I sowed seeds of pumpkins (kalabasa) along with winged beans (sigarilyas) and hyacinth beans (bataw) about a week and this is how they look like. The larger leaf is the pumpkin, the ones on the left is hyacinth beans, and the farthest left are the winged beans.
Mizuna is a Japanese green vegetable that is gaining popularity in the US. It is in the family of Brassicas which includes kale, rapini or broccoli rabe, broccoli and cauliflower. It is used mainly by Japanese in making soup for New Year celebration as sort of good luck. But its being used now in green…
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…
This is the pumpkin now after I helped it to be pollinated (notice I have also long beans in the same trellis). Two weeks after I hand-pollinated the female pumpkin flower, it has grown and almost ready to be picked. That’s one of the things that keep me going when it comes to gardening. Patience…
Jicama or singkamas is one of the favorite snacks during the summer season together with watermelon, cantaloupe and pineapple not to mention mango. In our province in Zambales, there is a town called San Marcelino which is the main producer of this succulent, crispy and sweet jicama. Lots of buses and cars stop in the…
Beans sprouts from Mung Beans-(Phaseolus aureus) – came from the seeds of the plant we call munggo or”vigna radiata”. These plants have long been cultivated in India, China, Thailand, Philippines and other Asian countries. Japan on the other hand cultivates soy bean sprouts(glycine max) and they call bean sprouts “moyashi”. In the Philippines, beans sprouts…
This is arugula seedlings after a few days of sowing them in the garden bed. They grow faster than lettuce. I like them in salads with different kinds of lettuce to add zing and interest to the palate. It has that distinct peppery flavor almost like radish or wasabi that makes the salad greens more…