My Saturday Market in BGC Is Your New Weekend Stop for Organic Finds
It has been a weekend routine for most Makati residents to go shopping at the Legazpi Sunday Market, where various fresh items and organic produce can be seen.
But due to the saddening recent development plans in its former site, the beloved Sunday market was relocated to two spaces to continue serving its patrons: one in a small temporary site still in Legazpi and the other in a new space in BGC.
If you happen to live near De Jesus Oval in Bonifacio Global City, it is your lucky chance to visit the new weekend market—My Saturday Market, which opened to the public last March 16.
Now situated under the cool canopy of towering trees in BGC, My Saturday Market is organized by Mara’s Original Market, featuring 13 stalls with different organic and natural products, among other sustainable finds. It is open every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Aloha
Aloha is owned by a Japanese couple Chitose and Mike. They sell various Japanese items from cellphone charms to hair accessories, and even yukatas brought in from Japan. Organic products from Osawa Japan are also available in this stall, such as the recommended Aleppo Soap made from olive oil and lye.
Aleppo soap
Chitose also sells her homemade tsukemono or Japanese pickled vegetables like the ichiyazuke (overnight pickles), nukazuke (vegetables fermented in rice bran), and kimchi variants sold for Php 100 per bag. She also makes her own Daifuku mochi (rice cake with red bean paste filling).
On the other hand, Mike sells his handmade waraji, or the traditional Japanese sandals made from abaca instead of the usual straw rope.
Mike making handmade abaca waraji
Auntie and Me Beauty
For those who love essential oils, drop by the stall of Auntie and Me Beauty, and check out their array of handcrafted organic skincare and body products. Their products are all-natural and cruelty-free—from detox masks and hair growth serums to lip balms and essential oils.
Essential oil rollers
Contact person: Rosa Garcia Inciong
Contact information: 0917-539-2280
Instagram: @auntieandmebeauty_ph
Email: auntieandmebeauty@gmail.com
Website: auntieandmebeauty.com
Boocha Mama
More detox items can be spotted in Boocha Mama’s stall that features raw kombucha drinks. If you haven’t heard about kombucha, it is a blended tea with cane sugar, which originated in ancient times as healthy refreshments.
Kombucha drinks
This live probiotic beverage is low in sugar and is known for its detoxifying benefits. It is available in different blended flavors, such as passion fruit, ginger turmeric, mango, and so much more.
Contact information: 0929-301-6079
Instagram: @boochamama
Facebook: Boochamama
Email: boochamama.mnl@gmail.com
Filhands Arts and Craft
For crafty people looking for eco-friendly products, check out the handicrafts from Filhands Arts and Craft. They offer recycled items made from coconut husk and bamboo turned into simple home decors. They also have housewares like wood hangers, picture frames, vases, and accessories.
Contact information: 0915-635-4567
Facebook: Filhands Arts and Crafts
Email: filhandscraft@gmail.com
Kalipayan Farm
Chili and Pulilan Brown Rice from Kalipayan Farm
Kalipayan Farm is your next stop for organic meat products sourced straight from their own farm in Bulacan. Here, you’ll see freshly harvested vegetables and natural Pulilan brown rice.
Address: Pulilan, Bulacan
Contact person: Nikole Alicer
Contact information: 0977-812-4594
Email: kalipayanfarm@gmail.com
Instagram: @kalipayanfarm
Mara’s Original Market
Coconut products
Mara’s Original Market is an outlet for traditional, organic, natural, and artisanal products. Some of the products you’ll see are detox products including coconut sugar, coconut oil, coconut flour, rice, and more.
Address: GF Cypres Gardens Building, 112 V.A. Rufino St., Legazpi Village, Makati City
Contact person: Mara Prado de Tavera
Contact information: 0917-888-7799
Email: earthelements9@gmail.com
Facebook: InaMundo
Instagram/Twitter: @momearthmarket
Mayown
Mayown is a social enterprise teaching the arts of crochet to the community of Pandacan, Manila. They work together with a Visayan forum community, who prevents young women from going into human trafficking and modern slavery. The women from this forum create cute handmade crochet plushies for the benefit of their families.
Mayown’s crochet plushies
These plushies are perfect as travel buddies and gifts for children!
Email: mayown.handmade@gmail.com
Website: mayown.myshopify.com
Facebook: Mayown
Instagram: @mayown.handmade
Niyog
Maintain that vegan diet with Niyog’s organic products! They sell digestive detox food rich in probiotics, cleansing the body inside out. Some of the products they sell are coconut yogurt, kefir, cream cheese and beverages—to name a few.
Vegan Coconut Kefir from Niyog
Contact information: 0939-902-480
Email: rk.niyog@gmail.com
Facebook: Ni-Yog Ra
The Cracking Monkey
The Cracking Monkey is a food brand based in the Philippines that cultivates, harvests, and sells sprouted Pili nuts sourced from Bicol, packed in reusable cotton sacks. It’s known to be the only Pili nut product in the market that still uses the patented way of cracking Pili nuts using a stainless lever, which comes with every purchase.
Pili nuts by The Cracking Monkey
Contact information: 02-501-4705
Website: thecrackingmonkey.ph
Instagram: @thecrackingmonkey
Good Bites
Quorn Nuggets also put up a stall selling vegan nuggets—a healthier alternative for chicken nuggets. It is available in three serving sizes: Starter (Php 75), Good (Php 130), and Upsize (Php 170) with dips of your choice.
Ichananaw
Ichananaw’s owner Manuel Onalan with his daughter
Get your fresh green produce sourced from the Kalinga province in Ichananaw. Owned by Manuel Onalan, Ichananaw sells crisp vegetables, organic rice, and Kalinga coffee. A little trivia: Ichananaw is the name of an indigenous tribe in Mountain province.
Contact person: Manuel Onalan
Contact information: 0977-835-1420
Other organic vegetable stalls
There are also other vegetable stalls from Silang, Cavite like the Lady Well Farms’ organic fruits, vegetables, and flowers; and Saka Farm, a modest family farm selling organic fruits like dragonfruit, pineapples, and bananas.
Ladywell Farm
Saka Farm
If these organic products don’t excite you to ready your eco-bags for a weekend market shopping, we don’t know what will.
For more information, you may visit BGC’s Facebook page or website at bgc.com.ph.
How to get here
- De Jesus Oval is along 3rd Avenue near One McKinley Place.
- By car: From McKinley Parkway, drive along 24th Street. You’ll pass by Rizal Drive before making a right turn onto 4th Street. Make a left turn at 25th Street before reaching the De Jesus Oval roundabout.
