SOLD OUT...good products sell themselves... first hand experience. =)

FIRST ORDER OF THE DAY

two weeks ago, i was chatting with one of my best buds, bebs, (sosyly known to her friends as GEN! hahahha), A-CERTIFIED-OC when it comes to healthy eating specially for her kids, about how i plan to market la ferme's chicken and what are the benefits of eating "organic" (as is no antibiotics, no growth hormones) free range chickens... i was also telling her of my concerns if the chickens will sell, since this is my first time to get into farming and it leans on the high end or rather, the healthier products side. i was also getting her advise, suggestions and opinions, as a consumer, on the labels, packaging, leaflets, etc....of course, i also asked help to sell the chickens...

GOOD PRODUCTS SELL THEMSELVES

what do you know!!??.. before we were finish chatting, she already ordered 11 chickens! (multi-tasking huh?! working, chatting and selling chickens all at the same time! ahaha) and 10 to 15 mins after chatting, she texted.. 'MAKE IT 13 CHICKENS!" i was so grateful.. and it was a much needed shot-in-the arm.

i like consulting my ideas with bebs coz she gives me no frills, no nonsense, straight-to-the-point, honest answers and opinion, that's when you know your friend is for real! =) am happy to enjoy her friendship. we go a long way back. and she now has 2 kids. and another on the way! ahahahahaha... the second one is my god child, cute astrid, but i love smart little zac as much.

DINNER TIME

the same day, me and my lovely wife, yvette, had dinner with derrick and sab, we had japanese buffet at zensho, along t. morato, a stone's throw away from my house, it was the-manger'-s treat that night and of course la ferme's chicken was a major part of the converstion. hehehe.. i also consult my very good friend the-manager-derrick for business advise. he is a successful businessman, with investments in lubircant and pharma distribution, his expertise are on, of course, distribution and operation. this guy will make it big for sure! a natural leader and a very passionate entrepreneur. Sab, on the other hand, is a fast learner, mild natured and a very good partner to derrick, they compliment each other. we always go out, have dinner and fun together. MAGASTOS INI!

BACK TO CHICKENS

i was telling sab and derrick about how i was talking to bebs earlier that day and was able to sell 13 chickens without even trying to sell! hehehehe..

i also asked help in looking for potential distributors in qc area and sab willingly offered help.

the next morining, sab told my story to her mom, probably over breakfast, and before i brushed my teeth, sab texted me to say that her mom is interested in helping me distribute our products in qc! yehey! i talked with anty josie around 10AM, and two days after, she ordered 13 chickens!

i guess 13 is not such a bad number at all! hehehe

so by saturday, november 15, 2008, we made our first delivery! feels so good! i picked up the chickens at the farm, brought them to the house for final cleaing, inspection and weighing. alas!.. we delivered the chickens by 730pm, running late (i know!).. tired but very happy! it was all worth it!

i had dinner alone at UCC to wind myself down and relax.. i was still hyperactive from the adrenaline rush! hahahah.. by 10pm, i headed home to my beloved wife and daughter. tama nga sila.. NAKAKAWALA NG PAGOD! =)

WHAT'S NEXT?

bigger brooders are now being constructed, but for the meantime, we will be loading our second batch of sunshine's, this coming Monday.

not ready for christmas.. =(.. but ready for i-wanna-be-healthy-this-2009 season! hehehehe

what a journey... what a life. =)

dangers using of antibiotics and growth hormones in poultry farming for human consumption

i am posting a couple of sites where you can read about the dangers and effects of using antibiotics and growth hormones as a "growth supplement" and for "disease prevention" in industrial chicken factories ("farms").

these sites are also included as LINKS to la ferme's multiply site.

note that as of now, the practice of mixing low doses of antibiotics in poultry feeds is still very prevalent here in our country. as a matter of fact, la ferme organique had a hard time sourcing unmedicated commercial poultry feeds in rizal. thanks to SOLRAYA (who introduced us to feerdpro and SANTEH, manufacturer of FEEDPRO- PRO AVIAN. they are so far the only unmedicated feed supplier that i have encountered. they are very supportive of organic (unmedicated) livestock farming.

please take time to browse the websites below...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-01-23-natural-chickens_x.htm

http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/khor-cn.htm

http://www.allergyconsumerreview.com/antibiotic-resistance-articles.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=G4m2kGkIEqgC&pg=PA235&lpg=PA235&dq=effects+of+antibiotic+in+chicken&source=web&ots=oXgxN8B-_Y&sig=KXFRkJYZUqK9q-Nbvh5v7_T7a94&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result#PPA233,M1

http://farzanapanhwar.blogspot.com/2007/08/role-of-antibiotics-and-hormones-in.html

let us give ourselves, specially our chilren, a chance to be healthier and to taste the real goodness of chicken...not gravy.

