Podcast: Pun Pun - Sustainable organic farming
In this podcast, I met up with Peggy and Jo - the two founders of Pun Pun. During the interview, we discussed their views on Sustainable living & farming, Earthen house building, how they started out, and the philosophy & vision driving their work.
Pun Pun (meaning ‘thousand varieties’) is an organic farm, seed-saving operation, and sustainable living and learning centre based about 50km North of Chiang Mai, Thailand in Mae Taeng district. The first I knew about Pun Pun was last year, when I heard about an amazing new organic vegetarian restaurant that had opened in the grounds of Wat Suan Dok temple. I visited it at the first opportunity, and quickly became a regular!
Pun Pun offers a variety of workshops and training courses, from their 10 week internship program offering an in-depth, hands-on experience in organic gardening (including seed saving, earthen building, and community living) through to 3-5 day earthen building workshops, and sustainability study trips. If you’re interested in finding out more, you can contact them via their website - the details are below.
Further information
www.punpunthailand.org - For further information on Pun Pun, including upcoming workshops and internships at Pun Pun farm. Map of how to get to Pun Pun restaurant.
You Sabai - You Sabai Home is located in Mae Taeng, next door to Pun Pun’s organic farm and sustainable living learning center outside a village in Mae Tang province, 50 km from Chiang Mai. They also build and live in simple earthen houses, close to nature.
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March 9th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Hey Tom, hey Tina,
Great podcast, this one was very informative.
I can’t help but think that a closer transliteration of their name would be Pan Pan - พัน (thousand) พรรณ (varieties).
They raised some very interesting points - I wonder if the use of monoculture farming is as prevalent in Thailand as it is in Europe and America. (I would imagine so in the case of certain crops, rice, pineapples and sugarcane spring to mind).
There’s a general belief over there that hydroponic = good - if you go to the supermarkets, you’ll often see bags of hydroponically grown salad leaves that are marketed as ‘hygienic’. Hygienic - perhaps, natural - no. Conversely, in the west, fruits and vegetables are never marketed as hydroponically grown - invariably because people think of this process as unnatural.
Have you had a chance to go up to Mae Taeng yet? Perhaps you both could do a podcast up on their farm?
And was that wind in the background or has the rainy season started?
Rich
March 12th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Tom, This is an awesome interview. Elyse
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:44 am
Thanks for this interview - wonderful to hear Peggy and Jo again!
You might enjoy an article I wrote last year about Pun Pun:
http://matadortravel.com/travel-writing/thailand/sustainability/from-the-ground-up-planting-seeds-in-northern-thailand
Just had a look around your website, very well done, I can’t pay much ($25 per 800 word guide) but I’d be interested in publishing your work at MatadorTrips.com.
Best,
Tim Patterson