Categories: Health

Cereza, local Berry, Reminiscence of My Childhood Days

In our old house, there was a cereza tree grown along the road.  It’s a cherry-bearing tree. In some parts of the country, It’s known as “Aratiles”. When it bore fruits, they looked like a Christmas decor hanging in every leaf. Their colour may range from green to orange and crimson red. It’s lovely to look at when they’re full of fruits.

My neighbour friends and I used to climb the tree and picked those ripe berries. We used the raw berries as “bullet” for our toy gun, powered by a rubber band. I’m still recalling how happy we were. We stayed on top of the tree for several hours, chatting. It used to be our hang-out when we didn’t have classes or in the weekend.

Our female friends gathered those berries and sold them in their play market store. We used the leaves of the said tree as our money. We bought them and gathered in a corner. We served and ate these as our snack.

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We loved eating them for they’re sweet when they’re ripe. But we don’t know that they’re nutritious and they’ve a lot of nutrients to offer for our body. Lately, I had come across that “cereza” in our local dialect that it is a good source of antioxidants. It is rich in vitamins, minerals, and other beneficial properties.

The Philippine Department of Agricultural conducted a research. It showed that these berries have lots of benefits to offer. They could prevent the growth of cancer cell for they’re rich in cytotoxic flavonoids. They have an anti-aging elements. They contain calcium, phosphorus, iron, thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin. They have the vitamins A and C, and the minerals zinc and selenium.

Our hometown became a city and we couldn’t find these cereza trees anymore. To find them, you have to go to the farm. They’re usually grown along the river bank. Birds find this tree as their homing place. They won’t get hungry for there are bunches of fruits. I am planning to visit sometime this weekend the farm of my friend. I try to look for this tree and take a picture of it.

image by 365greatpinoystuff




  • Gil Camporazo

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    • This is a real estate investing tip for when you go house hunting. If you see fruit trees in the yard, consider that home as a potentially worthwhile investment. The house I grew up in was built mostly from wood, but I wouldn't trade the fruit trees that grew in our yard for anything! Sadly, my childhood home no longer exists. But I have the lesson in real estate investing that I learned from living there, to hold on to. :)

    • That is good advice. It is also my tendency to buy a lot with a tree growing. I feel better at home when I see trees around. I grew up in a place where trees are growing in abundance. Late in the after or even noon time, you could hear the beautiful sound from the chirping of the birds. It is so nice to see them playing on the branches of the trees.

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