If you follow Gene Gonzalez, chef and owner of San Juan City culinary institution Cafe Ysabel (which is turning 44 years in 2026) and president of the Center for Asian Culinary Studies, on one of his many social media channels, you know that aside from championing local produce and products, he also experiments in growing his own food, particularly figs, sprouts, and mushrooms.

Like many plantitos and plantitas, Gonzalez discovered his love for gardening during the pandemic. “Growing our own food, the lockdown had a lot of things to do with it.”

One of his first forays was growing figs, a challenging plant to grow in the Philippines. “I became an avid fig grower. I think there was some mild success with that, but there were also certain lessons that I had to learn. One was you really have to find out what figs are good for your location. These are Mediterranean plants. They need rain, they like certain kinds of soil blends, so you’ll have to learn from this,” he said. “From a collection of 30+ figs, I now have four or five varieties left.”

He also experimented with sprouting, drawn not only to its culinary uses as garnish and salad greens but, as a cancer survivor, also to its nutritional properties. “Young sprouts are loaded with a lot of benefits that are very good especially for people with ailments like cancer and diabetes. I was sprouting all kinds of sprouts: edible sprouts like sunflower sprouts—uncommon ones—and eventually, I would sprout only what is not common anymore, because you can buy a lot of sprouts now.”

Sprouting is germinating seeds until they grow either edible roots that usually look like little tails popping out of the seeds or baby shoots, also called microgreens, and harvesting them before they mature further. “Sprouting has certain medicinal and health benefits that disappear or lose concentration when they start growing into bigger plants,” Gonzalez said. “For example, broccoli sprouts are loaded with all these benefits but once they turn into large broccoli, they’re still beneficial, but you don’t have that concentration coming from the young sprouts.”

He started with kaiware, a kind of radish, but one of his favorites is sunflower. “The last one I did was okra sprouts, and we had microgreens, very small okra microgreens, two leaves, and they were delicious. There’s a lot of things to learn.”

He has since taught other recovering patients to grow their own sprouts and has included sprouting in his schools’ curriculum. Cafe Ysabel also grows some of its own sprouts. “They’ll find it as part of our garnish or they’ll find it as part of our salads, sprinkled on top,” he said. “We do sunflower, okra, and radish sprouts. They’re nice and spicy. It’ll take you about two days to order a sprout or go to a very good supermarket and get whatever’s available, but to focus on something that you really want, I would recommend that you grow it.”

Sprouting isn’t just for vegetables. Gonzalez mentioned a Thai method of sprouting rice that results in a more nutritious grain. “They have rice that’s pre-sprouted. You won’t see the sprouts. You won’t see anything growing on the rice. It looks like ordinary rice, but there’s a precursor to the sprouting of this rice which partially creates more protein, makes it much more resistant, decreases the sugar content, and brings up a lot of… benefits that are very good for the general well-being of people. This is very much in vogue in Thailand.”

Gonzalez is very transparent about the lessons and challenges he’s learned and encountered in his journey as a gardener. “The Philippines is not really fig weather, so you’ll have to be really choosy about the area where you’re going to grow them… because the more it rains, your leaves are going to get fig rust, you’re going to get root rot, and other certain problems with fruit growers,” he said. “Sprouting, you’ll have vermin. Sometimes hungry mice or rats or sometimes ants. They’ll eat your seeds.”

He added that fig growers will need to watch out for birds in the morning and bats at night.

What started as something to while away time during lockdown has become a hobby, one that keeps Gonzalez happy and healthy. Not only does growing his own food help keep him in top physical shape, it’s also been a source of nutrition. “Years ago, I had cancer as an ailment, so spouts, mushrooms, figs, these three are all recommended to cancer patients.”

Growing his own food has been a way for Gonzalez to take his fate into his own hands, and he, his restaurant, his school, and the people he’s tutored are all the better for it.

Next week, I’ll concentrate on his journey as a mushroom grower and which variety he thinks tastes the best.