From Seedlings to Market: Our Eggplant Farming and the Lesson That Every Farmer Must Be a Seller Too

Hello Hive friends!

Today, I want to share my continuation story about our farming life, especially our eggplant garden.🌿🍆🍆🍆🌿

Even though I am here in the mountains taking care of my father, my husband continues to focus on his eggplant garden. We may be far from each other for now, but he still does his best to take care of our plants. As a farmer's wife, I feel happy knowing that he continues working hard on our farm even when I am away months ago.

My husband's journey started when he sowed the eggplant seeds. He waited for the seedlings to grow until they were ready for transplanting. We planted two varieties, Calixtro F1 and Kaneko.

After transplanting, he continued taking care of the plants by making sure they had enough water and proper care. It takes patience to grow vegetables because we cannot expect them to produce fruits in just a few days.

After that the plants started producing flowers. I always find this stage exciting because the flowers will eventually turn into eggplants.

Seeing our plants grow reminds me that farming requires hard work and patience.

Now, the plants have produced fruits, and my husband can finally harvest the eggplants. All the time spent taking care of them is now turning into something we can sell.

My husband has already harvested five sacks of eggplants. However, almost half of the harvest was rejected or did not meet the usual quality for selling at the regular price.

Of course, it is disappointing because we spend money, time, and effort to grow our crops.

Thankfully, he was still able to sell those eggplants in the market, although at a lower price. At least, we could still earn something instead of wasting them.

Being a farmer is not only about knowing how to plant and grow vegetables. We must also learn how to sell our harvest. Once our crops are ready, we need to find buyers, bring our products to the market, and know how to handle vegetables that are not in perfect condition.

Eggplants are useful vegetables because we can cook them in many ways, such as tortang talong, pinakbet, sinigang and grilled eggplant.

Many Filipino families enjoy eating them, which gives farmers a chance to earn from growing this crop.

For now, I am here in the mountains caring for my father while my husband continues our farming work. We have different responsibilities, but we both do our best for our family.

Farming is not always easy, but every harvest teaches us something new. We just need to keep learning, working hard, and finding ways to make our efforts worthwhile.

Thank you for reading my story. The lead photo was edited in Canva. Let's keep planting and growing!

Have a nice day! 💛🍃