Top 5 Highlights of Food Systems Course

My Top 5 things to share…

         This block totally confirmed for me that I want to be a farmer… all I want to do and learn about is food. Food food food! I just love it! So yes, I was in complete love with everything we did on this course. Here is a play-by-play of the highlights, but basically what we did was travel around to different places and learn about methods of sustainable (economically, socially, and environmentally) agriculture in communities in Northern Thailand.

1) Pig Harvest.
We spent a few days at a project site in Northern Thailand that focuses on education of sustainable food production in the Northern Villages. There we had a pig harvest where we killed, butchered, cooked and ate a pig from start to finish. I have a lot more to say about this experience than I will let on right now, but it was really incredible for many reasons. I think everyone in my group had a different experience, but I will tell you about mine.

         Before we began we were asked to think about the moment that we went from thinking about the pig as an animal to thinking about it as food: it was always food to me. Even when we visited in beforehand and it was walking around and oinking, I thought of it as food. I surprised myself with this a little bit because I am a real pig-lover at heart, but this experience really just confirmed to me that I think of animals as food, and I believe they exist to be eaten.

         Basically what we did was hit the pig on the head to make it unconscious (one of my friend, Michael did this), then carried it over to a bamboo mat where my other friend Kari stabbed the heart and we bled the pig. From there we shaved its hair, cut it open, removed the intestines and brought the meat up to carve and cook with. This was a really hard experience for some people, but also very humbling. Where we all sat around and decompressed at the end of the day, talking about how it made us feel to see something die, how the pig must have felt, if we thought the process was humane or not… our Thai instructor reflected that there was nothing strange to about the day to her, that in Thailand people kill pigs all the time. (Yeah, they do!) People around the world kill animals every day, so they can eat. It made me feel a little bit guilty of our emotions, and really caused me to let go of all other factors and opinions that stand between me and killing animals. People do it to stay healthy and feed their families, it’s that simple. But this is just my personal opinion, I highly respect those who have big hearts and use them to feel sensitive towards suffering beings.

Our Pig, after being bled

2) Staying with a celebrity in the village of Mae Ta. 
Basically, I went to paradise. Our class went to stay in a village that is almost entirely self-sustainable after they switched from practicing industrial monocrop farming to polyculture organic farming. 20 years ago these farmers were in millions of Baht worth of debt, and my host father one day decided that he wanted to see if organic farming was more profitable- and it was. I stayed with the hero of the village! He went around teaching all of his friends how to farm organically, and started a cooperative and network of community support in the village. Today around 100 families in this village grow all of their own food and feel themselves and their neighbors, as well as earning a living from selling the rest of their food at a market in Chiang Mai. This village radiates health, happiness and resilience! My host sister Pi Pui is currently researching how to save seeds from the crops they grow in order to decrease their reliance on outside organizations even further. I want to say I will live here someday, or at least live in a place kind of like it… . The hardest part, though, was thinking about how much harder it is to farm this way in the United States. For Thai farmers it is less expensive to farm organically because they don’t have to spend money on fertilizers or pesticides, and the growing season is year-round.

Getting ready for the market

3) Selling at the market with my family. 
After our last night staying the self-sustainable wonder village that it Mae Ta, we woke up at 3:30 am and traveled to Chiang Mai to sell with our families at the Organic farmers market. One of my favorite parts of this day was bonding with my host mom, helping her take money, and bag produce, and talking to the customers in Thai… it was just so cozy, I felt so safe and pure standing next to her and helping distribute such healthy food. We were wrapped in a blanket of cool but humid darkness for about 2 hours selling from 5-7 am under the lights of the pavilion. There was just such community there, it really touched my heart. The best part is that we did a price and quality comparison of the products at the organic market versus the Thai version of Walmart. And guess what? The organic market products were on average 1/6^th of the price, and almost always came with better quality and selection. (!!!!!!!) Whaaaaat??? #GoawayUSA

Selling produce with out Mae, all from the farm <3

4) Learning about Agroforestry. 

