Water Lily, Quiapo and Azolla

I got a call yesterday asking if what he has in his pond, that looks like small flowers, are Azolla?

Promised I will post a photo here soon so he can distinguish.  Fate had it that when we parked at our farm in Santiago, Isabela this morning, they were all there....

Water Lily, Quiapo and Azolla :)

Fermented Oregano

Tastes great and does wonders for you if you have cough or asthma.  Try it as a drench for your pigs, goats...and add on to drinking water of your chickens when they are at the onset of colds or difficulty breathing.

What do we need?

3kgs oregano leaves, tear it apart
1kg or 1lt honey (my personal choice), coco sugar if you are watching your bloodsugar, or muscovado.  If for farm animals, use molasses.

That is the ratio, so if you are using 600g of oregano, then you will need 200g molasses.

Place it in a container, layering oregano then molasses, oregano again then molasses. To ensure that the leaves are coated well....ending with the molasses.  Or you can have the leaves in the container and add your honey/sugar/molasses and mix.  Problem with this is that you put to waste some honey and molasses that will stick to your mixing.  Better to do layering.

I make sure that all leaves are submerged and check on every 2days to spin the container :)

Ferment for 7days. After 7days, you may transfer it to the refrigerator for a refreshing throat remedy (for human consumption). Some use it as sweeter for their Tarragon tea :).  For animal consumption, you can leave the harvested fermented oregano in a cool dark place.

I take 2Tablespoons when my throat is itchy. I find no need to remove the sludge of oregano leaves as they have been reduced in size and adds a bite to my remedy when swallowed. 

For our pigs, we drench with 10ml, 3x a day.  Don't include the sludge when you drench as the small leaves may clog the syringe.

Sweet Smelling Farm

SNot sure how these trees got to the farm, but I always thought that they were wild ones.  There are several of them around, no fruits, so I doubt that we planted them.  When we cleared Water Lily from the ponds, we transferred them to the near areas and thought of them as mulch.  The tall grass were down in no time at all, after mulching and spraying if IMO, so we had more space to walk around the farm.

Aside from the fertile space now for planting vegetables, as we walked around to look for what wild vegetables we had around....there was this sweeettttt  smell that my nose had to follow.  I had to step closer to these trees, initially sceptical as "they can't smell that good"....they were always thought as "just trees".

But they were the ones...such a mild, quiet, sweet scent:

You know what it is called?

Fish Amino Acid (FAA); Fermented Fruit Juice (FFJ); Calcium Phosphate: The Videos

On our last episode on Mag-Agri Tayo, we discussed how to make Indigenous Micro Organisms (IMO), video was  shown earlier.

The second portion of the episode showed is teaching Fish Amino Acid (FAA), Fermented Fruit Juice (FFJ) and Calcium Phosphate (CalPhos).

Take a walk with us in our journey, with the iterinary of natural farming in the Philippines :)

IMO Video

Pleased to bring you the instructional video for Indigenous Micro Organisms (IMO)

Mag-Agri Tayo, March 19

We are resuming the Mag-Agri Tayo segments on instructionals for natural farming.   

Mag-Agri Tayo, NBN Channel 4, March 19, Saturday, 9am.  We will feature Indigenous Micro Organisms (IMO), Fish Amino Acid (FAA), Fermented Fruit Juice (FFJ), CalPhos and intro to pasturing pigs.

Videos will be uploaded by magagritayo in youtube, so you may share with others.

Food Bowl Night Market at Centris Walk

Press release sent for Food Bowl Night Market: 

FOOD BOWL NIGHT MARKET: Safe & Healthy Food Choices Within Reach
 
Now, a marketplace for safe and healthy fresh produce and products made 
available to the public --- from vegetables to grains to animal and fish 
products. A marketplace that works on the concept of accessibility, 
sustainability, and fair trade practices to capture the bulk buying demand and 
promote sustainable lifestyle. 

 
“We have invited almost everyone in the organic and natural industry to join us 
in this endeavor. Big groups of organic and natural farming practitioners have 
signified their interest to support by joining the market: The Organic Producers 
Trade Association (OPTA), One Organic Movement of the Philippines with the 
Agri-Aqua Network International, Inc. (AANI), Go Organic Philippines, 
Intercontinental Network of Organic Farmers Organizations (INOFO), Philippine 
Development Assistance Program, Inc. (PDAP), Kasama Ka Organik Cooperative, 
Aquarius Agricultural Source Corporation (AASCORP), Magsasaka at Siyentipiko 
para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikutura (MASIPAG), the natural farming advocates under 
the Philippine Natural Farming, Inc. (PNFI), Organic na Negros Organic Producers 
and Retailers Association (ONOPRA), biodynamic farms under the Agrikultura 
Natural, Inc. (ANI) Mo, Cosmic Farm of Benguet State University, La Trinidad, 
the Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) under the Department of Agrarian Reform 
(DAR) and the Agribusiness Marketing Assistance Service of the Department of 
Agriculture (DA-AMAS). The Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of 
Tourism (DOT) were also tapped by the organizers to support through an 
information campaign to reach its target buyers" said Ms. Sharon Tan, 
co-organizer of the Food Bowl Night Market.       
 
