The Farm at San Benito: A bountiful harvest awaits

Have you heard some people say that after a vacation, they need another vacation to recharge?

Not at The Farm at San Benito. You have a vacation, enjoy yourself without loading unnecessary excesses on the mind (i.e., the stresses of catching trains and planes) and body (i.e., food porn). So that at the end of your stay — whether overnight or for a week, 21 days or a month — you feel a lightness of being. Without feeling deprived.

Our good friend, chemist Pinky Tobiano, invited Ed and myself to her private villa at The Farm, which commands an unobstructed view of Mt. Malarayat. She built the villa for her parents, especially for her mom, who has “health challenges.” According to Pinky, with doctors always on standby 24/7, The Farm gives peace of mind to those with health concerns and their loved ones who worry about them.

Geese and peacocks roam freely at The Farm.

Not to mention the fresh air and quiet (except for birds chirping and geese quacking merrily) and the dense forests with oxygen-generating greens (“It’s called forest bathing,” says Jennifer Sanvictores, The Farm’s director of sales and marketing).  The Farm’s guest, ambassador Berna Miranda, even took us to a 300-year-old mango tree and told us we could make a wish.

There are almost a hundred programs available in their wellness menu: from a holistic health and nutritional consultation to a liver cleanse, from colon cleansing to Vitamin C therapy in the Holistic sanctuary. You can choose from a wide array of treatments as well in the Healing Sanctuary Spa: from a detox treatment to hilot haplos, from a peppermint foot scrub to a rose petal body wrap, from stone massage to facials. The Farm also has the Acqua Sanctuary for hydrotherapy and offers salon services!

“Take time to listen to your mind, body and spirit, and allow us to help you achieve your optimum health through our life-changing programs,” says The Farm’s general manager Preet Singh.

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You may check in also in your own private villas (with or without pool) and cottages and simply allow yourself the pleasure of kissing the wind and embracing sunshine and moonbeams.

Since it was our first visit, Ed and I decided to just enjoy the villa first and “waste” time doing nothing. Except that waste is the exact opposite of what you are doing when you give yourself permission to let time to pass you by and allow yourself to live in the moment. At one point of our cocooning, I was floating — on my back in the pool, that is, with ripples of water in the villa’s private pool whispering sweet nothings into my ears. Sometimes I would open my eyes and focus on the natural embroidery on the leaves of plants that grow with wild abandon all over The Farm. You do not see your next-door neighbors, only the occasional dragonfly that flits over your veranda. Perhaps, to it, I was the dragonfly.

Flower arrangement classes are also offered.

Soda is not served at The Farm but wine is. There are three restaurants in the 52-hectare farm: Alive, which is vegan; Pesce, which serves fish and seafood (my husband adores its seafood congee and I, the grilled lapu-lapu); and Prana (which is vegetarian). Chef Rosemarie Pagcaliwagan prepares healthy dishes in a way that makes you feel you are indulging.

And yes, they serve coffee! Our nutrient-rich breakfast was tasty and healthy: pancakes, fruit crepes, cereals and muesli with fresh milk, puto in sopas and a plateful of fresh fruits, which The Farm grows (as it does all its herbs and vegetables).

The Farm dishes out the kind of vacation after my own heart: with guilt-free pleasures, and the only excess baggage you carry when you leave is the joy in your heart and the peace in your soul.

Yes, they grow those, too, at The Farm.

(You may e-mail me at [email protected]. Follow me on Instagram @joanneraeramirez.)