Winnipeg gardeners compete for longest, heaviest upo at Filipino festival

Flashlight in hand during the dead of night, gardener Brix Del Carmen found himself atop a 10-foot ladder trying to pollinate his upo before the bees got to it.

It’s far from your typical image of summer gardening in Manitoba – pruning tomato suckers or picking zucchini flowers under the sun.

But that’s just how Del Carmen likes it.

“In the middle of the night, that’s the only time the flower starts to bloom… It’s pretty difficult,” he explained.

So what is it exactly? Upo is a traditional Filipino vegetable that translates to “bottle gourd” for its elongated shape. The upo, which can be cooked in many ways, grows to about 70 centimetres – depending on the type.

But every year, avid gardeners in Manitoba attempt to grow the biggest or heaviest upo in the province. They gathered at Tyndall Park Community School on Saturday for the fourth annual Upo Festival, where winners in each category were to be crowned.

That helps explain what Del Carmen was doing climbing the rungs of a 10-foot ladder, doing anything necessary to ensure his upo could compete for the grand prize.

The 24-year-old has spent the last two-and-a-half months growing his upo. Once pollinated, the vegetable can grow around six inches per day.

“I just dedicated myself on growing the longest, so every day I had to take care of it and take care of it like a baby,” he said.

Gardening is in Del Carmen’s blood. Born in San Manuel Tarlac in the Philippines to parents who grew rice and corn, he now spends all summer tending to his plants. He got his first upo seeds from a friend.

Del Carmen has a little bit of a secret weapon: as a secondary hobby he raises pigeons and uses the manure as readily available fertilizer.

He’s a two-time winner of the “longest upo” prize, including at the inaugural festival four years ago. This year, he’s entered the heaviest upo category for the first time.

“I think I’ll win. I think so,” he said.

Win or not, Del Carmen says he’s glad to be able to share Filipino culture through food to younger generations who, unlike him, may not have grown up in the Philippines.

Upo Festival emcee Denny Nangan agrees part of the festival’s raison d’être is to share that knowledge of Filipino culture with younger generations.

“The young people are getting to know, ‘oh, upo, I didn’t know that.’ Even, we just realized that they don’t know the English translation of upo,” said Nangan, who was not particularly fond of upo growing up, but now loves it.

He says another most important aspect of the competition is giving back, as all the vegetables will be going to the community.

“We ask people to donate them,” Nangan explained. “And we donate them to seniors’ complexes. Let’s say there’s a seniors’ apartment 55-plus that has many Filipinos that misses this kind of vegetable, we donate them to them.”

Like the upos themselves, the festival has grown significantly over the years. It started in someone’s backyard, and now it’s taken up a whole school gym and parking lot — with food trucks, activities and vendors.

“It unites the community and have this common goal of gardening,” Nangan said. “Because summer is so short in Manitoba. If you garden, you become self-sufficient. It gives you more energy and purpose for summer.

“We’re teaching (people) to love gardening and to be self-sufficient and to love the environment as well.”

The longest and heaviest upos earn each gardener – one per category – a cash prize of $1,000 and the title for the year. This year there are also smaller categories that also include other vegetables like funny-shaped or oddly coloured veggies.

At the end of the night, Del Carmen walked away with $2000 – having won both the longest upo measuring 12 feet and 3 inches, and the heaviest upo weighing 14.54 kilograms.

He’s also earned himself double the bragging rights for the next year and a triple longest upo win.

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Ways to cook Filipino vegetables by Upo Festival emcee Denny Nagnan

1. Upo Stir Fry (bottle gourd)

• Remove/peel the skin of the upo
• Cut upo into small pieces
• Sauté with garlic, onions and ginger

2. Tortang talong (eggplant)

• Cook the eggplant in a pan or on a grill
• Mash together with tomatoes
• Place mixture with scrambled eggs and cook like an omelette

3. Bitter Melon Salad

• Slice thin and wash
• Massage with salt, then rinse
• Add chopped onions, tomatoes and mango
• Add pepper and vinegar (to taste) and mix