Thailand’s climate and peaceful people have access to the most amazing sensations in food choices that I have ever tasted. Sah Erng near Tha Thum is one of those small villages where the subsistence farmers live. They survive by growing and selling their produce along with a certain knowledge of what many in the west would not consider edible.
Some of my most pleasant natural food discoveries ever have been from my many visits there.
Imagine walking through the sprawling village of old timber houses on stilts, all of the varying quality, some just shacks, and others slightly better. All the roads in the village and leading to the villages nearby off the main tarred highways are of compacted dirt and banked up above the paddy fields that provide the staple rice to the co-operative that sells the rice grown to the larger producers. Their harvest is stored, and the farm paid for its contribution after refining with sacks of rice and a subsidy from the government, at least it was how it worked when I used to visit. That has become politicized in recent times as these poor families voted against the wishes of the old school establishment. Much the same as in many countries where a class system dictates.
The dirt roads around the village often lead to the grounds of the local Buddhist Temple as that is…