Have you ever heard of it? I hadn’t… but now I have, and it’s AWESOME. Basically, it means utilizing a forest for food by growing native plants and trees and harvesting them with enough time for the supply to replenish itself. It’s taking advantage of the natural edible biodiversity in Thailand (which is very diverse). We hiked through 4 villages practicing agroforestry where again, the people are happy, healthy and resilient! Hiking between the last two villages was my favorite part- the hills literally rose up around us offering food in the most beautiful shapes and patterns- we hikes for 3 miles through hills and hills of food. The first village we went to we took a walk around the community forest with the village headman, Mr. Bueler. I have never seen such a physically enthusiastic food man in my life! He was around 70 years old. This man was about food through and through. He frolicked through the land practically clicking his heels with delight passing around food for us to sample, and thanking the earth for its bounty. He swung from vines, threw fruit in the air, and danced about making the sound effects of the forest. If this isn’t health, I don’t know what is…

The hills are alive, with the sites of food!

5) Snuggling. I’m a little bit shy to admit how much of a highlight this was for me, but being on a program of 28 people, it can be a balance to both experience Thailand, and also get to know everyone. There are so many people that I love here and am trying to get to know better, and one of the things I loved about this course was that we had time together, so we snuggled, and it was great.

Wooster snuggle! We had an awesome mosquito net that cradled us to sleep every night.

Pictures:

My Thai class, the day before we left our teacher :(

The fields near my host families house

The styles of houses in the village

Sohm Oh! (Grapefruit) which we picked off of this tree and ate in the middle of the woods! Local to the max.

The seeds from the vegetables my host family grows.

Preparing crickets for dinner (you pull out the anus and all of the intestines, and snap the legs off)

Eating the fried crickets

Hat time with Pi Pui (older host sister) on our farming day!

Dilip, an exchange farmer visiting from Bhutan

My host mother, working on the farm

We harvested this "weed" that is also very flavorful to put in eddies or curries, we sold it by the bunch at the market the next day.

Weeding

The miracle farm!

Making lunch

Pomegranates DO grow in Thailand, even organically!

My friend Sarah, Pi Pui and Dilip packing eggplant for the market

The organic market at dawn

Michael drinking organic coffee, conveniently in front of someone wearing the most functional hat ever!!

A sign outside the market

I love this picture, and I love this girl! She's the best <3 the uke is coming in so handy, and is fun to play in transit (right now we are in a Roht Deng- taxi truck)

Making a natural pesticide from enema, a plant that repels mosquitos

Using a massive mortar and pestle to mash our pesticide ingredients

Derek spraying the plants using an awesome pressurized backpack dispenser type thing

Next we poured hot water on it so the hair would come off, and we shaved it with little knives

Removing the intestines

Butchering all of the meat

We pretty much used all of the parts of the pig and had a giant feast!

Khaow Nee-ow or "sticky rice"- so. good.

An agroforest village

The cuties of the village <3 my host brother is on the left.

My awesome roommate, Liz

We came back from the villages and the next night went out for pizza with my family :) that processed stuff I told you about before...

This week we went over to cook a lot... Zena and I made Som Tam, grilled pork and sticky rice. "It is very delLEEcious" says Yod

And we made chocolate cheesecake...

And oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, (Zena, Yod, and Liz)

And sugar cookies, (Kari, Emily and Yod)

And apple crisp! (Yod, Emma and Nick)

The Endings, the Beginnings and the In-Betweens

This is my Thailand-apropriate bathing suit, 
no more hiking clothes!

I wanted to write a post with a point right now but I’m not in the right frame of mind. I haven’t blogged in about a week, and I want to keep up! So I am just going to write to write.

         Right now I am sitting in a café at on the bottom level of our apartment complex using the WiFi and catching up on the mounds of reading we have for school. Monday starts our Agroecology Block (the second of four units of curriculum during our time here), and with this comes quite a bit of work. Friday afternoon I went home with a large, juicy stack of untouched, unruffled, uncreased stack of books and field journals all to be read, written in and filled over the next 4 weeks of our course. There was something so cozy about being enveloped in things to learn, and the best part is, I feel SO ready and enthused to learn it all. Different from what I have told my parents, I feel as though I have almost never been able to make my school work my top priority, but I am in Thailand to LEARN. And the best part is, this is my stuff, my “thing” my passion I guess. (I think) Our course is called “Sustainable Food Systems”. Thinking about it sends me into zaps of anxious glee! THIS IS ALL I WANT TO DO/LEARN ABOUT!!!!

