Month: May 2024

There is a restaurant between Kanchanaburi and U Thong that I have passed many times without ever stopping. And every time, I promised myself we would try it out, the very next time.

So we did.

But it wasn’t the the duck restaurant I was expecting. Nor were the boat noodles a substitute. A bit too sweet. However, that is the Thailand I have got used used to and their pork crackling alone,  was worth the stop.

The tables are set out under mango trees making it a pleasant and agreeable meal.

The entrance is easy to miss as it is off a bend on a fast moving stretch of road. The restaurant is also tucked away out of sight about 25k’s from U Thong on the Kanchanaburi rd.

We are not farmers by any stretch of the imagination. Nor are we strictly organic. But I am constantly reminded of the practical necessity of growing organic produce as we browse the local market where all the vegetables look crisp and perfect.

The creek rose significantly higher after raining most nights for a week or so. But we have had a few dry days and the mushroom stalls have started popping up at the intersection at traffic lights.

But it has been a funny wet season. Sporadic showers after an early start. Thereafter mostly rumbling thunder, a bit of lightening and then little to show for it.

The termite mushrooms aren’t that exciting either.

Smaller, scappy and the ones I have seen have already opened. Hopefully more to come.

Despite this cars are now beginning to line up. Hopefully with more to come.

 

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In international terms Thailand is a relative late-comer as a coffee producer.

Although coffee has been gown for a little over a century, the country only started exporting  Robusta beans in 1976.  Growing to become one of the top twenty five coffee producers in the world.  Unique in that it exports very little of the coffee that is grown.

Most of the consumption remains in the country, having developed a booming specialty coffee ecosystem where farmers, roasters, cafes and consumers symbiotically co-exist.  An example of a working coffee ecosystem where coffee is produced sustainably from both economic and environmental perspectives. A rare achievement in the coffee world. But one that is typically and uniquely Thai.

A lake surrounded by mountains. Peace, tranquility and healthy living at Phuu Fa Nam Organic Farm.

Tucked away on the back roads is an organic farmstay in Suphanburi. A working farm supplying organic produce to markets in Bangkok.