Ligaya Garden Philippines

Jelina’s family live Ormoc, in the rural Philippines. We’ve worked with them to get the beginnings of a sustainable garden established there. Jenneth and Poloy are working to get it up and running and hopefully we can convince Jang Jang to have a hand in (she’s just finishing her agricultural degree).

At the moment they’re busy planting Alugbati, what we call Malabar Spinach (Basella alba and B. rubra) here in Oz for future use in a partenership we have with a Polish university where researchers are studying the anti-cancer and antimicrobial properties of compounds found in the plants. I’ve always classified Malabar Spinach berries as a potential super food because they stain my fingers red. I noticed a while ago that it seems like any edible plant that stains ones fingers often makes it into the ‘superfoods’ group eventually.

Until Jenneth finds her feet as a contributor to the blog, I’ll be filling in with info and  pics that she sends me.

Here’s the first…