Homemade. Homegrown. Homestead. These are the words written under Maria Dolonius Perrine’s own name on her blog, Maria Perrine. In the past two and a half months, Perrine has quickly become a household name in the Philippines, now regarded as a guru of baking, artisan products, and farm living. But it wasn’t always so for the former GMA talent, whose journey started ten years ago with simple showbiz burnout.
“I needed a break and I wanted to shift out of showbiz,” she says, “I wanted to work with my hands.” Then 21-year-old Maria decided to enroll for a diploma in pastry and kitchen management at ISCAHM. It was during that course that she discovered how much she enjoyed the kitchen. It was during that course that she definitively knew she wouldn’t be returning to any network. Instead, she applied to work in hotels, going on to the kitchens of both Shangri-La in Makati and Sofitel. As much as she enjoyed the hotel kitchens, her career as a pastry chef shifted in 2013, when she married Paul Perrine and moved to Bukidnon, where Paul’s family owns the Hineleban Farms and Foundation.
Farm life was very different, although it still allowed her to work with her hands. “I did a lot of learning in my first six years at the farm,” she shares. “I learned how they trained horses, I helped where I could within the Hineleban Foundation, I learned how to plant and grow food, I learned to care for animals, and I learned so much about nature and what is sustainable through my husband and his family.”
Maria in her element.
Becoming more familiar with the systems of the farm and further falling in love with making everything from scratch, Maria did a lot of research on different methods that would make farm living more efficient, and it was then she realised that 1) a lot of what they did on the farm were things that could be adapted to city living and 2) no one was creating tutorials for the Philippines. And so the idea of the blog began.
“I wanted to get on a platform, but I wanted to be different,” she says. “I wanted to be real and relatable, and I wanted to market things on or from the farm or that I end up making. I started with a blog, but people didn’t understand what I was writing because the recipes were too detailed. So I tried videos on Instagram and YouTube, and they loved the videos!”
Maria launched her blog in January of this year. It was, in retrospect, perfect timing. As the world was plunged into a quarantine and everyone spent three months in their homes, Maria became more relevant than any fashion blogger, style influencer, or personality. “All of a sudden it became a thing. Everyone was making bread and sending me their stuff!” she says.
Indeed, Maria’s following includes some of the Philippines’ favourite celebrities, moms, gardeners, and home bakers. The wide reach is largely due to Maria’s content, which is not just baking–although that has been the most popular. More than an extraordinary homemaking blogger, Maria is championing locally made products that are tied to the entire homestead or farm living lifestyle. Chopping boards, kneading boards, homemade kefir, food that is grown and raised on farms and delivered straight to your kitchen, if it is made by hand then it’s making online, and with the growing success of the videos, the blog is slowly going to become an online store for the products she is championing.
Her first product is a chopping board, handmade on the farm by Oliver Hill.
“I wanted to focus on things that can be created at home and with your hands, so yes that was baking, but it’s also deli products and other foods. It’s a lot of caring for your garden, so things like composting. And, it’s about promoting Philippine artisanship and craftsmanship from this part of the country. Everything is so beautiful here, and I wanted to share that.”
Adding to all of this, Maria is also a homeschooling mom to a soon to be five-year-old. What started as necessity–the farm is simply too far from any school–turned into the perfect teaching opportunity. She recognises how lucky her child is to be growing up on a farm, learning gardening and animal care and a natural love for nature. During the lockdown, Maria also posted a quick homeschool tutorial video for all the frantic moms unsure of how to teach their young kids. It currently is one of the most viewed videos on her YouTube channel.
Diverse, useful, and down-to-earth authentic, Maria Perrine is sure to be one of the most relevant moms of the new norm, and we join the thousands in the country that are watching to see what she makes next.
Follow Maria on the following platforms:
Instagram @mariaperrine
YouTube Maria Perrine
Blog Maria Perrine
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