Bulakenyos turn bonsai into novelty gifts
The Bulacan Bonsai Society (BULBS) has, for years, developed the skills of producing dwarfed plants on miniature pots.
“We started as hobbyists but we later found out that we can make money out of the bonsai that we are taking care of everyday,” said BULBS president Elmer Villareal, a dentist by profession.
Villareal said the number of BULBS members have increased through the years.
Today, this group of hobbyists is earning money from dwarf plants that many Bulakenyos buy to give away as Christmas presents.
Prices of their products range from P300 to as high as P30,000 depending on the size and age of the trees they made as bonsai.
Another hobbyist, Rene Robles of Guiguinto town, started as a bonsai collector. He later started selling his plants as he branched out into dish garden making.
“For me, bonsai and dish garden making are therapeutic economically, physically and spiritually,” Robles said while demonstrating how to make a dish garden worth at least P2,000 in less than 15 minutes.
Robles explained that one needs to focus his mind to make a dish garden. Once he is finished with his work, there is always an unexplainable feeling of personal satisfaction, which is further reinforced when the products are sold according to Robles.
“Christmas season is one of our best times to sell our products because many buyers see them (bonsai and dish garden) as novelty gifts,” he said.
Arsenio de Guzman Jr., also of Guiguinto town, is another hobbyist turned businessman.
He began as a palm collector until he started selling part of his collection that includes a number of “bearded” coco trinax, also known as old man palm.
He used to sell a piece for around P250,000.
For her part, Nina Enriquez of Bulakan town, gained a lot of help from her illustrious mother-in-law, Mila Enriquez, the lone culinary historian of Bulacan.
As one of the landed families in Bulakan, the Enriquezes own a swathe of fishponds in the town’s coastal areas where nipa palm generously grows on its outer boundaries. The family later had a nipa sap vinegar business.
Recently, the Enriquez clan has included bottled nipa sap juice commonly known as “tuba,” and nipa sap syrup, in their roster of products. Some sports enthusiasts use these as energy drink after mixing it with water and calamansi.
“We are the first in the country to be able to make nipa sap juice that can stay long in the shelf without fermentation and without alcohol content like the raw ‘tuba,’” the young Enriquez said.
Meanwhile, in the town of San Miguel, a group of mothers who were dubbed as “businessmoms” have developed a line of meat and sweet products that range from longaniza and tocino to the popular pastillas de leche.
One of the “businessmoms” is Claire Buencamino, who was also able to help her townmates by giving them livelihood through her business. – Dino Balabo
- Latest
- Trending
