Saturday, November 23, 2019

But there's no neighbor!

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog

What is missing in this painting?

"Let's draw a house. Each his own."

The children drew and drew: 
posts, walls, stair window, door;
cheek on palm, eyelids moving; 
garden, swimming pool, patio;
twirling a pencil, added: 
trees, mountain, cloud, sun. 

"Here!" They showed their own houses.

"There's something missing."

Back to the drawing board, pondered:
birds in the sky and in trees singing.

"Here," they showed again their houses.

"There's still something missing.
Would you like to live in your houses?"

Silence. 

Fingers moved, lips tightened:
more lines, shades, colors, now with flowers.

"Here," they showed once more their houses.

"But there's still one thing missing."

Silence.


A little girl in a corner drew and drew:
a house nearby, people around.

She showed her house.

The children chorused: Neighbor! ~


*LESSON on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday

Friday, November 22, 2019

Food Crisis Series 25: Home Gardening: Green Patch at Home

 Food Crisis Series 25: 

Home Gardening:
Green Patch at Home
Dr Abe V Rotor  
avrotor.blogspot.com

By size, my home farm is a Liliputian version of a corporate farm. Intensive cultivation-wise however, it dwarfs the monoculture of a plantation. It is only when your area is small that you can attend to the requirements of an integrated farm with basic features of a garden.

       When I moved to the city, I put up perhaps the smallest garden, a corner lot equivalent to a space of a two-bedroom bungalow. Here, after two years of experimentation and redesigning evolved a garden ensconced like in a shell, an example of tri-commodity farming where I have vegetables, poultry and fish.

Home garden, author's residence

         My wife, who is an accountant, estimates that presently, the garden could save up to 20 percent of our family's expense for food, in exchange for twenty family man-hours every week. Labor makes up to 50 percent of production costs, she says. Since gardening is a hobby in lieu of outdoor games, we agreed not to include labor as cost. This gives a positive sign to the garden's financial picture.

        We do not also consider in the book the aesthetic value of weekends when the garden becomes a family workshop to prove green thumbs, and the influence my family has made on the community by giving free seeds and seedlings, and know-how tips. When my children celebrate their birthdays, the kids in the neighborhood enjoy harvesting tomatoes, string beans and leafy vegetables - a rare experience for boys and girls living in the city.

     
What makes a garden?

        Frankly, I have no formula for it. I first learned farming from my father who was a gentleman farmer before I became an agriculturist. But you do not have to go for formal training to be able to farm well. All that one needs is sixth sense or down-to-earth sense, the main ingredient of a green thumb.

        Take these gardening experiences.

1. Get the most sunlight

        A maximum of five hours of sunlight should be available - geographically speaking that is. Morning and direct sunlight is ideal for photosynthesis. But you need longer exposure for fruit vegetables, corn and viny plants like cucurbits, ampalaya.  So with crucifers like mustard and pechay. These are long-day plants.

       Well, to get more sunlight, I prune the surrounding talisay or umbrella trees twice a year. I use the branches for trellis and poles. Then, I painted the surrounding walls white to increase the intensity of reflected and diffused light.

        Plot the sun's course and align the rows on an East-West direction. Plants do not directly over-shadow each other this way. This is very important during wet season when days are cloudy and plants grow luxuriantly.  Other than maximizing solar radiation you also get rid of soil borne plant diseases. Sunlight that gets in between the plants helps eliminate pest and pathogens. And in summer, you can increase your seeding rate, and therefore potential yield.  Try planting in triangular formation or quincunx.

        Outline that part of the garden that receives the longest sunlight exposure. Plant this area with sun-loving plants like okra and ampalaya.

        Lastly, remember that plants which grow on trellises and poles "reach out for the sun" with less ground space. Put up trellises at blind corners and train viny plants to climb early and form a canopy. For string beans, use poles on which they climb. You wouldn't believe it but as long as your rows are aligned with the sun's movement and trellises and poles are used, you can plant more hills in a given area, and you can have dwarf and tall plants growing side by side. Try alternate rows of sitao, tomato and cabbage.

2. Try Mixed Garden or Storey Cropping
   
        What is the composition of an ideal garden?

       Again, there's no standard design for it. The most practical type is a mixed garden.  A mixed garden is like a multi-storey building.  Group plants according to height.  That is why you have to analyze their growing habits.

     Are they tall or dwarf?  Seasonal, biennial or permanent?  What part of the year do they thrive best? Refer to the planting calendar or consult your nearest agriculturist.

