STEP INTO THE MUD
A trip to Wang Yang can yield visitors a bumper crop of water chestnuts
The late morning Sun was almost unbearable. It was about 10.30am when I arrived at a water chestnut farm in Wang Yang District in Suphan Buri. It was my first one-day trip after the lockdown measures were eased last week.
Thiam Sakulphram gave me a broad smile before putting a mask on while I entered the front yard of her house.
“It was quiet during the past two months. I’m glad to have a visitor,” she said.
Thiam is a farmer. She is one of 45 members of Somwang Thi Wang Yang Community Enterprise and Community-based Agrotourism Group. My trip started at her farm. She would teach me how to harvest water chestnuts or haeo, aka somwang, in the Thai language.
The agrotourism group was initiated by Wang Yang Municipality three years ago with the support of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation. The aim was to help farmers earn extra income. The municipality also wanted to promote a local way of life for water chestnut farmers after the vegetable was registered as a Geographical Indication (GI) product of Suphan Buri in 2017.
Haeo is widely grown in Muang, Sri Prachan and Sam Chuk districts. About half of the 3,000 rai of total haeo farms in the province are located in tambon Wang Yang in Sri Prachan district, according to Koolchaya Klaysuban, an officer with Wang Yang Municipality. She is also the treasurer of the agrotourism group.
“We are the largest producer of water chestnuts in Thailand,” she said.
Haeo is a water plant that can grow well in the mud. It has tubular green leaves which may look like shallots at a glance. Farmers in Suphan Buri have grown the plant for decades, but it became a popular economic plant around 1950 when some locals started planting the imported water chestnut from China. The size was larger than the local variety. Consumers preferred the Chinese water chestnut due to its big size and crunchy texture.
Normally, farmers in Wang Yang rotate plants in their farmland. After growing rice for two rounds, they grow water chestnuts and sometimes taro. This technique can help keep the land fertile. They do not use hazardous chemicals nor the burning method of conventional farming to kill weeds, said Koolchaya, adding that some farmers practise organic farming.
To eat the sweet and crunchy water chestnut in Wang Yang, I needed to harvest them first. Thiam handed me a pair of long black socks together with a pair of orange thigh waders and yellow gloves.
“Put an elastic band on your wrists to make sure the gloves won’t fall off,” she advised.
Thiam walked barefoot. She led me and Koolchaya to a water chestnut plot.
“Why don’t you wear waders and gloves like me?” I asked Thiam.
“I don’t need that. I’m a professional,” she replied and laughed.
She stepped down in the flooded field. The water almost reached to her knees. She demonstrated how to harvest the water chestnuts and then it was my turn. She gave me her hand to make sure I wouldn’t lose my balance when I stepped down to the field. Once I stepped into the mud, I could feel many water chestnuts underneath my feet.
“Press your heel in a circle. Then use both of your hands to scoop up all the mud inside the circle. Leave the chunk on the dry place. Then use your fingers to search for the water chestnuts and put them in a basket,” Thiam gave me the step-by-step guidelines while observing and sometimes offering me a hand.
Normally Thiam doesn’t harvest water chestnuts during late morning. She usually works from 1am until early morning to avoid the heat. But she can’t do that today due to the current 10pm-4am curfew. She moved the harvest time to early morning or very late afternoon instead. During the late morning, she and her family members sit under a roof for shade and peel black the skin of water chestnuts.
After we had enough water chestnuts from the farm, it was time to taste them. I enjoyed water chestnut drinks when I was young so I was happy to taste the fresh and crunchy ones before they were boiled.
I was introduced to Kamlai who would teach me how to cook thubthim krob (also spelled tub tim krob), a dessert made of water chestnuts rolled in tapioca flour and boiled. It is topped with crushed ice, syrup and coconut milk before being served.
“We select thubthim krob because the snack is easy to make. Also, the sweet was recognised by CNN in 2018 as one of the world’s top 50 desserts. In Thailand, another dessert listed was sticky rice with mango,” said Koolchaya.
Thubthim krob needs a short time for preparing and cooking, and the cold dessert brings refreshment under the midday Sun.
I left the farmland about noon. My next programme was to survey the century-old Sri Prachan market. Lining small concrete alleys were two-storey wooden shophouses. Only a handful of them were open for selling items like noodles, snacks, everyday products or offering some services like bicycle repair.
The highlight of this community is the old house of the Aryankura family. It was the birthplace of the highly revered monk Somdet Phra Buddhakosajarn, or Prayudh Payutto. The property was turned into a museum 14 years ago to exhibit his biography and collections of his works, including hundreds of dhamma books.
The museum’s name is Chatiphumi Sathan P.A. Payutto, meaning the home of the venerable Buddhist monk. The P.A. initials stand for his secular name: Prayudh Aryankura. The monk was ordained when he was 12 years old.
Regarded as one of the leading scholars of Thai Theravada Buddhism,
Somdet Phra Buddhakosajarn, now 82, was awarded the Prize for Peace Education in 1994 by Unesco in recognition of his contribution to education. Today he still writes dhamma books.
Managed by Chatiphumi Sathan P.A. Payutto Foundation, the museum, which was closed during the past two months, is ready to welcome visitors.
My last stop was at the Buffalo Village, which is home to almost 100 buffaloes including the oldest named Pan. It is a male buffalo. He is 25 years old, which is the average lifespan of buffaloes.
When I visited the site last week, staff members had renovated the coffee shop to make it bigger, giving more room for each customer. The village will reopen on June 1.
When it is open, visitors can touch, feed and ride buffaloes. Daily buffalo shows will resume as well as other activities like ploughing with a buffalo, planting or harvesting rice and cooking classes among others.
Although Sri Prachan is the smallest district in Suphan Buri, it is a wonder that gave me an eye-opening experience.