After asking a couple of places, we were finally accepted as volunteers on the beautiful Haivaandee Farm. We got to stay there for 12 days and were very sad, when we had to leave. This beautiful, vegan permaculture farm near Phayao stole our hearts. It is owned and operated by Pure, who hosts up to 9 volunteers at a time and build this project from scratch 6 years ago. The goal is to become almost completely self-sufficient and there are some expansion plans in place already, however at the moment, some things still have to be bought. Nonetheless it is very impressive, how many things Pure produces on his own and we got some insight into his daily schedule to make this possible. Here is our experience at Haivaandee Farm:
What to expect:
What a typical day looked like
The days were very loosely structured, which left us with enough freedom to create our own routines around the actual work. For me this meant getting up very early, between 5:30am and 6am, which gave me the opportunity to do my morning training before anyone else got up. I had the most beautiful spot, on the deck overlooking the pond, seeing the sun rise while doing my Qui Gong routines, meditating and eye exercises. Then around 8am everyone had breakfast together and we discussed the work for the day. After breakfast most took a short break to get ready for work and then you just got started with your assigned job. If anything was unclear, it was always possible to ask Pure, who was sometimes doing his own thing or switching between the different volunteer teams. Between 11 and 12pm Pure would go to the kitchen and start cooking. He always needed some help, mainly with cutting vegetables, so I typically took the chance to get out of the sun and see, how he prepares the food. Others took a break or kept doing their work until called for lunch. Afterwards, we all had a little break, avoiding the hottest hours of the day and either relaxing or working on some personal stuff. Then some did another work session in the afternoon, either working on an individual project like building something, doing some painting etc. or helping out/learning something in the kitchen. This was the time when tofu and tempeh was made or some dough for bread or brownies prepared. Dinner was also prepared as a group effort and in the evenings, we were free to do what we please – many volunteers sat together for some time, stories were exchanged, there was a guitar and often a little fire. David and I usually only joined for a short time before going to bed, but we had a fantastic time with the others.
The food
As mentioned before, the food was 100% vegan and mostly self-grown. And it was absolutely delicious. Freshly cooked and from the own fields simply tastes better, there’s no denying that. Pure cooks very well and we were happy to get some of his recipes. Even though it was purely vegan, we didn’t feel like it lacked any proteins as there was always something with tofu or tempeh and the shear variety of food was amazing. For breakfast most ate porridge with fresh fruit (mango, papaya, banana), but Pure also prepared some vegetables with tempeh, which I absolutely fell in love with. There was always the possibility to have some brown rice (self-grown, sadly we missed the harvest a couple of weeks prior to our stay) and chilli sauce in varying degrees of spiciness (this one he bought). For lunch and dinner, we often had some noodles as well (also bought) and a mixture of vegetable dishes, usually at least one soup, one fried mix and some salad. One of my favourites was the old but gold baked sweet potato, but I genuinely liked everything. What was surprising to me was how much I liked the various mushrooms in almost every dish. I have never particularly liked mushrooms (or as some would put it – I avoided them at every cost), but here I started liking and valuing them for the different taste and texture they bring to the dishes. On two occasions we had some extraordinary dinners, once Pure bought seaweed and rice paper so we had sushi/spring rolls, which were super good, especially with the self-made peanut sauce. I made the mistake of letting myself get involved in a little wasabi eating competition that evening though, so while I loved the food, and kind of won the competition, the spoon full of wasabi caused me to feel quite unwell for a time (who would have thought that the problem isn’t tongue or nose but feeling it go down the oesophagus and feeling sick once it arrives in your stomach?). Well, I learned something that day, and so did my fellow competitor. The other special dinner was pizza night. Getting good pizza in Thailand was kind of hard, usually they are super expensive and then you are disappointed by the taste. But Pure’s pizza tasted delicious, and we didn’t even miss the cheese on there (cheese in Thailand isn’t that good anyways). And yes, we put pineapple on the pizza, the Italian present didn’t mind one bit.
The animals
Due to the farm being vegan, there weren’t any farm animals present. But Pure has 3 adorable cats, whose food is the only non-vegan food he buys. They’re names are Miau, Mon and Mur and they are super chilled, letting volunteers pick them up, carry them around and stroke their bellies without complaining. On the contrary even, they often sought the presence of humans and were very adamant about sleeping in our beds. Although we weren’t supposed to let them sleep in the beds, because sometimes volunteers are allergic and the cats shouldn’t get too used to being allowed to sleep in the beds, it’s hard to keep them out if there is a huge gap under your door and one window is missing. So, we kind of settled for them sleeping outside of the mosquito net, even though Miau once somehow managed to get under it. The most affectionate cat was Mur, a kitten that had only been adopted a week before we arrived. She was incredibly playful and loved sitting on people’s laps and shoulders, often hunting toes under the table and always playing. One particular morning she had spent the night sleeping on our bed and when I got up, she kind of climbed along the mosquito net to where I was. I plucked her from it and instead of letting me put her down, she climbed up my shirt and sat behind my neck. And she just stayed there even though I was moving a lot, first going to the toilet and then doing Qi Gong with her sitting there. When I put her down so I could move more freely, she started attacking my feet, legs and face, whenever in reach, until I picked her back up. The name Mur was given to her by a Russian volunteer, and it translates to purr, which is exactly what she did when you had her on your shoulder. Very loudly and directly in your ear. So yes, everyone loves her. She’s just too adorable.
The work
The farm offered a variety of tasks, so everyone could choose what they are most interested in and do that. During our stay two Israeli volunteers showed a particular interest in bamboo building and they spent pretty much all their working hours doing some construction. While David spent some time building a shelf for the mushroom house, when given a choice I worked in the fields. There was some open ground, where we started planting vegetables. We also thinned out the banana trees, which grow insanely fast; removed the thicket behind the kitchen, which was burned right next to us, producing quite a lot of smoke; and did some weeding in the older fields. We watered the plants, which takes ages, so there are some plans regarding building a watering system soon. Pure showed us how to choose the bamboo you want to use and how to split it into smaller stripes. I even got to build a little bamboo tent for the cucumbers to climb on and build a stray tower with the freshly produced stray. Two of my personal highlights however were 1) seeing the corn I planted sprout and 2) painting a round bed sitting right outside the kitchen (during the whole process trying to keep the kitten from catching my paint brush). Overall, it was an incredibly satisfying, versatile working experience and I am already looking forward to going to a farm (maybe this farm?) again.
Altogether it is easy for me to say, that I loved staying with Pure. The farm was great, I love being physically active during my work and being able to do my Kung Fu routines and express myself artistically was just great. We got along really well with the other workawayers and Pure even took us on an excursion to a nearby waterfall in a national park, where we felt like a family on a day out, climbing up the waterfall and through the jungle, having a picnic and sitting in the back of his pickup truck to get there. We learnt so much, about ourselves, our needs, the food, the culture, permaculture and farming. I feel so incredibly grateful for this experience, and I am sure, that those memories are going to shape my future in the best way possible.
What do you think about our stay? Is this something you would like to do as well? Are there aspects you particularly liked or disliked? Let me know in the comments below! xxx
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