view up the street

Ten years ago, there were still fields here, and goats and waterbuffalo would graze in the fields.
The lots however are gradually being bought and houses are being built: note the new style house, made of concrete.

Also note the fields are not far away...the town mainly has grown up the street, where the new mall and city hall have been built, along the road to Manila

our new hand plow

this enables farmers to turn over and prepare the field before hand planting rice.

Playing the Piano

music is popular in the Philippines, and Pinoy entertainers are popular throughout Asia.
Like many families, the children learn the piano.
Our original piano was old and termite infested, so we had to get rid of it; so now we use an electronic Piano.

Party cooking in the Phiippines

 
most affluent Filipino houses have two kitchens, one inside for "show" with a microwave and stove, and another often outside (so it will be cool) where the cooking is actually done.

We use propane and have three burners (one countertop stove, and one heavy single burner for the largest pots). Sometimes, we get out a barbecue grill for fish etc. too...usually the shopping is two or three days before the party, then the cooking is done the day before, or early in the morning for an evening meal...

Sometimes we buy the poultry and have to kill and defeather it...that way we are sure it is fresh...

If a "lechon" (barbecue suckling pig) is planned, it is ordered from the people who do this type of cooking.


This is a local cook (in front) who does party cooking (i.e. for large numbers of people). She is being helped by our two maids, local girls from the nearby farm area.

The girls come and go...usually they have 7th grade, and are not yet ready to marry, so they get a job to save up some money...then they leave, usually after six months to a year to marry or get a better paying job in a larger town...

banana trees

some grow over 20feet

The Two doctors

Robin teaching tie dyeing

Robin plans to give a class today in Cabanatuan on tie dyeing cloth.

This is her "practice" session here yesterday

Inspecting the new water buffalo

we have bought two water buffalos to plow the organic vegetable fields. This is the female...very gentle.
we have bou

Ruby at the Manila Ocean Park

Festus looks sad

this is Blackie's puppy. His two siblings have gone for Christmas presents, which is why he is sad.
 

our front yard

we had bushes and palm trees here, but the palms got so big that there was a danger from the coconuts hitting cars in the streets, so we had to cut them down...
but we did replant two palms and plan to plant some more.

Drying rice

One of our workers who was drying our rice.
Here, at harvest time, you have to drive slowly on the back roads because people dry their rice in the sun, not just on highways/roads but on basketball courts at the schools etc.

If there is no road, a plastic sheet will do.
We just harvested some rice from the second harvest and were drying it in our garden on a sunny day.

Organic brown rice

one of our products

The worker's daughter

one of the farmers and his family helps out here...this is his younger daughter, eating while mom is making custom made boxes for our products.

greenhouse

From 6-11-2008 part one

This is the greenhouse used to grow seedlings for the organic vegetables.

Meeting room

From Gift bags and other bccc products

this was a meeting with officials from the Department of agriculture about promoting organic vegetable growing in our area.

The room is our meeting room; if it looks a bit fancy, it is because we also hold classes, dinners, and parties there.

Lolo is working hard

This is Lolo, who is a retired physician.

From around the house

He helps supervise the farm. But the photo shows him at leisure, reading his favorite newspaper.

Gift items

From Gift bags and other bccc products

these are gift bags for Christmas made for one of our customers.

Inside we have a bag of our organic brown rice.

The designs are done by Kuya Reyes.

Wecome to our world

This blog is being made because I bought a new camera and want to put photos about the Philippines on line.

It also will showcase our business, Better country community corporation, a small business that was started to bring jobs to this area. So far, we sell organic rice, sponsor a training farm to show local farmers to grow organic vegetables, and are starting a business selling capiz flowers as gifts (Capiz is a local shel).