A Thai garden

 Farm stories, What we grow  No Responses »
Dec 042012
 

My sudden trip to Thailand in 2010 paved a lot of good opportunities in my life; I’ve seen places, met new friends and met the girl who would later be my wife. Yes, that trip has been very fortunate for me indeed! Looking back though, all those almost didn’t become possible had I entertained the thought of not joining that trip — which I almost did. Thailand was then the least of my priorities to visit although I’ve heard a lot about the interestingly wide array of fruits that they grow there and the notoriously spicy concoctions that the Thais used to lure food adventurers from all over the globe. I would rather go far off sea on a semi-habitated island of coconuts or where there is cooler climate or where it snows or somewhere mountainous or medieval or far more exotic than the Philippines or Thailand. And where it got me? Thailand! ha!

Fasttracked to the present and through numerous back trips to Bangkok to woo, Pim, now embraces the married life with me here in the Philippines and enjoys every opportunity to visit and work the farm. With plainly native trees planted on every nook and corner of the property and a few hundreds of the Philippine Carabao mangoes and bananas, there’s not much in there really that would interest a foreigner like her. But Pim, lucky for me (!), is not that hard to please. Nonetheless, I made the most visible area of the farm a little special for her - something to remind her always of home; a garden of Thai herbs and vegetables. She liked the idea very much that on a return trip to Bangkok we brought in (ssshhhh!) seed packets of various herbs - which we have already tested planting with favorable results, a few cuttings of the leafy vegetable they call “Phak waan” (Sauropus androgynus, “Binahian” in the Philippines) and the aromatic Phak phai (Persicaria odorata). The Phak waan and Phak phai will have their own beds soon.

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Native wild edible : Glycosmis pentaphylla

 Farm stories, Native wild edibles, What we grow  No Responses »
Nov 302012
 

These surprisingly hardy, early fruit-bearing shrubs were given to us as seeds around 2 years ago by fellow member of the Rarefruit Society of the Philippines, Rizalina Sabalburo, whom we fondly called ”Tita Sally”. They are producing fast-ripening fruits like crazy! We reckon it will make a good hedging material with its thick, sound-proofing, evergreen foliage and consistent rapid growth

Specimen : Cultivated shrubs

Local names : Linawin

Trade names : Gin berry, Rum berry

Botanical name : Glycosmis pentaphylla

Family : Rutaceae

Specimen height : 2 meters

Fruiting season : possibly year round

Traits : Evergreen; Drought tolerant; Fast growing; Shade tolerant; Shrub to small tree; Tolerant of infertile soil

Recommendations : Edible gardening; Farms; Greenhouses; Hedging; Home gardens; Ornamental; Potted; Public spaces; Urban greening; Wildcrafting

Used for : Fruits are edible; Leaf, stem and root are used in traditional medicine

Native range : India, South China, Southeast Asia (including the Philippines) and New Guinea

National conservation status : Not threatened in the Philippines

Further readings :

Biodiversity Informatics and co-Operation in Taxonomy for Interactive Shared Knowledge base (BIOTIK) - Glycosmis pentaphylla http://www.biotik.org/india/species/g/glycpent/glycpent_en.html

GlobinMed Global Information Hub on Integrated Medicine - Glycosmis pentaphylla http://www.globinmed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=79252:glycosmis-pentaphylla-retz-dc&catid=199&Itemid=139

University of California Riverside College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences Citrus Variety Collection - Glycosmis pentaphylla http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/glycosmis.html (40)

Tindalo : A mighty search for a mighty tree

 Farm stories, What we grow  No Responses »
Sep 062012
 

Among the very first Philippine indigenous trees I really got interested to grow in Balinghasai farms is the rare Tindalo; a lesser known cousin of the ubiquitous Narra. In my younger years, I’ve heard accounts of this prized timber from small-time loggers and wood workers who said that, decades ago, Tindalo is the wood of choice for house interiors like stairs and flooring. The demand now made this tree alarmingly few and far between.

The handful Tindalo seeds I purchased from Sansin Dio of Cebu in 2008 produced robust seedlings that we were able to field plant after just a few months. I decided then to spend some time looking for specimen trees to document and maybe collect seeds from but I have never hoped that my search will just be short and unbelievably near! Mighty search huh! That turn of luck came in January 2009 when, on a walking expedition outside of the farm, my farm assistant and I noticed a few but scattered trees bearing unusually large and thick green pods. We have no idea at first whether what to call these homely, nearly leafless trees that habitate the thin forest shading the same creek running through the property. When the woody pods popped open a few months later to reveal desperately clinging black seeds with short orange coats - they were, to my amazement, the Tindalo trees I was searching for!

Specimen : Wild trees

Habitat : Creek bank thickets

Local name : Tindalo

Trade name : Merbau

Botanical name : Afzelia rhomboidea

Family : Fabaceae - Caesalpinioideae

Specimen height : 8-15 meters

Fruiting season : Mature fruits observed in April and May

Traits : Semi-deciduous to deciduous; Drought tolerant; Low to medium altitude tree; Medium-sized tree; Nitrogen fixing; Tolerant of infertile soils; Tolerant of occasional water-logging

Used for : Timber for house construction, doors, interior works, high-grade furnitures, handicrafts, musical instruments, tools, carts and veneer; Felled branches for firewood and charcoal

Recommendations : Fallow improvement; Farms; Light shade for crops; Living fence; Public spaces; Riparian management; Roadside tree; Timber belt; Urban greening

Native range : Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines

National conservation status : Endangered Species (DENR AO 2007-1)

Threats : Forestry logging; Conversion of woodlands to agricultural, commercial or residential plots; Cutting of wild trees for fuelwood and charcoal production

Further readings :

DENR Administrative Order 2007-1 (Establishing the National List of Threatened Philippine Plants and their Categories, and the List of Other Wildlife Species)

Philippine Woods: Principal Uses, Distribution & Equivalent Woods in Asia Pacific (A. Ella, A. Tongacan, R. Escobin, F. Pitargue, Jr.)

Revised Lexicon of Philippine Trees (J. Rojo) (147)

Goin’ bananas

 Farm stories  No Responses »
Aug 212012
 

Inspired by our very first harvest from the Saba banana we have experimentally planted in late 2010, my wife and I decided to dedicate about an hectare in the northeastern section of the farm to growing this Filipino staple. It looked that everything was in place; the spacing of the Carabao mangoes planted there over 3 years ago were wide enough for inter-cropping and it’s the season of rain - the ideal time for planting, but the over pouring monsoon made the soil too clayey and difficult to rotovate. The rented Tractor backed-out just a few hours after it started! Manual digging became labor intensive; taking a lot more time than we have expected.

The area was wide enough so we looked to exhaust around 500 pieces. The rub was asking around for friendly supplier of corms that sells also at a friendly price. Ruth Avila, a good friend from Quezon province and a co-fellow at the Rarefruit Society of the Philippines ([email protected]), can sell her extra corms and can ship them too at a good value but transporting them from the pick-up point would be a challenge and may even cost more than the actual price of the merchandise. It was a good thing that the neighboring farm offered to give planting materials for free otherwise we have to spend a lot more than we have reserved for this project. A provision for a simple irrigation system is on the plans; we are hoping to install before summer of the coming year.

 

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Native wild edible : Uvaria rufa

 Farm stories, Native wild edibles, Salvaged, What we grow  No Responses »
Aug 182012
 

Back when I was still doing the Indi-journal online, I received a lot of emails and site comments regarding the post I made on Susung-kalabaw (Uvaria rufa). It was probably the most viewed post there and the one which received the most legit comments. A lot of the readers testified that this was a wild fruit that they have last seen and eaten decades ago when they were “younger” and it made them recall childhood; some say they can still remember that strangely-tart-a-little-sweet taste of this seedy, curious-looking fruit that they just pick from shrubs growing by the roadsides while walking to school.

Just last year, we’ve been visited by high school science students from Manila to gather Uvaria rufa leaf and fruit samples for a project. They were very courteous, hard-working kids that have gone all the way here, to what is possibly the remotest place they’ve been, to get those good marks at school; kudos to them! I have never heard about the result of their effort but I hope that the conservation work we do here in Balinghasai farms helped them in a way.

