I first tasted binaki when I was a kid on a chance visit with a relative in Gingoog City. I was always fascinated by those corn husk-wrapped snacks being sold by ambulant vendors screaming at the top of their lungs.

I was a picky eater back then, but it tasted good, and it didn’t matter to me what it was made out of when it got into my mouth.

Few weeks before the national lockdown, I was elated to have received a message from our e-learning consultant, Sir Rey Alo, informing me to be one of the courseware developers of a new e-learning course.

As much as possible, I hate judging someone else's cooking because I don't want to dampen their joy in the kitchen or drive to create something from scratch. Our Chef Wars this afternoon showed that preparing and sharing food is a unifying act because we ended the activity happy and fulfilled.

The market for processed fruit and vegetables is growing due to covid-19. Aside from planting vegetables and root crops, people at home are stockpiling processed food.

Stockpiling canned and frozen fruits and vegetables is part of the new normal now. It has greatly affected consumer’s buying behavior The fear of scarcity prompted people to start buying processed food. Such new behavior in buying has positively affected the demand for processed goods, canned fruit and vegetables.

In episode 24 of our ‘AgriStoryahay sa ATI’ webinar series, food technologist Phoebe L. Galeon shared and showed us that when a vegetable is in season and in abundance, processing is a logical step to make such farm goods commercially viable.

When vegetables are at farm gate price and readily accessible, they are expected to be affordable. A surplus of it sometimes spells disaster for our farmer friends since some of them cannot keep up marketing and selling which a lot of their goods would end up as waste.

One of the ATI’s guiding mantra is extension delivery beyond boundaries. Before the pandemic happened, this is easier said than done. There is always a question of turfing or even the limitations and legal ramifications imposed when you literally go beyond your Physical Boundaries. Of course, boundaries could be interpreted not only in the Physical sense as everything is open to interpretation, and for the Commission on Audit, justification.