Kitchen Kwento

The Other Kind of Barrel Man

Back to barrel basics. BarrelManApps and Movement Generation.

If you haven't yet seen the barrel man in real life, don't let me spoil it. Let me just say that both the iconic wooden figurine and its hidden "surprise," and the concept of saving rainwater in barrels, are familiar to many Filipinos.

But being a Filipina raised in the States means there are things I've had to relearn that would have been second nature to my grandparents. I enrolled in Tagalog 101 as a 20-year-old and struggled to wrap my tongue around conjugations. I worked my way through Filipino cookbooks with the help of a dog-eared English-Tagalog dictionary. I tried my feet at sipa and made my mom look like a World Cup champion of our native hackeysack. Last weekend was another experience of getting back to the basics, this time with water. I went to learn rainwater harvesting 101 through a workshop organized by Movement Generation.

Walking in, I wondered what other 20-something Filipino/Americans would think of this workshop. While my parents raised my sister and I to be resource-conscious as a practical matter, saving rain to wash clothes or irrigate plants was not a part of our daily lives in the US. It was only when I first visited the Philippines that I saw ordinary folks catch rain on an everyday basis. It was not unusual to experience brownouts, those times when the water was cut off and the tap ran dry. In preparation for days like these my uncles and aunties stored many heavy, colorful barrels of water in backrooms. 

I adored taking cold tabo showers and how my skin felt to bathe in rainwater. But while it seemed like a novelty to my American-born self, it was normal survival mode for those who understood water would not always come from a faucet. 

Barrel women. Ellen of MG and Laura of Greywater Action

The workshop was full of educators, community, and gardeners intent on applying these skills to their daily work and lives. We started from the beginning, refreshing on the water cycle and our place in the watershed. Brock Dolman, one of the facilitators, framed the water crisis as something even more immediate than food security. If we or our crops are thirsty and we cannot access clean water, how can we survive?

Participants took part in the hands-on work to install a system to channel water from the roof into a series of interconnected barrels. We drilled holes, hoisted barrels into place, and installed a gutter. I was struck not just by how accessible it all was, but just how absurd that a most fundamental right to water has been privatized, polluted, and taken out of reach for so many. It's that crazy. As we closed the workshop it felt right on time when a light rain began to sprinkle and the first sheen of water slicked the roof. 

In leaving the workshop I felt not only more skilled to adapt water saving skills in my urban environment, but even more fired up to steward the water we all depend on...becoming another kind of barrel (wo)man. 

At the California Hotel, art blooms, plants flourish, and rainwater is saved.

More:

Movement Generation's earth skills trainings

Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, one of the trainers

Greywater Action, another trainer

A Single Drop for Safe Water, a Pinay-founded organization for clean water stewardship

Apple Cider from Scratch

 

I'm craving fresh apple cider. I'll admit my heart had to be won over by a fruit that seemed to represent my parents longing for all things American while growing up in the Philippines. There, each apple arrived wrapped in a fitted foam sleeve. Each was crisp, imported and thus precious in a tropical landscape. I was surprised to later learn that the wild ancestors of this rose relative came from Western Asia. Like my parents, apples have traveled the world over and set new roots.

It's October, and the farm kitchen was engulfed with wave upon wave, and box after box of apples that folks scrambled to keep pace with. The scent of apples filled the air. Apple slices slowly dried slowly into thin shriveled skins, were transformed into sauce, cooked down into sweet butter, and pressed into cider. The orchard was home to a dizzying 200 apple varieties, and cider was a luxury that somehow brought together all the months of observing the orchard bloom pink and white, thinning out fruits by hand, and watching those left behind slowly grow sweet and heavy. 

After living for a growing season surrounded by these trees, the taste of the untouched fresh stuff fulfills the same place in my belly that was usually reserved for young coconuts cracked straight from the tree. 

Step one. Grow apples that taste like good healthy soil, sun and water.

Step two. Gather fallen fruits. If there's brown mushy spots or cracks, it's OK. No one has to know - this is cider after all. Don't be too selective, throw in what you have. Golden Delicious, Mutsu, Hudson's Golden Gem...those all found a way into the mix.

Step three. Press and drink. Even the bees and wasps will want a sip, so watch out for those. Share with someone you love.

The Challenge - 26 Days, 26 Letters, 26 Kwentos

Abundance.

Its the middle of the summer in Oakland, with ripe red strawberries, shiny blackberries, and early tomatoes bursting out of boxes at the market. So it seems only right to bring some of that abundance to writing!

Inspired by the' "poem-a-day" challenge, I've embarked on a challenge over the next 26 days of July to write a kwento-a-day, one for every letter of the English alphabet (yes, there's 26 letters and I counted).

Some kwentos will be pretty, others scrawny, but they will BE THERE, so stay tuned! Got ideas? Looking for recipes? Love it or hate it? Send your kwento over!