Memories Behind the Seeds & Nuts

I was born in Nueva Ecija, a province in Central Luzon, which the main crop produced was rice. The secondary crops were corn, peanuts, onions, watermelon, squash and other vegetables. So in my early childhood days I was taught to eat fruits and vegetables and other available crops produced and harvested during it's seasons.

There are lots of seeds and nuts that are edible and good for food consumption. And I had lots of memories of them all. Whenever I saw and eat some of them, it bring back memories during my early childhood days, teen age and adult years.

PEANUTS

Peanut is one of the secondary crops produced in our province in Nueva Ecija. It was during summertime that it was being harvested. It was school vacation, so mother is able to take us to the field of the owner who contacted my mother to harvest for him. We would be in the field early dawn starting to root up the peanut plants of the whole field before sunrise.

By the time they are rooted up we would start gathering it into a place where my mother and older brother have put up a shade where we can all sit ang start to separate the peanut from its stalks to be used as our shades. We have to finish it all before sunset . Since we were four working it out we were able to finish it when the sun set and went home having lots of peanuts as our wages. As long as there are still owner who would want my mother to harvest for them during that harvest season we would go there and harvest and have peanuts for our wages. And so after harvest we would have much peanuts for our consumption for a long period of time.

What mother does with Peanuts

BOILED PEANUTS

Mother will boil some peanuts to be our merienda. Sometimes she will boil it , separating the shell and take the peanuts and mixed it to our Ilocano pinakbet dish.

PEANUT HOT DRINKS

Mother will let some peanuts be dried in the sun. When dried we separated the shell from the peanut and roast the peanuts. When roasted mother will separate the outer covering of the peanuts and grind it with a peanut grinder to make it like a paste. Then it will be put in a container for use every morning. My mother will boil water and mixed the peanut paste for us to have a Peanut hot drinks every morning

CARAMELIZED PEANUTS

Using the roasted peanuts without the outer coverings mother will caramelized sugar and mixed the roasted peanuts to be coated with caramelized sugar. It will be for our desserts whenever we craved for it.

FERMENTED PEANUTS

Mother will take fresh peanuts with its shells and it's extended fibrous roots , and boil it in water with salt till it is cooked . Then let it dry in the sun. When it is fully dried up she will braid it all making a long lenght of braided peanut ang hang it. Will just eat it as we crave for it.

WATERMELON SEEDS

Another familiar seeds to me that I ate during childhood is this tiny watermelon seeds. During the harvest season of water melon mother father all it's seeds whenever we ate watermelon as dessert.She will put ashes and water in a cooking pot and let it boil with the watermelons seeds to put away the slimy touch on the water melon seeds. After quite sometime she will let it cool and be washed to put away the ashes till it is clean. Then afterwards she will put water and salt and boil it with the watermelon seeds. When it is cooked the water melon seeds will be spread in a circle container made of woven bamboo skin strips called "bilao" and let it dry under the heat of the sun. When it is fully dried it will be set aside and will be eaten during time when family get together having conversations while we needs played.

JACKFRUIT SEEDS

We had jackfruit trees in our backyard and whenever their is fruit who has ripened mother will take it and usually preserved some by sweetening it, while some were eaten fresh. The preserved sweetened jackfruit were used as flavoring whenever my mother cook "palitao sa latik".

The jackfruit Seeds were not thrown away but she gathered it and will boil it with salt till cooked. We also eat those jackfruit Seeds as merienda.

SUNFLOWER SEEDS

Sunflower seeds were not familiar to me. I didn't even know that it is edible. It was only when my brother in law who lives in Chicago, USA that sent us package , and the package contained packs if sunflower seeds that I first tasted it. And I liked it's taste. It tastes like the other seeds I tasted before like that of a watermelon seeds. When we consumed it all no way did I ever tasted it again. After long years I didn't expect I could have a taste of it again. Just this month of March, my daughter in law bring home a packed of it and the seeds were much bigger than the ones I have eaten before.

SQUASH SEEDS

I had also tasted and eaten such seeds when we lived in Caloocan City during my younger years and adult years. It was affordable and available always in sari sari stores.

CASHEW NUTS

Eating cashew nuts during my childhood days were fun. I would go out with friends where we can ask for cashew fruits. We would eat the fruit with salt and will broil the seeds. When the seeds were roasted we will crack the shell of the seed and eat the roasted seed.

When I get older and happened to stay in Pampanga I was able to taste again cashew nuts and eat a lot . My brother in law used to buy cashew nuts in store in Angeles because there are lots of stores there who sell it. Sometimes their neighboring relatives who had lots of cashew trees in their fields would give some whenever they had available cashew nuts. Whenever it's harvest time they would give my brother in law and my brother in law shared it to us. But now I hardly tasted cashew nuts because it's too expensive.

Walnuts

When my sister who resides in Canada is going home here yearly for a vacation , she always brought walnuts. And it was only during those days , when they are here on vacation that I tasted those kinds of nuts.

OTHER NUTS

There are other nuts that I came to discover to eat when we lived in Caloocan City. There are different kinds of nuts which are affordable & available , in stores, that you can buy. And so eating nuts had been part of my everyday snacks, or desserts.

Thanks for reading. I hope you were entertained by the memories about seeds and nuts.

#8 Article for the month of March

8/24 Articles for the year 2022

March 29, 2022

Tuesday - 7:45 pm