Goducate … Go And Educate! – Page 161 – Helping Asians Help Themselves

2011-11-292018-09-23

Goducate Training Center cooks learn non-Filipino Asian dishes

One way by which the Goducate Training Center in Iloilo, The Philippines, aims to work towards self-sustainability is to open its premises to visitors when the center is not in use for training. The restaurant is thus an important part of the center’s attractions. Hence I was invited to help widen the menu at the restaurant by teaching the cooks non-Filipino Asian dishes.

An important step in being able to produce an authentic national dish is to know what the real stuff tastes like, so the training for Bambi and Biboy started in Singapore and Malaysia. Their first week was spent tasting and tasting—well, eating and eating. On their arrival in Singapore earlier this month, we headed to Lai Lai Kitchen for a late lunch of some Taiwanese food of braised pork with rice and bubble tea. Bubble tea? What is that, Biboy asked?

The rest of the first week was food and more food in Singapore. The spread of the buffet at Buffet Town was eye-popping for them. There they sampled Western, Japanese, Chinese, and local foods. The selection of seafoods was Biboy’s favorite. Bambi was happy to be trying everything that came to the table. Biboy’s comment was that we must have eaten at least half a cow that night.

DSCN5142 — Biboy tucking into a tray of hot-stone noodles

DSCN5123 — Bowl of “laksa” (rice noodles, fish cake, and bean curd in spicy coconut gravy), the dish that Biboy would choose if he could have only one choice. Bambi’s choice was “kaya”, an egg and coconut spread.

DSCN5172 — Biboy and Bambi at EcoGarden in Johor taking a break from food.

The second week took them to Johor for more food and a few cook-outs in my kitchen. There were the kaya and bread making sessions and a sweet and sour pork and yakatori cook out.

The foods they tasted during their fortnight here included prata, laksa, kaya toast, nasi lemak, prawn mee, a whole range of Chinese stir fried dishes, dim sum, roast duck, char siew, and a fish-soup hot-pot. It was definitely a big change from their norm of rice for breakfast, rice for lunch, and rice for dinner!

As to what they will offer at the Goducate Training Center restaurant, just wait and see.

Part two of their training will be held in January, when we will be cooking the dishes at the training center in Iloilo.

Guest writer Hau Chun, Volunteer from Singapore

2011-11-252011-11-25

A busy time on farm extension in Laguna

The Goducate Model Farm at Laguna has been a hive of activity, with staff and volunteers ploughing , weeding, and planting, and putting into practice all that was learnt during the 3-day training session by Ric Patricio and Vic de Paz from the Goducate Training Center in Iloilo.

The model farm was extended few months ago. An adjacent piece of land of 5000 sq m—ie, five times the size of the original farm—has been rented for 10 years.

2500 sq m have been allocated for sweet corn, 600 sq m for tomatoes, 600 sq m for bell peppers, and 1000 sq m for bitter gourds and string beans. The area between the drainage canals was planted with saplings of papaya alternating with lime, to prevent soil erosion.

Once the planting has been completed, work on container gardening and hydroponics will start.

The hope is that harvesting can start in February.

PA121496-400 — Learning about drainage from Vic

20111110_153440-400 — All hands on deck on the farm

2011-11-222011-11-15

Workers on Goducate Model Farm undergo training

In early October, Ric Patricio and Vic de Paz, agricultural consultants at the Goducate Training Centre in Iloilo visited the Goducate Model Farm in Laguna to assess conditions there. About a week later they were back at the model farm to conduct a 3-day training session.

The first day of training was spent indoors, with Ric teaching about the importance of agriculture in daily life and about soil. Vic taught on methods of planting and dealing with pests and diseases.

Practical lessons started on the second day, on hydroponics and container gardening, on drainage systems, on measuring out plots for various crops, and on how to prepare carbonized rice hull (CRH), for mixing in with the soil before vegetables are planted. Rice hull has long been considered waste material left behind after milling of rice, but now CRH has been found to have many uses, one of them as a good soil conditioner and organic fertilizer. It is prepared by partial burning of rice hulls under low-oxygen conditions. The high-heat burning it undergoes makes it a sterile product.