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

Macadamia nuts don't come from jars!

A few months ago I saw one of my students holding something in his hand that looked like this:

What I saw before - and after - I ate the nut!

I didn't know what it was, and he was having a hard time explaining, so he opened it up and I realized it was a macadamia nut. This was kind of exciting for me - I'd never seen the nut in the shell - only in a jar! I ate the nut, which was delicious.

Peto (my student) said that he was not going to eat the nuts, but plant them. I had no idea what the trees look like.

Macadamia Pacman

From that time on, I'd see Peto go back and water his plants. After awhile there were numerous small trees. Peto graduated, so all his trees were moved to the farm and re-potted.

A small macadamia tree.

I did some research online and found that a macadamia tree will begin to bear fruit in about five years. So you can check back then to see the finished result!

Posted by: Aj. Erika

Tutti Frutti

Since my arrival here at Legacy I have tried many new and interesting types of fruit.
Some I had already tried in the US but this fruit tasted sweeter and more delicious than I recall.

Jack fruit from the farm.  We are waiting for it  to start smelling
good and then we will  know it is ripe.

Below are some of them from the school, farm, and surrounding areas here in Thailand!

Dragon fruit are very fun and colorful fruit.  There are two kinds, one white and one pink inside.
Next time I will try the pink because I was told it is sweeter.

Enjoying the nameless fruit grown on a tree at the school.
It is very  sweet and jelly like  inside.  So far my favorite!

We also named this martian fruit

The sweetest strawberry I have ever eaten from the King's Project
in the mountains about an hour from the school.

Guess what type of fruit this is...if you guessed star fruit then you are correct.
These  were very sweet  unlike the ones I have tasted from the grocery stores in the US.

Guava fruit cut by Legacy student because of the large knife involved.

Don't be alarmed...its just a mulberry

The spoils after a hot season downpour.

So we had to eat them the the local way...sour green mangoes with chilies.

Ripe mangoes are my favorite!

The brownish reddish spiny thin skin of the lychee  is peeled to eat this sweet white fruit.

Unripe bananas and flower at the farm.  In a couple weeks we will enjoy them!

Posted by Aj. Abigail

Graduation 2012

This past school year has already come and gone. It's amazing how fast the time flies. On March 18th six of the Legacy students graduated. Two were from last year - Uaorawet and Fon; and four were from this year - AhJar, Atiwat, Samuey, and Peto.

2011 Graduates: Uaorawet and Fon

2012 Graduates: AhJar, Samuey, Peto, and Atiwat

It was special for me because I was able to see these students, who I have known from 2-5 years, graduate.

We wish them all the best for the future!

Final Legacy Leader for 2011-2012 School Year

This past year has flown by and we just finalized our last issue of the Legacy Leader. We used a really interesting journalism book hosted here.  It outlines the basics of writing articles and focuses on Southeast Asia. After learning about interviewing people, the students had to find someone to interview - and what better place to start than the employees of Legacy! This issue of the Legacy Leader incorporates those interviews along with submissions from the 2nd year English class.

Click here to read Legacy Leader Issue 3 PDF
Click here to download Legacy Leader Issue 3 PDF

Not Just for Bananas

Many of us have sat down with a big, yellow banana, peeled back the outside and had a snack. But there is more to a banana than I knew.

Last week we had a delicious soup made of part of the banana plant.

Bananas hanging on the tree. Not ready to pick yet. 

Inflorescence or banana heart.

Banana heart in soup. 

But these are not the only uses of the banana plant. Here is a first-hand account from one of my students. They have to write in journals and last year this was one of his entries:

"In the world there are many kinds of trees. Each kind has a different advantage for people, animals, and land. Some trees we eat the fruit and some we eat the leaf. 

Today I will tell you about one kind of tree that we can use any part of. It has many advantages for people and animals. It is the banana tree! I think everyone will know very well about the banana tree because it is in many counties in the world. I think I can say that it is a common fruit because monkeys and elephants like it so much. Any part of the banana tree is very useful for people. I will tell you all of that.

First we can eat banana fruit even if we are poor! Why? Because it isn't expensive and we can find it in the forest. Most any kind of animal likes to eat bananas. Especially monkeys and elephants! The birds also like to eat it. I know this because I like to shoot the birds. If I want to shoot the birds I will find ripe bananas first. People bring bananas to make cake, snacks or modify in any style they want to eat or cook.

Banana leaves are also useful to people. People use it in their kitchen to cook. People on the mountain always use it to pack their rice when they go somewhere - especially when they go to the farm. They don't use any plastic. People use banana leaves to pack snacks. In Thailand we have Thai snacks from in the past. We cannot use plastic or other things to pack it because it will effect the taste of the snack. We also use its leaves to make toys like a horse. The children like to ride on it.

On the mountains we use the tree to feed animals such as pigs, ducks and chickens. When I was young I used to make a raft from the banana tree. It was very fun. I will never forget how banana trees are very, very useful. People can use banana trees in their festivals to make the festival more beautiful and have more color. In Thailand we will use banana trees in Loi Krathong festival.

There is one thing that I never knew before I came to work at the farm and I don't think you ever knew it either. It is very surprising and interesting for me. We can use banana sprouts to make compost. It will help plants to grow faster. If we want to make our garden beautiful or make more food banana sprouts can help us.

It is not just those thing - we can eat the banana tree too! How? We cut the banana tree and we just take off the bark or skin so we can eat inside. It has a good taste. I know because my father likes to cook banana tree. Some people use it to practice boxing too! And it is also used in some festivals and ceremonies.

Wherever there are many banana trees there will be good weather and a lot of water because banana trees like water. Inside it has more water than other kinds of trees.

Bananas are good for health. In my opinion bananas are very, very good for the brain. Why? Because you see a monkey is very smart and it likes to eat bananas so I think it also will be good for our brain. You can use bananas to make a business too! It can make more money for you if you have a good idea."
(Written by Atiwat as a 2nd year student - currently 3rd year - I made minor grammatical changes)

Another interesting thing I learned was when I asked Atiwat to get me a bunch of ripe bananas. He proceeded to cut down the whole stem (what would actually be like the trunk of a tree) and handed me my bunch of bananas. Each stem only produces one big cluster of bananas, then the stem dies. However, there can be off-shoots at the base, which grow into new stems.

I bet after all this info you won't look at a banana in quite the same way again!

(Want more info? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana)