Farming, eating, and meditating

My first days at Mindful Farm in the countryside of Chiang Mai, Thailand

Farming

Today, Pi Nan, the Buddhist farmer hosting travelers at his Mindful Farm, offered me a machete and led me into the depths of his biodiverse permaculture forest. As we arrived at the base of a banana tree, my eyes scanned up to a cluster of little, green and golden bananas. It felt surreal as I watched my favorite fruit fall from sky to earth as I hacked the banana tree's limb. Pi Nan cradled the cluster back to the kitchen.

A portion of our singular banana harvest.

In addition to the banana harvest, today I foraged for cherry tomatoes of golden and rosy hues until only hard, mostly green tomatoes remained, and my fingers were sticky with viny fragrance. I helped wash and prepare lettuce and carried their heads, preserved with banana leaves, in a plastic crate through farm fields, over a creek via a bamboo bridge, and finally to a truck headed to Bangkok. Then, I moved rocks from one spot to another until a lunch bell invited me to rest. It is simple, varied, and beautiful tasks like these that grace my mornings.

Eating

A vignette of last night's dinner:

• Piadina (rustic Italian flatbread) with crushed tomato, garlic, onion, and rosemary: a collaboration between an Italian and Belgian.

• Vegan karaage with teriyaki sauce: a creation by a Japanese family.

• Som tum (papaya salad): a gift from Pi Nan’s aunt who gardens at the farm.

• Garden fresh lettuce and cherry tomatoes with a peanut ginger dressing: what I remember of my American peanut noodle escapades.

• Gang buad faktong (pumpkin in coconut milk): by Pi Nan

I was enjoying each creation in isolation until the Belgian beside me became effervescent regarding the fusion of flavors she was experiencing. She fashioned her plate like a flatbread sandwich, with the karaage, teriyaki sauce, and salad enveloped by the piadina. The papaya salad became the sandwich’s compliment, and the pumpkin in coconut milk offered a sweet resolution. This meal felt once-in-a-lifetime, and I reveled in each bite.

Our ingredients are limited and grounded in Thai staples and our harvest- recently pumpkin, eggplant, papaya, banana, coconut, tomato, and lettuce. Often, I am not sure what dishes to prepare with our ingredients. Nevertheless, each guest’s culture-inspired culinary understandings come to play with the gifts of Thailand, and together we enjoy a global-inspired, locally-grown feast.

The view from our dining room.

Meditation

Nightly, we gather for sitting meditation and a Buddhist dharma lesson from Pi Nan. Overhead (on the roof), a lengthy tokay gecko consistently serenades our sitting. After last night’s dinner, Pi Nan shared his understanding of good and bad karma, like seeds we can plant. He relayed that good karma is based in gratitude and bad karma in non-gratitude. Being grateful cultivates a disposition for enjoying the good of life. He offered possibilities of gratitude: for our parents, loved ones, or teachers, as well as mountains, trees, and food we eat. I feel resonate with these lessons as I deepen into a joyful planting of lettuce seeds, delighting in the delicious creations of my companions, or wishing my mom were still in Thailand to enjoy alongside me. What a gift it is to visit Mindful Farm.