Cassava

We've been systematically planting cassava for almost a year now. There used to be wild ones randomly growing around (ligáw) and it was always exciting to check which ones can be harvested already. But since a rainy season ago, we have cleared a portion of the field and planted rows of kamóteng káhoy. They're a great source of starch and carbohydrates, and is a good, even healthier substitute for rice.

Cashews

Also fruiting now is our lone cashew tree! This is one among several pilot seedlings we planted soon after acquiring the farm; at that time we would lap up any seedling we come across of anything that we do not have and just randomly plant it. Some we have already taken out since then (for a variety of reasons), but some stayed and flourished just like this. Of course we all know that the "nut" at the bottom gets roasted to become the snack that we know, but my staff says that the yellow drupe is just as edible.

"Indian" Mangoes

The "Indian" mangoes are just about to be ready for picking! The trees are heavy with fruit, weighing down some branches with as many as a dozen or even more at its end. Some trees look like they bore fruit slightly later than the others, and I hope my sisters and their families will still be picking from the trees when they come from abroad late May!


As much as I search on the web though, I could not find any more information on this particular type of mango. I could not even find its scientific name, all the more how the appellation "Indian" got used with this variety (all mangoes trace its roots in India). Most of the data are about the more exportable "kalabaw" variety (Mangifera indica), hardly on  this type which is smaller, stays green even when ripe, and has a distinct taste and crunchiness that one can't help but go on munching a basket-ful.

And that was exactly what happened in 2009, the season that the trees were so prolific that we estimated the output to be 1.35 tons from nine trees alone! We were stuffed that time, and it felt like mangoes were coming out of our ears.


That was the first season after we cleaned the farm; prior to that I have no clue how much fruit there was when the trees were overwhelmed by vines, ants, and weeds. It felt like they were bursting with energy and mangoes were literally falling off the trees.


Come by the next weeks and pick some for yourselves!

Coffee Picking

The coffee trees are HEAVY with cherries and they are red ripe for picking! The baráko (Liberica, above) ones look especially daunting since their beans are way larger than Robustas and Excelsas. Those too will soon be ready for harvesting, and even though the fruits are smaller, they are just as tedious to pick as they have to be manually done (or at least, we do) and the picking requires some arbitrary, split-second decisions.

Not all cherries ripen at the same time (right), you want to pick them only when they are fully mature, with a vivid red hue or just about the time they start drying up. It is a waste to comb through a branch to short-cut collecting them since some are younger than the others, like the yellow or green fruits. When I first did this some years ago, I picked one tree just like how everyone does it but after some minutes, I started wondering just how I should be able to do this faster: maybe do a swift, piano-like glissando 

through the cherries and put a basket on the end to catch my loot. Quite predictably, my harvest had multi-colored produce (read: mixed-up ripe and wasted unripe cherries).


On the left photo is one of our staff, Diko who is picking a barako tree the proper way, just how everyone else does it: by hand, one by one. He even has on a takúyan, a hip-strung basket that is the most convenient and practical to contain the picked cherries.

From one tree alone, Diko picked practically three-fourths of a sack! And there are still some fruits left on that tree. Awesome...

Ripening Papayas

Papayas (Carica papaya) are among the easiest to grow! These big, evenly-ripening ones (above) are fruits from trees we planted ourselves just a year and a half ago. I distinctly remember we had some one meal and it was very good that I had the seeds dried and planted. It germinated soon and transplanted in the farm a few weeks later.

Now, we have more than two dozen trees and they are heavy with fruit! They're excellent to be eaten plain or with a dash of fresh calamansî juice, my favorite! It also works well as a smoothie, or if you're lazy to make one, just eat it with yogurt or honey.


And did you know there are "male" and "female" trees? I only learned in the farm already that papayas require pollination and some trees just bear the male flowers for the other trees to bear fruit.

Peppercorn

We're about to harvest peppercorns again, it's that time of year when the vines are drooping with this all-important spice that were among those that triggered explorations in the 15th and 16th centuries. We in the tropics kinda take spices like this for granted, just as ginger which gives immense flavor to a lot of dishes we regularly eat.


And I only learned when I had the farm already that white pepper and black pepper comes from the same peppercorn, except they're just picked at different stages. If you pick them while they're green, just as how the berries above look like, you can either consume it fresh while tasting mild and fruity or dry it for some days then crush it and mix with olive oil or brine.

