Aired (December 3, 2023): Farm owner Pocholo Bonifacio tours Chef JR Royol around Sunnyville Farm and introduces him to their edible plants, like the Edible Canna.
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00:00 Many of the farms we visited were just starting during the pandemic.
00:05 But did you know that not only the individuals who are farming
00:09 are the ones who are seeing the importance of growing food during the COVID crisis?
00:13 Several LGUs are also building community farms in their areas
00:18 to encourage people to grow food.
00:21 One of those projects is the Sunnyvale Urban Community Farm in Quezon City.
00:27 Can you imagine having this kind of large land in the middle of one of the biggest cities in Metro Manila?
00:34 This Sunnyvale Community Model Farm started in November 2021.
00:39 Ah, during the pandemic?
00:41 Yes.
00:42 Okay. The area you're covering is quite large.
00:44 Yes, the farm is about 1.2 hectares.
00:47 Okay.
00:48 Mayor Joy's vision is to convert the idyllic land in Quezon City to food production.
00:53 Very nice.
00:54 This property is privately owned, not owned by the city.
00:57 The city made its idyllic land tax so that private owners can use their land for food production.
01:05 You said earlier that it's a model farm.
01:09 Yes.
01:10 That's why you have hydroponics.
01:12 Yes. That's why we combine traditional farming, open field farming, and technology.
01:20 We have hydroponics, we have Kratky.
01:24 This is our Kratky.
01:25 It's just stagnant.
01:26 It's just stagnant.
01:27 This is LFT.
01:28 Yes.
01:29 We also use greenhouses.
01:31 Volunteers are the ones who take care of the crops here in Sunnyvale.
01:35 And most of them are senior citizens, retirees, and former OFWs who spend almost all their time planting on the farmland that's adjacent to them.
01:49 And the income from the land they take care of is already on the other side.
01:55 We plant endemic species, right?
01:59 Yes.
02:00 I see an impression.
02:01 Most of the endemic plants and old ingredients that we bring back to the city are planted here.
02:09 This is called labog.
02:11 Labog?
02:12 Yes.
02:13 The flowers are beautiful.
02:14 Yes.
02:15 We eat the leaves of the flowers.
02:18 We use it to make it sour and to remove the fishy smell from the fish.
02:22 This?
02:23 Yes.
02:24 It's edible.
02:25 Okay.
02:26 For sourness?
02:27 Yes.
02:28 You can taste it.
02:29 It's a bit sour.
02:30 It's not just a bit, sir.
02:31 It's sour.
02:32 It's sour.
02:33 And these are the bananas that we are losing.
02:36 Yes.
02:37 As a chef, I only heard about this.
02:40 Yes.
02:41 Which is, if you think about it, it's very convenient.
02:44 You can buy a lot of sourness from the store.
02:47 But this is very alive.
02:49 Yes.
02:50 It's not the sourness that you can smell.
02:52 But it's very vibrant.
02:56 This is edible Kana.
02:57 Edible Kana.
02:58 Yes.
02:59 Is there a Kana that's not edible?
03:00 There is.
03:01 This is the edible Kana in their family.
03:03 Okay.
03:04 So it looks like Gabi.
03:05 Yes.
03:06 It's closer to the Bird of Paradise.
03:09 Yes.
03:10 Actually, this is just a seedling.
03:11 But to show you what the edible part is,
03:15 this is the edible part.
03:17 You can substitute it with potatoes.
03:20 It's like French fries.
03:22 Yes.
03:23 So at first glance, it looks like ginger.
03:27 Yes.
03:28 We have this in the Philippines.
03:30 Yes, we do.
03:31 Wow.
03:32 It's amazing that we don't use it much.
03:37 The community likes it more as an ornamental plant.
03:41 Because it has beautiful leaves.
03:42 Okay.
03:43 But we don't know that it's edible.
03:45 Can I taste it?
03:46 Yes.
03:47 It's a very pleasant palette.
03:51 It's a good substitute for sweet potatoes, even rice.
03:55 One of the most popular plants here is Thai Basil.
03:59 It's called "Sangig" in Tagalog.
04:01 "Sangig"?
04:02 Yes, "Sangig" in Tagalog.
04:04 It's the favorite of the farmers here.
04:07 Because here in Metro Manila, we're used to pasta and soup.
04:13 But in the province, they use it to clean the inside of the crop.
04:16 This is very interesting.
04:18 You have strawberries in the market.
04:19 Yes.
04:20 It's one of the things that urban farmers want to plant.
04:24 But the connotation of strawberries is that it's hard to grow and take care of them.
04:28 They're sensitive to temperature.
04:30 But this is from Binguet State University.
04:34 It was given to Quezon City LGU.
04:36 It's a heat-resistant variety.
04:38 We're now propagating it here, just like the seedlings.
04:42 We're giving it to everyone who wants to come here.
04:45 [music]
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