         Yesterday we moved into apartments for the rest of our time in Thailand, which meant leaving my host family. This was really bittersweet for me, because although I felt as though I had to provide a lot of closure, they are certain we will spend lots of time together in the future. I do hope to go back and hang out with them on weekends. Perhaps the most endearing part of leaving them was reading my host brother the thank you note that my mom wrote to his Mom, asking him to translate to her in Thai. As he spoke he kept getting choked up, teary eyed, was blinking rapidly. Embarrassed, he covered his face and ran out of the room, overwhelmed with emotion. He has taught me so much, and I am so lucky to have him.

         My school hosted a farewell dinner as part of our leaving our families, we all dressed in traditional Lanna clothing, and there was a talent show performed by the students. Yod and I sang two Thai songs, "Lam La Bam Ciao Ko" and "Chang, Chang, Chang" about elephants. That night I didn't stop smiling for like an hour and a half. All of my classmates got up on stage and did the most cutest, impressive, talented tasks mostly thrust upon them by their host families including singing, dancing, and playing music. It was awesome.

         Living with a family here has really reminded me of the importance of Family. There is nothing like being loved. I really respect the decisions my host parents have made in their raising of Yod, and I can tell he is everything to them. Being able to share in the tight bonds they have with one another is really special.  Just a few pictures to share until another update sometime this week :)

I introduced us in Thai, and Yod introduced us in English

The room full of families, I have 26 classmates, all with large host families!

We sang a thank you song all together

The flower I presented to my Mae

The Thai class! We have SO much fun together and have the best, most loving Ajaan (prof) from L-R Andrew, Jenny, Ajaan Budsakorn, Cassie and Me

Farm to Table: Chiang Mai Style

Chick cupcakes!! One of my favorite recipes...

Happy Bakers

        This weekend all I did was bake… and eat. Apparently Khun Mae is one of the only people in Chiang Mai with an oven. I’m pretty sure she is also the person in Thailand/Southeast Asia/maybe even the entire world who owns the most cooking supplies. There is nothing this woman doesn’t have, and she uses about 10% of it on a daily basis. Her kitchen is half inside half outside, with walls of glass shelving units housing heaps of bowls, spoons, dishes, tools and machines to make every kind of food you could ever imagine. She has a bread maker, kitchen aid mixer (gifted by a previous host student), flame torch and deep frier. She has every size and shape of pan, bowl, muffin mold, spatula and nifty slicer/scraper/shaper. (Oh, except a grater, she could use one of those). And, like I said, she has an oven, which scores major points here. This weekend we made apple cake, chick cupcakes, pie crust and chocolate chip cookies. I managed to accidentally dump the chick cupcakes in the sink, and they were ruined. If Lucrecia and Brian are reading, they will find this extra funny because the last time I made these I did the same thing… only that time was on the carpet, frosting side down. The chocolate chip cookies were to bring to school… I kind of went to town (a quadruple batch, 100 cookies plus some dough for snacking).

         Cooking with my Mae has been an unmatchable bonding experience. I learn so much about her through her fascination with food. We still can’t say much to each other, and even though I nod and smile when she talks to me, she knows I still don’t really understand her. I decided to start simple and go with some “classic” desserts/snacks. Most of the recipes I suggested had already been introduced to her by her previous host students, so we got a little more technical. They love apples, so apple cake was easy, and Khun Mae miraculously remembered the chick cupcakes from a photo I had shown her 3 weeks ago and asked to make those too. I like that recipe because they are cute and delicious. But today we went to a book store and spent about an hour browsing the cooking section, making big plans for the rest of my stay. Our list includes chocolate cheesecake, cream puffs, banana upside down cake, and crème brulee. Like I said she has a flame torch, and wants to buy ramekin cups- a worthy investment in my opinions. This is really fun for me because it makes me feel like an expert on Farang food, and it makes me feel like I can give her something in return for the wealth of knowledge she is giving to me in the magical and “authentic” realm of cultural cuisine known as Thai food. More to come about cooking that stuff…

Yod using the new apple slicer

We also made spaghetti with white sauce for dinner, Yod got a little talk about eating all of the food on his plate.

