Rice Farming: with Buffalo!

Yesterday in the rice fields outside of Hoi An, we had the opportunity to learn about rice farming.  We met our hosts, a farming family, and drove to their farm in carts pulled by water buffaloes.  These lumbering, leathery beasts are gentle and strong, and are widely still used for farm labor of all sorts.  They are integral to small-scale rice farming.  In fact, most rice farming is small scale because of the nature of rice paddies, which need to be small enough to hold water during key moments on the rice growth cycle.  Most rice paddies aren't larger than a couple hundred feet or so, even if they crowd near other paddies.

We went out to a small paddy, where we were first dared to ride a buffalo.  Every single one of us accepted that dare!

Then we learned about the stages of rice planting, which starts with flooding the paddy.  This used to be done by hand, with a basket connected to two looped ropes held by two people who scooped and dumped water in unison.  We had the chance to try it and found it pretty difficult.  Fortunately today it's widely done with motorized pumps. 

Then, after the paddy is filled with water and good and muddy, the buffalo pulls a small plow that turns over the earth, mixing it into a giant rich dark mud puddle.  We had the chance to try plowing.  We started by wearing rubber boots, but they made it difficult to walk.  And the mud was so thick and deep, we eventually abandoned the boots and went in barefoot, just like the farmers do.  

After the plowing, the furrows are made by dragging a sort of large rake behind the buffalo.  Farmers ride--or surf--the rake to make sure it presses into the mud.  Literally, they hold onto the buffalo's tail as they ride.  So we surfed the muddy paddy, hanging onto the tail of the buffalo like the world's slowest and muddiest waterskiiers.

Then we planted small rice shoots into the furrows.  By this time we were pretty wiped out by the heat and humidity so we only watched.  Afterwards we went back to the farmhouse, where they demonstrated the very labor intensive steps involved in husking, sorting out the chaff, removing the outer layer, and milling the rice.  Then we made rice milk, by adding water and grinding the rice and water in a hand-turned stone mill.  Their tools for all of this are bamboo, baskets, and stones.  

Using the rice milk, we made thin rice pancakes, from which they make rice noodles or spring roll wrappers.  The pancakes are made by ladling a scoop of rice milk on top of a piece of cloth tied over a boiling pot of water, creating a steam bath for the pancake.  We ladled, smoothed, and covered, and a minute later, we delicately lifted the pancake by scraping the edges.  We dipped them in soy sauce and ate them--plain but good.

Then we ate an amazing lunch, cooked by the women in the family, using open fires and small kerosene burners.  All of the rice and rice products were made on that farm.  All of the vegetables were grown there.  The quail eggs they served were raised there, and the chicken was raised there too.  It was amazing and delicious!