Summer plus a long vacation equals GREAT FUN!
Since it is summer we decided to visit a relatives and that was a blast. The more the merrier.That was my comeback there after 14 years. Gosh! That’s really a long year isn’t it? Was born in Cebu but transferred in Leyte when I was 6 and I was 10 when I left there and settled in Cebu.
However, the City we visited was not the same place where I used to live. My Aunt place is in Union, Mc. Arthur, Leyte. Their language is quite different. They speak Waray-Waray and somewhat I can understand a bit.
When talking about Leyte, the first thing that comes on my mind is the picture of a RICE FIELD and my Pamutong experience (fresh Buko).
My hometown back there was surrounded with rice field where somewhat part of a whole year, the people were in the rice field: carabaos were there, there’s planting, irrigation, harvesting and a lot of farming activity.
The childhood memory gives me a flashback on those precious happy moments I have in Leyte.
Leyte is mostly heavily forested and mountainous but a bigger part of Leyte has much in agriculture.
These are some of my pictures taken and some of the activities worth we have during our visit as of this year:
Fresh bukos, peanuts, pakwan, camote, and a lot more.
I could say that it was worth our travel because we enjoy from it—a LIFE TOO different when you are in a City.
With the view of the rice field it allows me to think of a long process how this field gives us an abundant supply of rice. Just to provide a bigger picture in how it turns out to be the way it is, here are the steps on how it is being processed from rice seedling to rice grain we cook which we do have in our houses or even sold in any markets.
THE PROCESS: RICE SEEDLINGS TO RICE GRAIN
Filipinos eat rice for breakfast, lunch and on dinner. Knowing and witnessing how it was done and processed up until we cooked if for food in each of our own household, we could further understand that this is indeed comes from the sweat and labor of those industrious “kababayan” (citezens) we have in a reason that it requires time, labour and a real hardwork. The job is of NO joke at all, as they say.
HOW DID THEY GROW RICE?
1. Farmers need carabao to plain and cultivate the field where they have to prepare the land for them to plant the rice seedling. Then they turn it into a paddy ( a wet field where rice is grown)
2. While the rice grows, the paddy are repeatedly flooded to 1/3 of the rice stalk height to prevent weeds from growing and drained when fertilizer is to be sprayed. It takes a maximum level of maturity before they harvest it.
The season of harvest, as for me is the most fun season. Grannys, aunts, uncles and even kids went to the field to join harvesting. People in the field do not look just busy; THEY ARE REALLY BUSY under the sun!
WHAT HAPPEN AFTER HARVEST?
- DRYING
Rice harvested will be dried in any open field under the sizzling hot of the sun. Now, this is the most CRITICAL operation after harvesting a rice crop. Delays and insufficient drying will reduce grain quality and result in losses. That’s why there should really be a good season to harvest. It’s definitely not the rainy season of course .
2.STORAGE
After they dried it, they store it in a place we usually called bodega or might be a certain room/part of their house.
This! At first, I am confused why such a processed needs to be done. This explains it: Rice is hygroscopic material (absorbs moisture from the air)
🎯 When dry rice is exposed to air with the HIGH RELATIVE HUMIDITY (RH) meaning cold temperature, the rice grains will ABSORB WATER from the air (re-wetting)
🎯 When wet rice is exposed to air with Low Relative Humidity (hot temperature) the rice grains will release water to the air. (drying)
📚During storage, the final moisture content of grain will be determined by the temperature and RH of the air that has surrounds the grain. If the grain is not protected against the humidity in the air, particularly during the rainy season when the RH is very high (colder), the grain moisture content will rice and this will lead to deterioration in both grain and seed quality. (Source: http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org )
3.MILLING – This is to remove the husk and to produce the rice grain.
4. PACKAGING – It is then the last process where the rice grain is pack and delivered to every consumers.
INTERESTING THINGS ABOUT LEYTE
1. Famous for its role in the conquest of the Philippine in WORLD WAR II. From the famous line of Gen. Douglas Mc. Arthur, “I SHALL RETURN”, as he promise, he landed back in Leyte. That place is really a memorable historic place for us Filipinos since that place was the great time were Filipino with the lead of the American General fought with the Japanese, and that resulted to four-day Battled of Leyte Gulf, THE LARGEST NAVAL BATTLE IN HISTORY!
- It’s a Place where Lake Danao and the most famous Kalanggaman Island, a virgin Island with a very white sand, crystal clear water with 2 sandbars. For me that is one of the nicest Island I visited. You can visit my post about this paradise Island by visiting this post: KALANGGAMAN ESCAPADA IN LEYTE
- San Juanico bridge, the longest bridge in the Philippines is found there.
4. Leyte as well, is the birthplace of the TINIKLING DANCE, popular throughout the Philippines.
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