Pea takes viewers on a hands-on field trip to a rice farm in the Philippine provinces, personally riding a carabao and wading into the paddies to demonstrate the entire traditional rice production process from plowing to milling. The video doubles as a love letter to rural provincial life, with Pea narrating each step while visibly enjoying the mud, the animals, and the childhood memories the setting evokes.
The setting: rural provincial Philippines
- Pea and Jen trek down a narrow path to reach the rice paddies
- Pea remarks on the beautiful green scenery and says it reminds her of childhood memories — "it's very similar" to where she grew up
- They encounter Jen's son and a shy female cow along the way
Provincial water source and daily life
- Water flows out from under rocks through a bamboo pipe
- Locals use this single water source for drinking (unboiled, straight from the flow), laundry (detergent wrappers visible nearby), and bathing ("Filipino style — bucket style under a big acoustic tree")
- No running water infrastructure — everything happens at this one natural spring
The carabao (water buffalo) — "the star of the video"
- Called water buffalo by foreigners, carabao by Filipinos
- Described as the "main workhorse of rice production" — ubiquitous across the entire country
- The one featured is a four-year-old female, described as "very docile"
- Pea rides one carabao to reach the working carabao that does the plowing
- She hooks up the plow herself (noting it's heavy) and rides the carabao through the paddy
Step 1: Plowing the rice paddy
- Each section must be plowed thoroughly using the carabao-pulled plow
- The goal is to turn the soil into a "mushy paste" — that's the indicator the field is ready for planting
Step 2: Preparing rice seedlings
- Soak rice grains for two nights and two days until sprouts emerge
- Plant the sprouted grains in a designated section of a rice paddy
- Wait for seedlings to grow to transplanting size
Step 3: Transplanting seedlings by hand
- Pull the grown seedlings from the nursery section
- Plant them in the flooded rice paddy — the water must sustain the rice stock
- Each seedling goes 2-4 inches deep and 6 inches apart to allow growing room
- Must be planted in straight lines to make harvesting easier
- All done entirely by hand while standing in the water
- Pea does this herself, noting she's simultaneously getting "a mud bath, sun tan, and hair spa day"
Step 4: Waiting
- At least three months until harvest-ready
Step 5: Harvesting
- Rice turns golden yellow when ready
- Cut manually using a scythe (called "galab" in Visayan)
- Done by hand across the entire field
- Workers are barefoot — "no boots or gloves, this is how it is"
Step 6: Drying the rice grains
- Rice grains are separated from the stalks
- Laid out to dry under the sun
- The leftover rice stalk detritus is kept to feed the carabaos — nothing goes to waste
Step 7: Milling
- Once fully dried, grains are collected into sacks
- Delivered to a milling station where the rice husk is removed
- The finished product is the white rice grain sold in supermarkets
- Pea notes it's "very difficult to peel the rice husk manually"
