Loren’s farm: Where nature & culture kiss
Sen. Loren Legarda says her lush farm south of Metro Manila, where the air is crisp and cool, is a “portrait of me.”
The one-hectare farm, which to me looks like a tropical forest, once belonged to Loren’s maternal grandmother, Carmen “Mameng” Gella Bautista, who is fondly remembered as a smart and industrious businesswoman, as well as a devoted wife and mother of seven children, and lola to dozens of apos. Loren is one of them.
One day, Lola Mameng received an unexpected gift from Loren, who also would often play the piano for her and her Lolo Pepe, once editor of The Manila Times.
“Lola was going abroad,” recalls the Philippines’ longest serving senator. “I gave her $500, my life’s savings at the age of 18, as her baon.”
When Lola Mameng arrived from abroad, it was her turn to give Loren an unexpected gift. She took Loren to her house, which was in the same Malabon compound where Loren and her parents lived. Lola Mameng didn’t give Loren chocolates.
“She opened her safe, gave me a parchment paper that was old. It was the title of the lot,” continues Loren.
“Lola said, ‘Hija, maybe one day, this title may mean something to you’.”
And indeed it has become her.
Loren is a nature lover who once even attended a backyard farming workshop. She grows her own vegetables in her farm.
The farm also has several art installations, a testament to Loren’s advocacy for the preservation of Philippine arts and culture.
The land used to be a coffee farm, before roads were carved in the landscape. It was once so remote Loren and her lola could not reach it.
In the ‘80s, Loren’s father, Antonio, built a simple structure—a shelter for the farm’s coffee and sayote harvests and a place of rest for its caretaker. That small space has become a repurposed and recycled cottage. Still as small and modest as it was decades ago, shares Loren, who recently celebrated her birthday in the farm.
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The farm is terraced, and all over it are stations of bliss. A gazebo, Ifugao houses, a glass house, green houses, numerous gardens and a pavilion where you can watch the sunset.
“Each tree, each plant, every repurposed wood, each Ifugao house, each old brick in the cottage, each yakal post in the nipa pavilion holds a story,” says Loren.
I asked her if she had a peg in designing the farm.
“Nothing is designed,” says Loren.
What you see in the farm, which has yet to be given a name, is the “interconnectedness of nature and culture,” she reveals.
“I work with the elements, literally and figuratively — the wind, the biodiversity that abounds, the energy of the place and the provenance of each piece of wood. These give the farm a ‘soul,’ a feeling as if it’s a portrait of me.”
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In 2012, guided by time-honored traditions and rituals, a Banaue house was transported from the uplands. It was followed by a Mayoyao house, a Kiangan house, and another Mayoyao house. Each house is over a century old, bearing the soul of the mountains of the Cordilleras. They hail from the municipalities that safeguard the clusters of the famed Rice Terraces, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Each house has a story.
In front of the Kiangan house stands an Ifugao payo (rice terrace). More than just an agricultural field, it is a sanctuary, a sacred space integral to the Ifugao people’s rituals, traditions, and way of life for generations. Loren planted flowers and vegetables instead of rice around it. Near the nipa pavilion is a dap-ay, a hallowed circle in the Cordillera culture where elders gather for discussions and collective decision-making.
A few years ago, Loren designed and built a nipa pavilion with the help of a trusted foreman and skilled barangay folks. The space is crafted with her collection of old yakal posts and adorned with pieces from micro-enterprises across the archipelago, small businesses she has been actively supporting.
Within the farm, lighting fixtures made of recycled bottles hang beautifully, old capiz windows have found new life as cabinets in the kitchen, and discarded bottles, now painted on, have been transformed into flower vases. Even old Meralco posts have been repurposed, seamlessly blending into the farm’s rustic charm.
In this farm, even waste is given a second life. A compost pit nurtures the soil, turning organic waste into food for the earth.
Four greenhouses nourish rows of crisp lettuce, kale, bok choy, and organic herbs. She gives away her harvest to family, staff and friends. When visiting her farm, Loren sings to these plants as part of her daily ritual. She lives by her advocacy, embracing the farm-to-table lifestyle. Rainwater catchments are everywhere, collecting every drop of rain for nourishment. She engineered them herself, working alongside nature’s whispers.
“This is my private space,” says Loren. “Every inch of this farm speaks of harmony with nature, and culture, representing a future that is carefully and conscientiously sown and lived.”
Thus, in this farm, Loren harvests tranquility as well.
Part of her farm rules read, “Peace and serenity, side by side,
In this way, true harmony will thrive.” *
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