MANILA, Philippines – Dr. Bart Lapus and wife Clara of Mama Sita fame are advocates of healthy eating. And one of their advocacies is the consumption of camote shoots as well as roots.

At a dinner last Monday for a group of exporters, members of academe and a few media people, they served a wide array of camote preparations.

The vegetable soup consisting of Zacamote tops and a few other vegetables was a delight to partake. Zacamote, by the way, is a variety that was introduced from Taiwan which was developed purposely for shoot production. The tops are very tender and can be made into a salad with tomatoes and other garnishing. It could be simply steamed and eaten with a dressing of hot sauce or some other popularly used dressings.

One very nice preparation is the crispy young camote leaves deep-fried ala tempura. Then there are the roots prepared in different ways. What was very new to us was the ‘ukoy’ camote. There were two preparations of sweets, roasted roots that were presented in various ways. For one, Chit Pedrosa who writes a column for the Philippine Star was ecstatic about the preparations she had tasted for the first time. She was also excited all the more when she was given some planting materials that she will plant in her organic garden in Lipa City. The planting materials were brought to the meeting by Dr. Benito S. Vergara of Los Banos who has been giving free planting materials to his neighbors. In fact, he has put up a bed of Zacamote plants at the roadside outside his home where he is inviting whoever is interested to help himself with the shoots.

The Zacamote is very easy to multiply. And one can already start harvesting the shoots as early as two weeks from planting. Of course, Zacamote will also produce roots. Dr. Vergara was able to harvest one root that weighed 1.8 kilos. The root is white.

By the way, those who would like to have free planting materials of Zacamote could visit the Teresa Orchard & Nursery in Teresa, Rizal. The place is along the road, about 30 meters before the Teresa-Morong boundary.

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AGRI-KAPIHAN THIS SUNDAY — Make sure to attend the Agri-Kapihan next Sunday, February 27, at the courtyard of radio station DWWW, No. 23 E. Rodriguez Sr. Blvd., Quezon City. Rico L. Diaz, the young Atenean who raises goats, will talk about his experiences. Dr. Ed Paningbatan Jr. of the hanging vegetables fame will also be there to share his technology.

The Agri-Kapihan is a project of the radio program Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura (KSA) hosted by Tony S. Rola, Nina Manzanares-Agu and Zac B. Sarian. The KSA is aired every Sunday from 4:30 to 7:30 in the morning. Aside from listening to talks by the speakers, the attendees can also buy various products for the farm like grafted exotic fruit tree seedlings, organic fertilizers, farm chemicals, reading materials, seeds and many more.