 


Specimen : Wild

Habitats : Dry grasslands, creek bank thickets, roadsides

Local names : Susung-kalabaw, Alagat, Hilagak

Botanical name : Uvaria rufa

Family : Annonaceae

Traits : Drought-tolerant; Evergreen; Shade tolerant; Scandent shrub or woody climber

Height : 4-6 meters

Fruiting season : May to August

Used for : Fruits are edible; Rattan substitute in making furnitures and handicrafts; Firewood

Recommendations : Backyards; Fruit collector’s; Hedging; Home gardens; Ornamental; Pioneer species for reforestation purpose; Urban greening; Wildcrafting

Native range : India, Southern China, Southeast Asia (including the Philippines), New Guinea and Australia

National conservation status : Not threatened in the Philippines

Threat : Conversion of woodlands to agricultural, commercial or residential plots

Further readings :

Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Uvaria rufa http://keys.trin.org.au/key-server/data/0e0f0504-0103-430d-8004-060d07080d04/media/Html/taxon/Uvaria_rufa.htm

Flora of China - Uvaria rufa http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200008602

 

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The creek and its bounty

 Farm stories  No Responses »
Aug 132012
 

Rain marks the arrival of many good things; everything seemed to grow faster during this season and the creek never seem to run out of nutrient-rich and freshly oxygenated running water - particularly good for its common inhabitants. Despite the unruly weeds and knee-high grasses, which also seemed to take advantage of the rain, a walk by our muddy creek every now and then to gather the favorite “Susong-palipit” has become an anticipated affair. The rainy months are also the time when the Putat trees (Barringtonia acutangula) showcase their short-lived but magnificent blooms so its not unusual to pluck the hapless snails out of the shallow creek that has been littered with freshly aborted Putat inflorescence. In the past years, the creek has been very generous in providing us with delicious dinner, this year though the snails appear to arrive disturbingly late.

Snail-gathering became an efficient method to interest the kids about the mundane life in the farm, especially the older ones. I never had a hard time inviting my nephew Brix if I say we will collect snails for dinner, otherwise I will have to bribe him. Sometimes if we get lucky, we will also see juvenile Asian box turtles on clearer waters but mudfish fry are common. There are a number of fruiting Tibig (Ficus nota) and Bangkal (Nauclea orientalis) trees that run along our winding creek; the fallen fruits provide wild fodder for the turtles.

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RFSP fruit tree planting in Biak na Bato and collecting wild fruits with Dr. Coronel

 Farm stories  No Responses »
Aug 042012
 

Last May 26, me, my wife and with few other enterprising members of the Rarefruit Society of the Philippines (RFSP) made a contribution to the greening of Biak na Bato National Park by planting Philippine native fruit trees. This project was initiated in the RFSP online forum upon the suggestion of Dr. Roberto Coronel; renowned fruit expert and highly esteemed professor emeritus at the University of the Philippines in Los Banos. With prior coordination in CENRO San Rafael, we have been allotted with a strip of freshly weeded planting area at the bank of the river that runs through the park. The sun was high and the humidity truly oppressing but we managed to put on happy faces as we plant Bignay (Antidesma ghaesembilla), Bunog (Garcinia benthami), Basiad (Canarium luzonicum), Alupag (Litchi chinensis ssp. philippinensis), Kamagong (Diospyros blancoi), Hunggo (Elaeocarpus cumingii), Bignay-pugo (Antidesma pentandrum), Paho (Mangifera altissima), Pili (Canarium ovatum), Balobo (Diplodiscus paniculatus), Ligas (Semecarpus cuneiformis), Amugis (Koordersiodendron pinnatum), Binukaw (Garcinia binucao), Kalumpit (Terminalia microcarpa) and Kubili (Cubilia cubili). Left-over seedlings were donated to the park’s nursery for future planting.

