future of farming?

 I can't find a link, but in season five episode 3 of Clarkson's farm is about the supermechines and high tech farming of the future.

When I fist visited the Philippines, the planting was with waterbuffalo and our staff took off to harvest their fields by hand. We supplied a small thresher to separate the seed from the stem, so that was a help.

But slowly the farmers who now own what was once Lolo's farthers farm, were gifted it by land reform, are now getting older and their kids don't want to work. So they are selling the land to returning overseas workers who rent it out to tenant farmer, often from poorer areas of the Philippines. And now many have sold or rented their fields to the company putting up a huge solar farm in our area.

Over the years, the water buffalo were replaced by handthreshers ((a small roto tiller) and in more recent years, we rent a huge harvester thresher to bring in the crop. We still plant by hand but give it some time and there are machines that do that.

We are organic, and with fertilizer prices going up (first the Ukraine war stopped potash exports and now the increased price of diesel and petroleum based fertilizer) the price of organic fertilizer, mainly from the local chicken and pig farms, is also going up.

So how do we make a profit? We barely make one: and it was made worse when one of the rice buyers absconded after buying it with a check that bounceed.

Sigh.

So yes we are still growing rice in our area, but what is also going on is looking for gold in the subsoil. Not much gold there, but hey when farmers earn less than ten dollars a day, every little bit helps.

I am not sure how many rice paddies are now no longer growing rice, but you have to remember that the Philippines imports food. Of course, the rich businessmen make oodles of money importing cheap rice so they benefit. This keeps the price of rice low which is good for the poor and working class in the cities, but is discouraging for local farmers.

So although I doubt we will ever go as mechanical as the European farm machines shown to Mr Clarkson, what worries me is that their prices will be another blow to local farmers. This happened a few years ago, when cheap imported onions from Europe undercut local farmers prices.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

update;

article about the farm they visited:

In episode three, Jeremy Clarkson and his team cross the border into the Netherlands and Belgium. There, they visit Rotterdam, among other places, where they take a look at the futuristic Floating Farm. A floating farm, in other words. We see Clarkson look skeptical at first, and then become amazed by technology he doesn't actually believe in.

why are the Karens so unhappy and fat

Instapundit has a link to the danger of brain tumors to birth control hormones. the discus discussion is quite interesting. 

 You know, what no one wants to notice: How the hormones in Birth Control pills cause behavior changes. 

The older high estrogen pills not so much but the newer high progesterone ones and the BCShot does. 

And don't get me started on the hormones they use for infertility and endometriosis, which we see in older ladies who haven't had babies in their twenties.

(Yes the same medicines they use to transition kids.(and treat certain cancers). 

So we pollute out water supply with waste water estrogen and progesterone, not to mention hormones given to animals, and of course phytoestrogens in plastics and Glyphosate in herbicides. So down goes the sperm count. Up goes the metabolic syndrome and obesity.

and no one wants to mention that having and nursing ten kids and running around taking care of them will keep you thin.

the alternative is having ten kids and getting rid of plastics which make life easier and safer (No broken glass bottles). And mass starvation because weeds are destroying the crops.

 
Sigh. 

King Charles attends a pot luck

The @RoyalFamily decision to celebrate Appalachia & placing it equal in importance with visiting New York City tells you how much our culture has shifted towards the middle of the country. And let's be honest few things are as American as a potluck dinner during a block party🇺🇸 https://t.co/349XPWRP1G

— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) April 30, 2026

 

so how do you make coronation quiche?

well it could be worse.

FDR served the King hot dogs:

food of the natives of deepest Minnesota

 

growing rice vs green electricity

 

this series of films is about Filipino culture.

They get  some things correct and some things wrong. 

This vido is about growing rice in a sustainable fashion instead of using chemicals, consolidating farms and displacing small farmers, etc.

When I first moved here, the planting was by hand (it still is) using a water buffalo, and the harvesting was done by hand, (our staff would take off to help their relatives harvest). We had a portable thresher however, to separate the grain from the chaff. And we still tend to dry the  rice on a flat surface 

But the government encourages sustainable non chemical farming, and the Philippine rice institute provides grain and seedlings that are hybrid for better crop yields.

That said, a lot of this is still true:

the bad news A lot of the fields are now being sold or rented out to solar panels to supply electricity to Manila.

old fashioned food hints

 take a ride into nostalgia:

   

 These tricks were used by my mom, so the video makes me nostagic.

Why aren't they used now? Well when moms work, they need fast foods to feed the hungry kids and don't have time to make things from scratch.

Hmm... since RFJ Jr is blaming fast foods and prepackaged foods for the obesity epidemic, maybe these tricks should be resurrected.

