I learned a new word from the essay of a student I was reviewing yesterday. That new word is “locavore.” Are you familiar with it? We’ve been taught in science class that a herbivore is an organism that eats plants, a carnivore eats meat, and an omnivore eats both plants and meat. A locavore, on the other hand, is someone who eats locally grown foods.
It’s part of a local food movement that encourages people to not only buy local, organic food but to grow and raise their own food. Foods grown this way are fresher and healthier because they don’t undergo processing, hence no preservatives, compared to food shipped long distances. Buying locally grown foods will also support local farmers, and last but not least, locally grown foods are also good for the environment because less energy is used to transport these goods.
Now, I know someone who is a locavore, and that’s my Tatay (Filipino term for “father”). You see, he has his own home vegetable garden in Cavite that supplies most of their vegetable needs. The following home-grown vegetables can be seen in Tatay’s 20-square meter garden: Chinese kangkong, saluyot, mustasa, sili, ampalaya, alugbati and pandan. He used to have guyabano and papaya trees, too.
Having a green thumb is one of Tatay’s many skills. Aside from getting their fresh supply of vegetables from his garden, Tatay also gets to earn a little extra cash from his vegetable produce because their neighbors buy from them, instead of going to the market. I now realize that people don’t always need to have respectable sales jobs to be able to sell. My Tatay is a living proof of that.
Yesterday, I had my weekly supply of fresh vegetables, too, from Tatay’s garden, so that makes me a locavore, too!
Do you consider yourself a locavore?
4 Responses
Thanks for the new word Tetcha hehe wow I learned new word too heheee
oh I envy tatay’s sili and ampalaya garden 🙂 Mine died a few months ago bec. I didn’t know how to treat the pests so it died eventually.
hello mommy tetcha! I like what your tatay has done. reminded me of my childhood. My dad also loves to plant veggies and it’s so nice to eat fresh from our very own yard.
OH I am learning a new word. In my perfect world, I would love to eat food grown from my own garden.