Philippines: Urban garden shop sources rare spices from all over the country
It has sells 20 kinds of culinary herbs and added different categories such as medicinal herbs, aromatherapy herbs, rare aromatics and spices, and edible flowers.
By Patricia Bianca Taculao
Manila Bulletin
Jan 18, 2021
Excerpt:
“We established Lush Herbs and More because we believe that our local community deserves to have high-quality herbs with the best customer experience journey and create a fun, memorable gardening experience when they get back home,” Bondoc said.
At present, Lush Herbs and More offers culinary herbs such as sweet basil, Thai basil, peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, parsley curl, celery, chives, and rosemary; medicinal herbs such as serpentina, native oregano, and insulin; aromatherapy herbs such as citronella and lavender; aromatics and spices such as black pepper, vanilla, and galangal; edible flowers such as blue ternate, and superfood plants such as mulberry and grafted fig.
“Our best-selling plant is blue ternate at P80. Aside from its popular health benefits, its striking blue-colored flower is versatile to any culinary dishes, baked goods, and beverage concoctions,” Bondoc said.
To help their customers properly care for the plants that they bought, Bondoc came up with an exclusive guide that their customers can access on their mobile devices.
With the growing demand for herbs, the Bondocs had to offer a variety of herbs and spices to cater to their customers’ needs, which is why they source plants from other areas in the country.
In doing so, the siblings were able to work closely with local farmers and suppliers to acquire different kinds of herbs and spices. For instance, they were able to source as far as Mindanao to acquire rare spice plants.
They later propagate these plants through stem cuttings while other homegrown herbs are directly sown from seeds.
“We love supporting and learning from our modern-day heroes, our local farmers,” Bondoc said.
