Foot and Fire

Peanut butter tree is a prolific tree once it starts to give out its pretty yellow blooms. This tree only grows 6ft tall and usually cherished ornamentally for its tiny but bunching yellow flowers.  Our tree started out as a housewarming gift and we planted it on the ground about 3 years ago. After a year, it grew and gave out fruits. This is an annual plant.  Since we have this, there are resident birds in our place. The birds love the reddish fruit very much. PBF has this texture of a mashed potato and sweetness of dates and sweetpotatoes combined.  The first time it fruited, I usually pick out the mushy red. But as months passed, it bore more fruits. I harvest the red orange ones and let it ripen in the kitchen area and later, outside the house. But then, fruitflies and other insects feast on them. So the only challenge that I had then was in keeping it long.  But I now I put the red-orange fruit in a container and put it in the...

MY GINGER STORY. If you go to the wetmarket often, one realizes that ginger prices go up and down. But ginger can't be preserved except through powder form but I love it fresh. It is one important spice that can do magic to a simple dish from Visayan "pinamalhan" or fish stew in vinegar and soysauce to any curry dish. Thus, it helps to have them in handy.  I just harvested mine yesterday and others will be harvested as next batch. It is harvest time when the leaves are yellowing and wilting. The new shoots have new standing stem ready to shed leaves and they should be planted again. I have 10 new shoots yesterday after harvesting the biggest tuber. The tip is, ginger should be planted in a sandy area so that its rhizome can freely roam underneath, and also it would be easy to harvest when the soil is loose and not clayish.  This is one travel I want to take - food gardening - and I am learning a lot.  #farmingfairiesdiary

MY PERILLA STORY: From 200 seeds and 4 kinds I bought online, only 4 plants and 1 kind grew. I let the plant mature, harvested some leaves and tried them and loved them. It has no intrusive taste, it is not hardy but hard enough not to breakdown when used as wraps. It is a mint family so its stem is succulent but the flavor is subtle. When they flowered, I let them be until they wilted and got all the seeds. Now, I have the 1st generation of perilla in my garden as I sow all the seeds and they made me wait anxiously a bit before they rose up and waved some leaves to me. Started transferring them now.  Wraps soon for a K and Jap Lunch. 3.3.21 #farmingfairiesdiary

MY #TOMATO STORY. Beware of what you asked for. I was intrigued by tomatoes and chilipeppers. They are the kind which does not grow where you want them to be. They thrive in places where I don't want them to be. So it's my dream to have plots of them.  I plotted tomatoes and potted some. (Chili pepper will be on another post). I asked for tomatoes and a friend sent me mixed seeds of heirloom tomatoes. Now, I am mothering a lot of them.  They are nutrient hungry and they need care from pests. Every two weeks, I gather the eggshells we saved to turn them into calcium phosphate. The pests kill the leaves, the fungus must have wilted the healthy ones. The resilient varieties thrived and fruited well. I feel rewarded each time I pick some cherry tomato and pop them in my mouth. I have a lot to learn but since I asked for this, I am determined to grow them.  Peach and Oval or grape-shaped tomatoes #farmingfairiesdiary #urbangardening #heirloo...

My pizza toppings include wilted brazilian spinach and it went well with anchovies I really love my Brazilian Spinach. First, it is easy to grow from cuttings and it loves constant harvest. Second, it does not interfere in the overall taste of what I cook. Third, it is nutrient-rich given its lush green color. Fourth, it gives confidence for my friends who doubt their chances of growing plants.  In this blog, I would like to feature my two friends who seem to enjoy the leaves of their green thumb! My other friend loves it as salad and serve it with eggs, but I missed to save the photo she sent. The fried rice with eggs and chopped brazilian spinach by Che. The Japanese noodle soup with sardines, mushrooms and brazilian spinach by Virgie If you want some brazilian spinach cuttings, feel free to message me. 

Kyuri Cucumber is my newest produce, along with French beans. I harvest two cucus and a handful of beans this weekend.  Added something to our table and oxygen to the earth is my satisfaction this pandemic. It has been a personal pledge to strive to do this beyond pandemic and wherever I will be in the next years. Travelling, being away from the routine  is a necessary break but it can also be a taxing endeavor for the warming earth. So I found my amends for my travel days in the past through gardening.  I wish the photos of my food garden will inspire you to at least throw seeds where they can grow much and well.  If you can't plant yet, throw fruit seeds in mountainous areas. A few years of having those trees grow add oxygen to mother earth plus food to our birds.

Every cook's dream is to have a garden of herbs and fresh vegetables. When one cooks, as when one merely eats, one understands the importance of freshness and nutrients. It is when one cooks that one understands food preservation as opposed to serving not fresh, non nutritious food. Now that I have a spare lot behind my house and using the gift money I received for my 2018 which was originally planned to be invested in ornamental garden, I had a greenhouse constructed in 2020. From my garden, I learned a lot. Here are what I gather so far. 1) Zucchini seeds sprouted and flowered but did not result into fruition.  2) Cucumbers are easy to grow and they gave me lots. I had the prolific shotgun and the long pretty but not-so-abundant japanese cucumber. at present, I am nursing Kyuri to maturity which I think I can enjoy by March. 3) Tomatoes are so stressful to take care as they are nutrient hungry. I gather eggshells and mix them with coconut vineg...

My friend and I has been discussing about what we should be planting in our gardens now that the pandemic seems to stay for another six months. We were both entertaining the idea of ditching our ornamental plants which took up spaces in our garden.  She is raising and harvesting patola and guayabano now. She also enjoyed her tambis earlier this year. All of that aside from her usual greens of camote tops, alugbati or malvar spinach and others. My friend is one of the lucky few who left Hubei province with clean bill of health at the time when China struggled with the COVID19 outbreak. My friend lamented that she does not have money now and she has to go to the city proper to have her RMB changed but going to the city proper is getting scarier each day. She was happy the other day because she sold her patola and raised P180 pesos. I suggested that she sell her ornamentals or barter them with seeds of food plants. She entertained the idea right away since it seems that th...