Grow my own

Here in our new place, I’m so glad that we have a vacant space at the back.

I can grow again and plant what I want. That’s one of my hobbies even before I was a child – gardening.

I planned to plant some vegetables and my children help me and our “market “too (see him?).


We planted upo (bottle gourd), patola (luffa), squash, eggplant, okra, snow peas, tomato, hot chili, red bell pepper, sitaw (string beans), saluyot (jute), talinum or talelong, alugbate, gabi (taro), and sweet potato (kamote), luya (ginger) and even spring onions in the pot.

I planted lettuce too but its rainy season so it doesn’t work. I’ll plant again later.

My effort of planting and caring everyday my garden was paid in just few months passed. Now I’m harvesting some already like the green leafy…..

It’s a nice feeling to harvest your own veggies and cook it right away because the nutritional peak of veggies is at the moment they are harvested. It’s so fresh, crunchy, and delicious.

Today I harvested my Ampalaya or bitter gourd or bitter melon or Momordica charantia. It’s a veggie or fruit that known for its bitter taste.


Both the Ampalaya leaves and fruits are rich in fiber and nutrients such as iron and potassium; it contains beta carotene, calcium, phosphorous, and vitamin B, too.

Ampalaya is recognized as herbal remedy for a variety of ailments: protects spleen and liver problem, lower blood pressure, for diabetes -regulates or control blood sugar level, relieve skin diseases, sterility in women, kill parasites, relieves fever and cold symptoms, HIV, boosts immunity and used as a disinfectant for cuts and scrapes.

This was my first harvest…and cooked it like this.

Ampalaya con Carne

Ingredients:

Cooking oil
Crushed or minced garlic
1 sliced onion
2 tomatoes cut in cube
¼ kilo ground beef or pork
2 to 3 big Ampalaya (cut length wise and take off the seeds using the spoon, then slice thinly)
1cup of beef broth or water
Salt & pepper
2 to 3 beaten eggs

Procedure:

1.Heat the cooking oil first then sauté the garlic, onion, tomatoes and ground beef, add salt and pepper.
2.Then mix the sliced Ampalaya, stir once, add the broth or water and cover.Take note: never ever stir again until cook to avoid the much bitter taste, believe me.
3.When the Ampalaya is cooked, pour the beaten eggs, cover again and turn off the fire.


This was my second harvest… I added the extra shrimps from my fridge.