Spring break...950

we are now doing test harvest on all the stages of the sunshines to identify the characteristics of the meat in each stage.

it took me a while to write this blog because my first attempt was deleted because of bad internet connections... =(. hay!!! anyways...

dinner was great. Spring chickens were tasty and most of all.... TENDER!. our house staff dressed them live from the farm. we roasted four chickens for five adults (2 pregnant women, 2 big boys and our dear mother) and my precious baby alaine.

stuffed and marinated only with lemongrass, ginger, garlic, onions, salt and pepper, nothing more and nothing less. =) roated in turbo broiler for 1.5 hour at... 260 degrees.

alaine was suppose to have chicken arroscaldo but when i checked the tenderness of the meat, we decided to let her have her first adult food meal! =).. yes, it was memorable indeed. she enjoyed the chicken as well and ate both white and dark meats. (NOTE: she only has four front teeth!)

the family had a great time eating, scrutinizing and commenting about the qualities of each part of the chicken. evern the spring chicken's breast was tender and... TASTY. i bought lechon sauce from baliwag just incase somebody wanted some gravy with their chicken but whala!... the lechon sauce was barely touched! the only sauce that everybody used was PINAKURAT VINEGAR, as dressing for the stuffings, and not for the chicken.

contrary to what i expected, the spring chickens were meaty, the bones were small but firm (at 32 days!) the average dressed weight of each chicken was 750 grams (live weight 950 grams). all along i expected the chickens to be all bones, no meat, but they proved me wrong. =).

a ready market would be our only concern for selling this type of meat... would Php 150 SRP be an acceptable price for a piece of good, tasty and melt-in-your-mouth tender spring chicken? you tell me...

FIRST HARVEST

Yesterday was the 34th day of the sunshines. the average weight of the big ones are 970 grams.

there are still the small ones and i have decided to give them away to my caretaker for food, definitely not for raising.

Their appetite for food and water has doubled and we are adding more feeders and waterers.

Monday would be their first day of ranging. i am excited to see them range. am sure it will be like going to the beach for them. hehehehe

I always take pictures of them whenever i visit the farm. this gives me s snapshot of what the condition of the sunshine's and the brooder.

we are now having a hard time sourcing dry sawdust or rice hull. i hope we solve this problem before we load the next batch of chickens which will definitely need more ricehull and saw dust.

FIRST HARVEST, i harvested 6 chickens from the farm yesterday. i chose the bigger ones and bought a chick box where i put them.

WHY 6? its one chicken for each family member.

on the way home, I dropped by the market to buy two bundles of lemongrass and headed to our house immediately so dressing can begin.

At home, our yaya took charge of dressing the chicken but had to pass the torch to our help because she had to attend to my kyonie daughter.

I realized that its not easy to dress chickens. they started around 6pm and finished around 10am. well, they are not professionals and its their first time.

one of them chopped the onions, garlic, ginger and pounded the lemongrass which we will use as marinade.

i left for a dinner meeting in makati and when i returned they were still cleaning the chickens! i told them to call it a night and just marinade the chicken tomorrow.

The average dressed weight of the chickens are 750grams in 34 days.

TODAY, as i write this blog, my dependable house staff are preparing the chickens and putting all the stuffings inside for tonights action!

i called my mom and my brother to invite them for dinner. they are excited. and so am i!!!

we are going to have turbo roasted chicken, oh sorry! turbo roasted sunshine! hehehehe... i had 5 chickens prepared and my daughter is going to have her arroscaldo sunshine.

till my next blog... most probably after tonight's dinner! buurrrpp... hehehhe

500G

called up la ferme yesterday to check on the chicks...

one the sunshines just broke the 500 gram mark... 510 grams at 22 days to be exact. =)

the smaller chicks are catching up and i sure do hope that they break the 500G mark next friday.

hope things get better from this point on.

fingers crossed. chin up. eyes wide open. let's get it on! =)

after the rain... the sunSHINES...