And maybe flex times so moms can come home earlier and cook a decent meal.

Going bananas

 Bananas grow here in the Philippines and we have several banana trees in our garden. One tree next to our wall had a big bunch almost ripe, and sure enough someone harvested it last night. Oh well.

Archeology magazine article on the history of fruit note that the banana was first domesticated in New Guinea.

from the History Guy:

...

UCSC article here:

From New Guinea, the Kuk domesticated variety appears to have spread to the Philippines, and then radiated widely across the tropics. Researchers find it difficult to trace the diffusion of the banana after its arrival in the Philippine islands, and in many cases, it appears the banana was introduced into areas only to be reintroduced, and in a sense, rediscovered, hundreds or thousands of years later.

Adding to the confusing tangle of banana proliferation is the parallel development of hybrid fruits.

Human ingenuity manipulated the seedless, and thus asexual, forms of domesticated bananas into hybrids by careful techniques of culling and planting that fused and refined different domesticated varieties.  hey are usually spread via plants. The bad news: it makes them more vulnerable to various blights/diseases. 

Treehugger has an article on why the Cavandish banana replaced the Gros Michel version most commonly eaten in the USA in the 1950s.

the plantain’s major importance as a crop during the ancient and early modern world, whether on large-scale or small-scale farms, was a major staple for local consumption. Even in the case of Japanese production, where banana plants were cultivated for use in textiles and not as a foodstuff, the banana was grown for local markets. By the 1800s, and especially into the early twentieth century, shifts in modes of production and consumption moved the banana from a local to a global commodity.

 of course, in many countries the non sweet version are eaten. Healthline discusses the difference between these non sweet varieties, called Plantains, and what we call bananas.

and yes, banana plants are used in traditional Filipino textiles.

Banana textiles? Yup.

Yum: MSG (or let's hear it for seaweed)

MSG is a flavor enhancer: so where did it come from? Seaweed...

from Wikipedia:

MSG is found naturally in some foods including tomatoes and cheese in this glutamic acid form. MSG is used in cooking as a flavor enhancer with a savory taste that intensifies the umami flavor of food, as naturally occurring glutamate does in foods such as stews and meat soups.  MSG was first prepared in 1908 by Japanese biochemist Kikunae Ikeda, who tried to isolate and duplicate the savory taste of kombu, an edible seaweed used as a broth (dashi) for Japanese cuisine.

MSG balances, blends, and rounds the perception of other tastes.

awhile back, there was a bit of hysteria about "Chinese Restaurant syndrome", which is dizzyness and headache occurred after eating Chinese food that contains MSG as a flavor enhancer.

which is now seen as a racist term of course.

The etymology is traced to a 1968 letter that appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine claiming that Chinese food brought forth ailments. The letter was uncovered to be a hoax, but the myth remains. The US Food and Drug Administration has long approved MSG for consumption, and studies have failed to show that the chemical causes the alleged "syndrome".

the chemical is found in a lot of foods and the letter that started the hysteria was probably a hoax or joke.

but MSG as an additive is now commonly used in western foods too.

This fermented MSG is now used to flavor lots of different foods like stews or chicken stock. It’s so widely used because it taps into our fifth basic taste: umami (pronounced oo-maa-mee). Umami is less well known than the other tastes like saltiness or sweetness, but it’s everywhere – it’s the complex, savory taste you find in mushrooms or Parmesan cheese.

It makes food taste better, and is widely used all over Asia as Mikey Bustos notes:

Yum.. Pancit

 Our fiesta time is over, but one of the big part of the fiesta is that people travel to the town to attend the parade and parties.

And that means food.

....

this gets it right: Philippine culture is about family, and that includes family parties with food.

///

And don't forget adobo.

,,,,

ten popular foods when yuu hold a party

...

Father Leo's cooking show always stresses food and family and God...

 

yes a good idea

“They said it’s going to take us a while. For example, the CEO of Pepsi, which owns Doritos, said ... ‘The consumers like them to be very red, and we have not yet found a vegetable dye that we can match, but we’re going to do it.’ And I said they all have to be out within two… pic.twitter.com/eptKrboSzt

— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) April 10, 2025

, ,,,,,,,

eating processed food is necessary for busy moms, but when I eat a lot I get allergies/hives. Here, the main problem is if the cook uses too much Bagoong (shrimp paste).

as for color: Well, this year's healthy food fad is tumeric.

Yum. Pancit

the best loved Filipino dish is Pansit. 

lots of recipes on Youtube.

Pancit uses the fine rice noodles

but if you use the large Ramen type noodles, it is called Pancit Canton.

anothe alternative is Pancit Palabok:

 

But if you are lazy, here is the easy way to make it

note: There is a difference between Ramen noodle soup and pancit.

