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travellarge

~ After two years of turmoil, a homeschooling family embarks on a big adventure

travellarge

Tag Archives: Subsistence Living

Drive-by Foraging

30 Friday May 2014

Posted by travellarge in Adventure, Budget travel, Conservation, Dining, Education, Experiential Travel, Family, Hands-on Learning, Humour, Street food, United Kingdom, Unschooling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

bay laurel, Bay leaves, fennel, Foraging, gathering, herbs, lavender, Northern Wales, rosemary, Subsistence Living, thyme, Wales, wild flowers, wild foods, wild herbs

Chef's posse expands

Chef’s posse expands

Like father, like daughter: Lastborn found this sad specimen (pot and all) on the towpath and it has been along for the ride ever since

Like father, like daughter: Lastborn found this sad specimen (pot and all) on the towpath and it has been along for the ride ever since

SWMBO is the gatherer in the family but Fahbio has become obsessed with all the free herbs around here. We have stashes of rosemary, thyme and wild fennel drying throughout the van supplemented by Lastborn’s lavender and various flowers and leaves. These are all crumbling together in varying mixtures. We sniff each to try to guess what it might be comprised of and to decide whether it should be taken in a savoury or sweet direction. Maybe we could earn some money flogging “Stroll around Harlech” (great on chicken) or “Couchsurfing in Porto” (wonderful on lamb and potatoes) or even “Waiting outside Tesco’s” (soothing herbal tea). Look for these rubs, mixtures and teas for sale at better stores near you.

There is a huge bay laurel tree we pass on our way to and from our Welsh cottage. Each time we drive past, Fahbio opens the window of the van and yanks a few leaves off. We’ve been teasing him relentlessly about his growing collection of bay leaves.

MUST HAVE BAY (Zombie forager)

MUST HAVE BAY (Zombie forager)

Today, I decided to make chili and sheepishly asked Fahbio if he could spare me some bay leaves. He returned with a handful and the said, “Picked at high altitude, on a dry morning, in the Douro Valley.” His tone was inscrutable so whether he was being facetious or not, I don’t know.

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Singapore Math

12 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by travellarge in Accommodation, Adventure, Asia, Beach, Budget travel, Camping, Dining, Education, Experiential Travel, Family, Homeschool, Humour, Siblings, Singapore, Street food, Teenagers, Travel, Unschooling

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Tags

asia, backpacking, Beach, Budget, canadians, family, Family fun, Hawker Stands, homeschool, homeschooling, migrant workers, Pasir Ris, Siblings, singapore, Subsistence Living, taxi, tent camping, travel

SWMBO writes:

Comparing math curricula is a popular activity among homeschooling parents in North America.  Since we pay for our schoolbooks ourselves (usually online, sight unseen), we want to get the best text and workbooks for our students without breaking the bank.  Popular programs are Math-U-See, Teaching Textbooks, JUMP Math, Miquon and Singapore.  We’ve always used Singapore with a sprinkling of Miquon: a rigid base cake with a soft yet surprisingly strong icing.

Miquon was developed at the Miquon School in Pennsylvania by Lore Rasmussen in the 1960s.  It is a hippie alternative to traditional math that introduces children in grades 1-3 to complex concepts such as negative numbers in a fun, tactile way.  Check it out but I warn you that the teacher’s guide is the least user-friendly document on the planet.

Singapore Math is the curriculum developed by the government of Singapore and used in schools there.  My kids enjoy word problems that deal with Mingfa weighing durians and Meihua selling satay sticks.  I guess what I am saying is that for us SINGAPORE = MATH.

So how about a little practical application to our years of book work?

Coconut trees, Pasir Ris

Coconut trees, Pasir Ris

I watched the news for the first time in weeks a few days ago.  In with the headline stories of Ukraine was the news that Singapore is now the most expensive city in the world to live in.  Worse than London.  Worse than Tokyo. Worse than Paris and Stockholm.

Guess where we were going next?

Hotels in Singapore are miniscule, can’t take more than 2 adults and 1 child, and start at over $200 Cdn a night.  With the 3 rooms we would need, that would be $600/night.  Say what?

Airbnb?  No place under $200/night for us.  This was the option we chose at the beginning of our trip and it was great but a real budget-breaker and not justifiable this time without a huge time/temperature change to adjust to.

