By Jude Baggo
Even before the hype on organic farming, my village in Hungduan, Ifugao was already advanced in sustaining the land without the use of synthetic fertilizers and chemicals. The rice terraces throughout its cycle is a source of food for a family. From rice to vegetables, the rice terraces never runs out of food to offer.
After the rice harvest, the rice stalks and weeds are piled up with mud to make the intuul. Once dried, farmers plant on the intuul the traditional garlic, pechay, spring onions, and mustard. Unused rice stalks and weeds are placed also on the rice paddy dikes to add height and at the same time to be planted with string beans, Baguio beans, and green leafy vegetables.
And when the land preparation for the rice fields begin, the planted vegetables are ready for harvest. Women, particularly, have mastered harvesting green leafy crops while keeping the main plant growing. Intuul supplies the needed vegetables of the family. In the rice fields, shells and other edible species are gathered by children for consumption. Excess supply of these vegetables are sold in the market by mothers and use the money to buy some basic needs of the family.
There are no tricks in cooking these vegetables. Usually, mothers go for the simplest way of cooking. To cook pechay and mustard leaves, a mother would just pour first a small amount of oil in the pan then some leaves of spring onions. Then the leaves of pechay and mustard are put in and mixed. A little water and salt would finish the cooking, and the dish is then ready for serving. It is not surprising sometimes to hear children make jokes on their food, “pechay manen a naasinan lang,” (pechay again with a little salt).
To preserve their traditional seeds, women farmers leave some of their plants in the intuul to mature and ripe for the next planting period. Meanwhile, emptied intuul after harvest are fragmented then scattered on the rice fields as fertilizers. This cycle can be repeated again after the harvest period.
A rice paddy dike planted with mustard
Intuul planted with traditional garlic.
Intuul near the stone wall.