If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one. — Mother Teresa
Even in modern times, the life of a farmer still depends on the weather patterns.
Unlike other countries having four seasons, we have only have the dry and wet season, and the duration of each season slightly different in each region.
Some have overcome the limitations by building controlled environments to be able to grow year-round especially in unfavorable times, spaces, or environments. While this is already a reality, I refuse to believe in this fatalistic view of the future.
I continually believe in the future that co-exists with nature.
With the threat of philanthropic organizations dressed as wolves-in-sheep-clothing trying to steer everyone into a world only beneficial to them. The claim of their "never-been-seen-before" future might be a huge step for mankind, but just backwards. Dominance, control, centralization, are the perfect ingredients for a seemingly beautiful world just hiding the chaotic and ugly in the background and underneath.
Most of the times, they advertise that the benefits outweigh the risks in a cut-throat manner, forcing a subset of the population to go unemployed and often hungry, due to their unintentional dependence to the existing system even after defying the orders.
After our health, they now seem to have sparked a special interest in our diet, location, and other seemingly mundane daily activities. Maybe to further gain control of our decision-making. The child-actress Greta wants her filling lunch, but her handlers want us to eat bugs and lab-grown meats.
If you watch the TV in the Philippines, advertisements about fortified drinks, snacks, and ready-to-cook foods dominate the air-time, purporting long-term health and nutrition across all ages, but the key product they are selling is sugar. Aside from water and other fillers, around 75% of the ingredients in processed snacks is sugar alongside with preservatives. They are not selling you health, they are selling you diabetes, kidney failure, heart disease, and stroke.
We seem to be late from the global agenda, but that's better than being the first of the experiments!
Natural Foods Don't Need Labels
Processed foods should be the one be strictly limited and regulated.
I am grateful that I live an community where I can still opt for foods without labels at all... foods without the 100% real stamps, certified organic labels, reverse nutrition facts, and long list of ingredients.
Even with the not-so-beautiful harvest, I have no fear eating fruits and vegetables because I know they were not sprayed with herbicides and pesticides, and were not tampered with fungicide and other chemicals to lengthen its shelf-life.
Sun-drying Rice Grains While the Sun is Out
Today, we anticipated short period of sunshine and immediately transported our remaining rice grains for further drying. This would be the third and last batch until our next harvest in March.
Our neighbor owns a rice mill located at the center of their huge property and we were able to use their "Buyayan" or drying space even if it was just partly sunny and huge storm clouds were looming at the the distance. The rice grains needed to be spread as thinly as possible across the space to allow the heat and wind to dry it down to 14% moisture. After passing the visual test, it should also pass the bite test, otherwise when milled forcefully, it will result to low returns.
The rice grains should be occasionally shuffled using the wooden rake for an even drying. While waiting for the next shuffling, I visited the owner and had a little chitchat with her.
The owners of the rice mill are very close friends of my late grandfather and my grandpa used to work for them too. She was really passionate about her mulberry trees growing in her garden. Surely it was a fast grower, since it wasn't that tall in the last season. Her daughter bought it and planted in their garden and has grown really tall now, one was a native variety while the other was the Illinois hybrid. They were able to propagate more of it around their property.
I went back to the drying space to shuffle the rice and shoo the birds away. After a while, the weather started to change and we immediately put everything in the sacks before the rain would start pouring again. Unfortunately, the rice weren't to dry enough to be milled and had to temporarily store it at their warehouse until the next sunny day.
With the inflation, I could say that local rice stayed cheap and affordable while staying way less than a dollar, so growing rice might not be so economical, but it is still a good safety net knowing the world isn't in a good economic position. It is worth noting that majority of small-scale rice farmers are doing business at a loss, due to the debt-trap and rising cost of farm inputs and labor.
So, my grandma had also been asking me to accept the tenancy of a portion of her work, but I cannot financially afford to manage it myself as of the moment. My sister is also doubting to accept it, since she is busy with here day job and can't be full time with it. At a first glance it would be a nice prospect, but the current farm work is already a big job, being a tenant is scarier because you need to make sure that you secure a third of your harvest to the landlord unlike when it's your own property.
Right now, we have a short break while the rice seedlings are still growing at the farm, in the next few weeks it will need new attention again and some additional inputs to secure a good harvest.
Until my next update.
Keep buzzing!
PINNED POSTS
 | A Sustainability Review of the Year 2022 Starting from January, let's have a trip down the highlights of my journey in self-sufficiency and sustainability. |
 | Clearing the Damage After the Storm Instead of falling into anxiety, I took time to make use of what the storm had given. |
 | Building Abundance with More Fruit Trees Amid the Economic Turmoil This year, I planned to initially plant 100 trees wherever possible until the year ends. |
 | Using Saltwater and Fire to Heal a Permaculture Garden Plant debris becomes natural mulch and organic matter. |
 | Harvesting Cucumbers After a Year of Labor As crops mature, harvest season began as well. |
 | Fermenting Fish Amino Acid for the Garden Crops It would be a sin to throw away such things, even the food scraps I turn it to compost now. |
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About Me
@oniemaniego is a software developer, but outside work, he experiments in the kitchen, writes poetry and fiction, paints his heart out, or toils under the hot sun.
 | Onie Maniego / Loy Bukid was born in rural Leyte. He often visits his family orchards during the summers and weekends, which greatly influenced his works. |
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