When you pick them instead some weeks later, just when it's about to turn red, leave them to dry until they shrivel and turn black (right). When you grind it on a peppermill, you'll get black pepper, the most flavorful of all.


On the other hand, if you missed out picking some and they've turned ripe and red on the vine, you can soak the berries in water with salt for some days. This will dissolve the outer shell and will effortlessly make the white inner seed come out. Leave it to dry and it becomes white pepper when it's ground.

Corn

Anyone up for some corn? We have loads! We tried planting some a couple of weeks back and didn't realize it will yield this much! If you leave a whole ear on the stalk to its full maturity, the kernel itself (the one neatly on rows) will become the seed (Tag. binhî). On prepared, cultivated beds, we put up to three kernels on a small hole on the ground and in just a few weeks, they've become stalks and stalks (and even more stalks!) of corn. And some stalks have multiple ears, fantastic!

Avocados

What's in season now this July is avocados! It's not top of mind for me since I don't usually see the trees that much and they aren't that many. But over breakfast, the staff prepared sliced avocados and home-grown bananas with milk for dessert and later found out, we had a basket-ful to bring back to Manila!


It's easy to grow: back in Science class in elementary, we were asked to bring a seed, place the lower half  on a jar full of water and see it grow roots and germinate in no time.


Avocados (Persea americana), originally from Central America, is a great source of protein and good cholesterol. It's good to use for salads and sandwiches, substituting it for greens, provided it's not yet that ripe (and mushy). This season, we'll finally learn to make guacamóle which would be very good to side with carne asada, nachos, and tomato salsa!

Harvesting Coconuts

Búko actually means a young, immature fruit or a flower that has yet to open, and may refer to a variety of plants, not just coconuts. But by sheer profusion and popularity, the term has been so closely associated and often mistaken as the Tagalog of the coconut fruit (and the tree).


The Tagalog for coconut (Cocos nucifera) is niyóg, and if you leave it to mature on the tree, it will dry up, shrink a bit and turn brown. But most prefer to harvest it when it is still young, large and green (right), in its búko stage.

And understandably for good reason! My favorite is "búko juice" which is the cool, clear water inside, then scooping out the gelatinous flesh, all fresh from the shell! It's a defining pleasure you can only have by living in the tropics.


Periodically, magpapakyáw 
(contractors or middlemen) come and purchase all the harvest-able búko in the farm. We have no means to do this on our own: climbing  a couple of hundred trees is pretty daunting already, and some are four- to five-storeys high!

It's fascinating to see the coconut farmers busy with their work. With spikes on their shoes, they climb up the trees with a chain harnessed around their waists, then they go about knocking on the coconuts like it's as simple and easy as a desk job.


The good ones they select, they hook the entire buhîg (bunch?) into some rope, and let it slide down (right), carefully making sure the coconuts don't come down to the ground a-crashing (when we do it ourselves, we always end up with broken coconuts!).

They have to be collected at the foot of each tree and manually transported to the gate where the truck is. Now this smiling worker on the left makes it look so light and easy but the coconuts he's carrying on his pinggâ is as heavy as your two-piece, maxed-out, checked-in luggage!

Ubod

Sometimes, for whatever reason, we would have one or two felled coconut trees. When we were building, we had to clear some areas and there were a couple of trees, especially coconuts that were in the way.

Now I'm not sure if many people know where the úbod in fresh lumpiâ comes from. I somehow knew before that it's a coconut by-product and figured that, I guess it comes from the coconut itself (which, by the way, is not a nut but that's a totally different story altogether).

It turns out that úbod is Tagalog for pith, the young core of the trunk of the coconut tree (or the banana, whose ubod can be eaten too). On the right, we chopped off the top part of the felled tree (background) and skinned the bark to get the pith (lower part/foreground).

It's very nutritious to eat, fibrous (since this is what will become coco lumber in time), and filling. Imagine: from the roots underground, the tree absorbs water and nutrients, goes up the pith, and into the leaves, the flowers, and into the coconuts. Amazing.

Traditionally, we cook it as lumpiâ filling, sauteed and mixed with some kincháy (something like flat parsley) and small shrimps, to flavor. Anyone out there who has some new recipe to share?