Great day today. The primary thing we learned is that rice should be MUCH more expensive than it is given the extraordinary amount of work that goes into creating it. We spent the morning with the lovely people at the Living Land Community enterprise, 15 minutes from central Luang Prabang. Our tuk tuk was late which resulted in an even more than usual hair-raising ride. We are now resigned to this just being SE Asia.
We were greeted by a smiling, conical hat rice grower & taken straight to the group presentation, just in time to see the mice & sparrow traps-nice! The multitude of tools for sowing, planting, growing, threshing & transforming rice were explained to us. There are 13 steps in growing rice & the whole process takes a couple of months. Rice growing is recognised as hard work with the Hmong people especially having large families to ensure that they have the built-in labour force to be able to sustain their rice-growing enterprises.
The Living Land experience is set within an actual working farm & requires you to get down & dirty with the rice. We were mud-free for the introduction & that's about it.
First we learnt to make things out of bamboo. Bamboo is surprisingly strong & malleable. We made cute grasshoppers & water buffalo; C was given 2 frogs & I won a bamboo crane. Lots of different kinds of baskets are used in the end-to-end rice process so bamboo has many, many uses.
We then learned how to make the tools for cutting rice - sythes & knives. This was hot & dirty work. We learned about how to select this year's rice for next year's germination & had to use a bit of scientific knowledge here.
Then we went out into the field. It was time to get dirty. We were asked to step into a rice paddy to see how the rice is spread onto the 'paddies' as one of the first steps in growing rice. Rice paddies are just mud, deep, squishy, quick-sand-like. We then met the water buffalo Suzuki & a few people experienced ploughing behind this massive & very hard-working creature. It looked really difficult. R partook & had a fun time. Next it was time to plant the rice. Rice that had been growing for approximately a week in drier paddies is used to plant deep into wet paddies. Little dams are created between one rice paddy & another to ensure a steady stream of water. The planted rice was approximately 20 cms tall & had to go right in. Planting rice is a community affair as it has to be done in one day. Neighbours come & help neighbours with this task with the understanding that the favour will be returned which seems like a good thing.
One of the most impressive attributes of the rice growing process is the sustainable approach undertaken. Weeding the rice paddies is an absolutely critical & ongoing task that must be undertaken everyday & is done only by the family, no community involvement unfortunately. The weeds are pulled out, knotted & then buried in the rice paddy to decompose & become fertiliser to keep the ground rich and strong.
I got stuck in the mud, unable to move at all & had to be helped out which probably rules me out as a rice farmer. We then had a look at some rice that was growing on stalks for a few weeks. There was a tough exterior & inside was a wet rice kernel.
Then it was time to cut the rice. The sycthes were used to 'thresh' the rice stalks. They are really sharp & seemingly cause some injuries. The cut stalks are bundled & left to dry in the sun for a week before being taken & beaten to remove rice from the stalks. With both of these processes, specific knots & manoeuvres are used to manage the rice. There is definitely beauty in everyday things in the rice growing process. It takes some muscle to get the rice off the stalks & again, everything is used. The stalks are used for compost, animal feed or animal bedding. Nothing is wasted. The other part of the entire process that appealed is the 'clean as you go' nature of what happens. It is all thoroughly sensible. We then saw & carried the three types of baskets used in Lao to transport rice & other goods. They were heavy, Lao women must be really strong!
Rice is then ready to pummel using a large machine. It is then sorted & sifted by women. A woman needs to be able to perform this delicate task before she gets married. There were a couple of women who were not married in our group who eagerly undertook this task in front of their boyfriends. Rice is then ready for refining into flour for noodles & then further refined for rice wine. Each of these tasks is extremely labour intensive & makes me think that noodles should also be much more expensive that they are!
We then saw some rice cooking with bamboo steamers. Lao use the rice water in the shower to keep their hair shiny & their skin soft. We then had to work like buffalo & squeeze sugar cane into a lovely drink & all that was left was to sample the rice products that had been made for us - sweet & sour snacks & rice wine. We also had to feed the farm cat who took a shine to Miss C. On the way out I asked about the bamboo tea strainers & two old men made them for me while I waited. I was most impressed. This was a wonderful experience, delivered with such good humour. Thank you Living Land Community.
Top 5
1. We love seeing behind the scenes. It is important to be able to think & reflect on how easy our lives are seemingly everyday on the back of others' hard work & expertise.
2. The Living Land guides & workers were all so giving & happy. It was lovely being around people who are committed to what they are doing
3. New rice snacks were tasted & enjoyed. We will now have a larger selection for car trip snacks because of today
4. The joy of learning to make a simple toy (even badly) is wonderful
5. Putting yourself in others' shoes & experiencing so many new skills & tasks in such a short time was invigorating.
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