Our weekly delivery from Juan Market arrived and we noticed that our pechay had beautiful yellow flowers. Inspired by its bright and happy color, we decided to create our own version of Pancit na Puti. Here’s our simple recipe:

INGREDIENTS

pancit na puti (vermicelli or any rice noodle)

EVCO (extra virgin coconut oil)

garlic

red onions

carrots

garden peas

cabbage and/or pechay

leeks

dried mushroom

natural sea salt

black pepper

edible flower

DIRECTIONS

Saute garlic & red onions in EVCO. Add carrots, cabbage/pechay, peas, leeks and dried mushroom. Stir-fry in medium heat for about 3-5 minutes.

During this time, you can soak your vermicelli or any rice noodle in hot water. Drain and add to the vegetables. Add salt & pepper.

In a big platter, arrange the pancit then top it with additional leeks (or spring onion) and of course, edible flowers.

Serve with calamansi, lime or lemon.

What beverage would go well with this simple yet filling dish?

]]> http://www.pinoyorganics.com/2012/02/24/pancit-na-puti/feed/ 0 http://www.pinoyorganics.com/2012/02/20/green-grocers/ http://www.pinoyorganics.com/2012/02/20/green-grocers/#comments Mon, 20 Feb 2012 03:15:09 +0000 PinoyOrganics http://www.pinoyorganics.com/?p=2345 We were happy to discover new green shops in two Central Business Districts. One of them is a healthy-eats restaurant-store – Sugarleaf.

We have visited their Greenhills branch a few months back but it was just too far from our usual itinerary. When we heard that they were opening a new branch in Makati, we made sure we drop by within their first two weeks of operation.

Upon entering the new branch, we knew this visit won’t be the last. There were two floors: first floor was a grocery store while the upper floor was the dining area. Since we were still full, we just ordered their turkey sandwich, and lemongrass tea. We liked our sandwich and the tea was refreshing.

If you want to learn how to prepare similar healthy snacks and dishes for your family and friends, join us on April 14th in “The Beauty of Raw”, another entertaining and lively raw food workshop from Sugarleaf.

According to co-owner and Marketing Manager, Angelo Songco, this workshop is a half-day raw food science lecture and gourmet raw food preparation class for those seeking an effective natural alternative to fad diets, surgery, weight loss treatments or depriving calorie restrictions.

Talented certified raw food chef and lifestyle coach Mona Lisa Neuboeck will share valuable raw food nutrition information, everyday raw lifestyle tips plus six (6) raw cuisine demonstrations with optional hands on experience and recipes to keep and share with your loved ones.

The other store worth-visiting is ECHOmarket.

Finally, organic and fresh food and produce are available in one place seven days a week in BGC! The freshest organic vegetable and fruit produce, free range chicken and meats, fresh milk and eggs, and artisan breads and cheeses are made available seven days a week at the newly opened ECHOmarket Sustainable Farms in Serendra. The latest brainchild of ECHOtrio (Chit Juan, Jeannie Javelosa, and Reena Francisco) behind ECHOstore Sustainable Lifestyle, ECHOmarket embraces the same philosophy of sustainability–supporting local food producers and organic farmer groups all over the country.

We dropped by last week and young and promising in-house chef, Angelo, and store manager, Lorna, showed us around their green store.

What got us excited was their chiller packed with salad greens, vegetables and ready-to-eat food items. On their racks were fresh fruits from organic farms. In another corner were accessories and dry-goods manufactured by various communities supported by the ECHOtrio Chit Juan, Jeannie Javellosa and Reena Francisco.

Visit Sugarleaf and ECHOmarket this week, and don’t forget to BYOB (Bring Your Own Bayong!)

Is there a hard-to-find staple that you want our two green grocers to source for you?

On our second day in Tacloban, we requested our host to bring us to their local market. She told me there are two  markets to choose from: one is their public market in downtown Tacloban and the other one is a Saturday market called “Tabo” in Palo, a municipality about 12 kilometeres from Tacloban. Of course we chose the latter.

