we bought a small piece of land over the pandemic and we have been experimenting on what crop to grow that would help us with the upkeep of the small farm.
our caretaker loves to plant but tends to leave it to the Lord when it comes to growing for profit. “ang Ginoo ra magtanto”.
this time, our caretaker wanted to try peanuts and after buying 2 “gantas” of peanuts and a lot of tilling and rain, it was harvest time. i was pretty sure it is a tedious process of uprooting the plants, removing the dirt from the nuts and sorting out the mature nuts from the young. we ended up hiring a few locals to help out.
it took 4 of them to finish harvesting the peanuts and after a full 2 days work, they ended up harvesting 55.5 cans of raw peanuts which translated to 600 pesos based on the going rate for peanuts’ harvest.
After all the sorting and weighing was done, we got to talking about where they were from. looking at the distant mountains, one of the ladies said – “see that electric tower at the distance, ma’am? we live just beyond that.”. my jaw literally dropped. they would be hiking for more than an hour under the scorching heat of the sun, bringing their hard earned money which will likely last them a week at most.
these were the few times i felt so humbled. and grateful. and reminded by what dad taught me – pay it forward.
and that peanuts don’t really mean things are easy.
my take 