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One of our local favorite foods is Motsiyas. This dish is made with what we call Yibu buena (pronounced Zeebubuena). First we capture a free-range chicken and prep it...the upper half, including chest cavity, wings and neck is partially deboned (the head is sometimes left on) and the meat cut out.

The meat is chopped up and combined with chopped Yibu buena, hot pepper plant leaves, tomato leaves, pumpkin vine tips, yard-long beans, winter onions, green onions, with garlic, salt, and hot chili peppers to taste. After the ingredients are mixed well, it is stuffed into the cavities of the chicken (skin) and sewn up. Then the chicken is gently steam-cooked in coconut milk. Time-consuming dish but well worth it.

I think Yibu buena is also used as medicine here, but I need to find this out from a "Suruhanu."

This sounds like a great recipe for sustainable living and for a feistier cook than I, with more sun and space for tomatos and pumpkins. I especially found the concept interesting, pertaining to this herb as a class of herbs, depending on what part of the world you lived in and how you used it. I look forward to hearing about its medicinal aspects.

But I do wonder about eating tomato leaves - are you sure that's a good idea?

Good question. Sure, tomatoes are in the nightshade family, but according to literature it is benign. Here's a link: https://upstartkitchen.wordpre...

Motsiyas is the only dish I know of where we use the mint Yerba buena and tomato leaves. And since it is time consuming to put together and only when we have the fresh ingredients, we only occasionally make it.

I know that my deer and gophers are not affected at all by eating tomato leaves (they will eat the whole plant) but I have not eaten them myself