Here, the classic chicken soup with noodles is called Mami noodles. that uses Wheat based noodles and originally sold by a Chinese vendor named Ma on the street i.e. Ma's noodles in Chinese.

 

the night they invented champagne

 

the French invented champaign but it was a Brit who devised the glass bottle strong enough for the sparkling wine.

altogether now:

Yum. time for parties and family meals

nine days before Christmas starts the custom to go to mass early in the morning in preparation to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Lolo would attend but it was too early for me.

lots of young people attend, and afterward the young folk walk to the city plaza to buy breakfast (from Jolibee or at the locak kiosks) and flirt with each other.

Hence this commercial:

lots of folks travel home for the holiday (either from the city to their native towns, or from overseas). So lots of Christmas parties, but the big one is the feast after midnight mass. In the Philippines, God is the Father, Jesus is Kuya (older brother) and Mama Mary is the mother. So just like we celebrate the birth of our children, we also celebrate the birth of baby Jesus. 

And how do Filipinos celebrate? Food and family.

Noche Buena is Christmas eve, when the feast is after midnight mass.

Hence this song

....

and in our town,the town plaza is decorated, as are the nearby streets. At night there are lots of people there enjoying themselves.

Here are some videos on Philippine food of the season:

 

///

/////

YUM. Turkey!

 it is Thanksgiving day, a day that traditionally families in the USA gather together and eat traditional foods such as cranberries, and turkey. 

actually we won't be having turkey (it is available in Manila, but not here).

But in the USA, I had a large roasting pan that held a medium size turkey that we made for our family.

So let's have some turkey related items:

Yum. Banana ketchup

we often buy this at the local grocery store, although we now have American brands available at the palenke.

,

and here is how you can make it at home:

  .

.... we do have tomatoes: But they are small and are about the size of an egg, and oval not round. They are a bit sweeter than store bought US versions, and similar to Roma Tomatoes.

.

...often veggies are grown organically in plastic greenhouses, so you don't have to spray them with insecticide. But ours come from local farms, so we don't ask....

the Times they are a changing

 

None of @RobertKennedyJr 's views "have any value whatsoever," say the media. But even the author admits RFK's right about fluoride, raw milk, and the danger of Big Pharma. Elites are freaking out because they know RFK will hold them accountable for their gross abuses of power. pic.twitter.com/wHFbRTzVC0

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) November 14, 2024

,,,,,,,,,

this is both good and bad.

often medical studies push the expensive drugs but the old ones work. Or in the name of saving money they push and older drug that has a side effect (sedation, impotence) that no one wants to notice. But the censorship of Ivermectin and HCQ during the covid epidemic using bad studies (given too late was a major flaw in studies showing they didn't work) while pushing expensive drugs that worked but not too well. But no feedback allowed? That is what annoyed me.

as for food: Yes the chemicals in the environment induce metabolic syndrome (Plastics) and allergies, but if the alternative is short shelf life that causes food shortages, is this good? We sell organic rice. it is healthier. But the shelf life is shorter than white rice, which in the past caused beriberi epidemics. Older methods used to keep food from spoilage (smoking, salting) has side effects: stomach cancer, which was once common in the USA and is still common in Japan comes to mind. And in Japan and the Philippines, high blood pressure from the high salt diet is common.

in other words: will healthy food result in massive famines that kill more people than are saved from the chronic diseases of the obese late middle age folk?

But the pendulum has to swing back.

I see every day commercials on TV pushing junk food or expensive milk supplements. And now we see fat kids even here in the rural Philippines.

so let the discussion begin.

----------------------

the reason that I quoted Bob Dylan the times they are a a changing is something that few in the MSM or even the alternative press has noted:  a lot of the folks being picked by Trumpieboy are the MotherEarth types from the 1960s: not the radicals who have since hijacked the Democratic party, but those opposed to unnecessary wars and against a materialistic lifestyle.

For example: 

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸pic.twitter.com/bR8rPfQoOi

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) November 14, 2024

another opinion: Is Trump's policies good or bad for wars around the world?

Another day, another food recall: How to keep food safe

another day, another food recall: 

From Legal Insurrection:

Millions of Pounds of Ready-to-Eat Beef, Chicken Recalled Due to Listeria Affected products may have been used in ready-to-eat products that are “on store shelves or in consumers’ refrigerators or freezers,” or available for use by restaurants and other establishments.

 almost every week, we read about similar food recalls  in the USA. Imagine how common such things happen in other countries.

this is an important issue, since a longer shelf life means more food. How do you keep food safe and cheap? One answer is Chemicals that prolong shelf life but keep food cheap enough for ordinary folks (especially here in the poorer areas of the world). RFK Jr points out these cause long term health problems but hey, the cost benefit ratio means well nourished poor people.

