This is a blog following the progress of the Miracle Trees in the Study at Nottingham Contemporary, 22 Jan – 27 Mar 2011. Artist John Newling writes a weekly diary charting the ups and downs of looking after the Miracle Trees (Moringa Oleifera).
Find out about Nottingham Contemporary here http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/
About the Project
In March of 2010 John Newling was approached to develop a work in collaboration with Bronislaw Szerszynski of the Department of Sociology and the ESRC Centre for the Economic and the Social Aspects of Genomics (CESAGen), Lancaster University. The work that emerged ‘Synthia II (code / soil / life)’ consisted of Craig Venter’s synthetic life form ‘Synthia’. Growing in the soil was a Moringa Oleifera tree germinated by Newling in his studio.
During this time Newling germinated and attempted to grow 11 of these ‘generous’ trees. Often referred to as the Miracle Tree, the Moringa Oleifera is native to the southern foothills of the Himalayas in northwestern India. Gram for gram, Moringa leaves contain: seven times the vitamin C in oranges, four times the calcium in milk, four times the vitamin A in carrots, two times the protein in milk and three times the potassium in bananas. It is for this and other extraordinary properties of this tree that it has been referred to as the world’s most generous tree.
As part of his research Newling has been closely observing the growth of the trees and making pressings of the Moringa leaves and complete trees. Leaves from the Moringa are pressed in selected books and the work is complemented by a video documenting Newling’s recycling process of making the soil from which the Moringa grows, caring for the plants, and pressing their leaves.
This is a rare opportunity to study the growing trees first-hand, with only one other known example within the UK of a successfully cultivated tree, at the Eden Project in Cornwall. This is the first in a series of artist’s interventions in the Study
miracletrees 
Fantastic project!
The Moringa Oleifera tree is truly the “Tree of life”. Your blog is a great example and how-to for growing Moringa. I am with Encompass Foundation and we are a non-profit organization that has been working to establish Moringa cultivation in various locations around the world. While we have found that it can be used for a vast range of applications from nutrition to bio-fuel and medication, our current focus on Moringa is as a nutritional supplement for the malnourished with an emphasis on infants and nursing mothers.
We greatly enjoy your blog and look forward to your posts.
Please visit our site at http://www.encompassfoundation.org to download information and recipes for dishes made from with Moringa from our literature page.