The garden of perfumed delights

I always knew her as a journalist, fearless and chasing a story that any journalist would incessantly want to run after. Like her mantra – Never Give Up! – Ces Oreña-Drilon always tried and tried again in whatever she wanted to do or conquer.

And that includes gardening, or better yet farming. Farming or gardening needs patience and Ces does have a lot of that. Further, instead of growing only food she chose herbs, grasses and flowers. Even in the city, her rooftop abode has a garden where she has many plants and flowers, medicinal and culinary herbs and one would wonder why she keeps doing it. Because she was just so good at it along with her assistant Irma, two green thumbs working in harmony with nature.

The pandemic came and people were looking for the essentials: hand sanitizers, alcohol sprays, even anti-bug sprays because dengue was also a concern on top of COVID. Ces had always made anti-bug sprays when she started a moringa farm sometime back. I was a fan and would order gallons of her concoctions and would also sell them at ECHOstore. But during the COVID lockdowns, she expanded her knowledge on these oils and sprays by signing up for a perfumery class. She also then learned about “smudge sticks” or the modern-day version of incense and smoking sticks, which used to be part of ancient civilizations. All faiths, including Catholics, have incense burning, and smudge sticks is a similar “smoke and burn” method of changing one’s atmosphere or environment. There are ancient beliefs that these herbs can heal and purify bodies and even spaces.

And because Ces could grow almost anything in her garden, she thought of growing more ingredients such as grass, yes, grass like lemongrass and pandan, but needed a much bigger space. A hunt in upland Cavite took her to a wonderful place in Indang, where the weather is cool and where she can even build a rammed earth house (more on that later).

When we visited Ces in Indang she was starting to grow her flowers, herbs and grass in time for the revival of the pandemic-born Provenciana brand. Her idea to come up with the smudge sticks was just the start. Today she has combined her talent in mixing oils and plants for her line of anti-bug sprays. She is even more challenged to find the solution to the ever present niknik or sand mites that bother our tourists in sandy areas like the shores of Palawan. Provenciana is a combination of the words Provenance (origin) and probinsiana (basic or simple) and so she put up a website with the same name www.provenciana.com where you can find the products she lovingly produces. Her two sons (she has four) helped her put up the website and process orders during the lockdowns but soon after, they had their own stuff to do, and so she is back to managing her humble start up by herself. And I guess that is how it was meant to be. She is back discovering new ingredients and formulating new concoctions inspired by her beautiful pocket garden.

Now she uses 20 kinds of herbs in an aromatic ritual stick called Halimuyak, which means fragrance, and anything associated with flowers and nature. Another product which is called Cecilia (named after the owner) borrows ingredients from other cultures like Palosanto (which comes from faraway Peru) and white sage (from deserts in the US) mixed with our locally-grown flowers and herbs.

So she could finally sleep over at the Indang farm, she needed a house. But as she was already in close communion with Nature, what better way to build than with soil or the earth. In her Indang property Ces decided to engage architect Justin Guiab, who has built a similar structure in El Nido for his father. Rammed earth requires soil, sand, gravel and just a tiny bit of concrete (10 percent). It may be the more sustainable option as it has a lower carbon footprint than your usual steel and cement structure. Though it has taken some time to finish – and as of this writing it still has to get a door fixed into it – Ces will soon have her dogs (she has Shiba Inus) sleeping over in her “rammed earth” home. This may even be the house of the future; with rising temperatures, rammed earth houses stay cool without fans and air conditioning.

Looking back, she just happened to take a soap-making course during the pandemic and then she added a course in natural perfumery which used essential oils gathered from herbs and plants, and look what she came up with. What she thought was a hobby upon retiring from ABS-CBN has become a passion. She now finds natural ways of healing as well as to provide relief for our usual bane in beaches, the sandfly or mites. She is also looking for ways to deal with other bugs that we have to live with when we are close to Nature. I have friends who totally avoid the farms and gardens because they seem to magnetize bugs. Well, Ces may be coming to your rescue soon. I love her original bug spray and it can only get better!

As a consultant and facilitator to a wellness place in Palawan, this is job number one – get rid of the bugs and if you are too late, find a balm to heal the bites. She can make tinctures, poultices and other forms of oil-based sprays like lemon eucalyptus which may soon find its market in our tourist spots along beaches.

That is indeed the other side of Ces, the feisty journalist who still finds time to anchor a news program now on TV5. She asked management to include her weekly dish of #Cestainability (every Thursday) where she can feature sustainability advocates and practitioners. It’s a great combination for this UP-educated media personality – to deliver our news and deliver the cure and relief for our other needs while living the life of a Nature lover in her garden of perfumed delights.