The panorama on the sunrise side: an awesome view of Malarayat

The quiet panorama on the sunrise side of the farm: an awesome view of Mount Malaráyat and the river below the gap.

25 June 2011

Welcome

Welcome to Kaligatan Farm! This blog is about my country home-in-progress and my continuing love affair with, of all things, a farm.



I did not mean to acquire a farm three years ago. I have just been passively scouting for a spacious out-of-town lot to build a rest house. Lipá was not even on my shortlist. But providentially, I discovered a quiet barrio called San Celestíno close to an unassuming mountain, Malaráyat, and an abandoned farm sitting on a ridge above a small gorge with a river below. I instantly liked it and made up my mind to acquire it on the third minute, more or less, we were there.

I had no experience, no practical knowledge, no plan, no nothing. I was about to turn forty in some months and I felt like throwing myself into something way bigger than I am. Shortly after, I got what I wished for: all nine acres of coffee and coconuts.

This blog is called 1784 to commemorate the year coffee was most likely first farmed in the area, some years after the first seedlings arrived in the whole archipelago. God bless the man who thought of bringing a coffee seedling, planting it, and systematically farming it first in the very vicinity where we are now. That man had no clue he would literally and figuratively break ground and pave the way to make Lipa the world's biggest coffee producer and exporter in the 1800s. By that one singular act, not only did he change history, he made it. And more than two hundred years later, we all still enjoy the fruits of that idea.



Can anyone imagine what can happen if we do the same now?

9 comments:

  1. Congratulations for stumbling into something you truly enjoy and just going with the flow at that.

    I imagine the farm will be self sufficient by the time you turn 60 (retirement age).

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  2. I'm glad you came up with this blog.... we will be bookmarking this page and will be following your photos and updates.
    Love from all of us here in Temecula, California :-)

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  3. Beautiful Alex! SO great that you put up this blog! :-)

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  4. Congratulations on realizing your dream! All the best to you!

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  5. Congratulations on your blog. It is a good way to chronicle events.
    Thank you for stopping by my site.

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  6. Way to go Alex. Keep us posted on all things 1784 season after season after season. Invite me again during the cold months :-D

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  7. Congratulations on your latest acquisition (farm), your blog, and wishing you the best on your new endeavor. Our blogs are kind of the same purpose, to chronicle the development of our farms. I may have started much earlier but it looks like you have more accomplishments, kudos.

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  8. Awesome blog! Signed as a follower already.

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