A hostel?  The ones I checked offered dorm beds for $20/person so with Lastborn not paying that would be $120 Cdn for us.  To stay in a hostel with a shared bathroom.

Camping?  We would require two camping permits for our two tents at a cost of $0/per permit/per night.  $0 x 2 nights = $0.

Hmmm.  This is a math test I could score 100% on.

Tent, Pasir Ris

Tent, Pasir Ris

Camping was recently introduced in several parks by the Singapore National Parks Board.  Residents of Singapore can now approach a parking-meter-like machine and enter a resident number and details of when and where they wish to camp.  The machine prints a camping permit on the spot.  Since we don’t have resident numbers, I applied for our camping permits directly from the Singapore National Parks Board before we left home.  The staff where extremely helpful and I ended up with permits to two parks – East Coast Park in mid-February and Pasir Ris Park in March.  Because I was sick in February, we never used our permit for East Coast Park, opting instead to go to Malaysia and stay in a comfy hotel.  Pasir Ris means “bolt rope” beach and paints a picture of the long, narrow beach (no swimming!) that runs along the north of the park.

When we landed at Changi Airport in Singapore, we took two taxis to our campsite.  Amazing how three hours ago we all fit into a taxi in Vietnam with our luggage but now somehow we needed two taxis.  I’d like to get my hands on the first guy to propose seat belt regulations! Just kidding – kind of.

Camping, Pasir Ris

Campers in Pasir Ris

Pasir ris path

Pasir ris path

Anyways, it wasn’t far and meant that we got there in 10 minutes instead of 1 hour 15 minutes on the metro.  Setting up two tents that you have recently bought and never used before, in a foreign country, with five tired children, forty-five minutes before sundown is not something I would recommend to the novice camper.  Did I mention that we have only ever camped twice in the past 20 years?  Anyways, it all went well and how handy to have a restaurant steps from our campsite so that we could have dinner now that it was so dark. Only $165.  Yes, $165.

Camping in Singapore is not like camping in Canada.  No bears.  No poison ivy.  No canoe-in sites.  Camping in Singapore is more like sleeping in a large urban park:  amazing play structure; bikes for rent; hedge maze; pony rides. There was even a  shopping mall at the edge of the park.  We would walk to the mall in the morning for a coffee at MacDonald’s ($4 per coffee) and then shop for groceries in the supermarket (easily $120/day in minimal groceries for mediocre meals like tuna sandwiches).

Early morning jog, Pasir Ris

Early morning jog, Pasir Ris

And wifi?  Forget it!  Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Vietnam anymore!  There were “Wifi free” signs everywhere in the mall but there was no wifi.  Even at MacDonald’s.  The sign was accurate – not free wifi but wifi free.

Because Singapore is so wealthy compared to neighbouring countries, it has a large migrant worker population.  These people work very long hours for little pay and tend to live with their employers.  When they get time off, they want to get away but have little  money to spend.  So they congregate in the parks with friends, relatives and sweethearts.  Because we were camping on the weekend, we got to soak up the atmosphere.  Every barbecue pit was smoking, the sky was full of kites and we heard people taking, laughing and drinking beer until the wee, wee hours.

Cleaning the beach, Pasir Ris

Cleaning the beach, Pasir Ris

One of the things that Singapore is well known for is its love of food and its hawker stands.  These are not like street food in Vietnam because in Singapore they like to regulate and control everything.  So years ago, they banned vendors from selling on the streets and made them all get permits for mall food courts where they have access to electricity and running water and where they are regularly inspected.  For North American foodies, going to a shopping mall food court to get the best food in the city is a hard concept to accept.  But the best eating in Singapore is in these places.  And with the exception of free camping permits, it is the best value in the city-state.

The food court is set up like a cafeteria with tables in the middle (more wifi free!) and multiple independent hawkers selling foods around the perimeter.  You pay at each stand.  Each dish costs between $2-$6.  We had things like 1/2 roast chicken with rice ($5.50), dumpling soup with gailan ($4), sweet and sour pork ($5.50), orange chicken ($5.50), and lamdung (milk with rose water syrup – $1.50).  We spent around $27 for a meal for all 7 of us with each person choosing the stall and dish of their choice.  Seems like all of Singapore agreed that it didn’t seem worthwhile to shop and cook.  The hawker stands open in the morning and stay open until 10 pm and the food is very fresh.

view from tent

View from tent

Another view from tent, Pasir Ris

Another view from tent, Pasir Ris

So I’ll wrap this up by saying that we didn’t see any of the top Singapore sights like the zoo.  But we definitely got a taste of the real Singapore in a breezy, sun dappled park.

