Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Contemplating nature in Bukid Zion
By Jenara Regis Newman
BUKID Zion is a herb garden. But more than that, the owners, Dr. Braulio “Hoppy” Santo Domingo Jr. and wife Carmen (nee Larrazabal), invite their visitors to “relax, unwind and recollect...(in order to make) the first step to a new beginning.” For this is what the place has been to them.
They first came across the 1.1-hectare property in 1990. When Carmen passed by this particular spot in Tawagan, Sirao, she felt instant affinity with it, wishing to own it should it be God’s will. A week later, the property was offered for sale to them.
The transformation of the property, once a flower farm and therefore almost treeless, has been gradual.
First step for Carmen, who grew up in a farm and remains a farmer at heart, was to plant narra and mahogany trees at its perimeter to serve as a fence. She had the soil tested and found it acidic with almost zero organic matter, because of the chemical fertilizer used in the erstwhile flower garden.
Seeking the help of (the late) Dr. Salome del Rosario, she learned how to make compost from the leaves and cuttings from the bushes and trees that grew in the place, with the help of vermiculture (worms) to speed up the composting process. From Dr. del Rosario, she also learned the properties of plants and herbs, which is why the place has metamorphosed into a herb garden, with mint (spearmint, peppermint and lemon mint), basil, oregano (local, which is the best for cough, Carmen says, variegated and Italian), tarragon, marjoram, rosemary, ganda (the local version of chives) and parsley. The place also has lagundi, citronella, fruit-bearing trees, some flowering plants like torch ginger, begonia and bird of paradise.
The slope was partly leveled and a hut was built to accommodate the family on their visits there. Then slowly, a farmhouse was built, utilizing some of the wood found in the place. There are two ponds, a wishing well (the water system is the handiwork of Dr. Santo Domingo), several wooden bench groupings in strategic places and, at the lowest level where the plant nursery and compost pits are, a labyrinth—used not just for fun but also for meditation.
Carmen, a nutrition graduate, has come up with a product line from the farm: native pickles, herbed native vinegar, and a very delicious pesto cheese dip, under the Que Savor label. She also has organic fertilizer and seedlings from her nursery.
Bukid Zion has become a favored getaway place for Hoppy and Carmen’s family, as well as for some of their friends and colleagues. It has even become a venue for a few seminars, recollections and retreats. Here, Carmen says she relishes waking up in the early morning to the chirping of birds and cows mooing in the distance and Hoppy gets lost in meditation, while contemplating the vastness of the sky with their myriad stars at night, or the glorious spectacle of sunsets and sunrises and the subdued spectacle of plants growing, blooming in Bukid Zion, a contemplation that makes one think of God, the source of all living things, Author of the Universe.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (March 26, 2008 issue)
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