AVANT GARDENER Yvette Tan As the number of farmers in the country continues to decrease even as their median age increases, there has been a push to encourage people, especially young ones, to consider agriculture as a source of income. While there are many success stories of people who have made a...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Tan Food has become such a big part of pop culture that there are people who base their personalities on what they’ve eaten and where they’ve eaten it. There is nothing bad about this. Eating is an easy way to get to know a culture, and experiencing different flavors can...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Tan There’s a story about Nick Joaquin that’s been going around the creative writing circle for as long as I can remember. It’s said that during a writer’s workshop, the National Artist got so annoyed at a participant's work that he allegedly told the poor workshop...
Nikka Veronni Factolerin Espinili-Restovic, 32, is a seafarer turned Filipina gardener based in Serbia, where she grows Philippine or Asian vegetables. Espinili-Restovic settled abroad after marrying a Serbian national named Radoje Restovic and is now a mother to their three-year-old...
Nikka Veronni Factolerin Espinili-Restovic, 32, a native of Batangas, spent several years overseas working in different jobs, from being a hotelier to being a seafarer. In 2015, Espinili-Restovic decided to stop sailing and settle with her Serbian national husband. She admitted that...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Tan In history class, we learn that the Philippines has had a robust trade with China for centuries before the arrival of the Spanish. Before the ethnic Chinese who had settled in the Philippines were rounded up by the Spanish and forced to live in enclaves (among other...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Tan A farmer friend posted a meme of a sign on a farm that said in Tagalog: “Visitors are coming! Lock up your plants!” Something a lot of farmers deal with that isn’t talked about a lot is petty theft. We’re not talking about sacks of produce or fertilizer or a bunch...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Natalie Tan We tend to not pay a lot of attention to salt. Perhaps it’s because we’re an archipelago in the tropics, so sun and seawater, the magic combination that creates salt, is easy to come by. And yet, despite being an archipelago with many different salt making...
Avant Gardener Yvette Natalie Tan Many people think that farming is just planting seeds and harvesting crops. They don’t understand that like any business, it entails a whole production process, and that money may need to be spent in different areas along the way. Raf Dioniso of Make a Difference...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Natalie Tan Just what exactly is needed to produce a grain of rice? Quite a lot of labor and capital. Despite rice being a staple of the Pinoy dining table, not many Filipinos understand how the country’s favorite grain goes from binhi (seed) to bigas (milled rice). When...
AVANT GARDENER Yvette Natalie Tan I was recently asked to give a lay person's overview on the country’s food security situation for Bahay Kubo Kitchens organized by Mesa ni Misis and FEED (Farmer Enterprise & Economic Development) as part of the United Nations’ Food Systems Summit. Here’s...
It is true that you can save a lot from growing your own food. Don Bustamante, 45, a photographer by profession, can attest to this since he used to be reliant on markets for food, but is now an urban grower himself. Bustamante started growing vegetables after he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes...
