Meet Grace De Souza, the 13-year-old from Goa who spent her summer break turning the moringa trees in her family’s backyard into a homemade powder business, watering plants at sunrise and serving customers from home

Photo courtesy: The Goan Homestead

For most children, summer vacations are a time to sleep a little longer, spend hours playing with friends and take a break from schoolwork. But for 13-year-old Grace de Souza from Goa, the holidays brought an entirely different routine. Her mornings began with watering plants, followed by hours of carefully sorting, drying and processing leaves. By the time the work was complete, the teenager had turned something growing in her family’s backyard into a product that people were willing to pay for.What makes her initiative particularly interesting is that it did not begin with an elaborate business plan or a desire to make money. It started with a simple observation: her family had moringa trees at home, but many other households did not. Grace wondered if she could make the leaves available to people who wanted to include them in their everyday food.The idea eventually became her own small summer venture, producing and selling homemade moringa powder.

How Grace turned two backyard trees into a small business

Grace lives in Moira, Goa, and is a Class 9 student at St Mary’s Convent High School in Mapusa. She began making moringa powder on May 1, 2026, using leaves harvested from the two moringa trees in her family’s garden, as per a report by The Better India.Her interest in the plant developed gradually. Moringa was already a familiar ingredient in the de Souza household. Her mother, Maria de Mello, regularly incorporated its leaves into dal, soups, khichdi, rice and even smoothies for Grace’s baby brother.Growing up, Grace had also watched her mother prepare homemade products for customers. Maria runs a small home-based venture called The Goan Homestead, which sells pickles, jams, masalas, coconut oil, handmade soaps and ready-to-eat food.Grace often sat beside her mother, observing how different products were prepared. Sometimes, she helped pack orders or stick labels on products.“I used to sit beside my mother and watch everything she made. Sometimes I would help her pack products or stick labels, and sometimes I would just sit quietly and watch because I found it interesting,” Grace told the outlet.Over time, watching her mother work seems to have made the idea of creating something of her own feel natural.“We are lucky because we have two moringa trees in our garden. But many people don’t. I thought maybe I could make the powder so it becomes easier for them to use it,” she said.Her mother, meanwhile, was surprised by how quickly Grace moved from an idea to action.“This was completely her idea,” Maria told The Better India, recalling how her daughter wanted to make moringa powder for people who did not have the trees growing at home.

The three-to-four-day process behind every packet

Making the powder is not as simple as plucking a few leaves and grinding them. Grace follows a careful process that takes around three to four days to complete.She first harvests fresh leaves from the trees and separates the tiny leaves from their stems, one by one. The leaves are then spread across trays and kept in the sun for a day.After this, they are brought indoors for another two to three days of shade drying. Grace checks them regularly, turning the leaves so that they dry evenly.“Every hour I go back to check the leaves because the top layer dries quickly while the leaves underneath remain fresh, so I keep turning them properly to make sure everything dries evenly,” she explained.She is also particular about hygiene. The trays are kept in a clean, open space, away from animals and falling leaves. Once the leaves become sufficiently crisp, they are ground into a fine powder using a regular mixer grinder. Her parents help her seal the finished product into packets.One detail that surprised her was how much the leaves shrink during the process. According to Grace, one kilogram of fresh leaves produces only around 250 grams of powder.Each 100-gram packet is sold for Rs 150.

From 20 packets to nearly Rs 3,000 in earnings

In just over a month of starting the venture, Grace had sold approximately 20 packets and earned close to Rs 3,000.The customers are largely people who already visit her family’s home to purchase products from The Goan Homestead. Many notice the green moringa powder displayed alongside the other homemade products and enquire about it.Her earnings are currently being saved. Her mother allows her to keep the money she makes from selling the powder, giving her an opportunity to understand the value of the work that goes into earning it.The family has also started planting more moringa saplings as interest in the powder increases.

A summer routine that begins at sunrise

While the small venture has given Grace an opportunity to earn, it has also become part of her everyday responsibilities.Her mornings begin with watering the garden before the sun gets too hot. She also helps look after her one-year-old brother while her mother manages customer orders and the family’s home business.When customers visit, Grace helps her mother attend to them. Between household responsibilities and making the powder, her summer break has become a combination of gardening, learning and work.Importantly, she does not want to stop once school reopens. Grace told The Better India that she hopes to continue making moringa powder alongside her studies and may eventually experiment with other products.Her mother believes that such experiences teach children to understand the value of effort and responsibility. For Grace, however, the experience appears to be about more than earning money.She has discovered that an idea does not always need a big investment or a complicated plan to take shape. Sometimes, it can begin with something growing quietly in the backyard. And for this 13-year-old from Goa, two moringa trees were enough to get started.