Field of dreams

WHEN Thamasak Luepuwapitakkul first started growing bananas on the family’s football field five years ago, everyone thought he was crazy. Why, they asked, would anyone want to convert a money-making pitch into piles of earth sprouting young banana shoots? 
“There was a great flood in Bangkok five years ago. Everything stopped. Water was everywhere yet it was hard to find water and food. I had to drive almost 100 kilometres to get water for my family,” recalls Thamasak, a pop singer-turned-urban gardener, who runs the urban farm “Hip Incy Farmville” in Bangkok’s Lat Phrao area.

Rhode Island Red and Leghorn are being bred at Hip Incy Farmville, an urban farm in the middle of Bangkok. 

“With the city locked down by water, my mother showed me that it was possible to live without having to go to the market. She grew some vegetables in buckets placed around the fence. They grew quickly and we were soon able to cook them for our meals. For a city person like myself, who always bought food from the supermarket, it was a real eye-opener.” 
That shortage of food during the Great Flood of 2011 changed the way Thamasak looked at life. After all, he reasoned, if you have to negotiate Bangkok’s traffic to buy a handful of basil leaves, why not use a bucket and grow the basil yourself? Thanks to the football field, Thamasak realised he had plenty of land for his basil and more besides. Surrounded by tightly packed row houses in Lat Phrao district, Thamasak has transformed almost an acre of land into an organic garden that provides fresh vegetables and aromatic herbs much more delicate than those you find in the stores.

Thamasak Luepuwapitakkul, an urban farmer, cultivates Robusta flowers and makes a tea out of the coffee flowers.
 

“I am an artist by training and interior designer by trade,” says Thamasak. “I had no agricultural background and experience so I decided to look more deeply into His Majesty the late King’s projects. And one of those projects – “Nueng Rai Mai Chon” – which is about living on one rai (a little less than an acre) was the perfect match for what I had in mind.”
Thamasak started with what he is good at – design. 
Using the permaculture concept, the retired interior designer divided the land into different zones – tall plants and garden beds among them – before planting seeds, mulching, weeding and making weed barriers.
“The first plant I put in the soil was the banana. My mother told me banana trees take nine to 12 months to grow and bear fruit,” says Thamasak. “While we were waiting for the bananas, we put up two chicken coops, bought some Rhode Island Red and Leghorn hens and looked forward to eating our first free-range eggs.”

The Cavendish banana bears fruit after nine months.

Inspired by Jon Jandai, an organic farmer in Chiang Mai who once said: “Grow what we eat and eat what we grow”, Thamasak planted pumpkin, lime, lemon, lemongrass, mango, papaya, chilli and different kinds of herbs in his soil. 
Today, peppers and peas happily climb his homemade bamboo and yarn trellises. The Cavendish bananas have shown a liking for the former football pitch, and the Moringa oleifera or drumstick trees yield leafy vegetables and shade the chickens with the fruit that hangs down over the coops.
“There are two types of vegetables around here,” says Thamasak. “I grow Italian basil and coriander and make pesto out of them. The organic pesto is for sale. That’s how we make a living and pay our bills.”

And he and his wife grow all their own food. “Before, we used to think of a menu then go shopping for the ingredients. Today, we look at what’s ready to pick and plan our meals around that.” 
City people who want to start their own urban gardens should first think about what they like to eat, he says. 
“It was a fantastic feeling to bite on a self-grown banana and get twin eggs for the first time,” he says. 
Hip Incy Farmville has played a major role in changing Thamasak’s life over the last five years and he is grateful to his horticultural retreat, which he says has not only improved his physical health but also his state of mind. Gardening, in some mystical way, gives a sense of renewal, he says with a grin.
“Physically, I feel a lot better,” Thamasak says. “I haven’t taken a single antibiotic in four years and my asthma has all but cleared up. I haven’t needed my inhaler since I started gardening.” 

Bok Choy is among several vegetables being cultivated

Thamasak has put his green fingers to work on other plots of land in Nong Chok district – Bangkok’s last agricultural area. He is currently waiting for his first rice crop and to harvest plenty of different herbs. Much of the produce grown in the Lat Phrao field is used for the new Hip Incy Farmville cafe and restaurant. 

“We did a kind of test-drive for the restaurant last weekend, with a menu based on the day’s harvest,” says Thamasak. “It’s not a full-service restaurant but a small cooking station studio. We want to be a proper learning centre for urban farming and Hip Incy Farmville often hosts families and students on field trips. 
“From the farm to the cooking station, we give the guests different ideas about what we can do with the variety of vegetables around here.”
  

GOING GREEN
>> Hip Incy Farmville is located in Nak Niwat Soi 30, Lat Phrao. 
>> The farm is open to the public on Saturday and Sunday. Visits on weekdays are by appointment. 
>> You can follow the farm activities through its fan page on Facebook.
>> For VDO, visit www.nationmultimedia.com