AVANT GARDENER A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to eat what I harvested. While this is nothing new, what made the experience different was it was served in one of the iconic restaurants of the city I grew up in. I have never known San Juan without Cafe Ysabel. To me, it is synonymous with...
AVANT GARDENER A considerable challenge in getting agricultural products to its intended end users has to do with logistics. Many agricultural practitioners are of the belief that the Philippines actually grows enough food to feed itself, but the lack of accessibility between farms and markets,...
AVANT GARDENER A year ago, around this time, I had the opportunity to visit vegetable farmers in Benguet courtesy of WOFEX. One of the farmers I talked to was Mena Sukil-ap from Atok, Benguet. Turning 56 next week, Sukil-ap inherited her terraced farm, about 500 sqm of which is productive, from...
AVANT GARDENER A few columns ago, I wrote about Anitu Forest Food Processing, a small batch chocolatier from Bukidnon and Anitu Food Forest, the syntropic farm that supplies the cacao for the artisanal chocolates. Fourth-generation farmer Marvi Montecillo recounted his journey to syntropic...
AVANT GARDENER I began suffering what I now realize were stress headaches in grade one. Not wanting me to rely too much on paracetamol, my mother, a migraine sufferer, introduced me to the wonderful world of salves and liniments, and I’ve been quite exacting about it ever since. The point...
AVANT GARDENER Last week, I wrote about Raffy Tesoro of Bio-Genetics Agriventures, Inc. and Jason Drilon’s popup at James & Daughters in Pasig which featured traditional Tagalog food that Tesoro grew up with, most, if not all of it sourced locally. The popup was a hit, with both days...
AVANT GARDENER What does a traditional Tagalog dinner taste like? I don’t mean the lutong bahay of today; I mean what did it taste like decades before? Raffy Tesoro, a partner at Bio-Genetics Agriventures, Inc. and guest cook at James & Daughters, together with guest chef Jason Drilon,...
AVANT GARDENER “If you plant, you can eat.” So goes the often repeated line from the multi-award-winning Tigkiwili, one of the eight full-length films in the Puregold CinePanalo Festival, which runs until March 25 at Gateway Cineplex 18. The film garnered seven awards, including...
AVANT GARDENER If there are two things many Filipino children lack these days, it’s a love for reading and an appreciation for farming. Joel Donato Ching Jacob, HIV counselor and author of the Scholastic Asian Book Award winning novel Wing of the Locust and its sequels Orphan Price and...
AVANT GARDENER Department of Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu-Laurel Jr., through the efforts of the Agribusiness and Countryside Development Foundation (ABCDF), recently met with some members of the youth to discuss the state of Philippine agriculture. ABCDF is a non-profit...
AVANT GARDENER The Philippine cacao industry has been growing but still remains underdeveloped. Some local chocolatiers are trying to change this by offering tree to bar artisanal chocolates. One of them is Anitu Food Forest, a Bukidnon-based chocolate brand who sources its cacao beans from...
AVANT GARDENER Last week, I wrote about Anitu Forest Food Processing, a small chocolate brand from New Kidapawan City, Bukidnon. Now, I’m writing about the Anitu Forest Farm, the syntropic farm that produces the cacao that goes into the handcrafted chocolates. Anitu Forest Farm is run by...
