Camarce was born in Bremerton, Washington in the USA. His dad is from Cavite while his mom hails from Bulacan. “I’m Tagalog,” he says proudly.
He started Ridgetop Urban Farms in 2017 in the backyard of one of his parents’ rental properties. “It has a history of being a farm in the early 70s,” he says.
Part of his interest in agriculture came from having lived in the Philippines for four years as a musician, playing for acts such as Ely Buendia, Jess Conelly, Kat Agarrado, and Ourselves the Elves. Before that, he worked full time in the corporate world in the USA. “I went back to the States and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do and I didn’t want to work in the corporate world anymore. I did that for five years. I just didn’t want to live that lifestyle again,” he says.
Camarce belongs to America’s hustle culture, what Filipinos know as ‘diskarte,’ something that he says got from his dad. “My dad comes from a not-so-wealthy background but he was one of those stories where he really came up from the American dream. He’s just full of diskarte and that’s where I come from,” Camarce says. “What got me into farming is I always go against what’s going on. It’s kind of uncommon to be a farmer today... I saw an opportunity and now I’m... trying to go for it.”
The backyard his farm is located on measures 6000 sqft (557.41 sqm). He researched on SPIN (Small Plot INtensive) farming, a natural farming system developed by Canadian Wally Satzewich that aims to produce high crop yield in a small space and is currently using its principles to grow food.
This story is from the May - June 2020 edition of Agriculture.
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This story is from the May - June 2020 edition of Agriculture.
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