Magnificent Manure
A trip to Lipa, Batangas is always a treat for me for three reasons : one, I get to see my late Lolo’s only surviving sibling, our 81-year old Carmelite nun who we fondly call Lola Madre. There’s a great feeling inside me after a talk with Lola Madre.
Second, the Carmelite Monastery is located in an area where you breath in fresh air all the time. Perhaps its because the place is surrounded with trees and the plants are well cared for. The whole place looks like a “red blanket” come December because all the poinsettia plants have turned red.
The last reason is anyone who visits the monastery never goes hungry. It’s like going a buffet party where one is welcome to fill a hungry stomach. The place feeds a hundred visitors. especially during Sundays, right after mass. But of course there is food even on ordinary days.
When its time to go home, Lola Madre often offers boiled eggs as “pabaon” so we won’t get hungry on our way back to Manila. In fact they always serve eggs cooked in different ways and it seemed to me they have an endless supply of eggs. I learned from her that they have a small-scale poultry which supports them modestly.
My next question was, what do they do with the chicken manure so the smell doesn’t bother them. And I got a new piece of information. They dry the manure and this is what they use as natural fertilizer for the plants they grow inside and outside the monastery. That explains the healthy plants. And why do they dry the fresh manure and does not apply it directly to the plants? It’s because fresh manure is very high in Nitrogen, and is hot, and therefore will cause Nitrogen “burning” , causing plant death. They don’t have to buy commercial fertilizer, which we all know is hazardous to environment and they save on fertilizer cost. Very interesting.
And by the way, to save on gas and help reduce pollution when going to Lipa, we open the windows when we are on the express way until we reach the monastery, our refuge.
