DIPOLOG PHILIPPINES VEGETABLES

Puso sa Saging,  Banana Blossoms (Musa x paridasiaca)  Banana & Plantain The word "banana" is a general  term embracing a number of species or hybrids in the genus Musa of the family Musaceae. These  two  fruit are similar in  many respects. They are treated together and unless  otherwise  indicated, both  the  introduction  and the recipes for one  fruit can be substituted for the other. As a rule, plantains are better cooked and bananas better eaten raw.  The Blossom is taken to let the banana fingers matures. 

Tambuali, Upo, Bottle Gourd; Lagenaria Siceraria (Mol.) Standl. (Family Cucurbitaceae) An annual with ribbed stem, climbing by means of strong tendrils that have one long and one shorter branch. Leaves are heart- to kidney-shaped. Flowers are white, solitary in the axils of the leaves. Fruits usually club-shaped, green mottled with grey or white. Remains of gourd have been found in Mexican caves dating back to 7000 - 5500 BC. The rinds of bottle gourds have been discovered in an Egyptian tomb dating back to about 3500 - 3300 BC. Experiments have shown that mature gourds may be carried from Africa to South America by ocean currents without loss of viability of the seeds and this suggested that it might have originated in Africa.

Gandole,  Waxgourd, Winter Gourd; .Benincasa Hispida (Thumb.) Cogn. (Family Cucurbitaceae) The old name of this herbaceous climber is Benincasa cerifera Savi. The specific epithet "cerifera" means "wax-bearing" because of the waxy substance on the surface of the fruit. One variety commonly known as winter gourd, has large, ovoid or globose fruits with a waxy surface and firm white flesh with seeds embedded in the centre. Another variety is a smaller, cylindrical green fruit somewhat narrowed in the centre, covered with short silky white hairs called hairy gourd. The young fruit is consumed. The old fruit has little or no wax bloom. It was introduced by the Chinese into many countries but did not catch on in America as its role was already satisfied by pumpkins and squashes.

Sigarilyas,   Winged Bean;  Psophocarpus Tetragonolobus (Stockm.) DC. (Family Leguminosae) Winged Bean or Four Angled Bean. It is a prolific fruit bearer easily grown along fences. This prolific fruit bearer is a strong growing, twining perennial bearing large pale blue (sometimes white) flowers. Mature pods are 15-30 cm long and 3 cm wide, four angled and winged. The wings have wavy margins. Rumph wrote that is was brought to the Moluccas from elsewhere and pointed out that 'botor' was derived from an Arabic word meaning a lobe. Burkill believed that it came from the African side of the Indian Ocean, probably from Madagascar.The plant is now widely cultivated from India to New Guinea. The immature pods are eaten like French beans. Young shoots, leaves and flowers are also used as vegetables.

Sibuyas, Murang sibuyas - Spring Onions, Chives;  Allium Tuberosum Rottler Ex Sprengel (Liliaceae) A lowland vegetable, the plant produces dense clumps of long, grass-like leaves about 5 mm wide, flat and solid. The young leaves are erect but the mature leaves bend gracefully down. The blades of the leaves are not folded lengthwise as are those of garlic and leek. Chives may be cultivated for its flowers which are plucked together with the stalks before the buds emerging from the sheath or grown for its edible leaves which have a special flavour considered fragrant by some people. It has been cultivated in East Asia for many centuries and is widespread there..

Sili, Dahong Sili (Leaves), Bell or Sweet Pepper, Pimiento,Chili,  Peppers. Capsicum Annuum L. (Solanaceae) A variety of C. annuum with very small pungent fruit locally known as 'Bird pepper'  It is an erect, much branched plant commonly 30-50 cm tall with glossy, somewhat elongated heart-shaped leaves. Flowers with white corolla occur singly at the node and are found continuously throughout the season. Fruits are pod-like berries. Immature green fruits turn red or yellow on maturity depending on variety. Seeds are numerous and borne incompact rows on the placenta chiefly at the basal end of the fruits. Several cultivated varieties are recognized: the large, bell-shaped, non-pungent types commonly known as sweet peppers belong to C. annuum var. grossum, the common red chilli belongs to C. annuum var. longum, the common dried chilli is C. annuum var. acuminatum. The small, pungent 'bird pepper' is another variety of C. annuum. Chillies contain capsicin which is responsible for the hot taste of the  fruit. C. annuum var. longum comes in green or red colours. Undoubtedly of American origin, pepper is an ancient vegetable like tomato. It is known from prehistoric remains in Peru and widely cultivated in Central and South America. C. annuum is believed to be derived from the extremely pungent Bird Pepper - C. frutescens L. (= C. minimum Roxb.) that occurs as a weed from Northern South America to Southern USA. The nomenclature is not uniform. There are many varieties of chilli. This bell-shape pepper or sweet pepper is C. annuum var grossum. 

Sweet Pepper Garden

Tubo Sugarcane ,Cana,  Saccharum officinarum Is a tropical crop that is the source of approximately 50% of the world's sugar. It is a grass and is thought to have originally been domesticated in New Guinea.

Bundled sugar cane
 

Sugarcane Field

Sweet Pepino, Melon Pear, Pepino dulce , Solanum muncatum Airon. (Family Solanaceae) Pepinos are perhaps the softest and sweetest exotic fruit from the Andes. The pepino is known botanically as   although it is commonly referred to as pepino dulce, pepino melon, melon pear

Alagbati - Malabar spinach,  Basella rubra L.(Family Basellaceae)  A climbing herb, freely branched with glossy, smooth leaves (8 - 12cm in length) and stems. There are two forms: the one with reddish petioles and stems is quite ornamental and regarded as typical. The other form has green foliage and stems is sometimes known as var. alba. This vegetable is very popular in tropical and subtropical areas. Young leaves and tips are used like spinach in cooking and salad. A herb of the Old World, wild in South and South-East Asia.

The root vegetables we know today as carrots originated 3,000 years ago in Middle Asia in the area of Afghanistan, and slowly spread into the Mediterranean area. Originally, carrot roots were white, yellow, green, or purple in color (but not orange), and were first used as a medicine rather than as a food.  Ancient Greek physicians prescribed carrot root and juices to treat cancer, indigestion, snake bites, and skin ulcers. Although the exact origins of the orange carrot are not precisely known, it is believed orange carrots were first developed in the 1600s by the Dutch. All modern day carrots are directly descended from Dutch-bred carrots.

Sweet Ginams (Salted Anchovies)