With lots of laughter and fun, we finished creating our mud oven, but needed to complete the project with a coat of earthen plaster to protect it from the elements and accentuate the sculpture of a Walrus that graces the top of the oven.  We began by boiling large pots of water mixed with tapioca starch. Then we added some sifted fine sand and pigment… and voila! We had an earthen plaster in three beautiful hues, which we painted the oven with. We applied the plaster by hand to the oven and to the walrus’s smiling face. This simple plaster recipe has been used for generations all around the world as an easy and biodegradable paint. It will withstand a bit of rain, too. The ovens new paint job was just one part of the outdoor classrooms remodeling.

Mixing the tapioca starch to create the earthen plaster

Applying finished plaster with helping hands

We also designed and painted a mural which now graces the walls of the sala. It features plants   found around the farm, including a tree arching over the blackboard with a sign welcoming you to the farm. There is even a bird hunting for worms. Around the corner from the blackboard the mural asks students to “think before you throw” garbage into the bins. All these paintings help to make the sala feel, look and function as an outdoor classroom, and an extension of the PTIS school buildings.  This all took a few weeks to complete, but was a great way for staff to spend time together, getting creative and reconnecting. 

Nit painting the welcome sign

Recycle your waste over here!

Our classroom

Last week we had our February immersion class. The first day started with a lesson on Thai ingredients and equipment. This serves to lay the foundation of what students will be using during their time with us. After lunch at a local restaurant, a trip to the market provided all the ingredients we needed to prepare a beautiful, seasonal dinner in the cooking sala. The menu: spicy chicken salad, stir fried chive blossoms and morning glory, cucumber and minced pork soup, pad see ewe, and bael fruit tea, rounded off by a delicious steamed pumpkin with ginger, sesame and shredded coconut. The next morning we woke early to walk through the farm on our way to our local villagers house where we spent the morning preparing alms trays for the monks at the local temple. We prepared chicken and white gourd soup, sticky rice, gaeng hom and nam prik noong. After presenting it at the temple, we shared the lunch we had prepared together in the hosts house.

The last day we visited with a local healer who took us into her garden and showed us how to harvest herbs to prepare an herbal compress for massage. After cleaning, chopping and pounding the herbs, they were tied up in muslin cloth and steamed, before being applied with massage to the body. This was followed with an herbal steam bath and dunk in the cold pool. Three days of cooking, eating, talking, learning and relaxing left the entire group happy and inspired. Enjoy the pictures!

Pounding the paste for Gaeng Hom

Our hosts kitchen

The herbs we collected to prepare the herbal compress

Preparing the herbs

Applying the compress

Our third market day was another success, bringing together parents, students, staff and visitors to Prem together around good food and fresh produce! This month we added a foot massage stall, organic ice cream and Sabu-Sabu!

Here are some great pictures from our Slow Food event in December. We had fifty people in attendance and there were a lot of guests who were interested in starting a Slow Food Chiang Mai convivium! It is very exciting to have a restaurant like Krapood on campus to host special events and dinners for guests to the cooking school, it is an opportunity to highlight the incredible regional food of this part of the world. The best was getting to cut the ribbon, which was created out of turtle egg eggplants hanging from a basket of local fruits and vegetables!

Mien, served with the shots of local whiskey

Cutting the turtle eggplant ribbon

Beautiful Krapood

An artfully arranged basket of local produce

Whiskey Label

We gathered 55 people last night for our grand opening of Krapood restaurant and our Slow Food celebration of Terra Madre Day! The chefs were cooking for two days and from 4:00am the day of the event. We will be posting pictures and stories in the next couple of days. We wanted to share the delicious menu.

We are teaming up with Krapood restaurant to host a grand opening celebration and to participate in a global event called Terra Madre Day! The event has called people across the globe to come together around issues of food sustainability in our local communities. Krapood promotes small scale and environmentally responsible food production by serving local, seasonal, organic and traditional Northern Thai food from our farm. We will encourage people to consider where their food is coming from and promote the values of our local Thai community by sharing and eating around the table. Come join us!

The K3 class at Prem is working on a unit of inquiry about how humans manipulate water to suit their needs. They studied the waterways and irrigation at the farm, they froze water to make delicious popsicles, and then they came to the cooking academy to prepare a recipe that required boiling. We prepared a traditional Thai dessert called bua loi sam see. In the olden days Thai cooks used roots, leaves and blossoms as natural food colorings in dessert making. Pandanus leaf is used for green; butterfly pea blossoms turn it purple, and turmeric a beautiful and bright yellow. One of the desserts that display this cleverness of Thai cooks is bua loi sam see. The Thai word for lotus is bua; loi = float; sam = three, and see = color. Thus, the name is translated as three colors floating lotus. 

The class split into three groups and each group prepared a natural dye by pounding the plants in a mortar and pestle and then adding water to make a liquid dye. Then they mixed water with rice flour and some of the liquid to make a smooth dough. The dough is then shaped into small pea sized balls and boiled until they float in the water. Once they are all cooked they are served with coconut cream sweetened with palm sugar. It was a wonderful activity and the students loved it! Many of them were able to talk about the changing chemical reaction of water from a solid to liquid to gas! 

The Organic Cooking and Farming Academy hosted the first of its new monthly markets last Friday, 30 October. Many administrative and teaching staff, parents, students
and academy staff turned up to enjoy freshly-prepared foods, organic farm produce and plants and local handicrafts and honey. Thank you to everyone who attended for making the afternoon so festive and successful. The community market will be held on the last Friday of every month from 2.30 pm – 5.30 pm, so don’t miss the next one on 27 November! Join us for good food, community, and to take care of your holiday shopping! There will be many more surprises this month!

We are busy announcing the dates for our 2010 Thai cooking, farming and culture classes. Click here to check out our latest press release!

The Prem Organic Cooking and Farming Academy is featured in the October Issue of Travel and Leisure Magazine! The article, titled Budding Tastes, highlights our work and the launch of our adult cooking classes! You can read the full article by visiting our news and events page.