La Trinidad to bake world-record giant strawberry cake to highlight Strawberry Festival 2019

Photo Courtesy || Shanon.ethan FB

Cordillera - Benguet's capital town La Trinidad is gearing up to rebuild a replica of the Guinness World  Record biggest strawberry short cake to highlight the upcoming Strawberry Festival set on March 4 to March 29, 2019

According to La Trinidad Mayor Romeo Salda, the giant strawberry cake will be a replica of the 2004 cake that gave the town the Guinness World Record for the biggest strawberry shortcake. 

The cake weighed 9,622.24 kilograms and was served to more than 10,000 persons.

The celebration of the upcoming Strawberry Festival aims to promote the town as the strawberry capital of the Philippines and hopes to encourage local and foreign tourists to visit the town. 

"This is also an avenue to promote, not only La Trinidad Strawberries but also the town's many other products which are derivatives of the berry while celebrating the town's cultural diversity and richness," Salda said during a press conference. 

Last two years ago, the town has baked the first replica of the giant cake with the measurement of 1.5 meters high by 1.8 meters wide by 2.5 meters long and weighs at 2.5 tons. 

This year, the town will showcase the award-winning cake with the same design and the same measurement. 

 The ingredients to be used in the making of the cake are:

225 kilos of butter,

275 kilos of fresh strawberries,

325 kilos of sugar, 

225 kilos of fresh eggs, 

175 kilos of milk,

425 kilos of all-purpose flour, 

2.5 kilos of baking powder,

5 kilos of baking soda,

7.5 kilos of vinegar, 

15 kilos of strawberry flavor, 

500 kilos of whip cream,

and 10 kilos of food coloring.

The total cost of the cake is Php500,000 and it can make 500 pans which when sliced will make 16,000 slices. 

Cake lovers can have a taste of the cake on March 23, starting at 11 a.m at the Lednicky hall in the municipal building. 

There will be a free 50 slices to be served and the succeeding slices will be sold at Php20.00 per slice.

Funds from the cake is going to pay for the expenses of the organizers. 

source || pna

Read More

DA Secretary Manny Piñol visits John and Kenny Strawberry farm in Balili Mankayan, Benguet

If you thought that only in La - Trinidad, Benguet is the source of strawberries in the country, think again because there is a farm about a hundred of kilometers north of the Philippines which is gaining popularity for its modern methods of farming strawberries.

During the holy week, Department of Agriculture secretary Manny Piñol visited the John and Kenny strawberry farm located in sitio Cada of Barangay Balili in Mankayan and learned interesting stories about the farm.

Here is an excerpt from DA Sec. Piñol's article found on his FB page.

In the mountainous village of Sitio Cada, Brgy Balili, Mangkayan, Benguet, two young men in their early 30s are running one of the most modern and successful strawberry farms in the country.

In fact, the John Kenny Strawberry Farm owned by young farmer Kenny Ching and his father, Francisco, and managed by Kenny's cousin, Marvin Marcos, was chosen as a Gawad Saka Awardee for Outstanding Agricultural Endeavour in 2012.

The maintenance manager of the farm, Mervin Leonsanda, also in his early 40s, is a Davaoeño who married an Igorot lass and has stayed in Benguet for good.

Unlike other strawberry farms, the John Kenny Strawberries are grown not in the open fields but in elevated plots held by long plastic receptacles supported by metal frames.

Irrigation and fertilisation are done by the Drip System where plastic water tubes with perforations run through the whole elevated plots.

The technique has allowed the young agri-preneurs to grow more strawberries in a small area of only 1.5 hectares which produces about 15 tons of the Festival Variety of strawberry.

The plastic roofing of the greenhouse has also protected the farm from inclement weather and heavy rains which usually devastate strawberry farms in the open fields.

At a per kilo price of P100 at farm gate, the farm makes a gross income of P1.5-million monthly.

"We could not keep up with the demand," said Kenny.

The project is so successful that investors have enticed the young men to partner with them and start a similar strawberry farm in other parts of the country.

The two young men, however, have their hands full in the John Kenny Farm.

When I visited the John Kenny Farm on Good Friday, Kenny said he only had one complaint against government and that is the very slow processing of their papers for the importation of good strawberry seeds.

"Strawberries will only give good yield on its first year. After that, you will notice the deterioration in the quality of its fruits and the volume of production," he said.

The variety that the farm uses, the Festival Variety, comes from Florida in the U.S. and it is their preferred variety because of its longer shelf life of 3 days.

"Other strawberry varieties could not be displayed in the shelf for over one day. The Festival Variety could withstand long hauls and remain fresh for up to 3 days," he said.

In response to his complaint, I assured Kenny that the processing of their import documents by the Bureau of Plant Industry would be fast tracked, just like the other documents now being processed by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.

I also informed him that loan funds are available for young farmers like him who would like to start a venture in agriculture.

With John Kenny Farms' success and the increasing profitability of farming in the Philippines, it will not be a surprise if a few years from now, young agriculture and fisheries graduates would rather start their own farms than seek employment.

Read More