Catching up - Thai Bugs

I'd like to think that the slowdown in posts here is just a reflection of how busy I am doing things. And this week has been busy. There was the meeting of the NGO's in Chiang Mai on Wednesday and Thursday (I only went Wednesday), an all day meeting with farmers to talk about the Bangkok Demonstrations Friday in Lamphun, and today (Saturday) Swe picked us up at 7:30am to take us to his village about 2 hours out of Chiang Mai, just below Doi Inthanon, Thailand's highest mountain.

There are lots of pictures and some video, just no time to go through it all and post. And then there was the rain, the first rain since we got here in early January. But I'm going to start with a post on bugs. A few I have stored up and not yet posted and some beautiful ones we saw today. I'm also going to give a nod to malaeng.com. Maleang means insect in Thai. It's a website with all sorts of information on Thai bugs in both Thai and English.


Wednesday night, coming home after dinner, we saw this great swarm of flying things around most of the lights. We'd seen this thing last year at the Sunday night market once too.

Mr. Deraek, Thursday night after work, was sitting with a baggie of red ant eggs. He said that the black ant larvae are the ones that swarm the lights. Oh yeah, the eggs were for Tok, who supposedly loves them. You have to wash off the mature ants and the larvae first. Then you cook them.



And here's from our trip today with Swe.

A small honey comb.

This was one of those cases where my Canon drives me crazy. I just could not get this damsel fly into perfect focus. It certainly posed ok, but it was always a little blurry. I finally took a short video and maybe I'll just have to post that.

And the butterflies wouldn't hold still at all so I gave up and used the video.



I also have some audio of cicadas which are probably hitting the 60 or 70 decibel level at times. I haven't gotten it post ready yet, but those were quieter cicadas in the background of the butterfly video.

The Air Was Thick

"The air was thick" is a cliche that no one should ever write. Except when the air is so thick that it embraces you the way water embraces you in a pool. Wednesday it was like that all day. Hot. Sticky. No one really wanted to move much. They put the air on at the office, but when I went out the air was again a living presence. The sky was greyish, but who knows how much of that was March haze and how much was actual cloud?

It finally rained late that night, accompanied by thunder and lighting. But it was a pathetic rain, nothing befitting the prelude. It happened again Friday afternoon. But this time when the rain came, it came pouring down. We'd had dinner and had walked up the street to buy some things when the first drops came, here and there, dotting the ground. There were flashes in the sky. The street market folks went into a flurry of pulling things down, packing things up, and heading out before it started for real. We made it back to our bikes, the locks off, when the floodwaters came pouring down. So we slipped back into the restaurant we'd eaten in 20 minutes before and waited for things to settle down a bit.

Twenty minutes later, with the pounding on the overhead covering lessened, we got our bikes and rode home in the rain. It was cool and refreshing and not so heavy that we were soaked. But even with all that cleansing, Saturday morning's view of the mountains was still not particularly clear.

I do remember forty years ago in Kamphaengphet at the end of the dry season that the sun went down fiery red behind a grey haze. Farmers burning rice fields in anticipation of the rainy season were probably part of the issue. In recent years hill tribes and Thai farmers have been blamed for burning the fields. But I can't help wondering how much factories and auto and motorcycle emissions are part of the problem.

And what blows in from Burma and Laos where there is much less control over burning?

Here's Doi Inthanon, Thailand's highest mountain, yesterday, the day after Friday's heavy rains.

A Day at the Chiang Mai Zoo

[Sunday - well looked at my watch and it's really Monday, 12:45 am Thai time]

We were out of the house at 7:30am. Unusual for us, but it was cool outside, I was awake, and we needed to just get out. We biked over to the University of Chiang Mai reservoir. From there we could hear the gibbons howling at the zoo. We've never been to the Chiang Mai zoo. It's close to our house, but I have ambivalent feelings about zoos. The LA County zoo was an important part of my childhood. I got to see real live elephants, bears, lions, and tigers as well as monkeys and all the rest in person. It helped instill in me a love and knowledge of animals I could not have gotten any other way. But animals shouldn't suffer for our education, and certainly not for our entertainment.

So we decided to go. As zoos go, this is not a bad zoo. J hasn't been walking that much because she uses her bike and she misses walking. The CM zoo has lots of room to walk. There are large areas of natural forest. We had lunch on an overlook with a delightful breeze. Below are some of my new friends.

As nice as the rhino's cage was, it just wasn't big enough for an animal which the sign said could go 55 k/hour. And waving his head back and forth just didn't look like mentally healthy behavior. But I'm not a rhino expert, maybe they do that in the wild too.

It feels like cheating to take pictures of birds that are in cages. But I've worked this out in my own head. Pictures in birdbooks are usually one bird, from one view, at one time of the year. The more pictures you see of the same bird, the easier it is to recognize it. The zoo's generally too tiny cages allowed me to take some decent bird pictures. But they aren't good for the birds.  The exception was the giant aviary. It was huge with monster trees inside.

There are lots of different types of hornbills in Thailand. In 2007 we saw and heard wild hornbills at Khao Yai National Park. You can see and hear one at the link.

