In the Philippines, malunggay are staple greens that we often use for cooking. When we lived in Alabang, we had a huge tree beside the house where it's very convenient to cut stalks upon stalks without worrying about running out of leaves.

It was a very different story when we moved to Southern California almost three years ago. When we wanted to cook Tinola, a few stalks of malunggay at the Filipino supermarket would cost the same as, or even more than, two pounds (about a kilo) of chicken. I'm serious! So we'd resort to buying spinach instead because they're cheaper. 

In late November 2017, my mother-in-law bought us a malunggay seedling for $5.00 at a swap meet where some fellow Pinoys were selling plants. By winter, the leaves were all gone and we were left with just a stick in a pot. Because I could still see some green parts on the main stem, I diligently watered the pot every two days. 

Come spring, I was rewarded with tiny buds that eventually grew into branches with leaves. By August 2018 (see topmost photo), we were able to harvest a batch which we happily added to home-cooked Chicken Tinola.    

Fast-forward to my family's move from my sister-in-law's townhouse to our own apartment in November 2018 where we brought the big pot of malunggay with us. Again, it hibernated during the winter but bloomed once more come spring and summer and we were able to harvest two or three times before it stopped growing new leaves in the fall.

It's 2020 now and I'm happy to report that our malunggay tree is still healthy and thriving. We actually had the first harvest recently and the main trunk is slowly recovering to bring out more leaves. Someday, when we finally get to buy a house of our own, I pray that this tree, the very first plant I took care of here in the U.S. would have its own spot in a nice garden and finally planted on the ground :)

I always enjoy views with a lot of greenery especially gardens that bloom with organic vegetables and love discovering venues within Metro Manila that do not conform to the standard images of city life. Thus, I was genuinely surprised to find such a place at The Selah Garden Hotel, which is just a few steps away from EDSA in Pasay City and very near Roxas Boulevard and Macapagal Avenue!

with hubby at Selah's tastefully decorated reception area

Selah is an 83-room boutique hotel that offers an alternative relaxed lifestyle in an urban setting. Who'd have thought that such a place exists very near the Makati Business District, historical Intramuros, and the Mall of Asia? It's also accessible to and from the airport!

see those green walls? they're lined with organic lettuce!

My husband and I were there recently during its launch and we were so amazed to see organic veggies (we both advocate for and have written posts about organic agriculture) being grown on beautifully designed spaces! What's even more delightful was seeing freshly harvested lettuce among the delicious food on the dinner buffet table.

flash mob dancers entertaining guests throughout dinner

Moreover, I appreciate how friendly their staff members are, some of whom are talented dancers! We were treated to entertaining flash mob presentations that included several of them. I actually am envious of their energy. They danced every half hour and were smiling all throughout the evening. 

some of Selah Hotel's staff -- aren't these ladies and their uniforms lovely?

Another notable feature that Selah has is its team building facilities that include a hanging bridge and structures for wall climbing, zip lining, rapelling, and more. My husband, who facilitates team building activities for various companies, was very happy to find out about this because they often had to look for venues outside Metro Manila for trainings. 

looking for team building facilities in Metro Manila? go to Selah!

The Selah Garden Hotel has various types of accommodations to suit different guests' preferences. There are rooms with bunk beds priced at P750 per person up to big rooms and suites with lovely lofts that can accommodate up to 10 people. Need a perfect getaway in the city? See rates on your preferred dates and book a room by checking out The Selah Garden Hotel at agoda.com. Trivia: the family of Miss Universe 2016 contestant's Miss Colombia stayed there during the days of the pageant.

inside one of Selah's nice rooms

I definitely look forward to staying in one of the rooms at The Selah Garden Hotel (most likely the next time we're running in a race again at the MOA Running Grounds), swim in the inviting pool (FYI, they offer scuba diving lessons because the deepest end is 10-feet deep!), have a relaxing massage at the beautiful spa, and do some exercises at the meditation garden.

room tour with some friends from World Vision Philippines

The Selah Garden Hotel is located at 2715 Park Avenue Street, San Rafael, Pasay City. For inquiries, call telefax 511.1331, 0917.6300604, 0925.5111131 or email selahgardensuites@gmail.com. 