Beautiful Chiang Mai

         Back to rice. I learned a bit more about it today from a reading I had for class from Charles F. Keyes’ Thailand: Buddhist Kingdom as a Modern Nation-State: “… rice is a basic of life for all who live in Thailand. Rice (khao) is equated with food in a basic sense, all other foods being considered as ‘that which is eaten with rice’. From rice one acquires not only nutrition but something that is also spiritual in essence. All of the peoples in Thailand, like their neighbors elsewhere in Southeast Asia, conceive of rice as having ‘vital essence’ that is the same as possessed by human beings. Rice not only unites people in Thailand, it also serves to distinguish them… For most people in Thailand the main food to be eaten with rice is fish, in some form. Fish Sauce made from salted fish is used as either the base for hot sauces or as seasoning. Fish sauce in particular is to Thai food what soy sauce is to Chinese or Japanese food” (11). This is pretty much my experience in another man’s words. He tells it like it is. Thailand must also be spoken of in relation to the countless tropical fruits that grow here that the people thrive upon! Passion fruit, guava, man koot, gno, pineapple, watermelon, farang, and countless others are staples in a Thai diet.

         Being the foodie that I am, and having visited a rice field and eaten rice every night, I can’t help but wonder where all of this food comes from. According to my host parents (and granted, there is still a degree of language barrier to be factored in here), all of the rice served or eaten in the city of Chiang Mai is grown in the surrounding suburbs (Mae Rim, Lampung, Doi Sukhet) on rice farms. In fact, The surrounding areas of Chiang Mai grow so much rice that much of it is sold to Bangkok or even exported. Additionally, when visiting the markets here, one gets a sense that everything being sold is coming from the surrounding area, there is no fancy packaging or pre washed and weighed kind of deal. This observation was confirmed at a presentation we had from someone at the city planning association in Chiang Mai, who seemed to think that having food grown in the surrounding suburbs was not quite as good as it could get. Now, of course all of this food is coming from so close by because of the climate, and the ability of the people to grow/raise this food year round, but needless to say I am still very impressed.

Learning about growing our own food,
and growing 2 plants in the same pot!

         Additionally, many families (like mine) have small gardens where they grow greens or raise chickens. This food significantly supplements each meal. I recently learned of the “Sufficient Economies” model that is a declared goal for all of Thailand to basically become self-sustaining. The way to do this is to have small communities primarily sustaining themselves with small amounts of exchange or transport of certain items throughout Thailand. Last week we visited a small functioning community/village inside the city and went to visit a man who sustains his own consumption of produce. It was really interesting to hear about his goals for his family in the context of the “Sufficient Economies” model, and how he has explored many farming methods and techniques to be producing all of the crops he needs throughout the year. Supposedly this movement is taking off, and it will be interesting to see if Thailand achieves this goal. I think they are very capable of it in terms of production, it will be the organization that will be the most important.

The garden we visited

Bananas!

         With that, I reach the climax of this post, our “Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai” dinner we had tonight. We had a pork dish that is a Chaing Mai recipe/favorite, with all Chiang Mai ingredients, including greens on the side from our garden. Ugh, local food comes so easily here…

All these veggies are from the garden!

This is a Chiang Mai dish, spicy pork. In the north, we like our food spicy.

To all of my K friends, good luck with classes today. Thinking of you!

 

** Side note: much of this food is grown with terrible chemicals and unsustainable farming practices. I will learn more about this soon, and will definitely update you, but I have decided that when I have to make the choice I prioritize local over sustainable.

The cave we rock climbed, ziplined, and repelled in on friday.