Home gardening for good nutrition

LOGARTA

From the Nutrition Council Letlet Misyon came to be the guest of LAW Center, Inc.’s Sa Mata sa Kababayn-an over the Cebu Catholic Television Network. For this year the campaign was for simple easy to manage home gardens. The members of the family have been encouraged to use small spaces near the house; they could also use empty containers to plant tomatoes, peanuts, onions, ginger. They could also use posts or walls for planting such nutritious plants as kangkong and ampalaya. With a little more space they could plant kalamansi and camote. A wall garden was also proposed as an alternative. The Department of Agriculture could be consulted; they could also be a source of seedlings and planting advice. Having a home garden is helpful not only for physical health but also for mental and spiritual health.

A main reason for the home garden is the savings it can provide the family. Then caring for a plant gives rise to special attentiveness among the children. They need to check on the growing plants; they may become more eager to save water when it rains. It is also a good training for doing duties on a regular basis—watering the plants. For others the plants may become special friends to whom they can talk or even sing.

There can be a whole range of plants to grow. In our family my sister Lolet focuses more on flowering plants and ornamentals; these she uses to beautify her bedroom window. She is lucky because we live near Redemptorist Church; its grounds offer a whole variety of flowering plants and ornamental plants every Wednesday. Lilu, my sister-in-law is into herbs– spices (mint, basil, rosemary) and plants with which to make medicinal teas. Our cousin Andrew who goes for alternative healing has brought in Calabash tree, which is also called miracle tree because its fruits which look like our white local pumpkin is said to heal cancer. He also planted Sabah Snake Grass which is said to cure both cancer and diabetes. My only contribution here was to motivate the working students and carpenters to bring to life Moringa, Dr. Florentino Solon’s miracle vegetable.

Program anchor, Atty. Virginia Palanca-Santiago, asked how to motivate children to eat healthy. First, parents need to be role models for eating regularly and eating healthy. Efforts should be taken to have an attractive presentation. Letlet gave chicharon kangkong as an example. Camote can also have a wide range of attractive presentations. On July as a way of celebrating the students brought what they perceived to be healthy food. I brought camote sliced in a surprisingly different way they almost did not recognize it. There are now very many creative ways to deal with our fruits and vegetables: Squash leche flan, banana cake, camote chips.

Atty. Palanca-Santiago also asked about healthy food that would move abused women out of depression. Letlet answered: coconut. This reminded me of Lucille our Home Economics instructor and her not only delicately delicious but also beautiful bocarillo in pastel colors.

LAW CENTER, Inc. also invited a team from Cebu Technological University led by Dr. Wilma Giango. She is an expert not only in culinary arts but also in extension work. CTU has branches throughout the province.

The CTU team is very eager to share through actual demonstrations their skills and recipes which are products of scientific research. Being also involved in Gender and Development (GAD) they are interested in the economic empowerment of women. They always try their best to present recipes with ingredients that are available in the place.

Ms. Amparo Sambrano presented the preparation of salted eggs. She then showed them how to prepare a very nutritious salad of fresh tomatoes and salted eggs. Ms Ritchsun Mamacus demonstrated the preparation of doughnuts using camote (gluten-free) flour. Dr. Wilma Giango made empanadietas with the camote flour.

We are indeed blessed to learn about ways of promoting the independence of women; so strengthened they can grow out of victimization.