Summer at the Prado

"Seeing how beauty and functionality have been coaxed out of chaos, perhaps accounts for the sense of magic that one feels for Prado Farm." —Mariel Francisco

That quote about Prado Farm can come no less than from an Angelena and a Pampaguena like Mariel, one of the members of First Draft, a loose group of women writers (not a group of loose women writers, we're way past expiry date on that one).

For the first time in the lusty month of May, we managed to get ourselves out of our respective comfort zones in Metro Manila and go on our first out-of-town trip to the new Prado Farm of the Gutierrez family in Lubao, Pampanga. We went in a two-vehicle convoy. Except for the skinny Maginnys in the group like Lorna and Edna, the rest of us needed good space for our behinds.

Weeks before as plans were set in motion, I emailed the group how excited I was to be able to announce I was off to the Prado (even if it's not the famous museum in Spain).

And Prado it was, on a summer day, to try its organic lechon (yes, there is such a thing since the pig, when alive, is fed arugula leaves) with a duck inside its belly. Chit, who has the Roces funny bone, couldn't be stopped from imagining aloud from what orifice the duck found its way into to reach the pig's belly.

Reading our manuscripts aloud after that rich repast meant cracking watermelon seeds, nibbling on arrowroot biscuits or, in my case, getting my mouth all juiced up from passion fruits.
Thank you, Lorna, for lending your digicam to record another moment in time when writing, reading and eating never felt gooder than good.

For that unique Prado experience, email pradofarms@gmail.com or text/call mobile 9209-831-329.