Intermediate Studies

This morning was feel good, do good trip to the South of Metro Manila.

We had been on the phone since last week with a school interested in teaching their students to raise Sunshines.

They had an agriculture teacher, but they wanted us to see the place for ranging. We were not prepared for the sight :)

The school really integrated their agriculture subject for their Intermediate level. They were into hito raising, composting, vegetable gardening, herbs and now Sunshines.

Their produce is bought by their canteen because the school sees to it that hot meals are served and parents may purchase also.

It will be great to see the ranging Sunshines as they drive through around the main building and gym of the school.

We look forward to working with more of them, as we know that the education and change has to start really young.

Printer Busy

The week had been busy with printers and packaging companies.

To celebrate and launch our new Sunshines from the SASSO Parent Stocks, we are redoing our advertising materials, plastic bags, and a new design for our chick boxes.

Our chick boxes will be more distinct and easy to spot. Easier for the consumer to differentiate and know they are getting real Sunshines.

We will post pics of new boxes once printed, for your guidance.

Candelaria Seminar

On Friday, August 1, 2008, we will be at Candelaria, Quezon to be part of a group to give seminars on livelihood.

I believe it will be held the the Municipal Hall area. Ask for the seminars to be given by the AANI group of Pol Rubia.

Farm Ready

We were invited for the inauguration of Farm-Ready, the project of East West Seed Company, that will sell ready to plant seedlings.

Soon after we arrived, our attention was caught by baskets of small green fruits. It turned out to be small cucumbers. They called it Micro C, and was meant to be eaten raw, unpeeled. We were given some freshly picked and washed Micro Cs. It was great to snack on them. I thought it would be great with Champoy Powder :) They had a dressing that looked like Ranch to me. I preferred it as is, for the meantime.

There was a big crowd of farmers, LGUs, distributors, DA personnel etc. The festive atmosphere and the outpouring of support from both East West and their customers are evident to us invitees.


Farm-Ready is the answer to those who just want to plant right away and make sure their seedlings will grow. No need to wait when you plant seeds.

Batangas Visit

First on our agenda was to visit Rumandan Farms. It is literally a visit, because it is breeze dealing with this grower. From owner Gene, assistant Karen to farm manager Luis, it had always been easy transactions. Luis should find raising Sunshines "sisiw"....he was a Darag Coordinator for PCARRD for quite sometime and dealt with Doc Synan in the studies. He still maintained his Darag production, but as he says, the commercial quantity to serve consumers is still far, plus the fact that you can't predict harvest.

Until now, he gets and shares pointers with Doc Synan (grab a copy of Agriculture Magazine of Manila Bulletin for August 2008), making raising Sunshines easier for him.

Luis is in the process of opening a new range area and now plans to have a quadrant for every batch. He was surprised how this present batch of 200 wiped out grass in an area of 150sqm in less than 2weeks!

We didn't plan to have lunch there, but the aroma of kalderetang Sunshine from the kitchen, across the nipa hut where we sat, was calling or names distinctly. The fact that we hardly have rice with our meals, made the table spread seem too much. Well, the magic word was "seem"...na seemot ang table :)

We knew we will be there more often, after tasting Edwin's cooking and because they will load more chicks at more regular intervals.

Next stop was a farm near Malarayat Golf. Suggestions were made to correct feeding and housing as brooding stage wasn't managed well. But the chicks were so happy when we taught caretaker to chop a banana trunk and feed it to them...they were so excited.

Last stop was calling on dealers for the area as we had been getting a lot of inquiries from Batangas. We wanted to make sure that the link to the backyard farmers are established.

Alorible Day At MATH

I set up real early every weekend at Market At The Hills (MATH), that by the time I am ready to have breakfast, the others are still working on their tables.

Today was just like that, and I was engaging in small talk w/ Elena of Manna Specialty Bakery, as I was deliberating on a Banana Muffin or a Poppsyseed Bagel from her baskets of freshly baked goodies. Our talk drifted to blogging, bloggers etc...and as we both love desserts...of course we touched on Lori of Dessert Comes First.

I was telling Elena about how I was speaking to this couple with a daughter in tow during IFEX...then I noticed this MOLE! THE MOLE that is Lori's signature avatar :)...then I went... "Lori"? See...that was her!

Today was such a breeze. I finished all my stock real early and was eating and relaxing as I was killing time. Someone needed some smaller bills and I went to the faucet to wash my hands. From the corner of my eye...I see a MOLE....hmmmmmmmmmmmm...."Lori"???? Well yes, it was her! After some short talk about her being tampo that I indicated another food blog as a favorite...I told her not bagay to her to get tampororot :) Lori, you are my favorite for desserts! Food is not dessert :)

...she goes around the tables.

Then, I saw her get some bread from Manna...I didn't let this pass. I needed to take her pic for Elena :)

Even When It Rains, We Can Have Sunshine

Although it was a rainy day, I was excited for this month's seminar at Fairview because I can test the seminar toys we got to make the teachings more enjoyable by both parties.

The previous seminars were stressful moments: the projector wall area was always blurry, we didn't have a proper sound system and the room has an echo effect, the room can take in max of 20.

