Wazzup Pilipinas!
A honey bee, going from flower to flower in search of nectar, made me think about finding a way to harvest our own honey.
My grandma's younger brother (when he was still alive) had a beehive inside a built-in cabinet at their ancestral home where he was able to harvest honey on a regular basis. The bees made it their home because the cabinet was not being used and had a hole from the outside where the bees got in. They were surprised seeing the beehive when they finally thought of opening the cabinet. Instead of removing the bees home, they let the bees multiply and the beehive to grow until they could regularly harvest honey from it. It was equally surprising that the bees were not attacking and just letting them get their honey. The honey as payment for the rent? Lol!
Unfortunately, this setup only lasted for a few years because the bees left. They probably decided to find a new home. We were among those that were given a few bottles of honey, and I must say it definitely taste a lot better than the ones you could buy at the pasalubong areas lined up along the streets of whatever province.
Homemade is pure, unlike the commercially bottled ones sold in the market. I would be willing to pay more as long as I do get all-natural honey without any added ingredients or preservatives. I'm a bit wary in buying honey from vendors found at the outskirts of nearby towns especially when they do not have labels. But it is also more expensive to buy them from vendors that have improved packaging and labels.
This hesitation is similar for all products may it be buko pies or tarts from Tagaytay, strawberry jams from Baguio or Benguet, and other products famous from all provinces.
But it is always a tradition to always bring home pasalubong whenever you visit a far away place for either work or leisure. It is appreciated to receive specialty goodies from your relatives, friends or colleagues after a vacation or coming back from a trip out-of-town or overseas.
But would it be fun as well if we could really make our own if we have access to the same resources.
Our neighbors planted some vegetables (malunggay, talong, etc., ) and papaya trees at the vacant lot of our unused home at Rodriguez (Montalban), Rizal. This made us see the advantage of having our own land compared to living in a bliss or condominium where you could only resort to potted plants. Imagine the veggies and fruit-bearing trees we coild have planted if we were livibg at our Rizal home. But that home is reserved for our retirement when our kids are done with school. That would only be the time when we could finally make use of that property.
As of now, we should settle for the tomato and bell pepper plants we managed to grow in pots. A papaya tree and calamansi plant grew but they got dwarfed due to lack of soil. Herbal plants could really work since there are small varieties that would not need too much space and soil.
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Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
