The Case of the Empty Chicken Eggs

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Soon as I was big enough to climb the baqui (brooding nest) hanging under the house and trees.  I found out that if I leave as decoy one or two eggs in the basket, the more eggs you gather in the afternoon. Then a new idea came. With a needle, I punctured the egg and sucked the content dry. It tasted good and I made some to substitute the natural eggs for decoy.

Dad, a balikbayan after finishing BS in Commercial Science at De Paul University in Chicago, called us on the table one evening. "First thing tomorrow morning we will find that hen that lays empty eggs.”

It was a family tradition that every Sunday we had tinola - chicken cooked with papaya and pepper (sili) leaves. Dad would point at a cull (the unproductive and least promising member of the flock) and I would set the trap, a baqui with a trap door and some corn for bait. My brother Eugene would slash the neck of the helpless fowl while my sister Veny and I would be holding it. The blood is mixed with glutinous rice (diket), which is cooked ahead of the vegetables.

That evening I could not sleep. What if dad’s choice is one of our pet chicken?  We even call our chickens by name. The empty eggs were the  cause of it all, so I thought.

In the morning after the mass I told dad my secret. He laughed and laughed. I didn't know why. I laughed, too. I was relieved with a tinge of victorious feeling. Thus the case of the empty eggs was laid to rest. It was my first “successful” experiment.

In the years to come I realized you just can’t fool anybody. And by the way, there are times we ask ourselves, “Who is fooling who?”

Who is Afraid of the Giant Snail? .

Sober this pest with beer and eliminate it from your garden.
Dr Abe V Rotor 
 Living with Nature - School on Blog

Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

A child ponders on "Mr Snail" on TV, when in reality it is a garden pest.

A colony of Giant African Snail in different stages of growth

Pour beer – old or newly opened – into shallow flat can and bury it to the rim in a place where this mollusk pest abounds. Leave the setup overnight. Very early in the morning you will find plenty of them in various sizes grouped around the can like a waterhole - sober. Gather the snails and crush them. Snail meat may be substituted to fish meal as animal feed.~

Make your own "walis tingting" (coconut midrib broom)

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Coconut trees are thinned every harvest.  The over mature leaves are harvested for fuel, basket for bag (bayong) and mat (banig).  The leaf is also used in making sinambong (rice cake enclosed with woven coconut leaf). It is the midrib that is the subject of this lesson. 
 
The midrib is picked directly from from the frond, first by separating it from the lamina (leaf), then pulled out by hand. The crude midrib is cleaned with knife, air dried and bundled.   

Broom makers proudly display their freshly made walis tingting which will dry up and ready for use in a few days. A broom may cost from P20 to P50 depending  on the size of the bundle and market. 

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 Parade participants from Tahanan Walang Hagdanan, a center for the disabled in Cainta, Rizal, with their coconut midrib brooms, “Walis Tingting” (Internet).

Non-cash farming technology: Foundation of farmstead and natural agriculture

Non-cash farming technology: Foundation of farmstead and natural agriculture 

“It is technology farmers do not have to pay cash for a non- cash input.” This definition actually refers to good basic farm practices which small farmers can carry out themselves - first, to save on production cost; second, to improve production efficiency; and third to institutionalize farming into farmstead, and as a way of life. 

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Living with Nature School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]

Multi-storey cropping; integrated contour farming

Non- cash technology, however, should not be regarded as alternative to cash input per se, but can be a substitute to some costly items. What is significant in the concept is that good farm practices can maximize the value of cash input.

The best examples are found right in all fundamental steps of good farming. Good seeds generally produce more yields under any condition. These means farmers must practice seed selection, and plant only certified seeds. Grains produced from poor seeds are not only few; they produce low milling recovery due to admixtures of different grain shape, size and maturity.

The labor-intensive characteristic of typical farms in Asia ideally provides for greater attention to enhance proper farm management. After all, the progressive farmer is one who prepares is land more thoroughly, manages his nursery better, water his field more cleanly and has better water control, mainly through his effort and those of his large family.

Non-cash technology extends further from mere saving on direct expenses. It is also based on innovative approaches. A rice-garlic combination has these components; the garlic crop “rides” on the remaining soil moisture and on the tillage of early rice crop; and rice straw is used to mulch garlic in order to reduce water loss and weed population.

Other popular examples of non-cash inputs are:

• Use early maturing varieties to allow a second or third cropping.
• Make use of solar energy in drying palay, corn and other farm products.
• Follow precise timing of land preparation to turn up weeds to dry up. Plow them under to be decomposed to save on herbicide and laborious weeding
• Prepare rows parallel to East-West direction to allow more solar exposure to enhance growth and yield.
• Practice green manuring in place of or supplement to, commercial fertilizers.
• Recycle farm residues like corn stovers, rice straw and peanut hay for livestock, and farm wastes for organic fertilizer.
• Practice intercropping to reduce the spread and occurrence of pests and diseases, and to maximize the utilization of an input like fertilizer.
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Rice hay for mulching seedbeds and plots. Don't burn farm wastes,
compost them instead into valuable organic fertilizer.

The revival of non-cash technology is generally recognized as a Third World innovation. It may lack the glamour and sophistication of modern agriculture, but it holds the key in solving many problems of small farms.~ 

Integrated home garden; integrated homestead models

Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB (AM Band) 8 to 9 evening class Mon to Fri
Acknowledgement: Internet illustrations

The old kiskisan lives on

Dr Abe V Rotor 

A typical village kiskisan rice mill cum bodega still dot the countryside.  Improved types are slowly replacing the original kiskisan which are invented in the late 18th century.

 Two components: Mill proper (left) and prime mover. Author (kneeling) explains the working mechanism of a pre-war one-stroke engine donated by miller Bonifacio Tambot of Binalonan (Pangasinan) to the Grains Industry Museum in Cabanatuan (NE) in 1982. The museum, showcase of Philippine Agriculture, was closed down following the EDSA Revolution in 1986.
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Kiskisan continues to dominate local rice milling in spite of its poor recovery rate (about 50 percent), as compared with modern rice mills which deliver as high as 68 percent rice. But why is this late 18^th century machine still popular?

It is because the kiskisan is simple and practical to operate. It leaves no waste, unlike the cono or the rubber roller mills which separate the rice hull (ipa) which constitutes 25 percent of paddy rice or palay. With the kiskisan, the milled rice is simultaneously separated from the by-product which is a rich finely ground mix of bran, rice germ, hull (ipa) and binlid or brokens, a complete animal feed ideal for village use.

This is not the case with modern mills. The rice hull is thrown away, so with partly filled grains.  The binlid is separated and the bran comes in two grades, requiring a complex operation and higher cost of milling.  Besides, these mills rarely operate on small scale.  The kiskisan does. Just feed into the hopper, say one-half cavan of palay, and pronto you get your rice, and you may leave the by-product behind as milling fee.

Visit a kiskisan.  It has become a mini-mall of sort, barangay style, that is. Surrounding it are a parking place of jeeps and tricycle, a flea market (talipapa), barbershop, variety or sari-sari store, and drugstore (botica). It is a meeting place (kita kits sa kiskisan, in modern parlance), where you pick up news and share stories. It is a center you sell, buy or exchange (barter) products and services.  You find your everyday needs, including the naturally rich kiskisan darak for your backyard chicken and pigs.  

Acknowledgement: Internet photos