Back to sweet reality

The mother goose in mighty blue...

looking refreshed and reinvigorated, IS BACK!

You're back to sweet reality and it's time for sweet revenge. You owe us big time, Inay. Welcome back from the button of our hearts!

Inay in America!

No, it's not true. It's not true that F.A.R.M.'s closing shop.

We may be in the midst of shortage and deep urge to F.A.R.M. again. But let's leave her alone right now, and at least for a few more weeks. Look, our Inay is having the time of her life...

Exploring America with F.A.R.M....

Sharing private joys...

Reminiscing and renewing bonds...

Let's give it to her. Let's be profusely happy for her well-deserved R & R.

Now start readying your lists. For when she comes back, it's a whole different story.

Cheers to better, refreshed F.A.R.M. in 2010!

La Huerta: A Success Story in Agri-Entrepreneurship

Bernadette de los Santos was one among 111 Filipino farmers featured in a book titled "The Art of Agribusiness: 111 and More Success Stories in Agri-Entrepreneurship" compiled by Department of Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap.

The book recognizes farmers whose stories would inspire Filipinos to get into agri-entrepreneurship. It also commemorates DA's 111th anniversary.

Secretary Yap has always been supportive of trailblazers in agriculture. He makes the stories known so people will be aware that there are farmers who make good and do their part in giving life to agriculture in the Philippines.

The book features La Huerta and its owner, Bernadette in a colorful 2-page spread. It highlights the lady farmer's achievements, particularly her single-handed conversion of a once-idle agricultural land into a place of learning and relaxation. The write-up also stresses on La Huerta's novelty idea of "pick and pay," which makes tourists and enthusiasts savor the joys of harvest. Soon, tourists will experience "living the farm life" with the additional accommodation structure soon to be built at La Huerta.

Bernadette, who was DA's Most Outstanding Rural Woman of 2008 says, "For me, such recognition is just but bonus for the joys that I already reap so bountifully in living the farm and rural life. Farming does not only give me joy, it also makes me a responsible steward of my environment, which we all should be."

The book was launched on November 23, 2009 at the Podium, Mandaluyong City. It sells for P2,000 ($43) and available in all National Bookstore outlets.

F.A.R.M.ers came to support their Inay, who exuded her usual promdi confidence in the red carpet.

Congratulations! We are always so proud of you!

How a social enterprise pushed the right buttons

by Kristine Servando, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak | 11/04/2009 11:43 PM

MANILA - The latest fashion craze to hit the Bicol region is a set of accessories made from recycled buttons.

The fashion accessories line is sold by F.A.R.M. (short for Fabulously and Absolutely Rural-Made) based in Baao town in Camarines Sur.

Their line includes bracelets, earrings, cocktail rings, French barrettes and layered necklaces essentially made from discarded buttons strung together with metal, leather bands or beads.

The products have been making the rounds at Bicol-based eco-fashion shows and most recently figured in the OK Bicol Trade Fair held at SM Megamall from October 22 to 25.

"So many people are curious about our product. They think it's a cute idea," said 46-year-old F.A.R.M. owner Bernadette De Los Santos in an interview with abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak.

Since she founded the company in January last year, De Los Santos (a Business Management graduate from Ateneo de Manila University), described her 10 months of doing business as "phenomenal."

"A regular businessman would not believe it. They cannot believe that I can make money from buttons. What others thought as trash, I found gold," she said.

Without a store, the company promotes its wares on social networking site Facebook and sells its products through its blog site.

The blog, launched in May this year, is a chronicle of F.A.R.M.'s activities, socio-civic programs like accessory-making workshops and the F.A.R.M. team's journey to success.

Recycling buttons

The button-bracelet business, De Los Santos said, started in October last year as a sideline to her quilt and patchwork business in Baao town in Bicol.

She would collect vintage buttons from fabrics she bought at "ukay-ukay" or second-hand clothing stores and make them into bracelets as gifts for friends and family.

"The main thing here is recycling. When we hold skills workshops [for Baao housewives, students or jail inmates], I teach proper waste disposal and what they can reinvent into something useful," De Los Santos, a licensed teacher, said.

