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- Title:
- Steady Harvests
- Date Created:
- 2021-06-05
- Description:
- Missionaries like Fr. Juan San Antonio whose chronicle we have been featuring could indeed take pride in seeing the results of their cumulative efforts since 1565. Not only were the numbers of indio and Sangley converts rising. Parishes were being settled, with a church, a government headquarters, houses along streets (still unpaved) laid out like a grid iron and each with a garden of edibles, plus chickens and pigs, even goats. Priests were proud to point out how well they knew their assigned venues including native plants that substituted for unavailable European ingredients. In early years, some priests worked in the fields side by side with the folk. They were “fathers” linked to their “children” and the farms, infrastructure, and successful growth of imported flora and fauna they worked hard to plant. San Antonio notes “pile”. Its seed looks like pine nut seed and substitutes for almond. “When green it can be eaten with its skin, like young almonds. It should be scalded with boiling water like raisins. If kept too long in water, it becomes hard and cannot be eaten.” A century in the future, pili would be made into Spanish turron and given as gifts with pride. Missionaries of the 1500s through early 1700s still were inspired passionately by the Counter-Reformation. Later friars seemed to have lost their desire for grassroots work as our stories will tell. But during San Antonio’s era, many missionaries devoted their entire adult lives to conversion and parish development. From 1598 to 1737 there had been only 13 Archbishops of Manila. Staying in position for around 10 to 20 years was common. The tenure of Governor-Generals was only around 3 to 4 years and did not build a lasting affection for Filipinas and its colonised.
- Subjects:
- Spain -- Colonies -- Asia -- Social life and customs Spain -- Colonies -- Asia -- Religious life and customs Canarium
- Exhibition:
- J San Antonio
- Source:
- Canarium ovatum. Pili.
- Type:
- Image;Still Image
- Format:
- image/jpeg
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "Steady Harvests", Philippine Food History, Felice P. Sta. Maria
- Reference Link:
- felicepstamaria.net/items/coll226.html