My Food Garden

I have a small garden at the back of my house. Most of the plants I have there are useful for my everyday cooking. Some of them are as you can see in photos: pandan, bird's eye chili pepper, tarragon, calamansi (our local lemon) and sweet basil.

Available also in my tiny garden are banana plants, camias tree, malunggay, oregano, alugbati and some fruitbearing trees that have'nt fruited as yet.

For my everyday meals I find them handy as I don't have to buy

them anymore whenever they are called for in the recipes I

prepare. Pandan is useful in steamed rice as it gives the rice a

pleasant aroma. The chili pepper is good in my many coconut

based recipes like vegetables in coconut milk, chicken with

lemongrass, barbecues and in almost everything. Calamansi is

useful in marinades and lemonades. Sweet basil is good for pasta,

pesto and pizza while tarragon is used to flavor vinegars and as an

ingredient for roast turkey stuffing. There are many uses for

all these when they are thriving. Some of them just die and I have to

find a replacement or buy the plant itself from a seedling bank.