Encouraged by the response to her handmade accessories, she formally started F.A.R.M. about 3 months later, with a regular supplier of discarded Japanese buttons from clothing and button factories reportedly in Navotas.

F.A.R.M. now sells a whole line of trinkets with colorful names like "Zebra" for their monochromatic-themed bracelets and necklaces, "Valeriana" for vintage dangling earrings, and "Pinyapol" for accessories made with a mix of orange and yellow buttons.

Chunky buttons are stacked with smaller, more delicate ones, while plain buttons are paired with embellished or patterned buttons to make each accessory visually interesting.

De Los Santos, a self-trained watercolor painter, designs the items herself.

Bracelets are priced at P175, cocktail rings for P75 and earrings 60. De Los Santos said she wants to keep prices low because many Baao residents here and abroad re-sell her products at trade fairs or in workplaces.

Fashion with a cause

More than just being a "cute idea", De Los Santos explained that her customers also appreciate the fact that a portion of sales are used to fund the college education of "deserving students" in Baao through their "Buttons to Hope" program.

Currently, De Los Santos is putting 3 female students through college.

Also, by training or employing housewives and a handful of farming families in upland villages of Baao, the company is able to provide income for poor families during non-harvest seasons.

Skilled workers are paid a certain amount for every accessory they make, like P0.50 for yo-yo quilts and P17 for more intricate accessories. One family is also paid to clean entire sacks of buttons and sort them by size and color.

Each accessory comes with a tiny printed note detailing F.A.R.M.'s advocacies and who benefits from the company's proceeds.

"These bracelets aren't really [at the cutting edge of fashion]. But because of the cause, and the support of Baao people who are living abroad, so many people are buying. It's like there is pride when customers wear them because they know they are helping our municipality. It's very touching," De Los Santos said.

With money from the F.A.R.M. bracelet business, the company was able to turn the entrepreneur's family organic farm, La Huerta De Los Santos in Barangay Sta. Teresita, into an eco-tourism destination.

This serves as a venue for farming workshops by the Department of Agriculture and a hub for F.A.R.M. skills trainings.

Baao, an agricultural municipality located 455 kilometers southeast of Manila, is known in the Bicol region for producing 3 things: eggs, til2,apia fish, as well as priests and nuns. The area is also a prime destination for agro-trade businesses like poultry and swine-raising, tilapia fingerling production, and crop-harvesting.

Online boost

F.A.R.M. gets most of its orders from customers abroad through the F.A.R.M. blog, which got 28,000 page visits in 5 months.

Regular customers - some of whom are overseas Filipino workers who grew up in Baao - come from Germany, Australia, Canada, three states in the US, United Kingdom, Sweden, and Ireland.She ships them in bulk through the local post office.

"It's funny, I think the buttons have universal appeal. Because buttons are used by every race. And we found out that foreign buyers appreciate the products more because they have a social dimension. Meaning, this business is not just for me to make a profit because it helps people as well," De Los Santos said.

She said F.A.R.M. makes about 2,000 bracelets and sells most of them through the company's blog site every month.

Sales at the OK Bicol Trade Fair were also good, with Manila residents buying off her inventory. "I overshot my [target] of P60,000 a few days in," De Los Santos said.

F.A.R.M. designs have been copied by other entrepreneurs in her hometown but De Los Santos said she doesn't mind.

"It's income for them. Besides, I'm confident they can't replicate the quality and uniqueness of [my] designs," she said.

With a relatively successful run selling button accessories and supporting the livelihood of her fellow Baao residents, De Los Santos is raring to expand her product line.

She plans to establish a shirt line in Manila soon, after developing embellished shirts designed with discarded lace and linen.

For now, however, De Los Santos and her team are "quite fulfilled" with their project of making trinkets out of buttons. As F.A.R.M.-ers say, they are grateful from the "button of their hearts." Report and photos by Kristine Servando, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak.

as of 11/05/2009 3:15 PM

See the article on ABS-CBN News Online Beta

F.A.R.M. Appears Live on ANC

The fabulous and absolute promdi Ms. Bernadette de los Santos conquers global television as ANC's Pia Hontiveros interviews her live on Shop Talk. The show was aired 22 October 3, p.m. and replayed 12 midnight, Manila time.

ANC is the english news channel of the prestigious ABS-CBN, which caters to Filipinos all over the globe.

