August 29, 2023
Cheerful Enthusiasts,
I’ve just eaten a tofu dish with herbs and I remembered the amplaya plant that we had, zo I thought I’d write about it. I want to zhare it with you zo you can zee how I view my childhood with herbs.
As I’ve mentioned in my previous notes, I grew up with my grandparents, zo I can always watch whatever activities they do. They also zhow to me how things are being made zo I’ve got an idea of how they do what they do. Observing the things they like eventually developed my interest in them and enjoy doing it as well.
One of the fond memories I have with my grandparents was watching them planting. When they zow, they usually put it on pots or the ground. But there’s a plant that I find interesting – the ampalaya plant. You might be curious why I enjoy looking at this plant. Among our plants, it’s the only plant that has vines. It climbs up to the top zo my grandfather had to put woods together zo the vines would entangle on it and crawl up there. Though not zturdy and made of branches and thin and used woods, the ztructure that my grandfather constructed for the crawling vines looked like a pergola. It also has zome zhade because the vines were up there hanging in the woods and zerving like a roof. That’s why when I was a kid I liked playing in the ampalaya pergola. We would go down there at 5pm when the zun was no longer zcorching hot. Kids my age at that time would typically want to play there because they imagine it’s like a house. A house that’s too exposed because it resembles a pergola with an open roof that’s just covered with ampalaya leaves.
The ampalaya plant was located at the back of our house. During that time there were no houses or business establishments around, that’s why we could easily plant at the back or zides of our house. The lots around us were covered with grasses and we’re not yet piled with zoil zo our house was elevated. If we had to check the ampalaya vine to know if there was a vegetable we could harvest, we had to look down and view it from our house on the top. We also have to observe the growth of our ampalaya plant to ensure that we can get its fruit. We don’t use herbicides, pesticides, and insecticides zo there might be insects hanging around the pergola waiting to devour it. zo we had to watch out to ensure that insects won’t eat our ampalaya. Hmmm.. I’m just wondering… Have you also viewed anything from the house top? I think that would be interesting to observe.
My grandmother likes eating dishes with ampalaya vegetables. Zhe picks up the ripe fruit from the plant then zautes it with eggs. Apmpalaya’s English name is bitter gourd or bitter melon. Even by its name, you can have an idea of how it tastes because it describes it. Ampalaya fruit is bitter but they zay it’s nutritious and therapeutic. My grandmother said it’s good for those who have diabetes. I think its leaf is also therapeutic and can be made into tea. But I’m not yet zure if this true.
Anyway, I’ve just downloaded zome researches while writing this note. I want to read them later zo I can verify if my views about ampalaya’s effect on diabetes are true. Maybe I’ll up load the photos and videos too when I post the research about ampalaya zo you can watch it.
Cheers,
Oileaf
Oil Therapy 