Last Sunday was spent on some organic farmlands with Sarie and her (ex-)officemate, Jason, who’d taken up farming recently. She was shooting a film for it and I tagged along. I’d been interested in it ever since partially reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Eating Animals.” I learned about organic produce and community-based farming, and had been interested in it, but never really saw it in practice. Also, I was sort of in the mood for an adventure detached from the city.

The pretty photos are by Sarie. I took some with my iPhone, but I brought some film cameras, so I’m still waiting on them to be developed. Hopefully, they don’t take too long/that they actually show up. I don’t know if you know, but I’m kind of a bad estimator, so they will probably be crappy.

We ate carrots directly from the ground. Don’t be fooled by my face.
It was a lovely carrot. Might be the sweetest I’ve had.



Jason!



Sarie!



We met a guy who started an non-profit about farming called A Growing Culture. His name is Loren.
He’s been backpacking around the world for the last four months, taking pictures and exploring farms.
It’s super cool; they have essays on different farms and farming techniques from all over the world.

The farm’s pretty cool. When we got there, Gil Carandang, who owns and manages Herbana Farms, was giving a seminar to people who were interested in growing their own food. I’m not really well-versed in food technology, or you know, food in general. I just like to eat it. It’s nice to get to know the processes and the work that goes into making the food that you eventually ingest so that you can continue to exist.

It’s strange how controversial food has become (I have more to say about this, but perhaps another day, when I’ve finished reading “Eating Animals,” or when I have been more enlightened, as I’m now pretty much a n00b at it). I would love to learn how to grow my own food, though. I guess there’s something strangely thrilling and fulfilling about actually growing something that you eat.

During the interview that Sarie and Jason were filming, Gil was saying that when you give to the earth, it gives back. There’s something so noble and rousing in that statement. I think that because food is generally readily available to us (in the sense that we don’t have to grow it ourselves), we tend to forget where it comes from. That thought alone really makes me want to grow my own food, for some reason I can’t articulate.

Herbana Farms has a community garden where you can lease a 10-sq. meter long plot of land that you can plant food in. Since it’s pretty tedious to drive back and forth everyday, they take care of your plot while you’re away. You can just come by when you want to harvest your food. I’ve been toying with the idea of getting my own plot, since I have always intended to eat healthier and be more smart about buying food. It’s just so hard to do it in the Philippines.

Going to Herbana Farms, though, I saw that it could be done. It’s maybe a little more inconvenient than just going to the market to buy your produce. But I think it’s worth the extra mile to be conscious about the way we eat.

The rest of the pictures (my crappy ones) are under the cut. I’ll post the film photos in a separate entry, just because.

If anyone is interested, most information regarding Herbana Farms can be found on their website. If you want to get in touch with them, or some directions to the farm, click here.

P.S. The title of this blog post is from the shirt Gil was wearing. I’m sorry I am such a thief.

Harvesting jalapeño peppers.

These plants are hole-y because they don’t use pesticides, so the soil’s really clean.
I mean, I really got convinced when we started picking food from the ground and eating them.
Aside from the carrots, we had two kinds of basil and some of this dill:

The drive back home was quiet.