1 to 21

am posting the pictures of la ferme's sunshines from day old to 21 days.

came from the farm yesterday and had mixed emotions.

the chicks are doing better from last 2 weeks when the rain was pouring like no tomorrow. it was a good learning experience for me of course. 2 chicks died but the third chick was saved by jomer, the son of our caretaker. he wrapped the almost dead chick in a used shirt and kept it beside him all night... the next day, the chick was better and was starting to eat again. =) touching huh? =) he is a natural when it comes to taking care of the chicks. when it comes to vaccine time, jomer takes charge and moves smoothly and swifty. lorna and jomer are now incharge of the chicks while william is incharge of the mahogany trees.

motherly instinct

lorna, is now incharge of the chicks because mang william is busy with the mahogayn trees. with lorna on the floor since last week, the chicks are better, slowly catching up on weight and the brooder is cleaner and in is better shape. i guess ladies are more caring and motherly by nature, i even catch her talking to the chicks sometimes. hehehe..funny.

25 to 100 watts

changed the 25 watt bulbs to 50 and 100 watt bulbs yesterday and waited till 7pm to observe the difference before i left the farm.

well what do you know??? the chicks were now warming themselves up under the bulbs. doc rey was right... be a keen oberver... la ferme is located around 800-1000 meters up the mountains of baras, rizal, and as such the weather at night could be cold specially during the rainy and ber months. i was surprise to drive through fog on my way home last night, yes!, fog! but not as heavy as tagaytay fog.

hot air rises

we left the screen door without cover so fresh air could go in and left a little space at the ceiling where hot air can escape. the analogy that i used when i talked with doc rey was... "its like being under the blanket in an airconditioned room".

unity in diversity

the variance in the weight of the chicks are a bit disappointing. at 21 days, the biggest being 460grams and the smallest at 200 grams.

we changed to standard industrial feeders yesterday (only Php 20 each!). why? because the remedial old-cut-up tires were taking up too much space and the chicks are lying on the tires which might contaminate the food and make it hard for hungry chicks to eat.

we also separated the chicks below 400 grams from the bigger ones. so they could eat better and not compete with the big sunshines.

malunggay

the chicks where soaking wet 2 weeks ago because we forgot to put cover on the brooder. but i believe that what got the chick through were atovi and malunggay leaves!

yes. we do feed the chicks cut up grass and malunggay leaves.=)

we plan to start free ranging the bigger chicks next week after their last vaccine. =)

there you have it! POULTRY101! =)

till then...

loaded...

we finally loaded sunshine chicks in our farm yesterday, august 29, 2008... pictures to follow.

last touch

came from the farm yesterday with my handy man, mang fernan.

he and mang william are making the final touches to the brooder... installing the the light bulbs, some wall panels and the doors to the brooder.

hopefully we get to load the chicks before august ends. =)

am excited at the same time nervous... whoo..

what made me smile today

this has nothing to do with la ferme but la ferme made this moment happen.

when i set up the mulitply site of la ferme organique, i sent invitations to all of my contacts from my pan pacific email add ( FREE AD...our fuel retail and distribution company. diesel? galsoline? kerosene? anyone?) to join la ferme's multiply site.

the response was touching.

A NEW INSPIRTION. one of my friend, who i dearly value and hold in high respect, responded to my invitation and told me that one of their child was recommeded to have an organic diet. he congratulated me in advance and told me that they would surely be my customer. i was so touched by the warm greeting but more than that,it moved me... gave me more motivation to pursue this project. am so happy that this project will not only give me fulfiilment but also help and make other people happy.

to my dear friend and his child, thank you for adding to my inspiration. you made my smile today.

MISSING MY STUDS. a lot of you might not know that i had a one year teaching stint in De La Salle University. i taught business and specifically handled business plan writing and implementation. i invited some of my students to join my multiply site and they accepted. i would have invited others but i do not know all their email addresses.

anywayz, i visited some of their sites and saw their pics and their products. left some messages and started writing this blog. why? coz i miss my students and miss teaching. Sorely! coz i know i would not be able to teach again in the near future. it took a lot of time from me and our business.

