Vegetable plots

The main products in our farm are mangos. Then forest trees, and a small rice output. I will write more about them in future “Farming notes” series.

Recently, our caretaker, Nong Endring Paragas, partnered with one of his neighbors in the barangay proper, Anoling, to plant more vegetables during the dry season. They planted sitao (stringbeans). It was a good decision. Sitao would grow up to 4 months, nearly 3 months of which a farmer can harvest twice a week on average on the same plant. So they have regular supply of free vegetables in their house while earning some money by selling the surplus products.

They also planted talong (eggplant). From the pictures I took last weekend, it seems that their talong are growing well. Photo above, that’s me . Photo below also shows some kalabasa (quash) and ampalaya crawling on an elevated structure.

These are organic vegetables. The scope of production though is small scale. Their excess harvest are sold only in the barrio or in the town center.

Nong Endring also has several banana plants. The main enemy of banana though, are the bats and sometimes rats. They attack the bananas even before the fruits would mature. Grassfire and forest fire from somewhere in the uplands would also damage bananas and other crops.