Tilling the soil

The most important thing in farming is the soil. 

This is what Farmer Jon from Mindoro said. I had attended his seminar last month at the Department of Agriculture and was inspired on how a 4,000-square meter property can be an Integrated Diversified Organic Farm. He has poultry and livestock, along with trees and herbs, and does agro-tourism at the same time. Quite impressive. But with all these, what impressed on me is how he emphasizes the importance of going back to the root of it all, literally. 

After Juli and Jessa left, we didn't know what to do. They were doing a good job applying what they had just learned from their BS Agriculture and BS Entrepreneurship Major in Agribusiness in our small city farm. They had planted vegetables and harvested some. But the call of overseas work is louder than nature's cry. 

So not knowing what to do, we started again from the very beginning. 

We uprooted the plants that weren't bearing, those that were insect-infested, and those that were waiting their natural death. 

We carved out soil on the sides so water can flow through when it rains. We put bokashi (an organic fertilizer made of carbonized rice hull, copra meal, darak, molasses, and microorganism) and made sure they line up pretty well. It's called land plotting and preparation.

For some, we covered the one-meter-width by five or seven-meter-length plots with plastic so weeds won't grow and the soil can rest well and feed on the bokashi.

For the others, Mang Eddie, the man who does most of the carpentry job, simply breaks the hardened soil into crumbles. He said the soil is rich and the presence of worms is testament to such. It just needs to be tilled so they stay healthy.

After a few days, the farm looked neat with lined-up tilled soil.

Caretaker Lisa's daughter Meme who helped out in the land preparation, said the land plots look like graves. Well, we're going to bury something inside, that's something similar. But they're not going to stay there. They're going to sprout life and sustain more lives.

Tilling the soil. We all have to start somewhere.