Uncle Matt's Old Country Farm is going to be undertaken, at least initially, on only two and one-half acres (1 Hectare) of land owned by my wife's family. The land has been owned by her family for many years and has lain fallow for the entire time and is currently in a state of almost complete uselessness. The property is dry, flat and baron except for one persimmon tree. The property is covered with a loose, light brown, sandy soil. There does not appear to be any vermiculture, organic matter, rhizobial activity, or any other indication that the soil is capable of supporting anything but the most limited attempts to farm it.
The most important consideration for farm planning is the climate, and the climate in Iba Zambales is a Tropical Monsoon Climate. According to The Iba, Zambales Blog, the climate in the area is broken up into two distinct seasons. One being dry and lasting from October to May! The second season being wet and lasting from June through September. The coolest temperature of the year is listed as 66.5 degrees Fahrenheit (19.8 degrees Celsius) during the rainy season, while the average low temperature is 77.7 degrees Fahrenheit (25.4 degrees Celsius). The hottest temperatures recorded during the dry season are listed as 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius), while the average high temperature is 83 degrees Fahrenheit (28.4 degrees Celsius). The rainy season starts in May with an average of 10.1 inches (257 mm), and continues to increase each month through August before the average amounts of rainfall begin to decline again. June has an average rainfall of 22.4 inches (569 mm), July has an average rainfall of 36.5 inches (905 mm), and August has an average rainfall of 38.7 inches (985 mm), and September has an average rainfall of just over 27 inches (687 mm). The average annual rainfall in Iba, Zambales is 150.5 inches, which is right at an average of twelve and a half feet of water each and every year (3,826 mm).
When you are thinking of farming a piece of land, the next most important consideration after the climate is the health and quality of the soil in which you intend to plant the crops. Generally speaking, one can probably expect a certain amount of remediation to be necessary to promote the health and quality of the soil to maximize yields, product esthetics and the types of crops it will sustain, and most importantly to me, maximizing the nutritional qualities of the crops produced
This farming venture is going to require a massive soil remediation effort. As such is the case, I believe the best place to start looking for products to sell, should be from the remediation effort itself. I am going to need to be able to produce large amounts of bio-char, cleanly and efficiently. To me, this means using a double-drum kiln system. For the sake of efficiency and minimal expense, I plan to use a 35 gallon drum inside of a 55 gallon drum with a tall stack coming off of the 55 gallon drum to cleanly burn off the gasses which would otherwise create massive amounts of smoke and release incredible amounts of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. While I do not subscribe to the idea that global warming is the result of industrialization, I likewise do not see any sense in unnecessarily polluting the atmosphere or disturbing my neighbors with noxious emissions from my farm. I only intend to use the burn stacks until I can build a bio-reactor to collect bio-oils, bio-diesel and hydrogen gas from the exhaust created by the bio-char kilns.
Another product that will be created by the soil remediation effort is worm castings. I will immediately start cultivating worms for a number of reasons. Chief among those reasons is to have an active vermiculture element available on the farm to help break down compost, and for creating worm castings to enrich and improve the soil throughout the farm. The worms, the compost and the castings all immediately become active components of the soil remediation effort as well as products of great value to the surrounding community, from other farms to nurseries and even to home gardeners.
Uncle Matt's Farm will immediately invest in 100 chicks to raise for broilers to be sold on the local market. Chicken tractors will be built to accommodate the chickens as they grow. These tractors will allow the chickens to be contained, protected from theft, predation and the elements, as well as allowing them to be moved about the property to take advantage of different feed sites every other day.
I am collecting every type of seed that I might possibly ever want to grow. Starting my own little seed library of every type of chili pepper, tomato, bean, cucumber, carrot and so on. The main concern for me is that I don't want to grow anything that puts me in direct competition with the other growers in my area. I have noticed that everybody is growing and selling the exact same types of tomatoes and onions and peppers and so on. This is no way to farm. If you are selling the same thing that everybody else is selling, then are are at an immediate disadvantage because of the basic principles of supply and demand. If there is more of any given product than the market can use, then the price for that product is going to remain low. Likewise, if you are the only one providing a different kind of tomato, or a different type of chili pepper, then you are going to be able to charge more for your product because the value of it increases when the amount available to the market is small.
