Let's Take A Walk And Harvest Nature's Gift

One of the things that amazes me in the province is the bountiful amount of food you could get free. By free, meaning you can literally walk to a tree and harvest your own veggies.

So before we go home last week we took a fifteen minute walk to my boyfriend's mom's little garden on the mountain.

The weather is so nice and the air is so clean I don't mind the long walk. It is refreshing and the sweat doesn't bother me coz somehow I don't feel icky when I sweat there. We even stopped for a while to take a picture of the baby cow we met on the way. It is so cute and so little!

Then in no time we reached the small hut in the middle of the forest. When the pandemic was a craze, my boyfriend's mom and her little wee ones stayed there. She planted crops, they fish on the river and have chickens as food. When they needed something only then she walks down the town to get it. She said most of their barrio opted into the mountain because they were scared to get the virus. And if I were her, I would have done the same.

I was requesting my boyfriend to get me some some taro coz I was craving for it since eating it in their Nilaga! It was weird but really delicious. I'm also craving it for other things. I could boil it and eat it that way. I also love it sinigang and in Bilo-bilo (a dessert in the Philippines that includes sticky rice balls, taro, banana, sweet potato, cassava, jackfruit and tapioca that is boiled in coconut milk and sugar.)

I didn't ask twice and my boyfriend's mom dragged me the next minute to her mini taro plantation in the mountains. We have a sackful of taro by the time she was done digging. I was really amazed!

While going around Mama also asked me if I want some chili's for my Sinigang and I said yes. She told I could pick banana peppers as much as I want. It's also good for cooking Bicol express!

After harvesting taro we headed to the cassava area. She told that in harvesting season she could harvest up to 100/ sacks of cassava in her garden and it would sell to 500 per sack.

Unfortunately we were passed harvesting season we didn't get much cassava but still we get some.l

After that we took a quick break. My boyfriend cut some sugar cane and it quench my thirst! It is super sweet and juicy! I couldn't get enough of it. It is so fresh!

Then we went to a nearby house about two minutes walk. It was my boyfriend's aunt's house and they gave us one whole stock of banana! We even cut it off from the tree! I also went down on their backyard and munch on some guava, unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the wild guavas. They are so juicy! Aside from the bananas they also gave us a tray of eggs from their pet chicken.

Mama told me that my boyfriend's dad used to have chicken's on their hut and it was so many they were eating chicken three times a day.

Finally we are done harvesting our treats back home. While Mama and her cousin talk, I take a look of my surrounding and the aunty's house has lots of beautiful wild flowers.

After a while we go home. And walked the same way. It was a good walk that I really miss when we got back home. In the city the air so polluted and we are mandatory asked to wear masks.

I would really love to have a house in here in the future. I could see myself living a sustainable life in here.