Cucumber

Patola is what we call the luffa gourd. There are two types of this gourd but I am only familiar with the one that has angles or ridges on the skin. This is the specie called Luffa Acutangula. The other specie must have been introduced in the Philippines at a later date. We call it…

Sweet Basil (also known as Italian Basil) is the most used herb nowadays. That’s why I have it in the garden so I can readily pick the leaves if I need to make pesto or just plain use the leaves in pasta. I particularly like it in Penne Pasta Alfredo with Shrimp or Chicken. Sweet…

Kalabasa or pumpkin is a favorite vegetable of mine. I like to cook them in coconut milk with shrimp and a little bit of curry powder. It’s so delicious especially with ginger and lemon grass as added flavoring. It is easy to grow. When it starts to flower, you can gather the flowers too for…

Banana – (Musaceae) is by far the most widely known fruit in the world and the most cultivated.  The varieties of banana is so wide it is divided into 10 groups from the cavendish type to cooking bananas called plantains but the Philippines also have the cooking banana variety we call “saba” or “popo’ulu” in…

Bok Choy or Pechay is one of the earliest vegetable that I have encountered in the garden as a high school student. We were taught how to plant vegetables back then and the easiest to grow was the bok choy or pechay. I like to plant bok choy in my garden here but space is…

I have been experimenting on the types of lettuce that will grow well in my garden. So far I’m successful. Like this red oakleaf lettuce I planted a month ago. They are so good, crunchy and sweet. I like the red color in combination with the green leaves of the Manoa lettuce in my salad…