A collective protest erupted in our house last week when in the news, a carinderia owner said that they will no longer offer sisig, a pork dish acknowledged by Anthony Bourdain, due to high cost of bird's eye chili peppers or siling labuyo, as expensive as P1k for 1 kilo, among other commodities. Memes have erupted on socmed, from chili peppers being used as currency to claims of being rich due to chili pepper plant ownership.
In a news report two weeks ago, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol encouraged the public to plant chili peppers. And I guess, he also meant, other vegetables.
Here's the thing, while it's a good idea to plant vegetables, where I am at, I think several pots, even a 3x3 meter plot, could only augment, not sustain the entire vegetable needs of a family of five. It's not like you can harvest vegetables from said plot everyday or you can plant any vegetables without thinking about weather conditions. Still, a couple of pesos shaved off the food budget plus the thrill of plucking edible leaves or produce from the garden or potted plant brigade is a great incentive to grow veggies. And crops and fruits.
From experience, chili peppers are indeed easy to grow. When we were kids, we had a small plot of chili pepper plants in our yard which we fondly called silly/sili garden because the chili pepper plants were thriving like silly. They had to go when the folks expanded the house.
Right now, we have several potted chili pepper plants, some bird's eye chili peppers, some bell peppers. We've never used fertilizers or pest control (unlike string beans which weaver ants seem to be particularly fond of) on them. We have noticed that bird's eye chili peppers love the sun and don't like too much water. When the rains came last July, their leaves shriveled up and they stopped bearing fruits. So I guess it is a good idea to leave them outdoors when it's sunny and shelter them when it rains.
Aside from chili peppers and string beans, we have a tomato plant which favors cold weather.
Mung beans or munggo. The pods can be harvested once they turn black from green. Peel apart the pods to reveal the beans. You need lots of pods as you'd get just a fistful of beans from a bunch of pods.
Moringa or malunggay. Also does not seem to like too much water. Leaves of our moringa tree turn yellow during rainy seasons.
I don't think carinderia and restaurant owners will start growing their own vegetables. More likely they will tweak their portions or menu and stop offering items that use costly ingredients. Just like what that carinderia owner said in the interview. Cabbage was conspicuously absent in the pancit malabon we recently got from one of the neighborhood's panciteria. I hear the nearby inasal place now only provides bird's eye chili peppers if you ask for them instead of including them with your order. Right now, I'm on a sisig spree since the carinderia in our neighborhood still offers it.
Know what ought to be cheaper nowadays because of the rainy season? Water spinach or kangkong. The rice fields turned swamp land between our street and the highway is just teeming with them. Might as well hunt for kangkong recipes online.
In a news report two weeks ago, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol encouraged the public to plant chili peppers. And I guess, he also meant, other vegetables.
Here's the thing, while it's a good idea to plant vegetables, where I am at, I think several pots, even a 3x3 meter plot, could only augment, not sustain the entire vegetable needs of a family of five. It's not like you can harvest vegetables from said plot everyday or you can plant any vegetables without thinking about weather conditions. Still, a couple of pesos shaved off the food budget plus the thrill of plucking edible leaves or produce from the garden or potted plant brigade is a great incentive to grow veggies. And crops and fruits.
From experience, chili peppers are indeed easy to grow. When we were kids, we had a small plot of chili pepper plants in our yard which we fondly called silly/sili garden because the chili pepper plants were thriving like silly. They had to go when the folks expanded the house.
Right now, we have several potted chili pepper plants, some bird's eye chili peppers, some bell peppers. We've never used fertilizers or pest control (unlike string beans which weaver ants seem to be particularly fond of) on them. We have noticed that bird's eye chili peppers love the sun and don't like too much water. When the rains came last July, their leaves shriveled up and they stopped bearing fruits. So I guess it is a good idea to leave them outdoors when it's sunny and shelter them when it rains.
Aside from chili peppers and string beans, we have a tomato plant which favors cold weather.
Mung beans or munggo. The pods can be harvested once they turn black from green. Peel apart the pods to reveal the beans. You need lots of pods as you'd get just a fistful of beans from a bunch of pods.
Moringa or malunggay. Also does not seem to like too much water. Leaves of our moringa tree turn yellow during rainy seasons.
I don't think carinderia and restaurant owners will start growing their own vegetables. More likely they will tweak their portions or menu and stop offering items that use costly ingredients. Just like what that carinderia owner said in the interview. Cabbage was conspicuously absent in the pancit malabon we recently got from one of the neighborhood's panciteria. I hear the nearby inasal place now only provides bird's eye chili peppers if you ask for them instead of including them with your order. Right now, I'm on a sisig spree since the carinderia in our neighborhood still offers it.
Know what ought to be cheaper nowadays because of the rainy season? Water spinach or kangkong. The rice fields turned swamp land between our street and the highway is just teeming with them. Might as well hunt for kangkong recipes online.
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