A New Appreciation for Rice!

Who knew a little grain of rice took so much time and effort to produce!  It is a small grain that is fairly inexpensive and unobtrusive but a staple food in most Asian countries.  In late May at Jet Rye (3-1/2 acres), 30 minutes north of the school, we planted rice the Thai style or the wet patty process.  As you will see below a full days work of tilling the ground, flooding the patties, pulling rice seedlings, and finally transplanting the rice plants in the two patties takes quite a bit of effort.  Plus that is only half of the process!  Several months from now when we harvest the rice we will yield about 300 kg. of rice from the each of the patties we planted.  The school uses more than four times that much during the year so eventually we hope to produce enough rice for the entire year so we will not have to buy any at the market.  Just one of the ways we are trying to move toward a self sustainable farm at Legacy.  Check back in in a couple months to see how we harvest and process the rice for food.

Sunny Say taking a water break and cooling off.

Surachai tilling the ground to prepare the soil.

Channeling water from a nearby pond to
flood the patties.

Students starting to plant rice seedlings in the mud.

Several months ago we broadcast rice in this patty and this is the result. Here I am pulling out the young rice seedlings to be transplanted in a nearby flooded patty.

Pulling rice seedlings

Who says hard work can't be fun!

Transplanting the rice in the muddy patty.

Only one of the students fell backwards in the mud while planting.
We all had a good laugh...even the student who fell : D

Halfway done with the first patty.
More to come when the rice is harvested.

Posted by: Aj. Abigail