Best Shared With Family and Friends

Genuine appreciation for the fruits of the gardener's labor warms the heart.  Days and hours spent on tending the garden and finally gathering grown vegetables is something worth awaiting.  Even more, a visit from friends gives an opportune time to gather vegetables, herbs and join in the fun of preparation for a "feast."  Instead of eating inside the house, we brought out the table, while Russel, our Canadian guest prepared the dressing for the lettuce.  Russel made do with honey (wild), a bit of red wine, onions, cider vinegar of the bignay fruit.  I checked the kitchen cupboard-well it yielded no olive oil.  I then did the washing of the lettuce and pechay leaves, leave it for a while to dry.  Our main course was relyenong bangus (stuffed milk fish) which my cousin John prepared earlier.  Earlier, Russel was excited to see parsley in the greenhouse. He took a few leaves and off it went straight into his mouth. Russel claimed it was the best parsley he ever tasted.  It had a mild flavor.

Clifford and Russel sit for an outdoor meal we all enjoyed.

Even the kids enjoyed the greens.  They are finicky eaters and I was still happy even if the young man only took a leaf from the green salad.

David and Clifford who set up the composting shed learned a thing or two about adding some color to a table setting- banana leaves complement our lunch. Hmmm, can't wait to start lunch.  We joked about opening the garden to the public and start accepting visitors.  We joked about Russel being our first "test"guest.

Russel introduced papaya to the lettuce salad.  Now that's another thing new that I have learned.

Indeed, later in the afternoon, the gardener welcomes Joy and friends-dropping by for a visit.  No sweat, Clifford and David served Lemon Grass Tea, I did the lettuce salad which the guests picked from the plots and quickly did a repeat of Russel's brand of dressing.  Now instead of going up to Maligcong, we went up the mountain to have a view of Bontoc- only a few meters up from the garden.

And so here is the view that completes a visit to our garden.

A Shredder I Will Use

A mechanized plant shredder comes as a big help to the gardener.  In the early months of gardening, I manually chopped leaves, banana stalks, the sunflower plant, grasses to add to my compost pile.  The compost pile was placed in the pig pen (see opposite photo) as there was no pig yet in place. 

The traditional pig pen of my hometown, Bontoc is one dug half a meter deep into the earth and reinforced with layers of stones.  I would then throw in the chopped greens, moisten the pile with water and cover with plastic.  The shredder has been installed today, January 23, 2011 and we have to do some adjustments to the power source.  The machine runs on 3HP and would need a separate power line.  It also helps that most of my neighbors have overgrown grass and would be glad to see it go as feed for the shredder. Tomorrow, the shredder will be tested.  The composting shed that houses the shredder has been completed.  The shredder is the first prototype locally fabricated by Robert Changat.  Clifford and David have been at work for over a week in preparing the composting shed.  So there, the shredder adds up to the preparations I am into for a continuous gardening activity that I plan to do in the coming months.  I only have this dream of helping contribute to a supply of organic vegetables for the town of Bontoc. 

The garden too has a new resident, Austin.  A year old "native" pig-that traces its bloodline to the wild pigs that roam our forests.  I then had to clear Austin's pig abode of compost and spread it into the garden plots.  The compost helped enriched the soil.  In return, pechay plants "abnormally" large is the result of compost enriched soil.    

Enriching the Soil As My Ancestors Did

The old folks of the town of Bontoc in Mountain Province had no formal schooling in agriculture.  Still, the agricultural practices that they did, made sense.  For example, the native sun flower plant which is abundant in the community was used as green fertilizer.  Sunflower stalks and leaves were cut and brought to the rice fields. To prepare the rice fields for planting, they would spread the leaves, stalks of the sunflower on the field (already flooded with water) and trample this with their feet. This will ensure  that the leaves, stalks are mixed well into the muck. The old folks also do these on their sweet potato plots.  Sun flower leaves and stalks decompose and enrich and condition the soil.  The hard clay loamy soil in our garden benefits from this practice.  After gathering our lettuce, the garden plots are again prepared for the next planting.  Yes, sunflower leaves and stalks are plowed in into the soil.