Different types of tomatoes have different uses and different flavors and are used for different things like pastes, sauces and salads based on those differences and where they have the best effect on the food and the person eating it. So it is with different types of chili peppers. In the Philippines, the most commonly available chili pepper is the cayenne. As such it is used for things to which it is not well suited. For example, it is used to make chili powder. But when a very hot chili pepper like cayenne is used for chili powder, it overheats your dish before it can give it the chili flavoring. The whole idea behind chili powder is to impart the flavor of the chili without the heat so that your dish can be equally appreciated by folks that don't like their mouths on fire. I'm not saying you shouldn't ever should cayenne chili peppers exclusively for chili powder. It does have its uses in certain types of cuisine where the heat is every bit as important as the flavor. But there is a market for ancho chili peppers and cascabel chili peppers and arbol chili peppers within the Philippines where people may like the taste but not like the heat of the only pepper (cayenne) that they can easily find.
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| Average Rainfall Per Month in Millimeters! |
This farming venture is going to require a massive soil remediation effort. As such is the case, I believe the best place to start looking for products to sell, should be from the remediation effort itself. I am going to need to be able to produce large amounts of bio-char, cleanly and efficiently. To me, this means using a double-drum kiln system. For the sake of efficiency and minimal expense, I plan to use a 35 gallon drum inside of a 55 gallon drum with a tall stack coming off of the 55 gallon drum to cleanly burn off the gasses which would otherwise create massive amounts of smoke and release incredible amounts of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. While I do not subscribe to the idea that global warming is the result of industrialization, I likewise do not see any sense in unnecessarily polluting the atmosphere or disturbing my neighbors with noxious emissions from my farm. I only intend to use the burn stacks until I can build a bio-reactor to collect bio-oils, bio-diesel and hydrogen gas from the exhaust created by the bio-char kilns.
Another product that will be created by the soil remediation effort is worm castings. I will immediately start cultivating worms for a number of reasons. Chief among those reasons is to have an active vermiculture element available on the farm to help break down compost, and for creating worm castings to enrich and improve the soil throughout the farm. The worms, the compost and the castings all immediately become active components of the soil remediation effort as well as products of great value to the surrounding community, from other farms to nurseries and even to home gardeners.
Uncle Matt's Farm will immediately invest in 100 chicks to raise for broilers to be sold on the local market. Chicken tractors will be built to accommodate the chickens as they grow. These tractors will allow the chickens to be contained, protected from theft, predation and the elements, as well as allowing them to be moved about the property to take advantage of different feed sites every other day.
I am collecting every type of seed that I might possibly ever want to grow. Starting my own little seed library of every type of chili pepper, tomato, bean, cucumber, carrot and so on. The main concern for me is that I don't want to grow anything that puts me in direct competition with the other growers in my area. I have noticed that everybody is growing and selling the exact same types of tomatoes and onions and peppers and so on. This is no way to farm. If you are selling the same thing that everybody else is selling, then are are at an immediate disadvantage because of the basic principles of supply and demand. If there is more of any given product than the market can use, then the price for that product is going to remain low. Likewise, if you are the only one providing a different kind of tomato, or a different type of chili pepper, then you are going to be able to charge more for your product because the value of it increases when the amount available to the market is small.
Different types of tomatoes have different uses and different flavors and are used for different things like pastes, sauces and salads based on those differences and where they have the best effect on the food and the person eating it. So it is with different types of chili peppers. In the Philippines, the most commonly available chili pepper is the cayenne. As such it is used for things to which it is not well suited. For example, it is used to make chili powder. But when a very hot chili pepper like cayenne is used for chili powder, it overheats your dish before it can give it the chili flavoring. The whole idea behind chili powder is to impart the flavor of the chili without the heat so that your dish can be equally appreciated by folks that don't like their mouths on fire. I'm not saying you shouldn't ever should cayenne chili peppers exclusively for chili powder. It does have its uses in certain types of cuisine where the heat is every bit as important as the flavor. But there is a market for ancho chili peppers and cascabel chili peppers and arbol chili peppers within the Philippines where people may like the taste but not like the heat of the only pepper (cayenne) that they can easily find.