Palo is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Leyte, Philippines. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 47,982 people in 9,272 households. Interestingly, Palo is a sister municipality of Palo Alto in California, USA. Because of this, the city of Palo Alto supports the development of Palo in Leyte. One of their grants was a children’s library. If you want to go to Tabo market, you can’t get lost because the children’s library is just right beside it.

There were several stalls surrounding the market so we decided to parked near the library. From afar, the market looked small. There were a few scattered vendors such as this “ginger man”.

After a few more stalls of vegetables, we turned right and was surprised to see this crowd in all directions. It was 7:30am.

It took us some time to find freshly harvested vegetables such as these carrots, which, according to the vendor, came from Davao.

Most vegetables sold in Tacloban are from Baguio, Davao and Cebu. Very few are locally grown in Leyte.

These tomatoes and cabbages were from Baguio.

We were cheered up by several rice cake vendors. One of them is this cassava cake vendor who grated cheese on top of her product with a big smile. Sarap!

By the way, please don’t leave without at least a box of this yummy delicacy called … yes, moron (Php5 each).

Beside the rice cake lane were seafood vendors. We spotted wild catfishes which were all sold in less than 15 minutes.

According to our hosts and some people we met, locals are not keen on farming. Their preferred livelihood is producing handicrafts such as mats, bags …

… and knives such as this long knife called ‘sundang’. Sundang is a multipurpose knife which is also used as a weapon. Farmers tie sundang around their waists (like a sword). We took this photo from afar. We’re wondering what the sundang vendor was saying to the young lady.

Even flowers are brought in from Cebu …

and of course, Baguio. Yes, all the way from Baguio. Vegetables and flowers are usually brought in to Manila first, then to Tacloban.

On our way back to our car, we passed the dry-goods section where we saw more animal feeds than rice for human consumption.

We found a locally-grown rice which we encouraged our accompanying host to try. It was sold at Php28 per kilo only.

Tapul or black rice was sold at Php70 per kilo.

Finally, we got out of the crowded market and was tempted to buy from this vendor.

Next time you’re in Leyte, visit Tabo Market. Try to be there around 6-6:30am to avoid the big crowd. If you’re staying in Palo, you can also ride their local trike or ‘sidecar’ at Php5 only (one-way).

Do you have a favorite provincial local market? If yes, why do you like it?

But there’s hope.

Here’s a video of Birke Baerh, an 11-year old homeschooled organic advocate. At age 9, while traveling with his family, Birke began studying sustainable and organic farming practices such as composting, vermiculture, canning and food preservation.

How about you? What is organic to you and your family?

Here are five bright green trends we expect to see this year:

1. ORGANIC WILL BE THE STANDARD

There will be a continued increase in everything and anything organic. We will see new products, new brands and innovative producers/manufacturers of organic products.

Filipinos will be conscious about their family’s health and wellness. This trend started in 2009 and it will remain the same – a slow yet steady uphill climb for the organic and health/wellness industries.

2. WOMEN WILL BE LEAD ORGANIC CONSUMERS

Not only will people become more conscious for the sake of fitness, but there will be an increase in number of organic consumers, especially women. Next in the lead pack are kids.

3. MORE LOCAL ORGANIC MARKETS AND CSAs

Gas prices are up. Not everybody can afford to travel from Fairview to Makati weekend markets every week. We see a trend of people setting up their own local community markets, CSA groups or similar efforts.

4. THE RISE OF FARM-TO-PLATE ADVOCATES

This year, Pinoys will go for greener options not only the foodies but the food industry as well. Culinary schools will add subjects related to organic agriculture. Chefs will be more innovative and creative in their use of local, fresh and organic ingredients.

Also, restaurants and hotels will partner with organic producers, and will choose organic over non-organic vegetables. Are you a restaurant owner or an F&B director? Want to be stand out? Go organic then innovate.

5. RENEWED INTEREST IN THE NEXT GENERATION TO LEARN ORGANIC AGRICULTURE

As demand for organic produce slowly increases, more and more traditional farmers and producers will start growing organically. More old and new agricultural businessmen would give organic a shot this year.

Here’s the good-to-great catch: this includes children and grandchildren of traditional farm owners initiating the conversion of their land to organic. With the next generation with us, our future looks brighter and greener! Go green, Philippines!

