Sunday, December 8, 2013

BC Magazine Holiday Gift Guide At A Glance

If you have barely finished your gift-shopping, here are some cool ideas for you to consider. Some are available online, and if anything catches your fancy and it's already unavailable in our listing or you don't know where to buy it STAT, leave a comment and I will ask Santa himself to help us scour.

These appeared in the online edition of BC"s November issue with Amanda, David, Kieran, and Kalon Jacob on the cover. Go to www. bcmag.ph, and just click on their cover to launch the virtual version.

My son is priceless, and not for sale ever--however, the drum set from Bontempi is a crowd pleaser for the kiddies

Special mention on these gorgeous coffee table books, which I have yet to pore through myself










These Mujjo laptop sleeve and iPhone 4 case www.mujjo.com is getting a lot of mileage from me

Love Avent products. The Black & Decker stick blender is my own. Ellington Bag is going to either my mom or sister. Shhhh....

Some of these were gifts to my kids

For the wee ones' soles: Florsheim Kids, Hunter boots, Pedpied, and more

Chichi Mary Children's Boutique www.chichimary.com (pronounced "shee-shee") has a lot of stunning clothing, and deliver anywehere in the Philippines. BC is also making a special Mom & Baby super sale this December 14-15 in Alabang, so watch out for that


For you, momma and dada: Gibi, Havaianas, Toms (Nothing But H2O stores), Ryn, Faconnable etc.

Zutano, Chichi Mary clothing, Diesel Kid

Villa del Conte, Theo & Philo artisanal chocolate—unique and delicious. Naturally, The Farm has their own offerings

...such as the addictive The Farm beef jerky

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

The 7-Month Journey of The Farm Resto in Pictures

Hiiiii!!!! How have you all been? Not that anyone noticed much, but the reason for my shameful lack of posts is that I was not prepared to take on handling responsibilities for BC Magazine US and Philippines, The Farm Resto (#thefarmresto), and a 1-year old boy. Of course, in between that is all the responsibilities for our two daughters, caring for a Golden Retriever who almost passed away this month, and mourning for the loss of our eldest furry Lab earlier this year after more than 12 years of being with us. That's a lot to be said in one go just to fill you in, but anyway for now, here's what has kept us quite bu-zy (had to use a "z" for emphasis).

The Farm Resto serves The Farm Organics from our very own farm in Masbate, which is the first CERTIFIED ORGANIC grass-fed, free-range beef in the Philippines. It is a nutrient-dense, health-promoting food, with NO antibiotics and NO growth hormones. This is what you can call a true farm-to-table experience. We use the freshest and finest ingredients in our meals (from broth, tomato sauce, salad dressings, dough, pasta, pancakes, etc.--all are made from scratch), and fry using coconut oil, which is a more expensive but a much healthier alternative to other oils.

To put you up to speed with our 2013 "baby," I decided to grab photos from my Instagram feed (karizfavis). This is FAR from being complete (and embarrassingly, is not even in chronological order), but do email me your photos and I will get them on this site, if you'd like.

Here we go:

With one of our customers, Cristine Reyes, her brother and sister-in-law, and Derek Ramsay

Organic steak salpicao is one of our bestsellers--it is on my top 5 faves on the menu


With Walter de Mesa of "Listed," who featured us in their TV show

One of our dry run (and repeat) customers, the Nazarenos (Karrots, Bryan, Santino, Lucca)

Oh what a night...this was maybe on our first week of opening. The exhaust conked out, and filled the resto with smoke! Those growing pains of a business are surely...pains. Thank God it was a one-time thing, and that the customers were kind enough to dine al fresco (and the weather cooperated, too)

Jun and Julie Manas

The recently engaged to be married, Victor Aliwalas and Liz Almoro


The blessing, headed by Pastor/Coach Robert with our team, and Danica Sotto-Pingris and Amanda de Leon

Kind words and posts from Rene Fuentes, Santi Araneta, Jim Araneta, Miguel Vecin

Eric and Karla Lirio

Sabina and Maxine (my girls) with us and our partners, Oyo and Kristine Sotto 

"Suki," Cristine Reyes and sister-in-law, Claudine

The Tan Kids (Chris and Shey's)

Julia Montes posted our steak on her IG account

Soft opening day--April 29, 2013. Lisa Bernardo (top) and the Joses (Dado and Becca)

With Jav Villarruel and Pinky Angodung

Tirso Ripoll may not have a photo of himself, but his words are more than enough

Favis cousins (Jaime and Abby Favis;  Marina, Victoria, Gisela Velasco; Rica Jose; Jeri Favis)

Mike Asuncion, Dale Escueta, Toy Armada, Nikky Nicandro (love how he's holding up that apple)

The Farm boys, trying very hard to put up a sign from the opposite side of the road

Martin Tancinco

HS Friends: Francis Abanilla, Barbara Paradero, Cielo Ledesma, Angi and Bob Tolentino with son, Indigo

Assortment of wines and beer

Our beloved children 
Angelu de Leon-Rivera
Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda Efforts :( :( :(

My drink of choice--berries and banana smoothie

Dimples Romana

Amanda Griffin-Jacob and her Kalon

Latest pizza--Truffle mushroom and goat cheese pizza. Must.eat.now.

Tom with Hylton Le Roux of TV show, "Market to Master"

Wine tasting with the Sottos and Neil Risos. I didn't drink because I'm nursing, and yet my photo suggests otherwise

Kristine with Carmina Villaroel

A feature in Preview Magazine

The Manilas (Froi, Fons, Mateo, Sarah)


A feature in Primer Magazine

The Younghusbands in for a nightcap, and the ladies who couldn't wait for them to finish eating before this photo opp

The Garcias and Kramers at the Baby Company baby shower with BC Magazine for Nikka and Patrick Garcia held at The Farm

My girls being filmed by a GMA-7 crew for a story on crosanuts in Manila




Mae Langit and Haydee Enriquez

HS friends (Neil Risos, Pia Panlilio, Lisa Bernardo, Julie Manas)


More HS Friends: Eulah Oliveros, Angi Tolentino, Lisa Vettovaglia, Francis, Barbara, Cielo, Pam Riego de Dios

And again: Carlo and Ethel Cabrejas, Raymund de Luna, Trina and Bern Reyes, Iam and Sheila Lotuaco, Neil, and Raymond Galano

Henry Cavill has absolutely nothing to do with The Farm, but I saw his photo on my IG feed and thought, wouldn't it be "super" to have him as a customer? Teehee


The current "splitting Santa" that watches over our yummy sweets. He's guarding them for me.

You don't know how much your patronage of The Farm means to us, and we sincerely value your business. So tag me, @karizfavis or any of us @thefarmorganics, @khsotto, @osotto on IG and Twitter, if there is ever anything we can do to serve you better. That's not a line.

The Farm is located on the Ground Floor, One Legacy Place Building, Don Jesus Blvd. Alabang Hills Village Muntinlupa City. From the north, take SLEX/Skyway and exit Sucat. From SLEX go to the west service road (going to Alabang). And from the Skyway, go down Sucat and make a quick U-turn to go back to the west service road. Follow that until you reach the gate of Alabang Hills (landmark is Total gas station). Make a right, and The Farm will be on your left, just outside Alabang 400 and across Hillsborough.

Hope to see you sometime :) And have the best of the Holidays in advance!