Dec 31, 2025
These 12 fruits welcome the New Year, but they’re not your ordinary fruits found in the palengke or merkado.
Each one is considered an ancient ingredient, long found in our forests! Some used for sweets and wines, others to sour soups, or to compliment fresh fish like in kinilaw or kilawin.
These fruits come from trees that existed long before supermarkets, and even colonization. They fed communities, shaped early recipes, and many continue to grow in forests that protect us through flood control, climate regulation, clean watersheds, and other FREE ecosystem services - including free food.
Can you read their names in Baybayin? Bonus points for their scientific names!