These are just some of our green “predictions” this year. As consumers, we encourage you to patronize your local market and farmers. Get to know them. Build a relationship with your CSA provider. Whatever you do, when possible, go local and choose organic.

Happy new year everyone and we wish you and your family a greener and healthier 2012!

Can you add at least one green prediction for 2012?

Photo Credit: (2012 Image) vectorstock.com

This is one of our favorite salads. It’s easy to prepare, very tasty and healthy, too. We just thrown in whatever salad greens and vegetables that’s in our refrigerator. Balsamic vinaegrette goes well with almost any salad greens. Add feta, pecorino or parmesan cheese  – that’s it!

Ingredients:

1 medium American cucumbers, sliced

1  medium Salad tomatoes, sliced

1 medium White onions, sliced

250g Romaine

125g any colored lettuce

few stems of Arugula (optional)

hardboiled egg, sliced

fresh local cheese

Dressing

¼ Balsamic Vinegar

2 tsp coco sugar

1 tbsp garlic, chopped

½ tsp sea salt

freshly ground pepper

Juice of one lemon

¾ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Basil or your favorite herbs (optional)

Here is our simple, no brainer, Garden Salad recipe:

Wash all greens and vegetables. Pat dry with a paper towel and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Get your prettiest and biggest ceramic bowl (presentation matters!) then mix and layer all salad greens (lettuce, arugula) with vegetables. You can add the salad dressing right before you serve it or serve it in a separate container. Top your salad with the cheese.

Best if your greens are freshly harvested and ingredients are organically-grown.

For the salad dressing, beat the vinegar in a bowl with the garlic, sugar, salt and pepper until sugar and salt dissolves. Add the oil by droplets, whisking constantly. Add lemon juice and herbs. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Do you love salads?

Here in the Philippines, we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving but about ten years ago, we started our own version of Thanksgiving celebration that is focused on gratefulness more than anything else. We usually invite close family and friends to a simple dinner and do our “Faith Goal List”. Each family member and guest writes on a blank sheet of paper his/her faith goals for the following year. We put it in a box, seal it and open it next Thanksgiving Day.

This week, we look forward to Thursday as we open our gold box and read our probably forgotten faith goals we wrote last year. It is just amazing how God answers everybody’s list – some usually have half of their list answered, others have a few, and some have their whole list answered! For the past 10 years, not a single person was left without even one unanswered faith goal.

Today, we thought of preparing for Thursday’s dinner. Here’s our draft menu, incorporating local ingredients to each dish:

Garden Salad

Cream of Squash & Zucchini

Baked Chicken

Arugula & Tomatoes Spaghetti

Organic Heritage  Rice

Piyaya by Fresh Organics

La Moderna Bakery of Guagua Artisan Pastries

Non-Dairy Ice Cream with Cacao Shavings

Lemongrass Iced Tea

Organic Coffee

Will finalize our recipes for these dishes and will share some with you. Happy Thanksgiving Day everyone!

Do you celebrate Thanksgiving Day, too?

We met Edilee during Agrilink 2009. Back then, her concentration was only personal care under the brands Milea Bath & Body Wellness Essentials and All Organics. Last year, she expanded and developed another specialty product line, Milea Baby.

Early this year, Edilee got into organic and natural farming, not only of fresh produce but wild Giant Asian Honeybees (Apis dorsata) as well. That’s why in the recent Agrilink 2011, we were excited to see her booth and the new products from Milea Orchard and Bee Farm.

Organic Honey

BENEFITS OF HONEY

Honey is one of the best of all nutritive sweeteners. Taking a spoonful of honey in the morning helps dissolve phlegm, gently warms up the stomach, strengthens it, washes away stomach viscidity and eliminates its sluggishness.

Drinking an infusion of honey and calamansi in the morning is healthier than most drinks that are sweetened with sugar, and is certainly better than artificially sweetened drinks. Honey strengthens the body, preserves its youth, as well as refreshes the spirit, stimulates the liver, and finally, honey stimulates the heart, and provides it with much needed energy and balance. When the heart is healthy, the vessels pump the blood easily, and the arteries carry the blood that is rich in nutrients to all parts of the body.

