‘Bahay kubo’ in a bite

Photos by Jaime Morados

When I first started my advocacy Mesa ni Misis, it was to help address issues that plagued Filipinos. After all, what we eat is directly connected to our health and wellness. But the price of food is a constant deterrent to eating healthily.

While historically Filipinos did not seem to eat a lot of vegetables, the changing times demand that we start to do so. With an abundance of inexpensive vegetables that grow in our country, it should not be hard. In spite of this, Filipinos suffer from one of the highest rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and hypertension—diseases that can all be cured by a change of lifestyle and diet.

And diets that are plant-forward have been shown to be beneficial to health, alleviating the most common symptoms of these non-communicable diseases.

The origin of the “Bahay Kubo” song

To teach people about vegetables, I use the “Bahay Kubo” song as an anchor in my lectures. It’s a song everybody knows, and it lists many backyard vegetables. Some, such as bataw and patani, are harder to find in recent years due to the lack of demand for them. But as the world faces climate change and changes in availability of food, it’s time that Filipinos use what we can easily grow, what we have been “foraging for free” for so many years.

While the Spanish recorded what we were eating in their colonization period, the Americans later crafted a song to teach us about what vegetables were easily accessible to us. And that was the “Bahay Kubo” song.

The “Bahay Kubo” song was first printed in The Philippines Progressive Music Series for the Primary Grades, compiled by Norberto Romualdez. The songs included in the book from the American colonial period were used in Philippine elementary schools nationwide, and were made up of songs that essentially taught young children about manners and how to live virtuously in their daily lives.

In my research, I found that the “Bahay Kubo” song actually divides the vegetables up according to their nutritional properties, though I am not sure if this was known or not known by the original writers.

Which vegetables made the cut?

In the 1930s, American colonizers published a list of fruits and vegetables that were encouraged to be planted and sold in markets. Among them were more mainstream crops, such as cabbage, cauliflower, soybean, and American tomatoes. But it also included many other vegetables eaten by locals such as ampalaya, kangkong, kadyos, sigarilyas, okra, sitaw, and kamote.

Following a survey of land use in 1939, it can be noted that these crops were grown alongside major commercial crops (abaca, coconut, corn, rice, sugar, and tobacco).

The Philippines has identified and listed mung bean (monggo), potato, cabbage, eggplant, tomato, ampalaya, onion, sweet potato, and cassava as “major vegetables and root crops” in the Philippine Statistics Authority. These “major” crops are the ones dominantly planted today because of their monetary value. Dozens of crops, perceived to have less value, fell by the wayside and are relegated to backyard planting since they do not carry the same monetary value as major crops—deterring farmers from planting them to be sold.

But these vegetables that surround the proverbial bahay kubo are actually the most commonly found, underutilized edible crops that can grow in poor soil conditions. They need minimal care and are well-adapted to local climatic conditions, too. Out of 25,000 edible species, only 30 are cultivated on a large scale for food, including rice, potato, wheat, maize, soybean, and sugarcane.

“Underutilized” or “orphan” crops refer to indigenous vegetables that are underresearched and underdeveloped but are believed to have high nutrient and micronutrient content. Due to their lower yields and lack of policy to fund research on their nutritional value, these crops are not mainstream.

Whether we refer to them as “native’ local” or Filipino, it just indicates that these vegetables have been in the consciousness of Filipinos for a very long time.

“Bahay kubo” and food security

When it comes to healthy eating, Filipinos need not look any further than their backyards to create healthy dishes. When one inspects a local market, carrots, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, and zucchinis often take center stage, while the “dahons” and “talbos” sit on the sidelines—along with local greens such as salyuot, alugbati, and kangkong.

But these sidelined vegetables are always there, with prices that remain steady. Our “native” vegetables are available year-round, not subject to volatile price increases affected by the cost of fuel or fertilizers, and they are more resistant to bad weather, too.

As a child, I aspired to be a farmer. At around eight or nine, I took my old baby bathtub and proceeded to try to grow kangkong in it, with much success. I also planted alugbati, where I (with the help of my yaya), built a makeshift trellis out of chopsticks, which helped the alugbati grow like a vine. I then proceeded to make a soup out of alugbati and kangkong to serve to my parents.

Other vegetables need a little more space and time to grow. And while the bathtub kangkong was not nearly enough to feed an entire family, it shows the ease of which we can grow a few leafy greens in our backyards.

The relationship of food, health, and the planet are incredibly important. The EAT-Lancet Planetary Health diet proposes a diet composed of mostly plants and plant-based proteins. It was designed to be both beneficial to the planet and to the human body.

The crops consumed with this planetary diet in mind should be those that have a low carbon footprint and low water and fertilizer consumption. Our native vegetables fit into this description.