Gabi or Taro is generally grown as a backyard crop and resistant to pest, diseases and adverse climatic conditions including drought.  It can be planted anytime of the year, but it performs best when planted at the start of the rainy season like this late part of May 2016.

Gabi has faded from the meal list of modern Pinoy consumers, who are unaware of the healthy benefits of the crop.  Gabi’s boiled corm (underground stem) and cooked petioles provide numerous health benefits.  The crop is a good source of dietary fiber, vitamins B, C, and E, iron, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, thiamine, riboflavin, and folate.  It has low content of saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. 

Here are some health benefits of Gabi:

1.     Strengthens our immune system

2.     Relieves stress and pressure on blood vessels and arteries

3.     Lowers risk of early diabetes

4.     Reduces risk of lung and oral cancer

5.     Prevents excess gas, bloating, cramping and constipation

6.     Enhance vision and reduces risk of macular degeneration & cataracts in elders

7.     Helps to improve skin health

  

Hungry?  The best about Gabi is that its stem and petioles are the main ingredients in a popular Bicolano dish called Laing, cooked in coconut milk, spicy hot chilli and salted with fermented shrimp (bagoong).  A dessert known as Ginataan (with Gabi mixed with tropical fruits and coconut milk) totally complements the dish.

You know I’m beginning to be in love deeply with farm work because I can watch and nurture the growth of plants above and beneath the soil; and I wish I can be one of the stewards of God’s Creation. (Genesis 2:15 “The Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it”).

And I think, we should not deny these opportunities (farm work) to our children so as to bring value to their own lives and the community around them.  Cheers everyone.