We tasted three variants of honey: narra, organic raw and combination of coconut, banana, acacia and bagrass. We liked the variant with banana and was happy to bring home a bottle for our multigrain pancakes!

THE WONDERS OF BEE POLLEN

Bee pollen has over 96 different nutrients and has been used in traditional Chinese and Ancient Egyptian herbal medicine for thousands of years. It contains every nutrient that is required to sustain human life and all the main antioxidants that have been discovered to date making it one of the most nutritionally complete natural substances we know of.

Bee Pollen

Bee pollen from coconut flowers increases stamina, heightens alertness, boosts mental capacity, burns and metabolizes fats, eliminates fatigue, eases hypertension, alleviates impotency, prevents prostate cancer, improves digestion and can combat depression. This is helpful and can be taken at night by students reviewing for exams or professionals who work at BPO/Call Center industry.

Bee Pollen may be taken before meals to help lose weight, during meals to maintain weight and after meals to gain weight. Just melt 1/2 teaspoon of bee pollen under your tongue 30 minutes before breakfast. You can double this dosage on strenuous or stressful days and prior to athletic activities. It is suggested to drink alkaline water with your daily bee pollen intake.

We brought home their 20gms bottle which is good for 15 days.

If you are a fan or have used honey and/or bee pollen, can you share with us a testimonial how it has benefited you?

Last Friday, we managed to squeeze in our busy schedule to drop by Agrilink 2011. This year, top of our must-see list was invitation by Sandy Celi of Spread Organic Agriculture in the Philippines (SOAP) for Perrine Collin‘s workshop, “Growing Kamote as an Alternative Staple”. We got a text that her workshop will be at 10am in Seminar Room C.

As we were looking for the seminar rooms, we spotted two booths selling open-pollinated (OP) seeds: Allied Botanical Corporation and East West. We bought some sprouting seeds as our next urban gardening project.

We found the venue and as we were registering, the workshop was just about to start. We found one last seat in the front row which was perfect.

Perrine is a Belgian agricultural engineer. She graduated from the Université Libre de Bruxelles in 2008 with a major in Tropical Agronomy. She is currently working as a Marketing Manager for Cabiokid Foundation, a permaculture farm in Nueva Ecija. She is particularly interested in sustainable development, desertification and development cooperation.

During the workshop, Perrine showed us that staring a “Kamote Tower” is both easy and inexpensive. All you need are 4-5 camote to germinate, a recyclable container such as old rubber tires, soil and a bit of space.

The Kamote Tower is low maintenance and if done properly, may yield for you at least 40 kilos per tower!

Perrine’s talk was followed by one of the best and most comprehensive and easy-to-understand presentation about sustainable organic and vermiculture by Pam Henares. The seminar room was packed and most of the attendees were farmers.

Pam is an organic farming advocate and currently the foremost resource speaker about Vermiculture in the Philippines. She has given presentations on this subject during the 2008 International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM ) World Congress held in Modena, Italy. She was also a resource speaker during the 2009 IFOAM Southeast Asian Conference in Kuching, Malaysia. She has travelled to most of the archipelago teaching the benefits of sustainable farming methods and the wonders of Vemiculture. A retired CEO of Riverside Medical Center, she holds a Masters Degree in Hospital Administration from the Ateneo de Manila University. She is married to Jose Henares, Sr. and currently resides in Bacolod City. Largely responsible for the technology research and development work of Buro Buro Springs Vermi Farm, she has attended various fora around the world on sustainable organic farming both as delegate and speaker. She is a member of the National Organic Agriculture Board (NOAB),  sits as a trustee of the Negros Island Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development Foundation (NISARD) and is also a consultant for GTZ, a German government cooperation agency with considerable presence in the Philippines. She has also represented the country in various conferences and trade missions around Asia, Europe and the Middle East for the organic agriculture sector.

Her 45-minute talk was remarkable. Here are some of our favorite slides which were taken during her presentation:

Principles of Organic Agriculture

Organic vs. Sustainable Agriculture

After the two seminars, we were able to hurriedly scan the retail area for another fifteen minutes before our ride back to Makati arrived.

