First Steps in Building Our Dream

In August of 2021, we moved from the United States to Thailand. We had recently bought a small piece of land in Uthai Thani province, and our plan was to turn it into a combination of a natural farm in the tradition of Masanobu Fukuoka and a Thai style Kok Nong Na farm. I had recently discovered that I had a passion for gardening, so it was my dream to do this in the most natural and sustainable way possible.

I had listened to the audio book of The One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka, and I loved his approach. He opened my eyes to so many things, and I wanted to test his ideas out. We had hoped to start a business, but it became clear that such a venture will take a lot of time. We had begun by digging a well and four ponds on our property, connecting them with a canal. This was the Kok Nong Na part of our farm. The dirt that was dug out of the ground was then piled onto a small hill, which we would later like to build a house upon.

After that, we planted many trees. Many of them are fruit trees, but others are canopy trees. Banana trees surround the ponds, and there are approximately 200 of them. We installed a drip irrigation system last summer, which we use for the trees. 

I had tried to start growing white clover on our land, but my first attempt was unsuccessful. This is a key crop according to Masanobu Fukuoka’s natural farming method. The problem I think was that we planted it at the wrong time, during the summer months. At this time, the hot Thai sun and shortage of water created harsh conditions for the seedlings to survive. I had a little patch going that was healthy because I was watering it regularly, but then after travelling the south of Thailand for about a week, this little patch dried out. 

I’m not sure that white clover is well suited for the Thai climate. It seemed to me that it was difficult for this plant to compete with the native weeds. I’m still going to try to grow it, though. It may be that it could be more successful if planted during the rainy season. We recently ordered a larger quantity of seeds, and not just of white clover, but other plants that Mr. Fukuoka recommends as being beneficial. The plan is to make clay seed balls, which will include a variety of seeds of these beneficial plants, as well as a variety of vegetables. We’ll distribute these seed balls throughout our land just before rainy season, which I think will be the best time for them to germinate and develop. The idea is that nature will determine where the plants will be most successful. 

Our philosophy here originally was to not sell the food, but to use it for ourselves or share it with friends within the community. I was influenced by another great book written by Robin Wall Kimmerer called Braiding Sweetgrass where she talks about how selling food for profit taints the gift that nature provides us. There’s more to it than just that, and I highly recommend reading the book to learn more, but this idea influenced me tremendously. One of our main goals with this farm was to depart from the hyper-capitalistic lifestyle that we had just experienced in the United States in favor of a simple, healthy way of living in the Thai countryside. Of course you can't get entirely away from capitalism in the modern world, but I think it is possible to reduce the emphasis on money. That said, we're at a a bit of a standstill because the funds that we started with are dwindling, and it's diffiuclt to start a business without some capital. So we're in a funny situation where we have land, fruit trees, seeds, and a desire to grow healthy food and herbal medicine for people at little or no cost, but all within a community where money is the primary mover and shaker. I'm not exactly sure which direction we should go, and how to best balance the desire to provide a service to our community and also eek out a meager living. Any thoughts or advice in this regard would be warmly welcomed!

Since we will need to eventually make some money, we're thinking about starting a nursery and selling plants, trees, and heirloom seeds. That will probably be the easiest business to enter right away. A friend recommended doing a kind of farmer's market, and that sounds nice, but I'm still apprehensive about charging for food for the reasons I mentioned earlier. I should mention that Mr. Fukoka, my guru in all matters agricultural, did charge for his food, but he was adamant about keeping the prices low for naturally farmed food. He was very critical in his time about health food stores that would jack up the prices for naturally grown food. Maybe this middle-way approach is the best solution as a business model, but also making it a priority to donate food to people in the community as well.

We had hoped to be able to build a house on this land, but we didn’t have the money to do that just yet. The cost of digging the well and excavating the ponds was more than we had anticipated. We were able to build a small storage shed on the land with a restroom, though. We were also able to get electricity installed to run the water pump.

For now, we’re weeding the land to keep the pervasive sticker bushes from dominating the area as they had done in the past. I don’t know what the name of this devilish weed this is, but it has been quite a nuisance. Hopefully once the clover and other beneficial plants have established themselves, these weeds might recede. By keeping the land well weeded and not allowing these stickers to go to seed, we hope to significantly reduce them. If all goes as planned, we won’t need to weed at all in the future. The beneficial plants will take over, keeping the weeds at bay. 

We decided to name it Dreamwalker Thailand after a coffee shop that I used to work at in the mid-nineties. I really loved that place, and I wanted to carry on the name since my experiences there had influenced me so much. I asked the former owner if I may use it, and she gave me her blessing. Jane also loved the name, although she never had a chance to visit the original Dreamwalker. I am one of the fortunate ones who had a chance to be a part of that community. It is my dream to create a place that will benefit the community I’m now living in as Dreamwalker had benefitted us back then.