(New) Absentee Gardener Mushroom Waterers

Do you like plants and travel? Sometimes that can be a problem. Coming home to dead plants is tragic. These mushroom plant waterers may help. They are filled with water. The bottom, porous part must be buried under soil beside your plant roots (or you can plant in a circle around the mushroom). Water will seep out gradually into the roots. The rate of weeping is determined by heat, soil consistency, and other factors.














The same concept is used on a larger scale in traditional American ollas or terra cotta jars. Click on the link to see an article on ollas from the homestead Path to Freedom.

There are vintage waterers for sale in other parts of the world. The above was our favorite variation that we found on eBay.

(Literature) Hemingway And The Garden of Eden

Hemingway is the Herge of prose. Not the most complex, not the most verbose, but excites in us, early on, the desire to travel and wear linen. His protagonists are like Tintin, negotiating a strange but simplified world.





































Around two hours after reading any of his novels, you find yourself speaking with the spareness of his characters. After reading a few of his books, the idea of Hemingway captivates you.



You think you know him, then you read the posthumous The Garden of Eden. A tale of Europe, lust, haircuts, cross-dressing, and slow descent into insanity. If you are harboring a particular idea of Hemingway, read this book to shake your world up a little bit.

(New) Nipa Moonshine ver. Wild Civet Cats

It is an understatement to say that our "moonshine"-- nipa vodka, distilled from the nectar of the brackish palm Nypa fruticans-- has a rabid following. We have been asked "Aren't you the ones who have that moonshine?" in the strangest places indeed.

Over the months, we've made various incarnations: plain, infused with various plants (pepper, star anise leaves, local oranges), mixed with mascobado sugar and honey. The latest, very limited variation is an excellent infusion of wild civet coffee beans (from a sprawling mountain estate in Batangas) together with pure vanilla bean.

Not that we are alcoholics, but when a night of free-flowing conversation and libations is in order, we prefer this local spirit: sustainably grown, harvested (by cutting off the fruit, pictured above, and installing a bamboo collector, below), and wood-fired distillation (allowing for a carbon emission equal to only the amount captured by the fuelwood). It is an open base, with slight sweetness, and a poweful punch (80 proof). Not jarring like coconut lambanog, it has received raves from our friends all over the world (yes, we do pack our own alcohol).

Our expriences around the moonshine have been some of our best. Riding small boats down several marshes, past wild crab hunters and those collecting nipa leaves for thatched roofing, drinking our booty in a log cabin at night, preparing our mix for the ride back home (coconut milk and pineapple). It is an honor to throw our own little wrench into the huge machinery of global alcohol production. We are perfectly happy to sip our local organic spirit, with excellent quality, sans preservatives, not from concentrate, not shipped from halfway around the globe.

Locals, get brewing, get distilling. Small-batch alcohol production, thine time has come.

(New) More Theo & Philo Chocolate Flavors!

We are happy to introduce the new Theo & Philo flavors in our shop: ginger and calamansi! The pan de sal flavor is gone, but sink your teeth into these two tropical lovelies.

(New) Sewing Tools

Mending things reminds us that we have the ability to make things right again. It soothes our subconscious and acquaints us with problem solving at a small, manageable level. I cannot begin to expound on the therapeutic value of taking a needle to a hem that was undone, and holding your finished creation up for inpsection.

Sewing in itself has always been an important domestic avenue of creativity and invention. My grandmother would innovate on the toaster cover by including a pocket for small tongs (to handle hot bread with).

Unfortunately, in an age when shortening an ordinary pair of pants in Makati will set you back about 100 pesos, the tools (and skills) of sewing are obviously no longer ubiquitous.











Thimbles (above, on middle finger) were originally essential in every household, but are now met with puzzled looks. I still remember getting a fancy painted porcelain one as a childhood present! They are used protect the finger from needle pokes, or to help push needles into thick fabric like denim. They have small indentations that allow for slip-free forcing of the needle through.












We have a bunch of stainless steel ones at the shop.












Tailoring scissors or shears are used to cut through heavier fabric, where "normal" smaller pairs of scissors would prove challenging to use. Traditionally, they are made with cast iron and steel, with a brass bolt holding the blades together. It provides the weight for a steadier hand.














Our tailoring scissors are vintage pairs made from traditional materials, and come in these awesome boxes. They have a well-sized cutting edge (the "bottom" blade), allowing for good slicing through your pet fabrics.