* see more photos taken during the launch at this blog's Facebook page album

Every successful venture is earned through determination and hard work. In Eastern Visayas, there used to be a place overgrown with cogon grass that now attracts visitors from all over the country. 

Canaan Hill Farms and Honey Garden started as a dream. Eduardo Espinazo, a fisherman married to homemaker Priscilla, raised nine children -- six boys and three girls. According to their eldest son, Sandro, they grew up trying to make ends meet. "We'd eat cassava for breakfast and lunch, and corn for dinner. My siblings and I would also walk five kilometers to and from school."

As the Espinazo children finished their studies one by one, the husband and wife were finally able to "breathe" from the heavy financial obligations of putting the kids through school. In 2011, the family bought six hectares of land in Caibiran, Biliran to finally help realize Eduardo's dream to become a farmer.

Martina Reyna is an agricultural engineer by profession. She worked in government for four years before deciding to cultivate her in-laws' large plot of land in Tacloban City. According to her, La Granja de Reyna's original area was 15.8 hectares, the first property bought by her husband's parents in 1935 for P500 and a sack of rice. 

Many years later, as neighboring owners started selling their lands, the Reyna property expanded into 51 hectares with one hectare donated for senior citizens. Tina started developing La Granja and registered it with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in 1994. It is now home to 13 varieties of fruit trees, 5000 coconut trees, high-value crops used as salad ingredients, and several kinds of livestock. 

The farm harvests around P2,000 worth of lettuce in a day and supplies these to Chowking and Ocho, a local restaurant in the city. It also produces a continuous supply of organic fertilizer totaling 500 bags per week, ready for delivery. 

Sometime last year, a group of farmers from Region 8 met during an Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) seminar on Organic Agriculture Internal Control Systems (ICS). Mike Pedroso recalled talking with his fellow farmers during the five-day seminar where they all agreed that the 'high' they get from those kinds of trainings usually last for about two weeks before it wanes … and only returns when the next training happens.

"So we decided to organize ourselves so we can help other farmers beyond the government's reach," shared Mike. Thus, Organikong Magsasaka ng Rehiyon Otso (OMRO) or Organic Farmers of Region 8 was born, composed of members coming from the six provinces of Eastern Visayas.

Recently, our group of Organic Agriculture Bloggers met several OMRO members in Mike Pedroso Farms located in Calbayog, Samar. There, we were invited to join their tree growing activity (read all about it here) and were inspired by each of their stories on how they struggled to develop their farms, found success through hard work, and are now helping other farmers.

OMRO President Jun Paredes affirmed how important it is for them to be able to share what they've learned in the course of improving their own farms. "Knowledge cannot be stolen. No rich man could ever steal what is in your mind and in your heart."

This noble transfer of learnings and materials is their basis for creating the KITS Journey, which they partnered with the Lakbay Alay (sort of like a sacrificial travel) project. These initiatives entail OMRO members to leave their farms for a few days to visit far-flung areas so they can unselfishly share Knowledge, Inputs, Technology, and Services to farmers who need them.

Nestled at the foot of a hill in Carayman, Calbayog in Samar, Eastern Visayas is an integrated diversified organic farm that started as a dream. Back in 1986, Engr. Mike Pedroso was still working in the corporate world when he became, what he called, an "armchair farmer." 

Engr. Mike Pedroso carrying two bags of pandesal for our breakfast 😋

"I was a subscriber of an agriculture magazine for two years. Reading them was how my love for farming developed," he recalled. In 1994, Mike had an accident that left him immobile for 21 days and had him underwent physical rehabilitation for four months. He spent this time making plans to go into farming someday.