This is the crested serpent eagle. I was lucky enough to catch a wild one on the way to work a month or so ago.

The gibbons didn't look too happy in their cages. I'll add some video and audio if I have time. But there are three gibbon islands that one of the workers said would be open in a few months. Then they will be out of these awful cages, but they still won't have enough room for gibbon life.

An unexpected treat was to see superman.

This elegant creature is a Lady Amherst Pheasant. There were several in an earlier cage, several in a large aviary that we walked through without wire between us and the birds, and this one. I'd rather a picture without the wire, but this was simply the best shot I got. And you shouldn't forget this is a zoo. And these animals are confined to prison.

Like the white crested laughing thrush (right) which we see flying around in the wild. This just isn't enough room. We think the other one is a Greater Necklaced Laughing Thrush. We're aren't absolutely sure, there wasn't a sign, but it looks like that in the book, though there is red on the one in the book.

All the big cats looked really healthy.

Most peacock pictures are from the front. So, here's from behind. This would be pretty impressive if we didn't know what was on the other side.

One of my many favorite animals. This one is not as well known as a lot of animals. It's a tapir from south America.

We managed to get home by 5 pm in time to contact Matt who was meeting us for dinner at the organic food party. That too was fun and interesting, and I'll try to post on that later. Try I said.

Yuzo Sings

There was a flier in the shop where we had the strawberry smoothies. Doc pointed it out. A concert Friday night. I could make out that it said, besides the time and location,

60 minutes
60 years

I figured the concert would be sixty minutes long, but didn't know what the 60 years meant. So last night I went after work - it was close by. J had gone off to Tai Chi and I hadn't expected it to last long. But the music didn't start until 7:30. It was at a house that had a coffee shop attached. There was food and drinks. And I met some Thais my age who were academics and also working on the same issues we're working on.

So, here's the video. Be warned - both the video and the sound are from my little Canon Powershot. On the one hand, being able to capture anything with such a small camera still amazes me. On the other hand, it was dark and the video is poor and the sound doesn't do the musicians justice at all. But you can get a sense of the evening. There's a bit of Dan Bern in the air.

Yuzo sings in Thai, Japanese, and English, though you have to listen closely. See if you can hear him singing about democracy, freeing Aung San Suu Kyithe Burmese (Pamma in Thai) people, and the Tibetan people.

Yuzo is Japanese but I was told he has been coming to Thailand every year for 30 years. He turns 60 this year, so that was the 60 years.

And I put the animation skills I learned last fall to use. It took most of the day, what with my computer pretty full and having to ditch old video to have enough space to save things, even to work the animation in photoshop at times. Anyway, if you look closely - you only get about five seconds - I have a bit of the Thai change into English. But don't blink or you'll miss it.

Organic Strawberry Smoothies

Today, Swe took J and me to a little coffee shop - Nada - nearby for organic strawberry smoothies. The strawberries were grown in his village.


Yesterday we talked to our friend Jeremy in Anchorage via Skype. So Swe had to practice his English with someone new. He also helped me to translate the words I had trouble with in a video I want to post.

This is Nada making another smoothie.

So today, Swe had downloaded Skype onto his computer and we practiced using it. While we were doing that, my daughter skyped us from Seattle. In less than a month, Swe will be in Japan at the Asian Rural Institute and will have to speak English most of the time.

Lotus

The petals open
Softly glowing, too soon gone
Like the setting sun

Good To Be Home

We left Chiang Mai last Thursday morning and it's only Tuesday night now, but it feels like we've been gone a couple of weeks. The more that is packed into a period of time, the faster the time seems to go, and the longer it seems to have been. Or so it seems to me.
V gave us these two of her rare bananas. I think she called them elephant's toe, or ingrown toenail. And then there was a bunch of another type known as lady's breast bananas. A couple were yellow and the rest green and should be yellow in a day or two. [Above and right is the inside of the banana. Which I added Wednesday afternoon.]




The flight back from Bangkok went easily. And we were greeted in the airport hallway to the exit by orchid after orchid plant. Mostly they looked like cymbidiums, but there was a variety of orchids - maybe a hundred different plants, each with several sprays of flowers.






































And when we got out of the airport, we were greeted by the relative coolth of Chiang Mai after the Bangkok heat. (The computer says it's 79 here and 86 in Bangkok, but that doesn't factor in the extra humidity in Bangkok as well.)








And then there was the full moon. We've been keeping track of time by watching the moon wax and wane. It was full the day before we left Anchorage - January 12. And it was full when we were in Kuala Lumpur when our 30 days were up in Thailand. And now our second 30 days are up. When the moon is full again, we'll be just back in Anchorage.

CSAs and other Creative Ways to Sell Vegies

One of the functions of my organization here, and ones it works with, is to help farmers be self-sufficient and sustainable. But ultimately you must have a market for your goods. Tok (it's an unaspirated T that sounds a lot like a D) is working on his dissertation and has been working with farmers for a couple of years now. And despite his T-shirt (a gift he told me) he talks about marketing and about going to a seminar on branding. Last year he took me out to Mr. Diraek's farm when I got here. And last week we talked about getting consumers to buy shares in the farm. I talked about people I knew in Anchorage who did just that, and got a huge box of fresh vegetables every week or so all summer. I promised him I'd get him information on how people do that in the US. So here's some of that information. With pictures of today's trip out to one of the farmers' markets where they sell their organic produce.

