Farmstay in Chiangrai
In 1991, Mongkol Pisitkasem purchased 86 Rai of land in Chiang Rai, a northern province of Thailand. During the time, that plot of land contained merely some small Teak trees, and it remained that way until 2015, when the journey to the creation of Rai Anantachin began. His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej was a former King of Thailand who dedicated a vast amount of his reign to educating Thailand’s farmers on living a sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle, and we as a farm aim to follow in his footsteps and teachings. Our journey started in 2015 with the construction of our pond, one containing fresh, chemical-free water usable for watering crops. Progression was slow for the next couple years, with us experimenting by growing new plants and vegetables once in a while, but once the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, everything changed.
COVID-19 brought led us to reflect on King Bhumibol’s work, and how a self-sufficient system and way of living could potentially be the answer to repairing the destruction COVID brought. We decided to create two components of our farm that would fuel a self-sufficient lifestyle: Planting our own food that we could eat for the whole year, and planting food that we could sell to make a living. Our main selling products are now our organic, homegrown lemons! From there, we pursued various different projects to reach our goal. Some of these include growing rice and many other crops, making our own fertilizer from food waste, and building our own functional farm tools/machines by utilizing natural sources on the farm.
We dedicate our efforts to Mongkol Pisitkasem and King Bhumibol.
Written by: Indy Pisitkasem