"The potential for the organically grown produce and foods is growing both 
domestically and abroad due to the increasing health, environment and social 
concerns. Food Bowl Night Market will highlight crops and commodities of 
Philippine “SUSTAINABLE AGRIBUSINESS”. Its quality should also meet the demand 
for its quantity. The Crops, Commodities and Technologies Section will showcase 
farmers, fisherfolks and organizations providing safe and healthy food to 
Filipinos and present the value chain: production, processing and marketing. 
This will be a good start for the farmers to program their production to meet 
the requirements of institutional buyers especially from hospitals, restaurants, 
hotels and food caterers" she added.
 
Other than natural, organic and biodynamic farm produce which includes 
vegetables, fruits, rice, fisheries, live stock, native free ranged pastured 
poultry produce and products, Food Bowl Night Market will also feature food 
operators and wellness organizations, ornamental and herbs producers and the 
eco-friendly product manufacturers.  
 
The Food Bowl will be launched at the ETON Centris Walk, Quezon Avenue, Quezon 
City starting March 18. It will open every Friday and Saturday from 4pm to 12mn. 
ETON Centris Walk is directly under the stop of the Quezon Avenue MRT Station 
with a commercially accessible area and ample parking for the target 
institutional buyers. 
 
The World Agape Association, Inc., with the owners of DS Pinoy Organic and 
Herbal Store organizes the Food Bowl Night Market. The World Agape Associationis 
a group of young professionals whose primary objective is to provide leadership 
seminars for public servants with focus on public school teachers and farmer 
leaders. 

Sunshine is Here

People had been asking why did we stop the Sunshine Chicken.

It tickles us to think that the name Sunshine Chicken became synonymous to free range colored chickens.  Reality is Sunshine Chicken is our branding, and whatever we produce in our farm is Sunshine Chicken.  When we chose that name, we thought about natural way of raising chickens, so our dressed chickens will always be named Sunshine.  

In our advocacy on pushing natural farming in the Philippines, we are in search of ways of giving cheaper and accessible food for all.  A problem with importation we had before due to bird flu in France, led us to try pasturing the white chickens that always been connoted with commercial raising with chemicals.

We got very good results...plus the great find that by pasturing white chickens that are cheap and easy to find, we are giving cheaper source for all interested to farm them.  Clean, cheap and accessible. The big bonus is that the white chickens have Grand Parent Stocks (GPS) in the Philippines.  The GPS produce the Parent Stocks (PS) who in turn produce the day old chicks we use as broilers.  That secures the supply in the food chain :)  Now, that means, your source of pastured chicks are NOT dependent on one or two suppliers that raise the prices.

How we farmers decide to raise them is what is important.  The health benefits and taste has nothing to do with the color of the feathers of the birds.  Now, our consumers are very aware of the benefits of naturally raised chickens. 

To recap:

1) We are not selling the dayold chicks, as it is cheaper and easy to get in your area.  The bigger poultry supply stores sell retail.  If you need volume, contact the distributor in the area, you may find out from the poultry division of the companies who the persons to contact in your area.

2) We have not stopped teaching people HOW TO pasture chickens.  This is our advocacy.  In a larger picture, we are teaching natural farming, with our expertise in pasturing chickens :)

3) Sunshine Chicken is not gone.  This is our brand and thank you that we are associated and synonymous to free range chicken.  

4) We continue to give you a good alternative for clean food, with a very fair price.  You are cutting out the middlemen by dealing with your farmers directly.

We are planning bigger things for our journey in natural farming.  One of which is educating you to grow your own food.

Please please please...let us all support our natural farmers.  Grow your own food, or buy from farmers in your area practicing safe natural farming.  You have to know to trust your suppliers :)

Palyat, Copra Meal As Organic Rat Killer

In January, we attended a natural farming seminar in Tiaong.  Our problems with rats were brought up in passing with some of our classmates and Nong from Bicol area talked about using Palyat that is a byproduct of Copra. Later on, most people say that is also what is called as Copra Meal.

You leave the Palyat on the ground (as our case may be as we are in the farm) or on the floor where you know the rats love to pass.  Make sure they have a lot of water to drink as they fill themselves with Palyat. They eat a lot, drink a lot and so on...they get real bloated and may die because they can't breathe or eventually their stomachs rupture.  It may be a slow process, not like using chemical poisons that have them dead around the next day.  

We didn't see any casualties at first, but we were patient and stayed on with our sack of Palyat. In about 1week later, we noticed the odor and saw the rats have started to dwindle in numbers.  Plus the fact that rats tell others about deaths in that area, so I guess it was a reason why rats are now avoiding our farm.   In the next weeks, when the ricefields around us have harvested and there is nowhere to eat but in our farm...let's see how it goes.  But for the recent weeks, we hardly saw any rats in the farm.

They had really been such pests around.  We don't have mortalities in our chicken farm due to sickness....all our chicken deaths were caused by rats!  And the feeds/grains that they eat up.  No joke...we had to find a solution.

How does it work?  Doc Rey says that the Palyat bloats the rats and fills them up.  The rats can't expel gas nor do they have the capacity to vomit.

Try this Palyat if you want a chemical free way of getting rid of your rats.  We see this in copra rich areas, like Southern Luzon.  Find it in agriculture and feeds stores.