Finally, he decided to leave the corporate jungle in 1999 and began cultivating his piece of land by walking a kilometer each day carrying five seedlings to plant. "It was only then that I realized the magnitude of challenges our farmers face and why many of them remain poor," he confided, lamenting that farm-to-market roads are not being given priority by the government. Instead, the infrastructure budgets mostly go to the continuous repairs and improvements of highways and main thoroughfares.   

new life growing on a jackfruit tree branch

As a girl growing up in Laguna, I never really thought back then about the healthy food being served on our table. I just knew that many of the vegetables, even the rice, we eat came from my grandparents' or a relative's farm or garden. It was simply natural to be regularly consuming homegrown brown rice, red bananas, and other fruits like lanzones, rambutan, and guyabano plucked from trees surrounding our house. 

Even eating native chicken and eggs laid by them were not out of the ordinary. We'd cook tinola using green papaya and dahon ng sili from neighbors or buy cooked viand from our friendly neighborhood maglalako who knows how to whip up the most tasteful local dishes. 

It wasn't until 2012 when I got to fully appreciate the many benefits of organic and natural farming. I credit the Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Training Institute (DA-ATI) for introducing me to Sir Ronald Costales who owned a fully integrated organic farm in Majayjay, Laguna.    

San Pablo City, Laguna is a beautiful place where you can find many wonderful destinations. It is home to the famous seven lakes as well as farms that practice organic agriculture. Apart from Forest Wood Garden, which I wrote about recently, there's Ato Belen's Farm that's also located in the area.

Initially launched as a plant nursery and family farm in August 1987, Ato Belen's has since become a fully-integrated and diversified farming operation. Its advocacy is to promote family farming to ensure the survival of the next generation. It is still ran and managed by the Belen family where both parents and their five sons are all involved in decision-making when it comes to farm management.

Brian Belen, one of Sir Ato's sons, is an Agri Business graduate from U.P. Los Baños who left the corporate world to help out with the family business in 2010. He shared with us their journey of selling seedlings and establishing an orchard 29 years ago; procuring and growing livestock (hogs, cows, goats, and ducks for making salted eggs) in 1989; and being devastated by Typhoon Milenyo in 2007, which uprooted majority of their rambutan trees.

In the province of Laguna, Forest Wood Garden in San Pablo City is known as the best landscaper, having already won many awards in the industry. Years back when they started, Joel and Myrna Frago didn't expect that their passion for collecting plants would eventually turn into a business.

Joel, a Nursing graduate, and Myrna, who has a background in architecture, registered Forest Wood Garden with the Department of Trade and Industry in 2004 and opened it to the public five years later. In 2013, the place became an Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) learning site for farmers and stakeholders who are interested to learn about organic inputs, sustainable farming, and the farm to table concept.

According to the husband and wife tandem, they have spent the past 10 years doing natural farming and applying practical agriculture practices. Both believe farmers play a big role in food production and security and that students taking up agriculture can also do much for nation building. "We are a living proof that there's money in farming," they said.

A few months ago, I learned from a wise organic farmer that literally getting one's hands dirty can make you happy. He said there are microbes in soil that act as antidepressants, similar to Prozac's effect on the brain.  

When I recently visited the beautiful Terra Verde Ecofarm & Resort in Cavite, I discovered that the  place was founded in 2007 because of a "medical prescription." Emerson Atanacio, one of Terra Verde's owners, was diagnosed with a thyroid condition triggered by stress from his job as a school administrator. The doctor recommended his patient to take up farming. 

With the support of his brothers, Eric and Erwin, and their families, the Atanacios acquired a piece of land in Maragondon that, amazingly, they found through an ad in Buy and Sell. According to Eric, the place used to be filled with grass, trees, and shrubberies. "Masukal (wild)," he described. "But Emer, a true visionary, said 'Look how wonderful this could be!' So we came together and discussed ideas. We got inputs from family members and that's how the farm evolved."

