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SOMEONE ELSE’S WINDOWS: The Lost Garden

someone elses windows marcos mordeno mindaviews

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews / 06 January) – As a child, I grew up witnessing the abundance of life, not because we were rich (we weren’t, although relatively better off compared to many others), but because we raised our own food.

Thanks to Grandma, our backyard was filled with vegetables that outnumbered those mentioned in the song “Bahay Kubo.” Vegetable gardening became her preoccupation after Grandpa, a farmer, died, growing water gourd, beans, cucumber and others on a 150-square meter area.

She also planted around 20 cacao trees on an idle lot whose owner had moved to Manila, so we could have an endless supply of tablea (chocolate). This is aside from the tambis, santol, guava, arabana (guyabano) and balimbing (star fruit) that were planted at the back of what used to be the ancestral house built by Grandpa that stood next to ours.

(We had no mango and lomboy or black berry, that’s why I and my neighbor who grew these fruits often had a chasing game, hahaha.)

We also raised hogs, chickens and goats. The chickens were all free range, giving us unadulterated meat and eggs (yes, the tasty Bisaya eggs that I loved to take raw!).

Some of the hogs were meant for fiesta and other occasions, others were sold in case we needed additional money. They were mainly fed corn and rice bran, tangkong (water spinach) and leftovers. Yes, leftovers, and we never encountered things like the African Swine Fever.

On top of that, the share from our tenanted palay farm was always enough to sustain our rice supply until the next harvest. (You see, I grew up in a farm, but I don’t have to tell the senators about it, hahaha.)

It means we didn’t spend much on food. The only stuff we bought at the market and store was fish, salt, sugar and other basic kitchen items. Sometimes, especially during weekends and school breaks, we’d catch halwan, pantat and other fish in the rivers and streams.

It’s not only us who thrived this way. I can remember that many other households in our town were doing the same thing, growing their own food in their own yards. Many were raising chickens and pigs, too.

Sadly, this is no longer the case now. People have become too lazy to bend down and drop a seed into the waiting earth. Many of those who love to plant prefer flowers to food crops. Many would rather have expensive pets instead of raising farm animals.

Besides, corporations have controlled virtually the whole food production process, from inputs to processing and distribution, and influenced food consumption habits through the magic of advertising.

People have left the garden to line up at malls and fast food chains for their food.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. H. Marcos C. Mordeno can be reached at boymords@mindanews.com.)

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