Food recalls not only mean less food available to eat, but foods contaminated with common germs are a big health risk.

Germs cause diarrhea. Usually from the 4 F problem (contaminated FOOD (usually from not being stored correctly...the poor here don't have refrigerators), FINGERS, (not washing hands), FECES (fertilizer not washed off of vegetables, also contaminated water from poorly placed latrines) and FLIES (that carry germs on their feet that land on your food).

 So how do you stop bacterial contamination of meats and cheeze and fresh vegetables? Keep it clean, wash your hands, store it properly.

But for countries where food processing plants (not local farmers a mile away) supply your food, one overlooked answer to contamination is radiation to kill germs.

  

Here is an article about it in the journal Foods in 2023 which is actually discussing using radiation to prevent food contamination with pathogenic germs:

 But first they note that this high tech expensive technology should not be the main way to stop food poisoning:

 It is essential to note that irradiation is just one aspect of a comprehensive approach to ensuring the microbial safety of meat. Other interventions, such as good manufacturing practices, hygiene controls, and appropriate storage and handling practices, are also crucial for reducing the risk of contamination

but for food processing plants, radiation is another way that could help: 

Irradiation has been studied extensively for its efficacy in reducing microbial contamination of meat. By exposing the food to ionizing radiation, the latter reduces or eliminates harmful microorganisms that can cause foodborne illness. Previous research showed that irradiation could effectively reduce levels of pathogens such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli as well as levels of spoilage organisms, leading to improved microbial safety and a reduced risk of foodborne illness.

 

 

another technical article discussing not only radiation but UV light Ozone microwaves etc. And how these technologies might help not just with bacteria but with viruses.  

this is a news report summary of using radiation from eight years ago: 

this is a lecture from MIT from 2019,...It is more technical but he is a good teacher that makes it easy to follow his arguments..

 

 at three minutes in, he notes that you often find small bugs in rice. 

We find this is a problem: we grow and sell organic brown rice to upscale supermarkets in Manila and nearby cities. There is no way our small business could afford to radiate the rice to kill the bugs, so we use more traditional ways to keep our rice from spoilage.

When we package the rice, we sift the rice so the small bugs fall through the screen, and then blowtorch it lightly to kill the eggs that didn't detach (and would result in live bugs months later) but not enough to harm the rice.

We also pack it in vacuum bags which extends the shelf life and keeps it dry so it doesn't spoil as quickly. 

But then our rice is organic, i.e. no insecticide, and it is brown rice, meaning it has a limited shelf life so it is eaten before the tiny surviving eggs hatch.

As our city modernizes, we have modern supermarkets now that have the same standards of US supermarkets (and higher prices than the traditional markets AKA Palenkes).

But our cook usually buys fresh food every day at the Palenke down the street. 

What is a Palenke? An open air market with small vendors selling their wares.

This video by a local comedian is about the wonderfulness of the Filipino Palenke.

 

Jane Austin at Breakfast

 

and if you want recipes, Atlas Obscura has an article that includes recipes that were written down by her friend, and later housekeeper, Martha Lloyd.

 

In 1806, following the death of both Mr. Austen and Mr. Lloyd,...( Martha Lloyd joined Jane, her mother and her sister)...at Chawton Cottage in Hampshire, a medium-sized cottage on the grounds of brother Edward Austen’s large manor.

Now home to the Jane Austen museum, Chawton Cottage is where Jane either wrote or revised all six of her published novels.

It’s also where, for decades, Jane’s beloved friend and relative Martha Lloyd created her household book, a record of the family’s favorite recipes gleaned from published cookbooks and friends.

the article is long and includes some of her recipes.

 

here is a video of Chawton Cottage that includes showing the kitchen.

update: Dining with Jane Austen website. has many articles and recipes.

-------------------

polymer to help farmers in drought areas

....

the article discussing this HERE.

Due to super high water absorption and water retention capacity, superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) can be applied to effectively ameliorate utilization of water in agriculture, such as retaining moisture in the soil and reducing the irrigation water consumption,

hmm... wonder if it would work in rice fields.

Right now, they are fixing (dredging) the irrigation canals, so no irrigation for the next few months. The monsoon season is here, so usually irrigation is not needed. However so far there hasn't been enough rain to prepare the fields, so planting might be a bit later than usual.

Right now it is raining, and the rain started a few days ago, so hopefully we will get a good crop this year (hoping there are no typhoons at harvest time).

MOVIE OF THE WEEK: Yum Marmalade

I liked this one better than the first Paddington film

quick before the copyright cops find it.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,