Paulo's Return to Elbi and GFFA Updates

After 5 months, Paulo finally came back from the UK and started working immediately at the Galaxy Farm Farm Away (GFFA). This photo was taken during a Nu Wave Farmers morning picnic at the farm. Also visiting from Makati is Maya who gave us cool new shirts! Dan and Tin-Tin also joined us for breakfast. (Photo selfie by Paulo)

Visiting PhD student, Shun-nan, from UC Santa Cruz, volunteered during one of our afternoon farming sessions at GFFA. He's currently back in the States and will come back next year to do his research in UPLB. See you soon! (Photo by Shun-nan)

Dan, Paulo and I raising our first harvest of eggplant like a prized trophy! (Photo by Shun-nan)

Here's a close up photo of the eggplant we harvested from Plot # 2, Nadine's plot. We got the seedlings from our friend, Mary Jane, from the UPOU Farmers' Market. (Instagram @thebeigetable)

Here's Plot # 1, my own 1x3 plot experiment. I put wooden pallet sidings to control soil erosion. Right now I have eggplant, chili, marigold, kale, camote tops, peppermint, radish, mustasa, and kangkong growing inside the bed. I trying out a no-till method where I can create a very dense, mini-ecosystem with a microclimate within the plot. So just chop and drop, dump and leave. Let's see how it goes. (Instagram: @thebeigetable)

First harvest: two pieces of eggplant from Plot # 2 were given to my girlfriend, Caty. (photo by Shun-nan)

Second harvest: one eggplant from Plot # 1 donated to NWF member, Tin-Tin.

Third harvest: one eggplant from Plot # 2 donated to Kuya Ome of NWF.

We're just happy to be giving away eggplants to our friends right now. And I'm glad that Paulo is back and Dan is regularly helping in the farm. But I still hope that more students would join the Nu Wave Farmers this semester. Sometimes, especially when I'm alone working in the farm, I feel sad that people don't see the value of growing food. It's not everyday that we get the opportunity to have a vacant lot where we can plant fruits and vegetables. GFFA is truly a blessing.

Two greenhouses with  rain collectors were installed a few weeks ago and we have some new tools donated by our friends. Our adviser, Doc Bes, is also working hard to make sure that the farm will be up and running this year.

I really hope more students would volunteer this year.