That had to change...plus the fact that we always did out of town seminars and we can't rely nor dictate on equipments!

We got a roll up and go, portable projector screen that weighs 6k, so easy to carry around. By changing the orientation on the room, we can now fit about 25-30 max. No more exerting your vocal chords? A lapel microphone that has a belt type amplifier.

Everything was great today. Power point and laser pointer that acts as mouse worked perfectly too :)

EDSA Garden House Seminar

What: How To Raise Grass Fed Chickens
When: August 16, 2008, 2pm (make sure you are there before 2pm, they close doors)
Where: EDSA Garden House Seminar Room, EDSA cor Quezon Ave, Manila Seedling Bank
Who: Doc Rey

This is free!

1st Philippine International Flora & Fauna

When we were invited to participate for the July 18-20 show, I was also very busy planning for our scheduled Cebu Food Expo, as they were just a week apart.

I looked forward to this event as it meant seeing friends in the industry everyday....but I ended up seeing friends and co workers from like 30yrs ago :)

The show went well, the organizers were on their toes from ingress to end, making sure we were all OK. I have to credit ICE, Inc for that.

The show was very successful for us. Got across to our target markets, and were able to educated consumers on having Sunshine in their lives.

Come To The 1st Rice Expo

It's ALL ABOUT the FILIPINO RICE

AANI posted this flyer in our booth during the Philippine International Flora & Fauna. It got a lot of attention. We hope it catches you too and attend the event :)

Of course we will be there!

Our 3rd Batch of Parent Stocks

Excitedly started my day at 4:30am, to fix up booth at Market At The Hills, leaving at 7:30 for a quick breakfast and check on booth at AANI FTI. By 9am, we were at World Trade Center for the 2nd day of the Philippine International Flora and Fauna Expo. By 9:45am I was at the airport for the arrival of our 3rd batch of Parent Stocks from SASSO of France.

See how healthy the Parent Stocks are? We also brought back the naked necks, after consulting our regular growers. After having interviewed Louis Perrault the last time and having seen the chicks....Zac Sarian have named it the "Hardy Naked Necks" :)


The chicks got to our breeding farm in perfect condition.

Maraming Salamat po.

Healthworld Expo 2008

October 2-4, SMX Convention Center, will have the Healthworld Expo 2008.

We will be joining this exhibit, incorporating Beauty, Health Care and Medical Tourism. It coincides with the Millionaire Show, a lifestyle expo.

Seminars and product discussions on the benefits of grass fed chickens will be presented.

Excited to take part in a different kind of trade show, a step higher, another level. It is a notch nearer to fuse our goals.

Register online here, to avoid lines.

Sunshine Chicks From SASSO, Coming Soon

Everyone seems to be waiting for the new Parent Stocks to produce the Sunshine Day Old Chicks. We ourselves can't wait to give you back in the Philippines, the world wide respected leader in the colored, free range chicken industry.

Our 2nd batch of Parent Stocks are now from SASSO of France. These are the Parent Stocks that will be giving your Sunshine Chicks in the next few weeks. From all indications , from day1 until the early egg drops, seems we made the right choice with SASSO :)

Our 3rd batch of Parent Stocks are arriving this week. Observe the timings. We periodically import and cull at the proper times.

Cebu Food Expo 2008

I was glad we did this show!


We got there for ingress, checked in at the Waterfront Cebu where the venue was...never even saw the shadow of the other show upstairs, Cebu Goes Culinary!

It exceeded our expectations. The visitors were focused and knew what they wanted and were at the show for a reason. Our conversations were aligned and limited to the taste and health benefits of eating Sunshines. Oh yes, we also got the inquiries from prospective growers, not just from Cebu but from the surrounding areas too.

Am sure this show will boost our growers in the Cebu area. This was their first real experience of how we market our Sunshine growers in trade shows. I hope the message was clear, we go all out in assisting in promotions.

Amongst the four growers, it was St. Mary's who had dressed Sunshines available at the show. Good timing for him that he made sure he would have his products in time for the Cebu Food Expo.

We look forward to our next visit in the Queen City of the South :)

AANI + Sunshine = MATH

The organic production of vegetables, fruits and herbs from the AANI Urban Farm in Antipolo, will be sharing our booth at Market at the Hills every Saturday and Sunday.

This will be a welcome move as it is very hard to refer to organic shops when you do not really know the source. We are always being asked for organic produce...now we are together in one stop.

We hope you find that our equation works :)

Teresa Orchard Revisited

Caught the Agri office of Tanza, Cavite at Teresa Orchard as they were starting to make the rounds. Fruit tasting session as we were going around the place. By the time we went back to the receiving area, they had changed their minds about their original orders :)

Will it be crunchy mangoes or the Abiu? More of latexless Langka or Pomelo?

If you are interested in rare fruit trees, Teresa Orchard is the place to get them from. A lot are planted in big containers..makes it movable and great gifts for special people.

Timely that we brought Sunshines that were made into Tinolang Manok. Their first batch of recipients are due to harvest by the end of July, so they were discussing about events they can mark the date with.

After tasting the "lasang native" Sunshines, they can now proudly and knowingly talk about their produce.

