Trip to the Countryside

Here's something for you. A little New York Times review of a restaurant not far from my school in Chiang Mai Thailand. A couple days ago I was able to visit the farm mentioned in the article - Pun Pun. Legacy is hoping to become progressively more self-sufficient, specificallly by growing food at the farm here. Any followers of my blog will know that I love to take farm pics! Well, I think with the help of a new teacher, Abby, the farm will really expand and have more of a process. Since I've been interested in the farm (but not knowledgeable about it) I am happy to play secretary and organize our outings to learn more. Through someone I met a few weeks ago, I was able to hear about several farms in the area that have a goal of being self-sufficient and/or improving organic farming practices. That led to our trip to Pun Pun. We hoped to go and get as much information as we could!

On the way there, we rode in the back of the veggie truck - not many veggies, though, actually.

The foreground is not the Pun Pun farm, the two buildings up on the hill are part of it.

We got to help peel a big bunch of garlic. They didn't grow this (it's difficult and molds easily) but they bought a massive quantity at once.

We also helped them collect seed. This is basil and I just had to pull the leaves off into the bowl. 

Here we are getting asparagus seeds.

A group of us went to another part of the farm and planted fruit trees. In the picture I am adding manure to the hole before I put in the tree. 

One really interesting thing about this place is that they make earthen buildings.

Here are the mud and rice husk bricks.

Here is one of the houses covered in mud and rice husks, but not painted.

On our way back we met with a fallen avocado tree that they tried to put upright to save the fruit.

The place had electricity but they did use solar panels for hot showers

This area had plants growing specifically for seeds. Seed saving is very important and many of the farms and organizations encourage it.

View from the top of the big earthen building pictured above.

Water tanks. They filtered their water through gravel, sand, and charcoal.

Cute coffee shop. They sell delicious shakes made from produce on the farm. 

The seed area.

We also walked about five minutes to a neighboring organic farm, Panyaa. We spent about 15 minutes there just looking and taking pictures. One thing that I thought was very innovative was the raised garden beds bordered by upside down bottles.

Upside down glass bottles.

There was a lot of information. Many of the specifics are fuzzy. But I do have a better understanding of how a place like that is run. I also am understanding more and more about different fruits and vegetables and learning the right questions to ask. A wonderful learning experience!!!