Filipino Kitchen gardening

There had been a lot of changes on the lifestyle of the typical Filipino nowadays. The lifestyle of the modern Filipino is very much different compared to the lifestyle of the typical Filipino back on the 90's. Back then Filipinos can be seen outside of their houses compared today where Filipinos are stuck at home at the front of their computers. It is saddening that although the Philippines is trying hard to industrialize its economy, compromises has to be made and one part of that is the lost of interest of the Filipinos on nature.

Many Filipinos nowadays especially the youth find nature to be taboo although many old Filipinos are still fond of nature as seen from their gardens but it cannot be denied that the typical Filipino has lost its priority on gardening. Filipinos back then have always been fond of the "hardin" but today because of urbanization the garden-loving Filipino has encountered problems about cultivating plants.

Some of these problems are limited time, cost and space. As previously stated, urbanization had caused Filipinos to lose time for leisure activities like gardening.
Some Filipinos also find the cost of the plants to be expensive or not worth it. Filipinos would rather buy other things instead of these plants but Filipinos should reconsider the cost especially when talking about kitchen gardening which I would tackle in detail. Aside from time and cost, many Filipinos also find space to be a factor which limits their garden. Setting-up a front or back garden in the Philippines is quite rare as the typical Filipino has limited space.

Kitchen Gardening

       There are a wide variety of plant to choose from when considering a kitchen garden. Kitchen gardens abroad are really made up of vegetables and herbs which can be picked and eaten fresh any time but the big downside of it is that it is time-consuming and requires a lot of labour which is something the typical Filipino would find hard to do. In this post I would only list some of the plants which are easy to grow and which need little care. Herbs and spices are one of the plants that falls into our category. They are easy to grow and need little care. Here is a list of the usual herbs and spices found on the Filipino cuisine:

1. Bird's eye chili or siling labuyo (Capsicum frutescens)

This herb should always be present in the typical garden of the Filipinos as the leaves, flowers and leaves are used on many Filipino cuisines. This herb is very easy to grow and consumes less space.

2. Chinese celery or kintsay (Apium graveolens)

3. Pandan (Pandanus amaryllifolius)

4. Lemon grass or tanglad (Cymbopogon citratus)

    There are also a handful of other herbs which are easy to propagate which the modern Filipino can use to cook non-native dishes. Adding a variety of these herbs to your garden not only beautifies your home but also bring new tastes to your dining room.

1. Basil (Ocimum basilicum)

It is just impossible

I've just read an interesting article today on yahoo. The article was about a transgender beauty queen being disqualified on a beauty pageant. Over the past few years, I was not so keen about these transgenders. I was too conservative that the thought itself of that noun makes my mind denies their existence but that was before and I'm more open-minded now. The thing that made me curious about this article is the fact that these transgenders are considering themselves as having the new gender already (i.e. male to female). As a biologist, it is quite intriguing. I know there is a big difference between the definition of a male and female in the society compared to the definition in biology. I'm more on the biological aspect that I find their statement to be wrong that they are now considered female if they were once male and male if they were once female. There is just a big difference between a female and a male physiologically. Many would argue with me that they're almost the same. But what really urged me to write this post is after reading a wishful comment of one transgender. She or he said that "hopefully in the next years, medical advancement would allow them to give birth."(She was male before). That really gave a spark on me.

It is not that I hate transgenders or homosexuals but that was wishful thinking. It is as if they are asking for some miracle. Biologically, it is impossible to change or to transform a sperm into an egg cell. Genetically, it would also be impossible to culture an organ of the opposite sex because it would not be compatible with the body. Physiologically, a surgeon can only change a tissue morphologically but never physiologically(i.e., a seminiferous tubule would never change to a germinal epithelium.) It is impossible to make a functional tissue from a completely different one.

The magic that the surgeons do to these people are not magic at all. They are simply changing the shape or structure of the tissues. It is impossible for a surgeon to transform a tissue into a completely different one. Macroscopically, they are somehow similar to the desired reproductive organ but microscopically, it is a very different story. Although that is true for the surgeons, I think it is possible for the Geneticists to change the DNA of a male cell to become a female cell(i.e. sperm to egg) but those cells would never be functional as they would never be compatible with the gene of the transgender.