Summer Health Abundance

In the Philippines, there are only summer and rainy days. In other words, during summer there is such an abundance of  food, fruits, sunshine and fun. It is also harvest time for rice growers. Rainy days are difficult days. Crops usually don't grow due to flooded grounds. Some trees won't bear fruits on those days. 

I was here in October to December last year. It was a rainy and typhoon season. Life seemed to be more difficult. This summer is my first after 7 years. I was pretty overwhelmed with all abundance I see around. It was always like that, I just never noticed much since it was no difference to me when I was living here.

I must admit I made the most of my summer. I have indulged myself into eating all different kinds of homegrown fruit trees. I have been swimming in the Pacific ocean and have been watching sunsets at Baywalk facing South China sea. 

Here is the showcase of fruits I have been consuming for the past 2 and a half months :)

Have you actually seen where banana fruit comes from? It comes from its heart. See that red one? We call it "banana heart". If you cut it open you will see baby bananas growing. And once it's grown enough, the rest of the heart can be cooked as a vegetable with coconut milk. It actually tastes good. There is much preparation though. You have to slice it thinly and squeeze the "blood" (sticky substance) out of it. Then cook it in coconut milk. It is better added with some anchovy.

Banana comes in different types. The most common are the ones sold in the markets but there are many others. Some of them can be fried, which we call "banana-Q". Some harder bananas have seeds. Those type you can grate and drop in small amounts like a ball into a boiling coconut milk with sugar, then it becomes another heavy snack.

What I learned when I was growing up is that papaya can decrease ones libido. That is why it is always present in mass offerings, always seen on monasteries and convents. With scientific basis or no, let us find out from this article: 

www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=47

Ever heard of a fruit that cures cancer? Here, learn about Guyabano (soursop). To be honest before coming to Philippines last March, it was already in mind to find and eat lots of this fruit. My scariest dream is to be diagnosed with cancer (God forbid, I beg You Lord). My family has a history of cancer. My grandfather died of cancer of the gland, my aunt from breast cancer, my 26 year old cousin from ovarian cancer. Probably that justifies my fear.

Guyabano is said to kill cancer cells 10 000 times stronger than chemotherapy. I am so thankful that we have 2 guyabano trees on our own backyard. Fruits grow slow though. I was only able to get 2 and bought others from the market. It's not very cheap to my surprise. Nobody much pays attention at them before. I remember whenever we have it, only Mom eats it because it is her favorite food. I asked a vendor why it is expensive. She told me it can cure cancer. Ahhh, so they have heard about the cure :)

Anyway, here are helpful articles:

www.foodrecap.net/health/soursop-benefits/

www.healthmad.com/nutrition/10-health-benefits-of-soursop-guyabano/

www.greenbodytalk.com/forums/guyabano-the-health-benefits-of-t7548.0.html

Kakao - the chocolate tree. It is no stranger to you for sure. Many times you probably have eaten chocolate with 80% kakao, chocolate drink from kakao...etc.

Here is how the fruit looks like. It grows anywhere among the branches of it's tree. It can even grow at the main stem. They are quite generous and bears fruit whole year round. Even a young kakao can bear fruit already. Like this one on the picture. That's my cousin's son. He is 3 years old and he's harvesting his home grown kakao :)

The inside looks like small sweet coated seeds. You may suck each seed until the coat is gone. It is sweet and some kinda like cottony. You dry the seeds under the sun and when they are dry enough, roast them in an open fire and grind them. The ground kakao becomes like a dough because of its fat. Yo may mash them with sugar. Like what my mom and I did. We made chocolate balls from homegrown kakao and I am bringing them to Russia :)

Here is the professional version of making chocolates out of them:

www.chocolate.org/choctree.html

Here are some more fruits in the neighborhood :) 

Lime is grown by my Mom. We don't use it much because we have "kalamasi", it's like a very tiny lime and very sour. It also comes from the lemonoid family.

Mangoes when I made them picture just started bearing fruits but now they are in full bloom. Normally, each family has a mango tree in their yard. And if you don't have, you can claim the fruits of your neighbor's mango which hangs over you fence. Once inside your fence, it's yours :) You can buy a kilo of ripe yellow mangoes for $1.5 a kilo now in groceries. Filipinos like eating them green and sour than ripe and yellow. I don't know why but I'm one of those who do that :)

Jackfruit is not the stinky fruit but a "cousin" to it hehe. Here please take a closer look:

http://www.fruitsinfo.com/Jackfruit.php

Star apple is one of my favorites as a kid. 

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/star_apple.html

Pili is a very tall nut tree. Pili products are one of the most brought products by overseas Filipinos. It is a main product from my region since it only grows on that part of the country. Amazing eh, Agriculturists tried an experiment many times planting this tree on different parts of the Philippines but they never grew. 

http://nuts-healthbenefits.blogspot.com/2009/08/pili-nut-canarium-ovatum.html

pili products:

http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/fresh-pili-fruit-and-pili-nuts

Chico is the fruit which always will remind me of my grandPa. I grew up with this tree. I have seen how he takes care of it and I have witnessed how much it bears fruit every year since I was a toddler. The tree still exist in his yard. We used to sit there under shade on a hot day afternoon. My duty was to water plants in his garden and water chico tree more :)

People with diabetes are advised to eat it. There are many cases of diabetes in my country and I guess it is just right to have a chico tree on every yard. 

http://www.antioxidant-fruits.com/the-chico-or-sapodilla-fruit.html

I wish I made more pictures of summer fruits especially those ones which are not found in the other countries. We have tropical versions of berries. But they just start bearing fruits now as well as avocado. 

I will not be surprised if many of you are familiar with some of these fruits but I hope I was able to introduce to you at least one which you didn't hear of before :)

Have a Healthy Fruity Day!