****
I wake up to the birds singing, and I am almost tempted to sing The Sound of Music's opening lines, but ooops, my roomie is already up and about with hair curlers and a fully made up face. I wear white because today it is going to be plantation tour, pineapple picking and a trip to the dairy farm. Let me tell you about breakfast!
sunny side up eggs
bacon
corned beef
fried rice
toast
home made pineapple jam (some of which I get to bring home- now sitting at my table)
freshly brewed coffee
fresh fruits
sampling of fruit flavored tea- kiwi, apple and peach tea
Del Monte's famous steak
ice cream cake
The view at The Lodge includes pine trees, freshly cut grass, lovely ferns, acacia trees and the lake.
How all so decadent!
***
Whilst the cannery tour is impressive due to its heavy machinery that peels, cuts the core, bottom and top of the golden pineapples and a gravity conveyor that overhangs from the tin can plant to the pineapples, I distinctly remember why I did not want to work at a plant after a 2-year stay in a similar facility (manufacturing hard disk drives). I felt my creativity is being stifled, and I belong out there in the world, or in this case, this time, out there in the field.
The Del Monte Farms in Bukidnon spans 5 municipalities, and they are still set to expand to Malay Balay Bukidnon as the new management team aims to double its revenues in 5 years.
The tour starts at the R & D laboratory, a 287 sq. meter facility that proliferates pineapples and papaya by the thousands. Pineapples, apparently are easier to grow- one bud can harvest 1000 pineapple plants, and after an initiation stage, the greenbud is now ready to proliferate. In about 6 months, the nursery is now ready to let go of their babies out onto the field. Now get this, imagine a bed that does a forward and back motion, all day. On the bed are papaya buds. Apparently, they are harder to grow and needed to be stimulated with that forward and back motion incessantly to "disorient the cells, allowing them to grow either ways- top, bottom, sideways". I chuckle.
We then proceed to the local coop souvenir shop where I buy PINAKURAT vinegar, pineapple tarts and cheese sticks. We head for the cows, and get a taste of pasteurized fresh milk and choco milk. Sayang, didn't get to milk the cows, because they were scheduled at 3 PM. The cows are a cross breed of Australian and tropical horse breeds. Within the rest area, Sarah the guide, points to me a bull, which is used to stud the cows. Imagine the life of the cows at the farm: pregnant each year, milked 300 days in a year, and resting for 65 days. Holy cow!
***
The plantation tour is short but sweet, I felt the "malapit lang" is such an irony, for I see nothing but rows and rows of pineapples, and the drive seemed like forever to get to the harvester- a machine that pulls in manually picked pineapples. They have over 2000 workers in the farm, all members of the coop, all with their own housing benefit and a community within the facility. We get to pick pineapples, and have our photo-op.
Later, we went to the fresh fruit packing house and wanted to look for the grand mother packer (ha-ha Rex Navarette, you rock!).
Apparently, all the workers in this old building are grandmothers, or mothers (basta they were old), and one grandma showed us her pineapple cutting skills as she cut, chopped, sliced pineapples for us to taste. It was the Sweet Sixteen variety, and let me tell you all about it: the color is golden yellow, the smell oh so sweet, the texture- parang mestisa, and as it touches your palate, you can not help but utter such admiration for its sweetness. Quite exquisite, really! Walang sayad, walang kati, it was oh so sweet!
And that concludes our Cagayan De Oro adventure. It was more than what I wished for. And that is enough to mark a lasting impression.
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