It is the early nineties and Mara Pardo de Tavera had just come home from living in New York City. The organic movement was prolific in the US even then, the alternative lifestyle a part of the day-to-day as much as any sidewalk burrito stand. Studying and working in the hospitality industry, she was fortunate to have a mentor who told her that the difference with commercially-produced eggs and organic eggs was that the chicken and the rooster “had fun.” It changed the taste and gave the food its life source.

The advocate Mara Pardo de Tavera sits in front of a Mindanaoan soil painting at the MOM Store

Health was at the top of mind for Mara, whose diet consisted of fresh, environment-friendly produce available at numerous supermarkets and cafes. When she came back to the Philippines, the scarcity of these products forced her back into the rice-dominant, fried protein meals that are staples to the country’s regimen. She fell ill and knew it was because of what she was eating.

Mara set up a couple of tables at the Greenbelt Park on a Saturday morning, back when it didn’t look like the sculpted landscape it is today and the idea of organic living was unheard of. “Somebody has to begin or we’re all doomed,” she said, “I’m afraid it has to be me.” Her family and friends shook their heads at her stubbornness. “I come from a family of rebels,” Mara adds, fondly remembering her mother, the physician Mita Pardo de Tavera (among whose contributions include the widespread memorandum that breast milk is best for babies up to two years on the package of any powdered milk product). Mara attributes the connection for her consciousness of health in relation to food to her mother.

Armed with an informed passion and a convincing charm for the lifestyle, the tables extended from two to 12 in a few months’ time and her clientele from the curious foreigners to her friends. “At first they came just to support me, but then it caught on,” she said.

MOM AT THE LEGASPI MARKET

Mara is in her element at MOM, or Mara’s Original Market, as it is known. She cannot sit still, greeting everyone as she walks along. When she goes from stall to stall and finds something she likes, she tells the vendor to set it aside in thrice the quantity. “I am the biggest customer here,” says the market organiser. She is also known to be very strict with what they sell.

Mushrooms the size of saucers from Nueva Vizcaya

Fun finds like animal door stoppers and tic-tac-toe sets made from scrap cloth and recycled wood at the market

She sees a handful of mineral clay encased in metal and she calls the attention of the vendor. Clay loses its health benefits if stored in steel, she points out, and asks to have the cases taken out of view. “I was doing marketing and running a store of a different range of products,” Mara mentioning more of the time she spent in New York, “But more and more I was narrowing my products because if it was made irresponsibly, I wouldn’t handle it.” She is a purist of the organic philosophy through and through. She has turned down products of great health potential if it used irrigated water. “For me this is not just a simple lifestyle choice, it’s really [about] our survival,” says Mara. “If people ate more organic, it would help fight off all these diseases. And when they support organic farmers, they’re helping the environment more. It costs more but we do all the work that commercial farming does not so that’s our contribution.”

THE MOM STORE

Twenty years into her advocacy, Mara endeavours to influence the younger generation. “These are the people who were out on Saturday night and probably won’t wake up until 2 p.m. [on Sundays],” she says. This is why she has opened up the MOM Store at The Gallery building in Makati.

(Clockwise from Top) Beef sinigang featuring meat from Bukidnon's Down-to-Earth with rice and greens
from the Cordillera region, turmeric adobo (cooked without soy sauce, sprinkled with cinnamon), and mushroom steak

An extension of the Sunday market, the MOM Store opens at noon, closes as late as 9 p.m., and operates from Mondays to Saturdays. She serves large mushrooms from Nueva Vizcaya in two ways: as a steak or as a “sisig,” which is a style of Filipino cooking where the mushroom is diced and fried. The mushroom steak looks like a roasted piece of chicken breast alongside stalks of raw broccoli and sliced carrots. A salad of black sesame and hemp seeds sits beside a serving of brown rice. The steak is sumptuous and the vegetables are fresh. It tastes different, but delicious.

Dairy products from Down-to-Earth

People come to the MOM Store to visit Mara, whose personal touch is evident in the way she greets her customers and offers them a glass of hemp milk (“There’s no THC so you won’t get high,” she assures) or blue corn silk tea (naturally coloured by boiling flowers). “People who come here say, ‘Mara, your food is alive,” she says, and indeed, a refreshing and cleansing experience awaits the visitors of the store.

G/F The Gallery Building (beside Hit Productions), Amorsolo Street, Makati City +632.621.9140

Extended from the print version in the August 2014 issue of Philippine Tatler, available in any leading newsstands and bookstores. Download the digital version on your device from Magzter and Zinio.