I discovered the word is CSA or Consumer Supported Agriculture. It's done a variety of ways. From Local Harvest:

A CSA, (for Community Supported Agriculture) is a way for the food buying public to create a relationship with a farm and to receive a weekly basket of produce. By making a financial commitment to a farm, people become "members" (or "shareholders," or "subscribers") of the CSA. Most CSA farmers prefer that members pay for the season up-front, but some farmers will accept weekly or monthly payments. Some CSAs also require that members work a small number of hours on the farm during the growing season.

A CSA season typically runs from late spring through early fall. The number of CSAs in the United States was estimated at 50 in 1990, and has since grown to over 2200.

UMassVegetable gives a detailed description of CSAs. Here's a bit on how they work:

How Does CSA Work?

Money, Members and Management

A farmer or grower, often with the assistance of a core group, draws up a budget reflecting the production costs for the year. This includes all salaries, distribution costs, investments for seeds and tools, land payments, taxes, machinery maintenance, etc. The budget is then divided by the number of people the farm will provide for and this determines the cost of each share of the harvest. One share is usually designed to provide the weekly vegetable needs for a family of four. Share prices reflect many variables and average between $300 and $600. Flowers, fruit, meat, honey, eggs and dairy products are also available through some CSA.

Brookfieldfarm.org explains what a share includes on their farm.

What's in a share?

• Between 5 and 18 lbs. (14 lbs. avg.) of produce each week from the first week of June ‘til Thanksgiving
• We think this will be sufficient produce for 2 adults (non-vegetarian) or 1 adult (vegetarian)

All shares also include:

• a variety of Pick-Your-Own (PYO) vegetables, herbs, berries, and flowers (we harvest about 90% of the food for you - but some items are strictly PYO - beans, peas, cherry tomatoes, flowers, and strawberries)
• the opportunity to purchase our own bulk produce at wholesale prices for canning and freezing
• the opportunity to purchase Brookfield Farm raised beef and pork
• a weekly newsletter during harvest season with recipes, farm news, and other good stuff!
• access to Brookfield Farm's 50 acres of land for recreational use
• the opportunity for your family to participate in educational programs and seasonal festivals

A Share is Seasonal:

• Throughout the season, your weekly share is made up of the freshest vegetables available from the farm. The variety and amount in the share depend on the season and the weather.
• Here’s a sample of what you might get in one week’s share in June and September: (You can click the link to see what's in the shares)
  

Here's link to a photo tour of the Brookfield farm.


Heirloom farms has 'workshares' as well as CSA:

What is a Workshare?

A workshare is someone who works 8 hours a week from the middle of May through the end of October in exchange for a share of the farm's produce. Workshares differ from one-time volunteers and CSA members who perform a work commitment in that they develop some skill and speed over the course of a season, which gives them an important role to play in meeting the farm's labor needs.

These are jackfruit.

This is Khiew - it means green. Mr. Diraek is her husband. She was tired after getting up around 4am to get things to the market by 5 or 6am. We got there late when most people had already left. She said this was hard work. Tok showed me a powerpoint yesterday where he's got various marketing ideas in the works - from CSA's to home and office delivery. In some ways, this is really a return to Thailand's past where food was grown with natural fertilizers and not full of pesticides and farmers sold their produce locally. And it's also part of a worldwide trend. They key is making it work right. As Khiew's tired face shows this isn't easy. But they are doing the most important job - producing good food.

These are the prices agreed upon by the farmers. They're a good buy.

And here is one of the farmers' id certifying his organic credentials. A New York Times article today says that consumers aren't always aware that US organic labeling doesn't mean the food is safer than non-organic food. It's only about how it is grown. That farmers work hard seems to be true around the world. But they are trying out new ways to connect with consumers.


Continuing with the varieties of CSAs,

Alaska's Glaciervalleycsa expands the idea by getting produce from Outside Alaska as well as Alaska (it's year round). The interesting thing is that you can order a
box (they choose what goes in the box) when you want, but you don't have
to get a box every week. One reader posted a message that this wasn't really a CSA because they imported food from elsewhere. The response was, well, if they are going to provide food year round in Alaska, they have to. Are the vegies they get any different from what Safeway and Fred Meyers sells? I don't know.

And there is even a site that advertises for
Internships, Apprenticeships, and Jobs on Organic and Sustainable ...
Here's a site looking for organic volunteers and employees. It says
"Educational Exchanges in Sustainability" This appears to be the page
for Alaska farms. I'm not excited how the site looks on my computer.

Here's from one of the Anchorage Daily News blogs about CSA's in the
Anchorage area.


And an Alaska Farm: Alaska Organic Farm

To what extent can Alaska farms feed Alaskans? How much can rural Alaskans grow in the summer? In greenhouses in the winter? You can argue that these kinds of grown foods aren't traditional foods, but they would be much healthier than a lot of the food sold in rural Alaska.