Attendees : Rey Palacio, Ernie Aquino, Dr. Roberto Coronel & crew, Gigi Morris, Noi Cruz & son, Mr. & Mrs. Ped Unson and Ving Sico

After a brief luncheon of Adobong manok and salted eggs, Dr. Coronel and his crew took the long drive here to Balinghasai farms to collect wild edible native fruits for study while the rest of the group decided to stay and see what the forest park has to offer. Dr. Coronel and I have corresponded thru email days before regarding what wild fruits are in season here in the area. Half a day of walking, driving and more walking yielded voucher specimen for Binayuyu (Antidesma ghaesembilla), Halubagat-baging (Capparis zeylanica / Capparis horrida), Kalubkob (Syzygium calubcob), Kayumkom (Ixora philippinensis), Balinawnaw (Lepisanthes fruticosa) and some scion materials.

Not beaten down by the weather, the good doctor still welcomed my invitation to tour even the farthest recess of the farm to check a wild-growing Garcinia by the creek that we’re really itching to identify. The genus was confirmed by noted field botanist Ulysses Ferreras but the exact identification yet remained unknown.

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A family affair

 Farm stories  No Responses »
Jul 222012
 

June 3, 2024 - A few days after arriving from an almost a year of dreamful sojourn in Thailand, I took my lovely wife and 2 stepkids with me to the farm to do what I liked to call a little family affair : planting Philippine native trees. The kids, Prim and Phutter, are yet very young to understand the value tree planting but my wife, Noo, is already conscious of my interest in conserving and propagating true Philippine native trees. This was the first time for the kids to do this kind of work and I was a little excited myself in teaching them. Stepping onto the soft clayey soil even with his gumboots on was hard for Phut at first but everything seemed to go smoothly after that. We outplanted 10 seedlings of Anang (Diospyros pyrrhocarpa ) and 3 of Bagawak (Clerodendrum minnahasae); both native to my home province, Bulacan. The first was seed-collected along the forest trail in the nearby Biak na Bato National Park and the latter from wild mother trees that thrive in open grasslands around the farm.

It was a big day for the kids; they even managed to climb some dried bamboo stakes with gumboots on.

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The beginning

 Farm stories  Comments Off
Jun 272012
 

In 2008, a modest 3.4 hectare woodland property located in a remote area in Bulacan was offered to me for sale. The place was densed with patches of wild trees like Binayuyu, Alibangbang, Ligas, Kalios among others and matted with persistent weeds, primarily Cogon and Talahib. Immediately, I thought of how much work and time it needs to make the place habitable but more so how much money I need to shell-out to buy the property and start a dream farm project. Despite the forseeable hard labor and impending headache such ambitious plan may give me, I still got excited! It must be my love for farming, my appreciation for the natural and my strong inclination for conservation that made me threw all cautions to the wind and bravely staked all I have to own this no man’s land…. in installments, that is :)



By 2009, we are already securing the whole lot with bamboo fence (which we replaced gradually with concrete posts later on), building a simple wooden homestead for my overseer with an adjoining reception hut for visitors and setting up a deep-well for potable water source. We also painstakingly took out most of the redundant wild trees and stumps left by wood poachers but retained the ones that shade the natural creek and those that needed identification. The cleared space rendered for crops like carabao mangoes, coconuts, papayas and seasonal vegetables but it must be the soil or the general climate in the area that made the coconut ambition unsuccessful. One by one, the coconuts wilted and died despite our efforts to keep them. Lesson learned!
What’s left of the planting space, most notably on the sides aligned to the fence, along the creek bank and the pathways, gave way to various native forest trees seedlings that were either given to me or traded for by fellow advocates in conservation or sourced from the Manila Seedling Bank and Hortica Filipina Foundation. Friends from the Rarefruit Society of the Philippines also generously shared their planting materials.



In the early years, we called this “Cocomangas Farm”; readers from my web journal (www.indi-journal.info) might have possibly read about it. Last year, when I registered the business with DTI, I was stuck in a dilemma of jotting down the old name or renaming it with a more suitable one. Finally, I decided to name it after a native tree that is prolific along the wooded creek bank of the property, hence the curious name. (569)