Arugula Part 3

Sweet potato leaves are considered as an everyday food in the Philippines. It is served steamed and teamed with a dipping sauce we call fish bagoong. You can also use it as a substitute for “un choi” or “kangkong” in making “sinigang” which is a sour soup. I have this sweet potato planted in my…

Water chestnuts are synonymous to Chinese cuisine. They are the ones that makes water chestnuts popular all over the world except we only see them mostly in cans. Once in a while you will see them in Chinatown but you probably will not recognize it because they look like the corms of certain flowering plants…

The bittermelon plant in my garden really took off so fast because of the recent rains that we had. I actually had been gathering the fruits as well as the leaves which we use in soups like mung bean soup and chicken tinola which locals call Chicken Paraya. I have done a little research on…

After a week or so, I’ve been seeing cucumber flowers. I can’t wait to see what it looks like. That’s why it’s important that you label your seedlings to know what variety it is. In this case, I don’t know because a friend of mine just gave me the seeds. Anyways, pollination is important, so…

Upo or Long gourd (Lagenaria Siceraria) belongs to the family of cucurbits.  The gourd had been used primarily as a water container.  There are different shapes and sizes to choose from.  Cucuzzi is an Italian long gourd that also belongs to the same family.  Some are long and gnarly that they call it snake gourd. …

Caribbean hot peppers also known as Scotch Bonnet (because of their shape) is found mainly in the Caribbean Islands but widely used in West African dishes.  The peppers are scaled at 445,000 Scoville units and a cousin of habanero peppers. Its name was derived from the city of Cuba called La Habana, or Havana in…