Straight from the farm – carrots from Costales

We were able to spot our partner farmers and producers from Costales Nature Farms, San Benito Farms, Melendres Farms and Milea.

It was good to see (and chat) with Milea‘s Wonder Woman Edilee Omoyon and Goody-Kefir‘s Jeren Cabral. Edilee shared with us their new products which we will review soon.

We wished we had more time to visit all the booths but we had to leave around 3pm. It was good to see more and more people, especially farmers, interested to go organic and natural in their farms.

We also spotted a booth on renewable energy targeting farmers as users. This is a good sign we Filipinos are slowly getting the idea that organics, natural and green should be our standard even in agriculture.

Can you guess what this green thing is? 13th comment with correct answer gets a prize.

More admired for its ornamental than its edible value, the mabolo has appeared in literature for many years under the illegitimate binomial Diospyros discolor Willd. In 1968, Dr. Richard Howard, Director of the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University, proposed the adoption of D. blancoi A. DC., and this is now regarded as the correct botanical designation for this species. The fruit is called peach bloom in India and buah mantega (butter fruit) in Malaysia – a term now often applied to the avocado–, or buah sakhlat, or sagalat (scarlet fruit). Mabolo (or mabulo) is the most common of the several Philippine dialectal names. Kamagong usually refers to the entire tree, and mabolo is applied to the fruit.

Origin and Distribution

The mabolo is indigenous to the low and medium altitude forests of the Philippine Islands, from the island of Luzon to the southernmost of the Sulu Islands, and is commonly cultivated for its fruit and even more as a shade tree for roadsides. The tree was introduced into Indonesia and Malaysia, and, in 1881, into Calcutta and the Botanical Garden in Singapore, though it existed in Singapore before that date. In recent times, it has been decreasing in numbers in Malaysia. It is only occasionally planted in India and then mainly as an ornamental because of the attractiveness of the foliage and the fruits.

Seeds were sent to the United States Department of Agriculture by W.S. Lyon, of the Philippine Bureau of Agriculture, in 1906, with a note of admiration for the tree and the exterior of the fruit but not the interior; still, more seeds were sent in 1909 and the seedlings thrived at the Plant Introduction Station in Miami. There are occasional specimens grown elsewhere in southern Florida and some scattered around the Caribbean area, in Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Trinidad and the Lancetilla Experimental Garden in Honduras where plants were received from the Philippines in 1926 and seeds from Cuba in 1927. There are a few in Bermuda and in Hawaii where the mabolo first fruited in 1928.

Cultivation

Male trees must be planted near the female trees for effective pollination and fruit production. The tree does best in loam but flourishes very well in almost any soil with little care. It is rarely fertilized and seems to need no protective spraying.

Mabolo is easy to grow organically and we hope that this fruit will gain popularity again. Its current conservation status is ‘vulnerable’ and we hope farmers will continue to plant more mabolo trees for the next generation.

Season

In the Philippines, the main season is June until September but occasional fruits may be found on the tree at almost any time of the year.

How To Eat Mabolo

The surface fuzz adheres tightly even when the fruit is ripe. Also, the skin, though thin and pliable, is tough and papery when chewed. Therefore, the fruit should be peeled before eating, and then kept in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving. Then the odor, which is mainly in the skin, will have largely dissipated.

Some people slice or quarter the flesh, season with lime or lemon juice or syrup and serve fresh as dessert. The flesh is also diced and combined with that of other fruits in salads. If stewed in syrup, the flesh becomes fibrous and tough. Cut into strips and fried in butter, it is crisp and fairly agreeable as a vegetable of the dasheen or taro type appropriate for serving with ham, sausage or other spicy meat.

The fruit is considered a fairly good source of iron, calcium and a good source of vitamin B.

We chanced upon this interesting use of mabolo as an appetizer. We will definitely try the recipe in the near future.

Can you share another recipe using mabolo as one of the ingredients?

NOTE: THIS ARTICLE IS PART OF OUR SPECIAL SERIES ON RARE PHILIPPINE FRUITS.