        Look for proper cropping combinations through intercropping or crop rotation. Malunggay, papaya, kamias, banana and the like make good border plants. Just be sure they do not shade smaller plants. Cassava and viny plants trained on trellis are next in height. The group of pepper, tomato, eggplant follows, while the shortest in height hierarchy are sweet potato, ginger and other root crops. Imagine how these crops are grouped and built like a storeyed building.  We call this storey cropping.

 
Salad of young pods of mungo and talinum (local spinach)

       A friend commented, "Why streamline your garden the American way?" I agree with him. Plant the Filipino way.

       At any rate there are crops "we plant and forget." Before the pot starts to shimmer, you realize you need some malunggay leaves, a dozen tops of camote, a handful of fresh onion leaves, etc.  All you need is to dash into the backyard and pick these green ingredients.

3. Practice Organic Farming

       Traditional farming is back with modern relevance.

     Organic farming is waste recycling - not by getting rid of the waste itself but by utilizing it as production input.

       "This system is an alternative to conventional chemical farming", says Domingo C. Abadilla in his book Organic Farming.

        I practice organic farming for two reasons - and for a third, if I may add.  Crops grown without chemical fertilizers and pesticides are safer and more nutritious.

Local fruits raised on the backyard
       
    What would you do with poultry droppings and Azolla from the fishpond?  Plus the kitchen refuse and weeds?  Make valuable compost out of them. For potash, sieve ash from a garbage-dumping site. Just be sure it is not used for industrial waste.

       Can we grow crops without insecticides? Generally, no.  But there are ways to protect plants in a safe way.  

·        Use mild detergent, preferably coconut-based soap, to control  aphids and other plant lice.

·        Plant tomatoes around pest prone plants.  They exude repellant odor on a wide variety of pests.


·        Keep a vigil light above the garden pond to attract nocturnal insects that may lay eggs on your plants at daytime. Tilapia and hito relish on insects.

·        A makeshift greenhouse made of plastic and mosquito net will eliminate most insects.

      If you find stubborn insect pest like caterpillars and crikets, make a nicotine solution and spray. One or two sticks of cigarette, irrespective of its brand, mixed into a bucketful of water will do the trick. But be sure not to use the solution on tomato, pepper and eggplant. It is possible that tobacco mosaic virus  can be transmitted  to these crops.

       A relative, a heavy smoker, visited us at home and we showed him our garden. When he touched the tomato plants, he was unknowingly inoculating mosaic virus. Tobacco virus can remain dormant in cigars and cigarette for as long as twenty years. Then it springs back to life in the living system of a plant belonging to Solanaceae or tobacco family.

4. Raise Fish in the Garden Pond

     Water from the pond is rich with algae, plant nutrients and detritus that add to soil fertility. While you water your plants, you are also fertilizing them. 

       The pond should be designed  for growing  tilapia, hito or dalag, or a combination of these. For tilapia, keep its population low to avoid overcrowding and competition. Stock fingerlings of the same size and age.
     Try growing hito, native or African.  When you buy live hito from the market, separate the small ones (juveniles), which will serve as your growers. They are ready to harvest in 3 to 6 months with 3 pieces making a kilo.  Hito is easier to raise than any other freshwater fish. One thing is that you do not change water often because the fish prefers to have a muddy bottom to stay.

        Feed the fish with poultry and fish entrails, vegetable trimmings, dog food, etc. Just avoid accumulation of feed that may  decompose and cause foul odor, which means that Oxygen in water is being replaced with Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen Sulfide.
                            
Fresh vegetables from the garden

       Azolla, a floating fern, is good for fish and animal feeds because it contains 20 to 25 percent protein,.  It is also an excellent organic fertilizer because it is rich in nitrate, a product of nitrogen fixation by Anabaena, a microscopic blue-green algae living in the fronds of Azolla. Nitrate is important for plant growth. Grow Azolla in a separate pond, or in floating cage, so as to maintain a regular biomass supply. 

   5. Integrate Backyard Poultry

       Raise some broilers and layers in separate cages. Have other  cages to rear chicks and growers to replenish your stock.  Formulate your feed.  If not, mix commercial broiler feed and yellow corn grit in equal proportion. This is more economical and you may get better results than by using commercial broiler feeds alone.

      Construct a fence around the cages and have pair of turkey on the loose. Similarly you may rear a few native chickens to feed on feed waste. Clip their wings regularly to prevent them from escaping  and destroy your garden. I don't recommend piggery unless the neighborhood does not object to it.

6. Plant Fruit Trees Trees

       Do not forget to have some native fruit bearing trees such as guava, atis, guyabano, kamias, kalamansi and other citrus species.  If your area is big you can include coconut, mango, kaimito, bananas.  Rambutan, why not?  I saw fruit laden rambutan trees in some residences  in Quezon City. 

