Spekboom: The Next Hot Superfood

River Goddess' Dwelling 

My first introduction to Skepboom was majestic, to say the least.  A goddess woman who lives where 11 rivers cross showed me the light in her surreal valley, here in South Africa.  To be honest, it was her granddaughter whom introduced me to it first, the angel toddler pranced over to the plant in one of their many gardens and said, "Spekboom" in that 'cute as can be' baby voice.  I thought to myself, this is magic, a two year old is teaching me about a plant which was new to me at the time.  She proceeded to pluck a waxy little leaf off, ate it and then passed one over to me for consumption. There we were experiencing the zesty plant together in peace.  After this first taste the river goddess grandmother made a home grown salad, which included much of this Spekboom.  It was amazing, lemon meets rocket meets caucus kind of vibe.  And from then on it was only matter of time till I became obsessed with the little sucker.  Like all river goddesses, this Mama gave me a huge bundle of Spekboom clippings, with easy instructions on how to plant it out.  Leaving the valley I was ready to plant and salad my way with this illustrious plant, never to look back on a life without it. All hail, Spekboom!
   

This plant is a survivor, there are no two ways about it!  It is fire resistant, drought resistant, can live through the hot African summers and the cold African winters.  Not only can it endure the seasons well, but it can even switch gears from a wet climate to a dry climate, Spekboom's adaptability is uncanny.  Once developed, Spekboom will literally grow and carry on with resilience no matter what odds come against it. Furthermore, Spekboom has a super power to capture carbon, and a ton of it!  It has recently become a symbol of carbon emissions here in South Africa, schools and farmers have been on a mission to plant as much of this super plant as possible to help relieve the ecosystem.

Planting Skepboom is too easy.  My river goddess simply clipped off a few branches from her plants and instructed me to simply stick them into the Earth, water them every other day till roots were established then simply allow them to adapt to our corner of the world.  Our plants are doing very well with these simple instructions, and we seem to constantly find more spaces to propagate more and more Spekboom around the property.

As for the nutritional benefits of Spekboom, the river goddess told me that if I eat 2 leaves of Spekboom a day that I will have my daily needs of Vitamin C covered!  Not only does Skpeboom have large amounts of Vitamin C, but it also contains protein, B vitamins, calcium, phosphorus, and iron. No wonder elephants live off of this super food!


Super Hot, Super Food Skepboom Salad Recipe

 Supplies List:

1. 5 Stems of Spekboom
2. 2 Large Tomatoes or 2 Cups of Cherry Tomatoes 
3. 1/2 Head of Red Cabbage
4. 1/2 Cucumber
5. 2 Carrots 
6. 1 Red Pepper 
7. 1 Big Hand Full of Fresh Herbs (Mint, Basil, Coriander, Parsly...or whatever you have in your garden)
8. 1 Lemon
9. 2 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
10. Salt and Pepper 

Instructions:

Dice up tomatoes, red cabbage, cucumber, red pepper and herbs.  Place into a salad bowl.  Peal and grate carrots. Place into salad bowl. Pluck Spekboom leaves off from stems and add to the salad bowl.  Juice lemon and drizzle olive oil over salad, season with salt and pepper. Toss your delicious Spekboom salad and enjoy!


Happy Spekboom-ing!

Lots of Love,

Trish