Why is La Trinidad Valley called the salad bowl of the Philippines?

At 5,000 feet altitude yet in the tropics, this fertile, flat volcanic valley of 5 miles diameter yields fresh

fruits and vegetables every day of the year! Not only this, just the sight of the area is unbelievable

after driving through the high, steep mountains is quite miraculous! Now, go see it!

                Top row: broccoli and red beets
            Bottom: cherry tomatoes and bell peppers                                                     Look at all that lettuce!

                                     curly leaf parsley

Benguet is known as the vegetable basket of Luzon. Temperate vegetables like cauliflower, lettuce,

carrot, asparagus, broccoli, cucumber, beans, peas, cabbage, etc. are grown in the vegetable farms

of Buguias and other highland towns.

These produce are brought to the trading post in bulk packaging (sacks, crates) where wholesalers

await them for distribution and marketing in Baguio City, other parts of the province and as far as

Metro Manila.

Large-scale vegetable farming became evident during the 1960’s. La Trinidad became one of the leading

vegetable-producing municipalities in the entire country. This earned for its distinction as “ The Salad Bowl

of the Philippines” in the 1980’s. Toward the end of the decade, farmers began to shift from vegetable

production to strawberry and cutflower production. To this day, La Trinidad is recognized as “The Strawberry

Fields of the Philippines”. In 1998, the barangay of Bahong was declared ”the Rose Capital of the Philippines”.

Aside from these distinctions, La Trinidad is also known as a traders’ marketing center if not for the

province but also in the Cordilleras. La Trinidad remains to be an agricultural area with urbanization

fast creeping in the valley area.