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Rice Farming 101

28 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by travellarge in Adventure, Asia, Experiential Travel, Family, Farming, Hands-on Learning, Hoi An, Homeschool, Humour, Parenting, Siblings, Teenagers, Travel, Vietnam

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Jack Tran Hoi An Ecotour, Rice Planting, Subsistence Living, Water Buffalo, Wet Rice Farmer

We learn about rice farming

We learn about rice farming

Today we met a guide at 8 am to spend a morning learning about rice farming.  Our guide was working for Jack Tran Hoi An Ecotour , a company founded by a local fisherman and specializing in showing people how people in rural Vietnam live and work.

Normally our guide would have picked us up by bike but since some of the kids were too young to ride on the busy streets and since our beach house doesn’t have an address, we arranged to meet her at the nearest intersection.

We didn’t get off to an auspicious start – Tempers were flaring for a variety of reasons and Onlyboy stormed off ahead.  Paris reported that he had turned right towards the beach.  Parents differed on what to do.  Fahbio was of the opinion that Onlyboy should be left behind.  SWMBO concurred but couldn’t stomach the idea of leaving a boy alone on a foreign continent on a beach with a strong undertow and a few feral dogs.  In the end, the decision was to drive back to the beach house to see if he was there (against Fahbio’s wishes) and then, since he wasn’t there, to continue on without him.

I think our lovely guide, Tien, thought we were nuts.  She told us that Vietnamese parents always keep their children close, even if they are 13 and that we should all go to the beach to look for him.  Despite the fact that I was frustrated that Onlyboy would miss out on the activity and not thrilled to be paying for him not to participate, I did think it was for the best to leave without him.  Maybe a little space would do everyone good.

#1.

#1.

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#2.

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#3.

We began with a trip to the market to look at 3 “super modern” machines.  The first removed the hull from the rice, the second cleaned the rice and the third separated the long grains (for human consumption) from the small grains (for chickens).  Farmers can have 50 kilograms of their rice processed for 15 000 Dong (less than $1).  But most farmers don’t have that kind of money so they do this work manually.

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Tien and the two farmers

Venice playing in the husks - these will be sold as fuel for fires

Venice playing in the husks – these will be sold as fuel for fires

Bug infested rice which will be ground and used as animal feed

Bug infested rice which will be ground and used as animal feed

Then we went to the rice paddies to meet two rice farmers.  We were under the impression that we would be shown how the rice was farmed and then would have a chance to plant a few rice plants.  No, no, no, my friend, we were mistaken.

We were going to participate in every step of the rice production beginning with riding a water buffalo in a flooded paddy.  And from that was born SWMBO’s new business venture – The Amazing Rice Farming Workout – soon to be available on the Shopping Channel.  Guaranteed to give you the beautiful svelte physique of a Vietnamese farmer. Throw away those Pilates Reformers, Ab Rollers, and Nordictracks.  Clear your car out of the garage. You are going to need that space for one large water buffalo.  Order now and we’ll throw in the plough and harrowing attachments, as well as the bailing bucket and grinding stone for free!!

Paris and Lastborn

Paris and Lastborn

Firstborn and SWMBO agreed that Fahbio needs to start doing yoga.

Snail eggs aka. the enemy

Snail eggs aka. the enemy

The second step was to plough the field with the water buffalo (builds biceps, triceps and shoulders).  We were told that the rice farmer has many enemies.  Snails.  Egrets.  Insects.

Lastborn managing solo

Lastborn managing solo

Grab the water buffalo tail and lean back

Grab the water buffalo tail and lean back

The third step was to harrow.  For this, Tien showed us a piece of wood mounted on a harrowing tool behind the water buffalo.  She instructed us to place one foot on the wood, grab the water buffalo’s tale with both hands, hold on tight and mount the second foot.  Lean back.  Firstborn was up.  We giggled nervously and looked to see if Tien was joking.  Surely she must be.  But then she proceeded to demonstrate.  Waterskiing behind a buffalo in a muddy field.  Okaaaay.  More core work but this time with a focus on the obliques.

