The Filipino Entrepreneur

I think everyone knows this vegetable. This is commonly added to a dish called chop suey where it is mixed with vegetables like cauliflower, chinese cabbage, cabbage, bell pepper, sayote, carrots and added with squid and some chicken meat or pork.I guess there is a good income opportunity in producing baby corn because I don’t see it often in the wet market or in a supermarket so there is a possibility that producers were seldom also. So if you want to know something about producing baby corn, below is a guide I found in Bureau of Plant Industry website.

Young cob corn (Zea mays L.), the newly developed corn, has been used by Chinese as vegetable for generations and this practice has spread to other Asian countries. It is used as ingredient in most food preparations. It has nutritive value similar to that of non-legume vegetable such as cauliflower, tomato, cucumber and cabbage (Yodpetch and Bautista, 1983). This vegetable has a great potential for cooking purposes and for processing as a canned product. Canned cob corn export to Thailand, Japan and Europe is increasing and has a good future.

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WHAT ARE ABALONES?

Abalones are gastropod molluscs belonging to the Family Haliotidae. The genus Haliotis means “sea ear.” There are about 70 species of abalone distributed worldwide. Abalones are slow-growing one-shelled gastropods which live in rocky and shallow waters near stands of algae. The abalone shell is characterized by having a row of respiratory pores called “tremata” located along its left margin. There are three species of abalone that naturally occur in Philippine marine waters: the donkey’s ear abalone Haliotis asinina (local name – “lapas” or “sobra-sobra” in Ilonggo), H. varia (local name – “kapinan”), and H. ovina. H. asinina grow to a maximum size of 10-11 cm in shell length while H. varia and H. ovina are relatively smaller with maximum shell length of 6-8 cm. There are existing commercial abalone fisheries in the provinces of Iloilo, Guimaras, Negros, Samar, Surigao, Zamboanga, Palawan and Tawi-Tawi.

GENERAL BIOLOGY

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The freshwater catfish Clarias macrocephalus is native to the Philippines but is fast becoming scarce in many natural habitats. It is a favorite food fish due to its tender and delicious meat. Recently, farming of C. macrocephalus has gained interest among catfish growers. Like other catfish species, it is resistant to diseases, can be stocked at high densities, and tolerates low water quality. The catfishes C. macrocephalus and C. batrachus are almost similar in size and appearance, but differ by the shape of the occipital process in the head portion. The occipital process is blunt or rounded in C. macrocephalus and pointed in C. batrachus. C. macrocephalus also has small white spots along the sides of the body.

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Mushrooms are fleshy, spore bearing fungi. These spores germinate under favorable conditions to microscopic filaments which branch to form a mycelium. Fusion of compatible mycelia gives rise to fruiting bodies. Nutritionally, mushrooms are called saprophyte and obtain their food from non-living matter. Carbon and nitrogen sources including other elements available in the substrates support vegetative growth and fruiting development of the fungi.

The fast-growing mushrooms are good source of delicious food with high nutritional attributes like proteins, essential amino acids, fats, vitamins, carbohydrates and fibers, and some have medicinal values as well. The art of mushroom propagation has advanced dramatically in the past decades due to the techniques of spawn preparation, wide selection of low cost materials and availability of agro-industrial wastes used as growing substrates.

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Making laundry bar soap can be a good business idea. You can also make laundry soap for house hold use so you will not have to buy it in the market. Below is the procedure on making the laundry soap made from coconut oil which is the main ingredient. Other materials needed can be bought from chemical stores or from ultima entrepinoy. Materials/Ingredients (for 28 bars)

• Coco oil - 8 kg
• Caustic soda solution, 36oBe [30% solution] - 5 kg
• Soda ash - 90 g
• Salt - 48 g
• Sodium silicate - 400 g
• CDEA [coco diethanolamide] - 40 mL
• Citronella oil - 20 mL
• Water - 6 L

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