From Land to Farm

Having a piece of land and having a farm are two very different things. 

So what do you do when you have a piece of land that is a farm with all its trees and unbuilt ground? We did not know. Of course, we could buy seeds and read the packet labels on how to plant herbs and vegetables. That was a possibility, until a blessing came.

Juli and Jessa are our neighbors and two new graduates from Mindanao State University. They needed a job and was perhaps simply expecting an office job. They have background in agriculture in college so it was a perfect match when they were hired to do what they think best in this lot of a farm.

Seeing them work on what they know was amusing to say the least. 

 When we weren't able to purchase seedling trays, they made them themselves from banana leaves and stems.

During the dry summer months, when there wasn't even a drop of rain, they would fetch water and drench the peanuts, corn, and other crops that they planted. That was until the hose and sprayer they had requested came along weeks after.

When the rainy days came, the weeds sprouted as well. So Juli and Jessa plucked weeds on most days that they came in. It's not an easy task to be squatting and picking on thin spiky grasses.

Even if we don't understand quite fully about farming and agriculture, we believe they are doing their job well. Everytime we go there, it's just for a few minutes, curious on what's going on, and for most of the time, bringing home a basket of harvest. And as we ask them questions, they would tell me of their tanim (planted crops)--how pineapple heads that we throw can be planted and would bear fruit in a few years, how stem cutting is easier than doing a seed nursery, etc....

After five months of watering, planting, weeding, and harvesting, both of them recently left for abroad. We're happy on their new journey. They have sowed on a soil not theirs, and we're forever grateful for their contribution. However the farm would turn out as they leave, surely the past five months of their stay have imprinted on this land.

 
I thank them for giving me a taste of what farming is like. For making this piece of land a farm.