It was my first time to visit the city of Malaybalay in Bukidnon and one of the things I initially noticed is the truth of its tagline: "cool weather, warm people." There, we met the very accommodating Bayag family who owns Jaya's Secret Garden.

The garden's name is very apt because it is accessed via a narrow side street that would eventually reveal a small paradise. Passing through houses and commercial establishments, one wouldn't think that there's a verdant place hiding in the middle of a very busy city.  

Our group couldn't help exclaiming oohs and aahs at the beautifully kept property managed by a family of three. Another amazing revelation was finding out that Junah and Hazel's young daughter, Jayashree Harsha, would serve as our tour guide.

Fifty kilometers away from Cagayan de Oro and two kilometers from Dahilayan Adventure Park lies a two-hectare farm called Alomah's Place. This beautiful property combines its owners' surnames: Grace Alombro (her maiden name) and Benjohn Mahistrado, a couple who acquired their land through years of sheer grit and hard work. 

Grace quipped that Alomah can also stand for A Love of Mountains and Horses, which applies to everyone in their family. 

The Mahistrados warmly welcomed our group of Organic Agriculture Bloggers when we arrived there late in the afternoon of May 24th. It started raining at the time so we didn't get to explore the surroundings yet. 

What excited us though was finding out we could still go "camping" on the tent floor (yes, not tenth) as the ground was too wet for us to sleep in the tents outside.

Many of us express the desire to be able to grow fruits and vegetables in our own backyards, or even in windowsill pots. Yet, we are hampered by various reasons such as not having enough space and time for, or knowhow about gardening.  

I found inspiration in Brgy. Pagatpat, Cagayan de Oro in Mindanao when I recently visited Sir Honorio Cervantes' farm, an Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) Learning Site that is hailed for Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). The retired police officer turned organic farmer practitioner advocates urban gardening and is proof that we can really grow our own food no matter how little land we have. His farm only measures 300sqm but they are able to grow a lot of vegetables there using square foot and vertical gardening.

Sir Honorio shared that he learned about the method of building garden boxes and structures to grow more in less space through a book by Mel Bartholomew, a retired businessman and engineer from Utah, USA. "I don't stop learning and continue to research and read about new farming methods," said Sir Honorio who added that he would usually immediately apply new learnings on his farm to see if they will work.

I fully support natural and organic farming. Not only does this produces safe food, it also helps the environment. So I am very happy to learn that Earth Kitchen, a restaurant I recently visited, is very dedicated in supporting local farmers and indigenous communities around the Philippines.  

Earth Kitchen's dishes showcase crops from the Got Heart Farms in Tarlac as well as the restaurant's more than 100 partner communities from Luzon to Mindanao. As a backgrounder, this establishment is a partnership of Got Heart Foundation and Hizon's Catering. Its interior feels like somewhere you'd like to relax in amidst fresh greenery.

Like many of us who have been advocating for organic agriculture, the founders of Earth Kitchen also believe that increasing demand for organic and natural produce will help sustain the livelihood of marginalized communities. This, in turn, also encourages farmers to raise good, clean, and healthy food without using genetically modified organisms (GMOs), chemicals, synthetic fertilizers, and other harmful inputs such as petroleum-based urea, herbicides, and pesticides.

watermelon and rocket salad

Fresh air and healthy foods seem to have become rare commodities these days. Many of us are so caught up in our fast-paced lives that we barely can find time to pause and unwind regularly.

So I was truly grateful to be given a chance to stop thinking about my deadlines even for just one weekend. Last Saturday, I joined our group of organic agriculture bloggers and our friends from the Agricultural Training Institute's e-Extension Division for an overnight trip to Bangkong Kahoy Valley in Dolores, Quezon.

