Rice Paddy in The US
This rice paddy belongs to a Hmong family; I posted some photos at my blog last week, but they have gotten taller today, and they will be ready to harvest by mid August. It is also the same rice paddy that I talked about at the old Laoplanet forum, but never have the courage to ask them if I could take some pictures.
I wish I had the courage to ask him back when he was plowing the land, it was quiet a site because it was raining that day, and my dad said that it makes it easier to plow, and from the look of this, you would think that I live in the boondocks and maybe I am, but I think it’s more in the photos where you could only see from certain angles. The rice paddy closer to you is the sticky rice and the one further back is the purple sticky rice (kao khum.) I’m very fortunate to see this every year, and it’s a sight, very beautiful especially early in the morning and the best part is to hear their roosters crowing; it feels just like back home.
This is a treat for me, I’ve been admiring this rice paddy from a distance, but seeing it up close is even better, I just can’t wait to see the rice coming out.
Laoplanet forum? Seems decade ago. How much rice does he get from this paddy, does he sell them, is there a rice mills around. It just seems like way too much work unless this is a commercial operation. It must be profitable or worth it for him to be doing it for this long.
Hi Dallas, he has been living at his current location for 8 years, and doesn’t grow enough to feed his family because his land is not that big; and he also has a large extended family. I think this is just his hobby because he and his wife both work. He said that many of his Hmong friends grow their own rice, especially those that have large land. I think it’s nice, as for hobby, if you like what you’re doing, I believed anything is worth it.
Nice post
Thanks somchai, I’ll post more photos of this rice paddy in the next weeks or so, it should have rice by then.
Lovely pics - it looks peaceful, but probably lots of hard work! Are there any Lao families doing the same thing out there (in the U.S.)? This is a very resourceful Hmong family to be able to grow their own rice.
Salat, I’m not aware of any Lao family doing this, but we do more of gardening I believed. It’s a lot of hard work, especially the drought that we’ve had in our area in the last couple of years, but he managed to get the water in there somehow, it’s very nice to look at. They’re resourceful people, a plus now since the price of rice is so expensive.
With machinery it should not be as back breaking work like the old fashion way in Laos. Many Hmong families in Kansas I know grow fruits and vegetables to feed themselves and also to sell at the Kansas City Market. They do this along with their job and happy to be on the field. Now there is a family that is growing Mun Thao, which is quite expensive to import from Thailand. It’s smaller in size but very sweet.
When I see such photos it gives me a peace of mind and made me think of Laos. Even though my family didn’t have a rice paddy we used to live next to one in That Luang area. Having your own rice paddy in the US, it’s like having a little piece of Laos I would imagine. You have your little own paradise to get to after a crazy day at work.
The only one thing that would make this paradise complete is a water buffalo.
[...] paid a visit to my Hmong neighbor’s rice paddy again during my morning break, I was hoping that the rice plants would produce some rice grains by [...]
Very very interesting, a US rice paddy. What kind of climate does such a rice paddy need?
Hi Padek, I think it’s ideal in the Southeast Asia area with lots of rain because you have to have water in the rice paddy at all time, but too much rain is not good either. It is not feasible to grow in our area because of the drought that we’ve had in the last couple of years, but he managed to have water pipes run to his rice paddy.