The Farm Life: Growing your own Food

Today, I tagged along with my dad in his usual morning routine. I woke up early and decided to finally put on my running shoes after a month of hiatus. I'm running again. In our hometown, we don't have those ovals or running lanes you could run on, what we have is a long road that stretches on vast fields owned by different farmers. My father when he retired from his job decided to embrace the farm life. He bought a land to farm, it's not big compared to other farmers, he just wanted to grow our own food for the table. That's one of the dreams close to my heart. Someday, I'll own a piece of land too, enough to grow my own food.

When I stayed here for three months last year, I've learned that the farmers do crop rotation (they alternate between two crops for the whole year). We only have two seasons in our country. In summer, farms are turned into corn fields; during the rainy season the farms are turned into rice fields. In the whole year of planting, a patch of our farm is dedicated for growing vegetables. I buy greens from grocery stores whenever I'm back in the city, and I can vouch on how delicious are the freshly-picked vegetables compared to the ones from the shelves.

After my run, we went straight to the farm to pick some bitter gourd leaves. I hated this green leaves growing up. Kids are difficult to feed vegetables, what more when it has a bitter taste? But my parents were so persuasive when I was young, they say stuff like you can eat the good tasting food when you eat a little of these leaves hahaha. When I became older, responsible enough for my own health, I became more willing to change my lifestyle and diet. I started running and eating greens, veggies, and fruits! I still source my food from the grocery stores. But I hope someday, like my parents, I could have that dedicated patch of land for growing my own food.

On the other side of the farm, we took a look of the growing squash waiting for harvest. Squash blossoms can already be cooked and eaten, but when you see a bulge on the bottom part of the blossom, that means it could grow into a squash. You'll just have to wait a little more. There was this time when I had to do fasting and I got a taste of the pumpkin soup, that easily became one of my favorite soups! I used to bring back to the city a huge squash from our farm and make loads of squash puree, it was so good and tasty.

My father's goal of having sustainable food in the table doesn't just stop in growing plants. He enjoys taking care of poultry animals too. On our backyard, he shelters native chickens, geese, ducks, and turkeys. I'd like to show all those but I only have taken photos of the poultry and farm animals he fed a while ago. He's raising the cows and turkeys near the farm. Farmers just usually let cows graze on empty fields.

There used to be a vacant lot in the midst of the fields near our home, my parents thought it was a good investment. They could turn it into anything, and they did. What used to be a vacant lot now shelters the turkeys and geese.

My father's profession was nothing related to agriculture and poultry-raising. It's only his experience that's leading him in what to do and he's doing so great. In the past months, I've been thinking of enrolling to course subjects related to agriculture. I believe that science and technology can largely contribute to the ways of farming. Having to spend almost three months in our hometown last year made me realized that the most hard-working and noblest profession is at the field. The farmers who are tilling the land and raising livestock are the nations' backbone, they are the ones who provide food for our table.