Why? Is it because of its composition? Nah. Here’s why.

A husband comes home in the evening after working all day in the garden. Tired and hungry, he asks his wife what’s for dinner.

Husband: Wife, what’s for dinner?
Wife: Sayote.
Husband: What? Sayote again? Sayote in the morning, sayote for lunch and now sayote for dinner?! (in an angry voice).

So that’s why. 😀

It’s just a joke of course, common to sayote farmers. But though it’s just a joke, it’s not far from being a reality (or to some, it has already become a reality hehehe).

Note that when you’re a farmer, it’s basically what you plant is what you eat hehehe. so if you plant sayote, you eat sayote. 😀 Add to it the fact that its market value is not that high. Believe it or not, the price can go for less than P1 per kilo in our place. Now, this is no joke. I remember logging our sayote sales when I was in 2nd year high school. At some point, it went for as low as P0.25 per kilo. Deduct from that the jeepney fare, fertilizers, labor (if you hired someone to clean your garden). And the harvest is not that much too. How much is left? Do the Math. I can’t imagine how we survived those days hehehe. Of course it has its golden days too where prices shoot up. But these days are RARE. Wehehe.

But I still love sayote. I can survive with sayote alone for viand – plain sayote at that – no add-ons, only sauted in oil, with a dash of salt. That’s usually the way we cook it. Because of its low market value, we can’t afford to buy meat to add to it wahaha.

Sayote will always be a part of me. It’s what has been putting food on the table for my family, until now. Take that literally and figuratively. Simply, it’s the source of living for us. And if my stint in the corporate world fails, I would still gladly go back to sayote planting. 🙂