LUXURY. my one year teaching stint gave me a lot of fulfillment but affected our business. exapansion was delayed and sales took a toll. teaching took so much time from me but i enjoyed it. i was tired but was happy and fulfiiled. well, as my guru tatay ed morato once said. teaching is a luxury. well, yes tatay ed. it is indeed.

PROUD. i am proud to have taught them, more proud of their thesis but most proud of my students. yes, i miss them indeed. all of them. i taught them life not only business, learned with them and spent one year of my life with them. (a big, big smie!)

SAME FULFILLMENT. i know that organic will give me the same fulfillment but would never replace teaching in my heart. i hope to see my studs one day, hopefully at the farm over a bottle of wine and a lot of organic food. that would be a good day for organic farming. =) cheers!

it's all good!

poso negro... deep well... water...

anybody has any idea of how much the labor cost of drilling a deepwell is?...

i was quoted for 5,000/ pipe. somebody told me that it is too expensive... he said i can get it for 2,500 to 3,000/ pipe. i also thought so... but do not know anybody who would do it for that price.

sad... i feel that the person who quoted is trying to jack up the price coz the initial quote was 8,000/pipe.

any contacts? anybody out there?

why sunshine chicken?... the decision.

the original plan was to raise native chickens for meat and eggs. and of course for their organic poopoo. =)

i searched for some scientific information regarding the breeding, raising and layering of native chickens but had a hard time. even scientifically classifying native chickens was difficult as most of whom i have talked to, only classified them as plain and simple... "native chicken!"

yes, there were some classifications like macau, bantress, etc. but i met no MR. NATIVECHICKS who could provide expert advise or opinion on "native chicks" (not the type that you find in small cabarets/ videoke bars along the highways up north or down south. =) hehehe.)

so what's the problem with this?...

first, it would be challenging to sell, or even grow, something that i do not know and have a hard time getting scientific facts about. i am sure there are tons of information out there, but based on what i have researched on, our so called "native chicken" is a forest fowl that has been informally or backyard bred with other colored chicken fowls brought here by different settlers through history. it would be impossible for a neophyte like me to identify genetic flaws, much less, improve it.

HONESTLY, ALL I WANT IS ORGANICALLY GROWN, NUTRITIOUS CHICKENS FOR MY BABY ALAINE'S SOUP AND OUR WHOLE FAMILY.

AND, i would be happy if i successfully raise healthy, organic, free range chickens, so please... for the love of god, let us leave the breeding to the breeders!

second, as we all all have tasted, native chicken soup is the one the best tasting and nutritious soup especially for babies where salt is a big NO NO! even for us, adults, nothing beats a hot and steamy "tinola" ( filipino chicken soup with chili leaves, ginger, black pepper, salt to taste and unripe papaya) when we are down with flu or would want to avoid salt (for hypertension)... problem is eating the meat.... or may i say.... chewing the gummy native chicken meat... Wrigley's would make a fortune if they made "native chicken gums" out of it!... =) tinola flavor may i suggest? hehehe

third, before i made the decision, i went to corithian hills, last july 5, 2008, where i first met tita sandy and bought 3 dressed sunshines (around 1.6 kilo each! impressive).

the next day, july 6, 2008, i attended the seminar of dr. sunshine, (dr. rey), on raising sunshines.
back to the 3 dressed chicken... i gave one to my dear mom, made soup from the other one for my dear baby alaine and lovely wife, yvette... and served the last chicken at an intimate dinner with some very close childhood friends at home... i marinated it with lemongrass, onion, tomato, ginger, garlic, black pepper and salt. nothing more, and nothing less.

turbo broiled it...



and wwhhhala...


before it was devoured...

i gave it some competition just to make sure that the taste test would be fair. i cooked biryani rice and curry beef masala. both dishes have strong flavors and a lot of spices.

they came...
they ate...

they were happy... see the smiles?...

you guessed it right... only the sunshine was eaten to the bones... the meat was tasteful, firm but not gummy and the skin was thin, juicy, slightly crispy and very delicious!

we divided what was left of the the beef masala and biryani rice for them to take home, but the sunshine would just remain as a blissful memory that passed them until their next sunshine dinner. =)

of course, i told them after dinner that it was part of my research and i am planning to raise sunshines... they immediately said they will buy sunshines from me... i told them to hold their horses! am still planning for it!... am so happy with their reactions...

and so the decision was made....naturally, or "organically" may i say, it was ...sunshines over native chickens...sunshines... my sunshine.

it all started...

