It’s A Good Harvest

It was a busy weekend but days before that I was so lazy even to go out because of the summer heat. I finished three books in one week.

Fancy an early morning breathing  in the heavenly fragrance of Gardenia and Amazon Lily flowers mixed with the lemony scent of Calamansi (Philippine lime) flower buds.  It’s a perfect excuse to stay in the garden for a while. My Gardenia shrub is flowering again, a bit early for the month of May when it shows its blooms almost in every tip of the branches. I didn’t know that Gardenia symbolizes love, harmony and grace and it was named after Dr. Alexander Garden, an American botanist, until now. I just love Gardenia and when it is in bloom , I always take shots of the lovely white flowers.  Our two Calamansi trees are on their flowering stage too but the fruits are there all year-long.

Finally, one of our jackfruits was ready for harvest. I was as excited as Josef when we finally harvested it the other day and this morning, I sliced  it with a sharp knife and  separated the pulp from the rind. Josef just wants  it  fresh and cold from the ref.  One can cook it as “langka preserve” or marmalade, the way you cook other fruits in season.

Jackfruit, anyone?

The young green one is cooked as a yummy vegetable dish, either sautéed in pork or cooked in coconut cream with lots of chilis. Try it, it is best served a little hot and spicy.

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It’s Summer, Have Mangoes

When you see mangoes in season, you’d think  summer is finally here. And some of the sweetest mangoes are grown in our native province in Pangasinan.  My brother brought a whole crate (kaing) of it when they came over last Saturday to celebrate Mom’s birthday with us.

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Sineguelas, Anyone?

Aside from beach holidays and road trips with your friends, what does summer reminds you of? Here in the Philippines, summer  means a steady rise of temperature and an abundance of fruits that you can only find during the hot and humid weather.

Exploring the wet market gives you that pleasant surprise to find so many fruits in season.  It’s one thing I love about summer here. Never mind the heat, that is simply inevitable.  A few days ago, hubby took home a small basket of  Duhat, that’s black plum in English.  Our neighbor planted a small tree a few years ago and it is now bearing fruits. Fresh pick, so sweet and juicy. I haven’t tasted duhat for so many years now so it was kind of a thrill to satisfy my taste buds with it. It does reminds me of the early years. My cousins and I used to pick them in the province when we were kids. Climbing trees and eating the juicy black fruits were part of my colorful childhood life.

Yesterday, I bought a kilo of Sineguelas, those juicy and somewhat sour fruits which are good eaten chilled, with a dash of salt.  Sineguelas is a Tagalog term which means Spanish plum. Have you ever seen a sineguelas tree laden with fruits? The weird thing about it is,  it has to shed all its leaves before tiny buds appear in  small branches of the tree. Until the fruit ripens,  the tree remains bereft of its green leaves.

I don’t exactly know where this fruit originated, for more than fifty years, I know it simply as sineguelas. Sineguelas, anyone?

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