Three weeks after sowing and the pumpkin seedlings are doing good so are the winged beans and the hyacinth beans. I actually planted the winged beans on the ground yesterday. I like to wait a little bit for the pumpkin and the hyacinth beans plus I need to make room for them. They need room to grow, especially the pumpkin. I already have some long beans planted and the chayote is starting to flower now. It’s going to be crowded in my garden.
Bixa Orellana Achuete is probably the most important ingredient in the Filipino cuisine. The bright red color that imparts in the food makes the food more palatable and presentable. It is most used in recipes that we inherited from the Spaniards like the dish we call “menudo” or the famous “paella”. Achuete is an evergreen,…
Breadfruit is called ‘rimas’ in the Philippines. It is a fruit and vegetable at the same time. We eat the fruit by boiling or grilling and steaming. My grandma always serve us breakfast of boiled “rimas” and freshly grated coconut with sugar. It’s so tasty and good for your health too. It has a texture…
Snow Peas are one of my favorite vegetables. It is sweet and crunchy especially when it’s fresh. I eat them while gathering in my garden and I sometimes run out of beans to cook. Now is the time to plant this succulent vegetables. It is a little bit cooler and the rains we are having…
I just started some long beans seeds (sitaw). Not all of them showed up yet but this is what it looks like when they emerge from the soil. It’s not quite ready for transplanting yet. I have to wait for what they call “true” leaves before moving them to the garden bed. I already set…
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…
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. …