... with my inspiration... our first daughter, alaine and the coming of our second baby. =)
... with the goal of feeding our children the healthiest possible food.
... with a vacant property in baras, rizal that has some issues.
... with the vision of helping the community even when it hurts.
... with some sparetime at the height of the oil crisis when nobody wants to sell and everybody is hedging on oil.
... with being a frustrated farmer since i was a kid.
... with a passion for growing things.
... with the dream of finally developing our own organic farm.
... with a vision of sharing our farm with friends and later on with other people.
... with reading the labels of food items when we buy our grocery stuff... and being scared of what they put into it.
... with knowing that there are profit oriented farms who would do anything to maximize profits regardless of the effects of what they do to the health of the consumers.
... with an itch of starting a new venture that would age gracefully with me and the joy of seeing it flourish.

sunshine chickens... you are my sunshine....

after much research and attending a seminar, consultations and a farm visit (when there was nothing yet on our farm... thank you solraya!) from doc rey and tita sandy (no blood relation... i call her tita sandy for respect and reverence... small world... they are from santiago, isabela where my uncle tony and aunt judy gokioco hails...and they get their tires from my uncle and aunt... JT auto supply, santiago, isabela...hehehe)

we started building the test range and brooder for our sunshines last July 21, 2008...

my ever dependable and loyal resident farmer... mang william... built the brooder and ranging area in 2 days!!!

here are the pics...

WHY SUNSHINE?... future blogs... hehehe...

mahogany trees...

we cleared the weeded area across the dry creek that passes along our farm to make way for our mahogany trees.



we sourced our seedlings from Mr. Marasigan. his place is located along the winding road in antipolo... somewhere there...=) we got it for Php 10/ seedling. this includes, clearing of the planting area, planting of the seedlings and a 2 month verbal guarantee from the straight faced old man who i fondly call... tatay or tatang... of course his farm stories are for free. =)



the mahogany seedlings... 2,000 of them... and more to come.





what used to be weeds and wild grasses....

after the clearing operations....





we will be planting it in a 2 x 2 m grid. but the option of making it 1 x 2 m or 1 x 1 m is still open... because i am thinking that just incase we harvest it next time for our own consumption or to generate some cash (i hope it does not get to this)....we could harvest the interplanted 1 m grid trees only and still have a thriving 2 x 2 m mahogany forest. =)

i also plan to interplant some eucalytus trees. and plant nymph and mangium trees along the perimeter. the leaves of the last two types of trees would be harvested as insect repelant and feed for goats respectively.

any suggestions?

mic testing 1...2...3...

last June, 2008 we started some test plots for organic vegetable. we bought some seeds from ramgo and AANI (east-west seeds) and planted it in our farm.





here are some pictures of the test plots.

these pictures were taken a month after we started. as you can see the soil in baras is reddish and the quality is clayish. i observed that clayish soil is very extreme... super dry when it is summer or even when it does not rain for a few days and super dense (malagkit) when it is wet or watered.

my own conclusion is... it does not hold water (which means it does not hold nutrients as well) and when it is wet or watered, it is super dense (malagkit) which suffocates the roots of the plants.

EVERYBODY NEEDS SOME FRESH AIR DONTCHA THINK SO?!!! =)

MAY I PLEASE CLARIFY THAT I AM A NEOPHYTE FARMER, A NEWBIE, A BEGINNER, A FRUSTRATED FARMER, A DREAMER AND AT MOST... A CONCERNED FATHER... so please do not take my conclusions as expert opinion.

i post my blogs to share my experiments, my research, my journey and observations through organic farming and also to solicit advise and suggestions from fellow hobbyist, experts and industry gurus.

ang ampalaya.... (bitter gourd)

ang sitaw... (string beans)

we were not that successful in these test plots. we need to fertilize the soil before continuing this experiment.

which brings us to raising free range sunshine chickens... why?... because rice hull or saw dust plus organic chicken dung should be mixed with the soil to fertilize it... farm integration 101 huh? =)

why sunshines?... you will find out from future blogs. =)