Neem Tree Farms

2006-09-20T05:02:00.000-07:00

Some days, things just go right. Yesterday was one of them. As you may know, we’ve been testing a new anti-itch formula. One customer in Oklahoma has had such good results that he sent me a spectacular arrangement of iris (my favorite flower that won’t grow in Florida). Thanks Jack!!! Then another customer called and wanted to know if we sold it in gallons instead of ounces.

One more bit of good news, although it didn’t start out that way. I opened a big gate that usually stays closed and discovered the hard way that yellow jackets had built a giant nest under one of the supports. I got five or six good stings on one spot on my leg so I decided to try the new formula on myself. When I got up this morning, the stings I knew about were practically invisible and didn’t itch. That was good, but even better was discovering one more sting on my ankle that hadn’t hurt at the time, probably because it was the only sting on that part of my leg. It’s swollen and itching now, but it made it clear how good this new formula is going to be.

2006-09-15T06:58:00.000-07:00

This time of year is always so incredible for people growing neem. Sprouting seeds just have this awesome charm – anyone who walks in the greenhouse is immediately drawn to them – almost like babies and puppies get more attention than teens and dogs.

This year’s crop is no different except it’s the first in years that we haven’t had professionally harvested seeds from Mexico. Every single sprout came from a seed that Donna or I picked up from underneath a tree. My middle-aged body doesn’t always appreciate hours slinking along on my hands and knees -- or backside when my knees give out! -- but it’s been a great opportunity to slow down and smell the compost. (Nobody who knows neem would call them roses but compost is great too!)

The really odd thing about neem trees is that the leaf and oil taste horrible, but the fruit and flowers are highly attractive to birds and bees. I haven’t seen any scientific studies but it does make sense. The flowers attract bees because they need pollination and the fruit tastes good so birds eat it and then “deposit” seeds further away than wind would blow them. At the same time, the leaves repel insects that might eat them -- with no benefit for the tree -- and the oil tastes bad so the birds don’t chew up the seeds.

I haven’t figured a logical reason out why neem has all the other qualities it has, but sitting under the trees reminds me why Hindus believe it is blessed. I've had a crazy couple of months rewriting the website from scratch to focus on the recent medical research, and taking the time to pick up seeds and watch them sprout has been a real blessing in my life.

I'll write more next week when the new website is up!

2006-09-07T23:47:00.000-07:00

Summer Greenhouse Musings

What an incredible year this has been -- so incredible that it's been difficult to sit down and write the blog. I promise to do better!

The greenhouse is overflowing with spectacular plants, some of last year's seedlings are now more than two feet tall, and this year's crop looks like it's going to be even better. We missed getting any Mexican seeds in a series of miscommunications but it looks like the trees in Key West will more than make up for it.

The funny thing is, I really thought we had lost those trees. They went through four major storms last year -- including Dennis, Katrina, Rita and Wilma -- and lost every leaf every time. After Wilma, they stood in 2.5 feet of salt water in the worst storm surge seen on the island in at least 100 years. It wasn't until late this spring that they grew new leaves and you could see a few sporadic flowers if you looked hard.

I flew home last week for Hurricane Ernesto -- my mother has lived there her entire life and won't leave -- and was absolutely astonished to see hundreds of seeds on their patio and even more still up in the trees. Somehow they'd managed to ripen without anyone even noticing them. We were lucky again and Ernesto blew just hard enough to knock the rest of the ripe seeds to the ground so I could pack them up and bring them back to the greenhouse in Brandon.

Some of them had started to sprout even before we could get them in pots and they're coming up now with a vengeance. The trees here are fruiting too, so we should have seedlings available for quite a while. We won't be able to ship seeds overseas though, because all the trees we're harvesting from are too high to pick the seeds before they hit the ground. Governments don't like that because they could pick up a disease -- not that anything is likely to attach itself to a neem seed, but it's the law and we obviously need to follow it.

We'll start shipping the sprouted seeds in the US beginning Monday with the same special offer for regular customers as we're making on most other greenhouse products -- buy one set and get one for half off. The price on the sprouts hasn't changed -- they $10 for 10 or $15 for 20. You have to ask for the special though, just include a note in the comment section.

Thanks for your patience -- I'll write again soon, we've got some really great things happening on the research front (compiling the nearly 500 articles PubMed on neem into easy-to-search reports) and new products, including an anti-itch formula that's getting rave reviews from the people who have tried it!

2005-12-29T12:25:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Neem Tree Farms blog. We're relatively new at this, but so many new things are happening in the world of neem we wanted to create a fast easy way to tell the rest of the world.

Government restrictions mean we are somewhat limited in using anecdotal reports, although we do maintain meticulous files filled with information our customers provide on how they use neem and its impact it has on their health.

Judging by the phone calls and emails we have been receiving recently, avian flu is a top concern for many people. I'm very sorry to say that we are not aware of any research that indicates neem would be an instant cure-all in a viral pandemic. Several studies over the past five or six years confirm neem's traditional use as an antiviral agent -- at least in animals and in test tubes -- but its most important attribute may be its immune-boosting compounds.

John Conrick, president of the Neem Association, wrote two articles on neem and immune systems and the antiviral compounds in neem that are currently posted on our site. One-click links are
http://www.neemtreefarms.com/antiviral.html and http://www.neemtreefarms.com/immune.html. Both are written in English -- not medical jargon -- and include links back to the National Institutes of Health website where abstracts are available at no charge.