Tuesday, August 5, 2014

GK Enchanted Farm Weekend

 If you're into organic stuff you've probably heard about GK Enchanted Farm from Human Nature.
GK Enchanted Farm is founded by Gawad Kalinga in 2003 as a platform to raise social entrepreneurs and help our local farmers create wealth using our abundant resources.



Since it's a 34-hectare land at Angat, Bulacan and I haven't slept for 31 hours, the chances of me being lost are high. I'm glad Ms. Clementine Turgeon along with other French volunteers are willing to assist us bloggers throughout the 2 day tour.




Here are some of the things they have to offer...
 From L-R: Golden Duck Salted Duck Eggs, Theo and Philo Chocolates, Harlika Honey, First Harvest Peanut Spread and Cafe de Sug Sulu Coffee


Golden Duck

Founded by Alvi Benitez at 2011, Golden Duck is a business merged with NGO that aims to "Make Ducks Sexy" by producing Duck Burger which is a high value food product compared to duck eggs like balut which we usually associate as cheap. Unlike the chicken industry with a net value of 2 billion, the duck industry has only has a net value 400 million which is not most breeders would prefer due to the low ROI.

Here I've learned that not all ducks are the same.. 

There are 3 kinds of ducks:
Pato - The ones they usually use for Peking Duck. It's quite meaty.
Itik - The ones that lay quality eggs.
Bibe - The duck that looks like it has a mask. Lol


Enchanted Farm Cafe / Grassroots Kitchen


 Here are some of the meals I had there. If you're getting sick of your typical fastfood or watching your weight, this is a great place to have lunch. 


However, I don't advise these to the impatient ones because they have this "slow food" advocacy wherein its raw ingredients are sourced locally to ensure that the food are fresher and healthier.

Gourmet Keso

Aldrin, Maricel along with French intern Matilda and Japanese intern Kanako gave us a quick demonstration on how to make your own kesong puti with goat's milk, salt solution and coco vinegar. Gourmet Keso has gained quite a following of cheese enthusiasts, even supported by the Ultimate Taste Test as the best cheese product in the market.

Pioneer Centers / Accomodations


From L-R: Inside Hyundai Center for Green Innovation, Green Museum, Driftwood Fish Sculptures outside the center and "Fluidic Sculpture" design philosophy on the staircase.

From L-R: Outside Hyundai Center for Green Innovation, Inside Bamboo Palace for Development Design, Inside LifeBank Center for Bayanihan Economics and their *drenched* Zen Garden.

Farm Terraces Family

A glimpse of their infinity pool and the exterior of some of their villas.

Kabutehan

Being a mushroom fan, I really found this so cool! I've always wondered how mushroom farms look like up close! The area is quite damp and cool. Most of the mushrooms there are oyster mushrooms which tastes great when deep fried. Ugh.

Vermi Composting

Those are not earthworms. Jun's Agricool project involves lots of African Nightcrawlers that produces expensive but high quality fertilizer.

Bayani Brew

 I couldn't forget how my friend loves to boil lemongrass and create her own concoctions. It's no surprise why, I tried out their Purple Leaf Bayani Brew and I really found it refreshing. Here we planted some lemongrass for their Bayani Brew. It's named as such because they produce proudly Filipino agri-based beverages that advocate the use of healthy indigenous ingredients that would help support scholarship for farmers.

Plush and Play

80% of the toys found in the Philippines are imported from a single country. 
Plush and Play addresses this by producing hand-stitched stuffed toys and showcasing the undervalued sewing skills of women living in Gawad Kalinga communities.

 I personally think all of them looks cute except for the corn. It looks freaky sometimes.

All in all, I think it's quite nice to see a new breed of social entrepreneurs. Businesses who care for the country. By supporting locally made products and going global this helps us our nation to improve the use of our own resources. I hope someday these would help us in taking a step to more industrialized nation. 
Baby steps. Baby steps.


To know more about the farm and their advocacies, 
do visit their official website at http://gk1world.com/ or contact them at info@gawadkalinga.com

2 comments:

  1. Online tour it is! I wanna go visit this soon! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh my, I loved to look at the photos... even if I missed it I felt like I was there.

    ReplyDelete

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