Why are the guyabano and other plants in the Pleasure Farm of Mrs. Milagros Yee are so healthy and robust even if they are not supplied with chemical fertilizer and are not also sprayed with insecticides? See our previous post: “Milagros Yee: Up And About At 88 Doing Pleasure Farming.”

The main reason is Carol’s one-of-a-kind organic fertilizer formulation. This is actually a mixture of fermented eggshell and old chicken manure. An excavation is made in the ground where the eggshells are buried for four to five months. The eggshells are sprayed with EM (effective microorganism) to hasten fermentation and decomposition. For each batch, 20 big pails (balde) of eggshell are buried in the ground. Eggshells are no problem for Carol because her boss has a big bakeshop which uses thousands of eggs daily.

Fifty sacks of manure (bought at P15 per sack) are mixed with the decomposed eggshell and used to fertilize the guyabano, papaya and other crops. The mixture also makes an excellent potting medium for the Blue Ternate whose flowers are prized as raw material for making tea with claimed medicinal attributes. The flowers are edible and are also used as decor in salads. When added to rice being cooked, the result will be blue rice.

In  Iloilo, a leisure farm is making money by producing Ternate flowers which it sells through the SM Supermarket. A 40-gram pack fetches P60.