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...