Pudo

One of the nicest things about living here is that everything is just about ready for the picking. With none of the urban constriction of the bigger cities, there's plenty of room to plant, plant and plant. And pick, pick and pick.

In my little corner of the universe, everything we need for sinigang (except for the meat, of course) is right there: kangkong, sili, eggplant,okra, radish. We have tambis, hagis, bananas, pili, avocado, mango, santol, cashew, coconut and magic fruit. Soon, there will be guyabano.

All this freshness is particularly felt in the hot summer months, when fruits are aplenty. A trip to the market yields cartfuls of balig-ang, bagfuls of berba and hagis and piles upon piles of tambis. All of them freshly picked from some lucky Sorsoganon's backyard, of course.

Hereabouts, "pudo" (to pick/the act of picking) is still a magical word.