From harvest, there's food on the table

It's another day of spending my early morning in the farm. My father who identifies himself as a farmer almost spend most of his time in our farm. This time of the year, the corns have already been harvested. The farm is left to rest for the next planting season —which is rice. Right now, a portion of the farm is planted with bitter gourd, green beans, sweet potato, and okra. Some of these plants are kept until the following year if the rainy season on the second half of the year doesn't come with flood.

When I went home in the province almost a month ago, I have witnessed how the people in our neighborhood exchange their harvests with each other. One morning, we bumped to our neighbors who plant bitter gourd for a living. My father asked if he could buy bitter gourd seeds from them, so he could plant some on our farm, something we can use for our meals. The lovely auntie just laughed and said she'll give it for free, my father said his thanks and offered that he'll swap it for chicken eggs (we have chickens in our backyard). That put a smile on my face in that early morning, their conversation was very heart warming. Bitter gourds are easy to grow, after a few days, we can already harvest the leaves of the bitter gourd. My parents love to boil the leaves or add it any soup dish, it tastes very bitter but at the same time it offers many health benefits. My mom uses bitter gourd leaves as an alternative to reduce her blood sugar.

Last time, when I talked about growing your own food, I had the confidence that homesteading is very reliable. A household can manage to make meals out of the food they grow in their backyard. What's even beautiful to witness is people exchanging their harvests with each other.

Today, on our usual walk in the morning, we visited the farm for harvest. I was only expecting to get a bundle of bitter gourd leaves again. But it was a surprise to see that it's bearing with fruits already. It's easy to miss since the fruits are hidden beneath the bush of leaves. Today, we were able to harvest a lot.

Aside from the bitter gourd leaves and fruits, we got some green beans and banana blossoms. The bananas planted in our farm have been our source of fruits, but right now, we consume the blossoms before it turns into fruits. When my mom sent me a banana blossom a few months ago, I used it to make burger patties, here is a recipe if you want to try it too. It's a good snack to munch and of course use to make burgers.

Since we didn't expect that we'll be able to harvest a lot, we didn't bring a bag we can use to put in all these. But we were not disappointed, as always, nature is able to provide. We used a banana leaf to wrap all these so we can carry it home. From the food on our table, to the bag we use to carry it home, nature has provided us everything.

Something that I have learned today, why my father loves planting bitter gourd, is its efficiency. In my father's words "Walang tapon." or "Nothing goes to waste.", just a few days after planting you can already harvest its leaves. A few more days of waiting, you can then enjoy its fruits. It's not very hard to maintain compared to other leafy vegetables. When you harvest some of its leaves, its branches would grow more and the plant grows more thickly.