A tasting is a great way to sample different varieties of local produce

By Yvette Tan

The Philippines is home to many kinds of fruits and vegetables, both cultivated and wild-growing. A great way to experience different varieties is through conducting a tasting activity.

There are no right or wrong answers! What’s important is the experience.

Here’s what you do:

1. Gather different kinds of produce (in this case, citrus fruits). Take note of what they are and where they come from.
2. Line them up in a row so participants can have an easy time tasting the fruit and recording their notes. They don’t strictly have to be in a row as long as they’re easily accessible.
3. Have participants taste the produce and record their thoughts. You can lay down pieces of paper next to each fruit or have each participant take their own notes. Things to observe besides taste include smell, skin texture, pulp texture, and so on. You can also take note of whether they’re in season, how ripe they are, and whether they were ripened naturally.
4. Discuss your observations. Remember, there are no right or wrong answers! The objective of this activity is to open participants to the different flavors, textures, and varieties of what most people think of as one singular thing (in this case, citrus).
5. Take note of your preferences and see if you can use more of them in your meals, drinks, and recipes!

Doing this in a group setting is impractical during the current COVID-19 crisis, but this activity can be done by families or people living in the same house, or filed away for future use by schools, food groups and advocates, and tourist farms.

The citrus tasting activity in the photos was conducted by Good Food Community in 2017. The fruits were harvested as part of the organization’s Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) model.

This article appeared in Agriculture Magazine’s March to April 2021 issue.