Passed One Month At MATH

Why do I like Market At The Hills?

1) Small place, small crowds
2) I see friends from way back in elementary and high school all the time
3) The consumers take time to really know what the products are all about
4) The repeat customers are very appreciative and refer a lot
5) Stall holders are warm and help one another
6) I get to interact with the blog readers here

They want longer hours till 4pm. I'd say, why not open real early for the Breakfast crowd?

Come and visit....Saturdays and Sundays, opens at 7am, Corinthian Hills Clubhouse, along Temple Drive.

Vet Ng Bayan

Kaunlaran Sa Agrikultura, a radio program heard over DWWW 774khz, every Sunday at 4:30-7:30am, hosted by Nina Manzanares-Agu, Tony Rola and Zac Sarian, has done some reformatting.

Doc Rey had been named by Nina as their Vet Ng Bayan and is set to tackle informative topics about farm animals, just like a school on the air.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

We had this at KK in Cebu City. One grower there, St. Mary's Farm, supplies KK with the Sunshines, so we tried the recipe.

Being at Market at the Hills, I enjoy listening to wives and husbands interact and exchange recipes. One of the often discussed is Hainanese Chicken Rice. It must be trendy, basing from all the talk about it :) Trendy or heirloom...it is good!

One of my repeat customers for dressed Sunshines is a gentleman who asked me today if I had a recipe for the white chicken..."was that the Hainanese"? He replied yes. Too bad, none of the recipe groups were there to give light. He went off for a while to get some cash for me. I did a quick search to gift him when he comes back....

I got to this link as #1 on the search...recipe for Hainanese Chicken. Never tried this recipe, but it looks simple and you can almost taste and smell while reading it.

Why did I decide to blog about something I haven't tried?

Five minutes ago, I get a call from a restaurant specializing in Asian food, inquiring specifically about 90day old grass fed Sunshines. Out of the blue I asked if it was for Hainanese Chicken Rice...

You guessed right.

Sunshine Field Turn Over For Ranging Area

We set out today for lunch with AANI brains, Col Levi Viesca, and the Manila Boystown Complex staff.

The bamboo posts have been cut and ready to be erected for the fence of our first ranging area. House had been turned over too for use of AANI boys to man the vegetable plots and Sunshines.

We were told about twenty (20) of us for lunch, so we sent about 19+kilos of Sunshines. Half of which was inihaw and the other half was made into Tinola. You will see from the pictures how many ate.....wiped out! Mind you, we also had a lot of inihaw na hito..and still all vanished :)

Maybe the lunch was very good...that Col Levi Viesca suggested that the area infront be cleared and have a market started asap!

The market will be selling the organic vegetables and the Sunshine Chickens.

They all said... " LASANG NATIVE"!

See You At Cebu Food Expo 2008

We are ready for July 10-12 2008! Cebu Food Expo coincides with the Cebu Goes Culinary2008. This will be at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino. We will be at booth 827, near the seminar areas.

Seminars for Raising Sunshine Chicken will be scheduled during our stay in Cebu from July9-12. Our Sunshine growers in the area will be there to market their products.

Cebu Food Expo is scheduling us for two (2) seminars on the benefits of eating grass fed Sunshine chicken, both at the ground floor, Pacific Ballroom:

July 11, 5pm
July 12, 11am

See you at our booth for a more personal talk on raising Sunshines.

Getting Stuffed Inside The Trunk

We were following this car, with a sticker of a life size bloody hand that got caught by the door of the car's trunk. Eerie humor :) Gives you the picture of a lifeless body inside that dark, stuffy, and airless trunk.

Reminded me about a topic that was agreed upon, for those short radio segments. We decided to warn you not to put your Sunshine Chicks inside your car's trunk!

Saturday past, when I got to AANI Herbal Garden and Livelihood Center, the AANI Boy incharge of the Sunshine booth was on the phone with someone and talking about dead chicks. There must have been a great deal of misinterpretation and misunderstanding! Jeffrey must have said you can set it at the back (seat or whatever) surely, you can't let it sit inside the trunk, without fresh air :(

Anyway, things have been settled....

Bottomline....place yourself in your Sunshines' position. What you feel, they will too. Hot, need water? They too will :)

No Buy-Backs, No Contract Growings, BUT.....

Our regular growers know and see how we really market our Sunshine growers and not us :)

But you can't please all inquiries and it does exasperate even the most patient people who take your calls (surely I am not referring to myself lol).

Yesterday, Doc Rey got a call insisting about selling his produce. Mind you, he hasn't even started raising any. The call ended up in a sorry note. One got impatient, and it takes a lot to do that. The other one ended up getting mad because other companies are into buy-backs.

It was explained to him that our real line is producing and distributing the certified F1 Sunshine Day Old Chicks....BUT...our marketing is focused on our growers. I guess, unless you work hand in hand and side by side with us, you will not understand our dedication to this :)

We are a small entity, can't play with the other competitors on buy-back policies.

I still don't plan on doing buy-backs but I will strive to work harder to push my Sunshine growers.

Niche marketing is our focus. Each Sunshine grower will have to study their market and find their own niche.

BUT...we support all the way!