It took us around three hours to get there from Makati but the journey was worth it. We were greeted by the majestic sights of Mount Cristobal and Mount Banahaw, two towering land areas that look like they were standing guard over the peaceful valley between them. On a clear day, one can even see the town Tiaong, Quezon below and faraway Mount Halcon in Mindoro.

Given the rural feel of the place, I thought we'll be sleeping in huts like those we could see from the dining area, which is also a kind of a big hut where they serve food and where guests can have hearty meals. But after a sumptuous lunch, we were led to a modern structure that houses several nice rooms.

The girls' room has two big beds, a fireplace, cable TV, table and chairs, and bathroom. There is no need for electric fans or air-conditioning units. You just need to open the sliding door with screen and let the cool breeze come in. At night, it's nice to snuggle up under the thick blankets to ward off the naturally cold weather. 

Each meal we had at BK Valley are delicious! I love the vegetable dishes, especially the soups with freshly-harvested oyster mushrooms. They cook a tasty adobo, too! Dessert for lunch was a pleasant surprise for me. I used to pick wild raspberries (or sampinit in the local dialect) as a little girl at the foot of Mount Cristobal on the Laguna side where my grandparents' farm land is located. 

After our filling first meal, Sir Dion Pullan, the great-grandson of BK Valley's original owner but who prefers to be known as the land's Caretaker, shared with us a brief history of the place, his plans on further helping the community through other livelihood projects, and his advocacy of preserving the environment for the next generations. 

He also toured us around and showed us how they meticulously grow oyster mushrooms then had one of his staff bring us to the wild raspberry field where my friends and I happily picked berries and ate them straight from the bush! I wished my sister was with me though because I'm sure she would definitely feel nostalgic about the activity. 

Near the pretty little chapel, we enjoyed posing for photos in a wide, open field that, as my friend and namesake Ruth says, "Ang lakas maka-New Zealand!" LOL Kidding aside, the beautiful vista before us was very soothing to the soul. If only I have the time, I could stay in that field for hours to daydream or do some writing under the shade of one of the trees dotting the perimeter.

Nighttime came and the stars came out bright and shining. It's really different looking at the night sky away from the city lights. They're clearer and feel closer. If it wasn't freezing cold at 19 degrees Centigrade, I would have asked my companions if they'd want to lie down on the field and go star gazing. That's what my roommates and I used to do when we were still college students in UP Los Banos. 

But the cold drove us inside our rooms and we never did get to go out again at 10PM when, according to BK Valley staff, fireflies would be coming out. The fresh air and the long trip that morning made it very, very easy to fall into a restful sleep. 

The girls were up by 6AM the next day and we went to the mess hall to have coffee. Sir Dion joined us  for a chat and told us that the sun would soon be rising behind Mount Banahaw. I was happy to be there and catch it right on time. Too bad we didn't see any of the monkeys that they say usually come out on the field in the early mornings.

Breakfast was over too soon and, after freshening up, it was time to go. I'd love to stay longer but everyone has stuff and busy lives to go back to. But before we left, I made sure to buy some of the pesticide-free vegetables, a kilo of oyster mushrooms for me and my sister, and a bottle of wild raspberry jam. I'd love to buy fresh ones but I think we, and the other visitors the day before, have already "over picked" the plantation. Sir Dion said it will take about three days for new fruits to be ready for harvest.

Soon, I hope I could bring my family there for a day or two and enjoy once again the fresh and cool air, beautiful surroundings, and healthy food. I've yet to try relaxing in one of the hammocks and my kids would definitely love to ride the horses which one can rent for only P50 for a full ride around the area. It would also help the animals' caretakers have extra income. Those who are more adventurous may also want to try out the zip line ride. 

There are more stories to tell about BK Valley that I'll share in the coming days. For now, those who are interested in going there can inquire and make reservations by sending a message through their Facebook page, contact 0906.4381410 / 0943.4058785 / 0918.5093224, email bkvalley@gmail.com or log on to BKvalley.webs.com

*To see more photos taken at BK Valley, you can view this album