, dry skin or cuts.

Capsules Powdered moringa leaves in vegan capsules

Seeds Naturally caffeine-free energy

Powder from moringa leaves

TELL US ABOUT YOUR COLLABORATION WITH KANPAI

I met Tom sitting in Copeland park, we were thinking about making a healthy fermented tea, we decided to try fermenting moringa tea into kombocha. We start by brewing a moringa tea, then we add organic cane sugar and SCOBY (a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast).

The SCOBY digests the sugar and produces vinegar, which could then turn into alcohol but fermentation is stopped at the sweet spot before alcohol is produced. Where it is not too sweet, not too acidic, just tangy goodness, then we carbonate it. This non-alcoholic health drink, with living cultures, helps the digestive system and immune system, it is also high in B12 which is often lacking from a vegan diet.

BUY YOUR MORINGA PRODUCTS

Buy your moringa products and find out how the products are sourced and processed: www.lifeofatree.co.uk

Copeland Jerk Centre, Peckham Food Hall, Rye Lane Royal Maroon Herbs, Rye Lane Market,

Buy the kombucha from: Forza Win, Copeland Park Crow’s Nest, Peckham Levels.

GET IN TOUCH

Insta: lifeofatree.co.uk

Email: admin@lifeofatree.co.uk

Phone: +447824888635

Femi is also based between his kitchen and The Market - where you can find him most days.