Bernadette talked confidently about F.A.R.M. - how it started, its advocacies, and how it is affecting people's lives particularly those from her hometown, Baao.

She told the world how F.A.R.M passionately supports many advocacies - artful recycling, rural entrepreneurship, women empowerment, and education for the youth.

Bernadette also stressed on how F.A.R.M. has become a friendship tool and has built a stong network of F.A.R.M.ers here and abroad.

She acknowledged that Facebook and the F.A.R.M. blog have helped a lot in marketing the product and telling the unique story behind it.

Watch the full interview by clicking these links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. (Thanks to Rommel and Mia Bulalacao for recording and uploading the videos on YouTube.)

And thanks most especially to fellow Baaoeno Jay Ablan of DTI for giving F.A.R.M. this opportunity.

As Pia Hontiveros would love to say, "Thank you, thank you from the button of our hearts."

Visit F.A.R.M. at SM Megatrade 2 and Catch it on Shop Talk!

Visit the best dressed booth at the OK Bikol trade fair today until Sunday.

Also, catch Bernadette de los Santos and F.A.R.M. on Shop Talk by Pia Hontiveros airing live @ 3 p.m. today and replay at 12 midnight, ANC Channel!

See you on both events!

Flight to Freedom

I was invited to teach women inmates at the BJMP Naga City sometime back. In fact, it was way way back that I thought it would not push through. At first I was a bit apprehensive as I have never been inside an institution like this and have not even considered in my wildest dreams to make even a visit. But I said yes. After that, I was so touched and reproached myself for even being hesitant.

Meanwhile that I have not gotten the confirmation call, life went on and as fate would have it, I visited a close friend and classmate during his short stay at the local cell in Iriga City. That was my first experience of what a prison looked like, what it feels to be inside and serve time. Not because of the visit, but because my friend described to me what it was they have to undergo serving time.

So I got the call two days before the scheduled event. It was part of the celebration of the Correctional Consciousness Week. I was kinda excited at the thought and was moved to do something about it. I prepared kits for the four inmates that would undergo the skills training and supplied them with the necessary tools and materials.

I arrived just in time when some male inmates were putting up the streamer and saw the poignant theme for the celebration: "Be an instrument of healing and reconciliation." That is me! I was shouting to myself. Of course nobody would hear that, but surely, my soul did, and my heart was moved to tears. I was choking back my emotions and showed a sunny persona instead. That is me, too! I am sunny personified.

The officers were also there, together with the inmates, they were mingling like what one would find outside the walls. Only, they are inside the walls. I started by telling them about F.A.R.M. I was somewhat disheartened that they seemed indifferent to my story.

It was much later on that I realized, they could not appreciate it, because they cannot see themselves being me. So I started teaching them, and as if robots, they would quietly comply.

During this time, I started asking them of how life was, inside, and sometimes, would drift to what life was outside. I felt they were starting to open up and started to crack jokes with me. And soon we were laughing together and I could see in their faces, that they were not only enjoying the activity as it was way out of their daily routine, also, I noticed that they were trusting me, with a feeble hope. As emo as I can ever be, I held back my tears and just laughed off words that they were needing to hear. I could not make them empty promises, but I did leave them some hope, and a simple promise that I would be back, for them.

Some words from them:

"Maam, sige na, padalhan mo naman kami ng magagawa namin, para may magagawa kami sa oras namin."

"Maam, kahit kaunti lang, sana may kikitain din kami, kahit dito na kami habang buhay."

Blog written by Bernadette de los Santos. The inmates and BJMP approved of posting their photos with this story.

Isang Dakilang Promdi

Kadalasan pag ako'y nagninilay-nilay naiisip long bumalik sa aking munting bayan para doon manirahan. Subalit mahirap naman yata. Mukhang hindi ko na kayang bumalik doon. Nasanay na ko sa buhay ko sa lungsod. Mabilis. At mabilis din kumita ng pera. Pag bumalik ako doon, ano gagawin ko? Wala yatang hanap-buhay na aangkop sa akin doon. Pero ewan ko ba. Parang gusto ko e. Di pa lang yata napapanahon pero malay natin, doon rin pala ako tatanda.

