Puerco means pig, but here it also means a large bag of assorted vegetables. You see them being sold in the street and in some produce markets.

Friends we met through the blog are exploring Panama, and they are currently in Chiriqui. Today they went up to Cerro Punta (in the mountains where most of the produce is grown) and brought me this gift! Since all this is grown up there it cost only $5. Down here it would be more, maybe $8-10 but it’s still a great deal. So, what is in the bag?

Three heads of cabbage, an onion, two tomatoes, a chayote, a small broccoli, some celery stalks, a leek, 9 carrots, 3 heads of lettuce, a bunch of leaf lettuce, a little green pepper, and a lot of potatoes. Some people say they tend to put the less attractive produce in these bags but not this one. Everything looked fresh and beautiful.

So what does one do with all this?!

Soup! We had some leftover pork roast that wasn’t as tender as we hoped. I figured it was a perfect candidate for soup, along with the celery, leek, chayote, a cabbage, most of the carrots, and some of the potatoes. It’s delicious! I’m sitting here with a very happy tummy.

Joel has boiled more of the potatoes for hash browns in the morning.

My friends, if you are reading this, come back tomorrow and we will have soup, or hash browns, or both, with salad! 😁