Using the tandem bailing bucket

The fourth step was to partner up and remove the water from the flooded field.  This step works on coordination and upper body strength.  Throw in some communication work to improve your interpersonal skills.  And Onlyboy was missing all this!  Zut alors!  Our family had a hard time with this step but I like to think it was because of the large differences in size between partners rather than the fact that we are unable to work together.  Tien and the two farmers had to finish draining the field with the bucket for us.

Smoothing out the mud to get rid of any holes

Smoothing out the mud to get rid of any holes

Now with the area mostly mud, we continued on to the fifth step which was to use a wide hoe to fill in any holes and footprints and to create a trench around the field.  This canal is important during harvest when the field needs to be drained.  It also gives a place to walk without making more footprints in the field.  This step mainly works the upper body but also improves balance and posture.

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The sixth step was broadcasting the rice seeds.  This is the method used for fields that are muddy but not flooded.  The rice seeds are soaked for 3 days (rinsed each day), then wrapped in banana leaves for one day to keep them warm and help them germinate.  Then the seeds are ready for broadcasting.  This step seems really easy but it will humble you, thus making you a better person.

photo-7

Left to right:
Farmer, Firstborn, Farmer, Paris, Venice, Lastborn, SWMBO, Fahbio

Because we were keeners, we also tried the flooded field method of rice farming by which you get right into the mud and transplant rice seedlings that you have started and tended in your home.  Paris had the task of using a yoke to transport the seedlings to the field.  Just before getting there, she dropped the rear basket.  Hmm.  With that and Onlyboy’s absence, I would say that Team Hanoi had this one in the bag.

Transplanting the seedlings

Transplanting the seedlings

This sowing method works your coordination and if you do it long enough (we didn’t) every single other muscle you have.

Paris carrying seedlings with the yoke

Paris carrying seedlings with the yoke

Yay!  The rice was planted!  But wait.  How would we get the rice to our table?  Lucky for us, the farmers had planted a bit of rice off season so they had some over-ripened useless rice that was available for us at that very moment.  In Hoi An, they plant two rice crops per year and the current crop wouldn’t be ready for 2 more months.  In Sapa, it is so cold they can only grow 1 crop per year.  In Ho Chi Min, they get 3 crops in one year.

Winnowing - not as easy as it looks

Winnowing – not as easy as it looks

So we took our overgrown rice and manually did the work of the 3 “super machines”.  First we smashed the grains (major upper body workout and if working with a partner, also a rhythm challenge).  Then we threw them in the air to winnow them.  Very humbling (see broadcasting, above).  Fahbio and I were told we must love our chickens since we were scattering so much rice on the ground.  Then we swirled the pan to move the rice grains to one side and the hulls to the other.  Pretty near impossible for a beginner.

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Lastborn after winnowing

Next?  Off to the grinder.  Firstborn says, “Before we move on may I just point out that little four year old Lastborn was still with us and enthusiastic – what a trooper!”  Now back to the grinder.  Pour in the rice and some water and turn the wheel.  More upper body and core strength needed.

Grinding rice to make pancakes

Grinding rice to make pancakes

Ground rice sludge for pancakes

Ground rice sludge for pancakes

Take the sludge and mix it with saffron and onion.  Add in one egg and some sautéed shrimp.  Make a charcoal fire, heat some oil in a pan and add in the batter.  Top with bean sprouts. Cover with a lid and wait a few minutes.   Fold in half and remove to plate.  Cut in two.  Yes, we were suddenly in a cooking class.

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For lunch we had the fruits of our labour.  We were instructed how to eat.  No variations allowed!  Take a piece of rice paper, unfold the 1/2 rice pancake and put it on the rice paper.  Top with cucumber, lettuce, basil and mint.  Roll and dip in fish sauce.  Delicious.  We had a big lunch of wilted morning glory leaves (one of the most popular greens in Vietnam), mackerel steak with tomato, rice (of course!!!), rice noodles, eggplant with soy and garlic, and french fries.  Everything was absolutely delectable.

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We let our lunch settle while trying on a traditional rain coat.  After that we reluctantly said good-bye and returned home.  And Onlyboy?  He was there waiting for us with his own stories of adventures – his involving a beach and a barking feral dog.

Traditional Vietnamese Raincoat

Traditional Vietnamese Raincoat

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