Meron akong kakilala. Kakaiba siya sa akin sa maraming bagay. Mataas din ang kanyang pinag-aralan, matatas magsalita, matalino. Nagtrabaho sa iba't ibang bansa, nagkapera. Pero nasaan siya ngayon? Ayun, andun. Bumalik sa bayan namin. Nagtatanim ng gulay, naggagantsilyo, naghahabi ng kung anu-ano. Naghuhukay ng butones. Nagpipinta. Di ko maarok kung paano niya nagagawa lahat ito. Di ko talaga minsan masakyan trip nya.

Nakakapagtaka paano nakakapagtanim ng gulay at kung anu-anong halaman ang isang gradweyt ng Ateneo de Manila. Akala mo mga sosyal ang mga galing doon. Kakaiba talaga itong taong ito. At nagtuturo pa kamo. Sa mas matatanda sa kanya. At sa mga lalaking magsasaka, magpamatanda man o bata. O di ba, kakaiba?

Trip niyang kumalikot ng kung anu-ano, at nakakabuo din ng kung anu-ano. Maghapon siya nagiimbento ng mga bagay na puwedeng pagkaabalahan, at pagkakitaan na rin. Akalain mong sumikat siya sa paggawa ng mga polseras na gawa sa butones? Marami na siyang naging disipulo dahil sa polseras na yan. Kakaiba naman kasi, at magaganda ha, in fairness.

Ang maganda sa kanya, hindi sya madamot. Nagtuturo sya. Ibinabahagi nya ang kanyang mga nalalaman sa iba. At nagpapaaral pa. Sinasabi ng iba, wala naman syang madaming pera pero bakit andami-daming taong nakasalalay sa kanya? At bakit andaming taong naniniwala sa kanya?

Sa iba mahirap intindihin yun. Pero sabi nitong kakilala ko napakadaling dumating ng pera kung marunong kang magbigay. Sabi nya sa akin minsan, hindi nya din daw alam kung saan nanggagaling ang lakas at sipag nya. Sa bawat araw na ginugugol nya sa pagbibigay sa iba, nakakayanan nya na lang ang lahat. Pati ang minsanang mga paghahamak galing sa ibang di nakakaunawa.

Mahilig talaga syang magbigay ng inspirasyon sa kabataan. Para sa kanya, maraming bagay na magaganda sa mundo at sayang lamang kung di mo pakikinabangan. Lahat tayo may angking ganda at talento. At lahat tayo ay may mabuting kalooban. Di lang natin napapansin dahil di natin tinitingnan. Guilty nga ako doon e. Madalas kasi ako magsenti at mag-isip ng negatibo.

Di ko man siya minsan maarok pero alam nyo bang sinubaybayan ko ang buhay niya? Natututo akong makinig? At tumulong kahit papaano? At aminin sa sarili ko na ako ay maganda at magaling? Hindi lang naman yata ako kundi marami pang iba dyan na sumasaludo sa kanya. Para na nga kaming isang kulto e.

Itong kaibigan kong promdi, nakukuntento na lang sa pagsakay sakay ng bus papuntang Maynila paminsan-minsan. Alam nyo ba kung bakit? Sa bus lang yata sya nakakatulog ng mahaba-haba dahil mahaba din ang biyahe. Dahil pagbalik na naman nya sa bayan namin pagkatapos ng ilang araw, aligaga na naman sya. Sa kung anu-anong mga bagay. Sa kung kani-kaninong mga tao.

Kaya ko bang bumalik sa bayan namin at doon manirahan? Siguro pagdating ng panahon. At gustong gusto ko yun. Dahil sa kakilala kong promdi, naisip kong masaya pala ang buhay doon. Simple lang pero napakasaya. Napakaginhawa. Dahil ang buhay natin ay hindi lang umiikot sa paghahanap-buhay, pagpapakasarap, pakikipagsosyalan. Pwedeng pwede kang maging masaya sa simple. Ang hindi ko lang maipangako, ang maging katulad nya. Baka hindi ko ma-carry, ita-try ko lang. Kasi promdi ako gaya ng iba, pero di ako dakilang promdi kagaya nitong kaibigan ko.

Mabuhay ka.

Isang Dakilang Promdi is the first F.A.R.M. blog written in Filipino.