Home to a magnificent set of picturesque highland countryside, the region of the Cordillera featured an abundance of wonders. From its cool weather all year long to its majestic set of nature, fascinating culture, and mouth-watering local cuisine, an all too familiar feature of the region was gaining much-needed attention. These were the fruit and vegetable farms of Benguet and Mountain Province.
Find Yourself in the Cordilleras: The Farming Communities of Benguet and Mountain Province
Spread across the intertwining mountains of the two provinces were colorful fields of blooming flowers, lush green vegetables, and seasonal fruits best typifying the ingenuity and hard work of the farmers of the Cordillera.
As the growing movement of choosing healthier food options such as farm-to-table expanded, visiting these farms would also give us an opportunity to show gratitude to our farmers by including their source of livelihood as a vital element of the tourism industry.
To help you plan your farm-hopping trip to Benguet and Mountain Province, here were some farming communities you could visit.
Northern Blossom Flower Farm in Atok, Benguet
This three-hectare farm that spread over the scenic mountainside of Atok, Benguet, was where one could regale at the sweeping scenery of colorful flowers that bloomed all year-round.
Different varieties of flowers such as matthiola, rice flowers, larkspurs, snapdragons, cabbage roses, and more, were harvested here and reached the many flower shops of Metro Manila to as far away as Mindanao. Owned by Mrs. Melany Ganayan and her husband, Northern Blossom Flower Farm had embraced its ‘rock star of all flower farms’ status by welcoming visitors who wanted to stop by to snap some photographs as well as to pluck and buy some flowers.
A few homestays were then operating near the farm while a small café located within the farm offering a sweeping view of the farm and the mountain ranges of Cordillera—visitors could even see the peaks of Mount Pulag and Mount Timbak on a clear day—was set to open soon.
Buguias, Benguet
The town of Buguias was said to be among the top vegetable producers in the country and where eighty percent of the town’s more than forty thousand population were farmers. Farms spanning throughout the mountains and plains of the town were covered with lush vegetation consisting of almost every vegetable you could name. From chopsuey ingredients (potatoes, carrots, broccolis, lettuce, pechay, etc.) to beans, eggplants, okra, sayote, and even strawberries, one could visit the vegetable farms here and easily fill up a truck of fresh produce.
Other interesting places to visit in Buguias were the Veteran Memorial Marker which marked the liberation of the town from the Japanese Imperial Army on July 27, 1945, and the World War II Sixty-Sixth Infantry Shrine along Halsema Highway. The town of Buguias was also the site of a twelfth-century burial site that included the mummified remains of Apo Anno—who was believed to have been originally buried in the sixteenth century.
Paoay, Benguet
Another easy-to-access farm—by Benguet standards—were the vegetable farms in the town of Paoay, Benguet. Aside from buying fresh produce and various succulent and snake plants from the farmers here, you could proceed on foot to nearby Bosleng Lourdes Grotto found sheltered under a huge boulder on a stony peak surrounded by vegetable plantations.
A few steps from the grotto, you could find a protruding rock that offered a magnificent view of the surrounding mountains and, on a good day, a sea of clouds.
Bauko, Mountain Province
Benguet's neighboring province, Mountain Province, was also dotted with lush vegetable and fruit farms. With an elevation rising above 4,100 feet above sea level, the topography of the mountain range on this part of the Cordilleras was perfect for planting and harvesting fresh yield.
In the town of Bauko, one could visit one farm after another from potato farms to lettuce farms to strawberry, kale, and pepper, just to name a few. This was also an idyllic place to learn more about agriculture from the local farmers themselves, as they were very friendly and accommodating in answering all your questions regarding their own farming techniques. Plus, you could always buy a few kilos of freshly harvested farm goods from them afterward.
Tadian, Mountain Province
Half an hour from Bauko, in the town of Tadian, one could find another lush farm, but this time laden with turmeric and ginger plants which the farmers—comprising mostly of local mothers—harvested to produce ginger and turmeric tea. With the help of a social enterprise called Local Goodness PH, the farmers here were then planting and harvesting an increased production of turmeric and ginger because they were then able to market it directly to consumers in Metro Manila.
"Today, after Local Goodness started taking orders for us, it motivated us to keep planting turmeric and ginger. Turmeric farming isn't easy because it takes almost a year to cultivate it. With the help of Local Goodness, we cannot stop now," said one of the mother farmers, Theresa Farnican.
