Kitchen Garden: Grow native onion leek at home

Kitchen Garden: Grow native onion leek at home

                               Dr Abe V Rotor

 

Native onion grown in pot provides ready fresh onion leek for a number of recipes like fried eggs, soup, omelet, kilawin, porridge (lugaw), arroz caldo.


This is one way to encourage kids to have a daily supplement of vegetables. Vary the use of leek in their diet. Onion leek is rich in vitamin K, A, C and B6, manganese, folate, iron, fiber, magnesium, molybdenum, copper, calcium, and potassium. It also contains thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin, and antibiotic substances like Allicin and Alliin - from Allium, the genus of onion (A. cepa), garlic (A. sativum), kutchay (A tuberosum), and the original leek (A. ampeloprasum). Leeks generally have also high calorie value, and fair amounts of protein and fat. It is no wonder onion is the most important vegetable in the world.

 

Spouting bulb of shallot or bulb variety (Red Creole). Gather only what you need for the moment using scissor. Don't cut the entire stem - only mature leaves.

Grow leek where there is sufficient sunlight, preferably on an elevated place. It's easy to grow leek from shallot (Sibuyas Tagalog) and from bulb onions (Granex or Creole). Staggered planting assures continuous supply of leek for the family - and for neighbors too.

A pot of onion leek makes a unique gift to friends who love to cook, those in their senior years, and those convalescing. Don't forget to add a little ribbon and a personal message. Make this as project in school and community. ~

Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio polytes)

Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio polytes) 

Dr Abe V Rotor

 

 Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio polytes) feeding on citrus leaves

Obnoxious I look and smell no one dares to get near,

much less to pick me neither by beak nor tongue,   

for my enemies are few, so my friends - if I know;

you see, if you are ugly and dirty no one bothers you,

like anyone else not excluding some humans;

but in my case Nature designed me this way, 

and she thinks I'm beautiful, to me it is a gift of life;

surviving a cruel world.  I rest now and someday

I'll metamorphose into something beautiful 

in the eyes of humans, so beautiful and dainty

no one will ever ask what I was before. ~

Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio polytes)

Life Patterns for Survival Series 1: Shrew, smallest mammal and most voracious predator

Life Patterns for Survival Series 1:

Shrew, smallest mammal and most voracious predator

Dr Abe V Rotor

White-toothed pygmy shrew or the Etruscan shrew, Suncus etruscus Internet

This animal is the smallest mammal in the world, yet the fiercest of all fighters and the most voracious of all predators.  It spends its life hunting for food to supply the necessary energy released by its high rate of body anabolism (breaking down of substances for the release of energy}.  It dies of starvation after a day without food.  No wonder it dies old after thirteen months. 

Also known as the white-toothed pygmy shrew or Suncus etruscus, the Etruscan shrew is the smallest mammal by weight alive today. At 36–52mm long, excluding tail, it's larger than Kitti's hog-nosed bat. However, individuals can weigh as little as 1.5g, meaning the Etruscan shrew takes the crown. (Acknowledgement: Internet photo)

Life Patterns for Survival by A V Rotor
Faculty Journal 1967
Lyceum of the Philippines