
26/01/2025
The Hig-Pig Farmer is back from a two-month holiday in Thailand, feeling renewed, inspired, and ready to start preparing the garden and animal spaces for a productive 2025!
During my travels, I visited a number of farms, and loved learning about techniques. The salt farms were fascinating. It is a simple and intensive process and it’s given me a new appreciation for the effort behind something as seemingly ordinary as salt. Certainly I will be more mindful and appreciative of the process each time I’m seasoning a dish or shaking it onto my food.
The coconut farms were a real highlight. I spent a time wandering through a coconut plantation near Maeklong, learning about the versatility of this crop. From coconut milk, water, and meat (coconut flesh) to sugar, bowls, rope, mats, wood, thatch, and baskets—every part of the coconut has a use! I was impressed with how the plantation was integrated into the environment and the multi use of the space - coconuts were cultivated in irrigation swales, where fish and prawns are also grown. On top of the swales, Durian and tamarind trees were grown and sweet potato and taro were planted as cover crops, making this a beautifully productive and sustainable system.
I’m keen to try growing coconuts here at Higgledy-Piggledy Farm! Watch this space!