     Just like annual plants, adopt the East-West planting method for trees so that you can have seasonal crops in between their rows.  Use compost for the fruit trees, just like in vegetables. You can plant  orchard trees like mango, guyabano, coconut and cashew along the sidewalk fronting your residence.

7. Make Your Own Compost, and Grow Mushrooms, Too      

     In one corner, build a compost pile with poles and mesh wire,  1m x 2m, and 2m in height. Dump leaves, kitchen refuse, chicken droppings and allow them to decompose and become into valuable organic fertilizer. Turn the pile once a month until it is ready for use.
    
     In another place you can have a mushroom pile made of rice straw, or water hyacinth. After harvesting the mushrooms, the spent material is a good compost material and composting will take a shorter time. 

        To learn more about mushroom growing and composting, refer to the technology tips of DOST-PCARRD, or see your agriculturist in your area.  

8. Plant Herbals - Nature’s First Aid

         It is good to have the following plants as alternative medicine.  Lagundi for flu and fever, guava for skin diseases and body odor, aromatic pandan and tanglad for deodorant and air freshener, oregano for cough and sore throat, mayana for boils and mumps, ikmo for toothache, pandakaki for cuts. There are other medicinal plants you can grow in your backyard.  Remember, herbals are nature's first-aid.

         These and many others are the reasons you should have a  home garden.  One thing is sure in the offing: it is a source of safe and fresh vegetables and fruits, fish and meat, and natural medicine.  Most important of all, the garden is a recreation of nature itself, a green patch of a lost Eden. ~      
                                
 

Friday, November 15, 2019

Visit the Ilocos Region and taste the unique food and drink of the Ilocanos

Visit the Ilocos Region and taste the unique food and drink of the Ilocanos
Dr Abe V Rotor

  
Visit the Ilocos region and savor the spirit of a unique wine - Basi, once exported to Europe via Mexico through the Galleon Trade during the Spanish era , envy of the colonial masters who attempted to monopolize the wine industry resulting in the infamous Basi Revolt of 1807 and death of scores of Filipinos who defended their livelihood, pride and honor.  

   
Visit the Ilocos Region and taste a unique seaweed - Gamet, that grows exclusively in the northern region, equivalent to Japan's Nori, "food of the emperor;" ngarusangis the tiniest edible clam in the world, jumping salad (live shrimplet), and goat recipes: kilawin and pinapa-itan (soup made of entrails and chyme, ~

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Flying Kites - A Childhood Adventure

Flying Kites - A Childhood Adventure 

"My kite took me away with my dreams when I was young;
Years had passed and I see kites flying again,
Familiar they seem, but in another time." - avr


Dr Abe V Rotor
Flying Kites at Harvestime, detail of mural by the author 2007


Mandala, detail of mural by the author

Clear against the blue mountain far
Are specks of yellow, red and blue,
And white, and the many colors they make.

Swaying like birds, rising and swooping,

Suspended in time and space,
If not for the sinking sun.

The wind is fair, the grain is golden now,

Else the old folk would complain:
Don’t call the wind when the grain is young.

But kids that we were cared for nothing,

Except our kites at all cost to fly
From the other end of the string.

Up, up they soared into the sky,

Dwarfing Babel, trailing the Apollo-
Flight only our dreams could follow through.

My kite took me away to the city and beyond-

Years had passed and I see kites flying again,
Familiar they seem, but in another time.~

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Control invasive species by turning them into culinary delights.

Control invasive species by turning them 
into culinary delights.
Dr Abe V Rotor


What is the best way to beat invasive species? Well, if humans managed to eat field rats, mole crickets, snails, pythons, alligators - and other "pests", why can't these undesirable organisms be part of his culinary taste and art?

Golden Kuhol (Pomacea caniculata)

1. Pets turned wild - knife fish and janitor fish.  Once fancy pets in aquarium, they found their way to Laguna Lake and Taal Lake. They can be cooked like any fish.  
2. Food to pest - Golden Kuhol (Pomacea caniculata).  Imported in the seventies as food  like the popular French escargot, it has spread to rice fields, where they have developed in a major pest of rice. Cook it with tanglad and luya, better still with gata.

3. Migratory swarms - Locust (Locusta migratoria) PHOTO) moves in swarms, thousands upon  thousands riding on wind current, invading fields and forests many kilometers away. They settle down as solitary grasshoppers, remaining in the place, mate and multiply, until the next migratory season. Have you tasted sauteed mole cricket  June beetle, gamu-gamu (winged termite)?  It tastes the same. 

4. Biological Warfare in peace time - Giant African Snail (Achatina fulica) introduce by the Japanese during World War II, now a common garden pests. One time a recipe was prepared on the request of a school head, and all his teachers tasted it - with delight. 

5. Fugitive to invader - Asian carp in Illinois, Missouri and Mississippi river. It is similar to our tilapia - Tilapia nilotica and T. mosambica.  American will learn to love the carp like we Asians. Just like how we first accepted it when it was introduced in the fifties by Dr Deogracia Villadolid, a prominent fisheries expert. Today tilapia is an important part of the Filipino diet,   

6. Breakout from cage - Black spiny-tailed Iguana has invaded Florida.  It eats about anything, including birds. When made into adobo, iguana meat tastes like that of monitor lizard.

7. Trans-oceanic invasion - Lion fish (PHOTO) has venomous spines and dangerous to aquatic and human life alike. Origin Pacific and Indian oceans to the Caribbean. It's cooked like any marine fish.

8. Adaptive mechanism of survival - Nutria a rodent originated in South America and has invaded the Gulf Coast, destroying valuable wetlands, and make bore tunnels through levees.  In the Philippines the Rattus rattus norvigicus was accidentally introduced and have adapted to city life. 

9. Wildlife gone wilder - Armadillo, a gentle and peaceful armored animal of Central and South America is upsetting the balance of food webs, eating just anything, even stealing eggs of threatened sea turtles.  They say it's good meat. The closest animal to the Armadillo in the Philippines is the Scaly Anteater which is a threatened species.    

10. Biological Control agent gone wild - Toad (Bufo marinus) introduced in Australia to control sugarcane pest, now overruns even homes and highways. This is poisonous, even animals have learned to avoid it.  It is for this reason, its population increased rapidly in Australia.  

Except for No 10, these invasive species have found their way to the dining table. Man's gustatory delight is indeed the best way in dealing with undesirable creatures. ~ 
-----------------
* Lesson on former Living with Nature School on Blog, Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8-9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Friday, November 8, 2019

Let Nature take you on her course in art, solitude and prayer.

“Let Nature take you on her course in art, solitude and prayer.” avr
                                      Dr Abe V Rotor

“By discovering nature, you discover yourself.”




 “Love the world as your own self; then you can truly care for all things.” Lao Tzu“



“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”

- Henry David Thoreau


“After school on their way home these children drop by to say hello
to a pair of kalaw birds on the wall, sit on a make-believe scene of a
rocky shore. They love to color, to paint, or simply watch me paint,
listen to simple lessons that introduce them to integrated art” -avr

.
“We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”
Native American proverb



"The human race is governed by its imagination." - Napoleon
"Nature is pleased with simplicity.” Newton ~

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

.Fantasy Landscape

 Fantasy Landscape
Painting and Verse by
Dr Abe V Rotor 

Fantasy Landscape (15.5" x 43") acrylic on canvas, mounted on black wood frame. 

Raging fire and cool jade
marble of blue and ebony
jagged mountains ascending
colors not of earth
nor water nor sky
creatures by imagination
carved, floating, flying 
landscape of far away
in imagination, in myth
not on earth 
not in heaven 
not by man -
yet called
man, heaven and earth  ~
.

Saturday, November 2, 2019

"Nahulog sa Tulay" (Fell off the bridge.)

Take a break with laughter 

Nahulog sa Tulay
(He fell off the bridge.)
 As told to Dr Abe V Rotor

                                   
Once there was a community where the parish priest got irked by the confession of the faithful of a sin most frequently committed – adultery.
Footbridge in acrylic by the author AVR 2002

So the priest coined a code for adultery: Nahulog sa tulay (fell off the bridge).  Indeed the priest was quite satisfied to hear confessions on the popular sin.  Instead of saying adultery, or nangangaliwa (turning to the left, meaning unfaithful), or may kulasisi (having a pet parrot), the faithful just say “Father, “Nahulog ako sa tulay.”  For which the concerned father would say, “This time be careful.  Mag-ingat ka.” (Be careful)

As it is the policy of the church to reshuffle assignments of priests, the priest in this community was transferred to another parish.

A new priest arrived, and as he heard confessions he was surprised to hear a string of “Father, nahulog ako sa tulay,” that the apparently puzzled priest simply cautioned the faithful, “Mag-ingat ka sa susunod,” (Be careful next time) thinking of the literal meaning of the statement.  With firmness he went to see the municipal engineer and asked why he is not doing his part to prevent accidents by seeing to it that the bridge is safe and sound.

To this the engineer laughed and all others in the municipal hall joined.  He laughed and laughed as he was the butt of the accusation he was mistaken for.

Not outwitted the priest said, “Well, Mr. Engineer, I still say you take care of that bridge.”

“Father, that bridge is not in my care.”

“It is,” the priest concluded.  “Your wife fell in it three times.” ~