Sunday, August 18, 2013
Deluge Monsoon Season August 2013
I had a lovely weekend, despite the monsoon rains with my girlfriends who stayed over in my little farm in Silang. We had lunch in Marcia Adams, at a new little restaurant in Alfonso, Cavite. We stayed at the farm, just chilling and experiencing the peace and quiet of the upland Cavite countryside.
I am glad we all came down late afternoon, Sunday, because that evening, the monsoon rains started to fall in sheets!
How timely our return to Manila. We missed the closure of the Southern Luzon Express (SLEX) by a few hours. Southwoods exist towards SLEX, is always a shorter route back to Manila However, Sunday evening, the monsoon rains flooded the exit. Had we come down any later, we would have been stranded !
( Photo from ABS CBN News, August 19, 2013)
Government isn’t concerned about saving the rainforests in the uplands of Cavite, or protecting small farms from being a target of elimination ever since the SLEX was extended towards Calamba and Batangas. The political leaders have even encouraged urban sprawl towards the South to increase the earnings of the province from tax revenues . The land in the agricultural areas have been converted to commercial/residential. Shopping malls, cemeteries, and subdivisions have replaced the idyllic mango groves, and miles of rice paddies that lined the highways leading to Tagaytay. The big 8 lane expressway, or “ SLEX” did not exist in my younger days.
I have been posting for so long how the hills of the uplands of Silang have been deforested, and the large mango farms and orchards, coconut plantations are gone. Those huge trees hold water in their roots, and keep the soil from being eroded...these floods have happened before but very few people were affected . The government has more maintenance costs in these highways...not to mention the many who are living in those subdivisions who are now stranded not being able to go to work in the Metropolis!
The government of the Philippines, should set their priorities straight. This is going to cripple the economy eventually.
Unless the rainforests and agro lands are protected, the people in the main city of Metro Manila and the neighboring provinces will just have to get used to closure of all businesses due to the flooding of major highways during the monsoon season!
Friday, August 9, 2013
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Summer Harvest 2013
I know it has been years since I came to blog something about my farm. I was devastated about being infested with pythons. The town where my farm is located has suddenly become the center of urban development. Everywhere it seems are these new projects for subdivisions and shopping malls.
The town of Silang is not yet a city, but the population is growing by the thousands of rich people settling in swank subdivisions. The poor are following, by squatting on the roadside and around creeks and rivers. The people are streaming in from squatter areas of Metro Manila being relocated in low cost housing built in the saltbeds of Tanza, and Cavite City. Industrial districts have opened up new factory sites on what was once sugar cane fields. Local farmers are giving up trying to plant vegetables on smaller plots that render their income as negligible considering they had access to more lands that were cheaper to rent. Silang is bordered by Tagaytay City in Cavite, and Santa Rosa, Laguna, and Metro-Manila.
Silang was this quiet town, with coffee plantations, coconut lands, orchards, forests, and grazing cows The .area was a good area to buy fresh produce. The 300 hectare Riviera Golf and Country Club was already the first development whereby it was necessary to cut down one of the oldest standing virgin forests in Silang, Cavite and replaced it with a subdivision and golf courses.
We no longer can draw water up from our wells, even at the depth of 300 feet...there is no water!This area is considered the watershed with abundant under ground rivers that supply my farm with fresh, sweet water. Water is now being syphoned by the millions of gallons to provide tap water to subdivision homes.
In my small little farm, I practice organic farming methods. I grow vegetables from non-GMO seeds. I have culinary herbs and spice trees growing abundantly. Recently I had my summer harvest of tomatoes, spinach, pole beans, string beans, alugbati, okra, cucumber, sweet corn, eggplant, peppers. We also harvested rambutan, and sweet santol off my trees.
The town of Silang is not yet a city, but the population is growing by the thousands of rich people settling in swank subdivisions. The poor are following, by squatting on the roadside and around creeks and rivers. The people are streaming in from squatter areas of Metro Manila being relocated in low cost housing built in the saltbeds of Tanza, and Cavite City. Industrial districts have opened up new factory sites on what was once sugar cane fields. Local farmers are giving up trying to plant vegetables on smaller plots that render their income as negligible considering they had access to more lands that were cheaper to rent. Silang is bordered by Tagaytay City in Cavite, and Santa Rosa, Laguna, and Metro-Manila.
Silang was this quiet town, with coffee plantations, coconut lands, orchards, forests, and grazing cows The .area was a good area to buy fresh produce. The 300 hectare Riviera Golf and Country Club was already the first development whereby it was necessary to cut down one of the oldest standing virgin forests in Silang, Cavite and replaced it with a subdivision and golf courses.
We no longer can draw water up from our wells, even at the depth of 300 feet...there is no water!This area is considered the watershed with abundant under ground rivers that supply my farm with fresh, sweet water. Water is now being syphoned by the millions of gallons to provide tap water to subdivision homes.
In my small little farm, I practice organic farming methods. I grow vegetables from non-GMO seeds. I have culinary herbs and spice trees growing abundantly. Recently I had my summer harvest of tomatoes, spinach, pole beans, string beans, alugbati, okra, cucumber, sweet corn, eggplant, peppers. We also harvested rambutan, and sweet santol off my trees. 