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WELCOME TO MAE MUT GARDEN

Mae Mut Garden is a project in self sustainability and community living, started in 2011 on a terraced rice field in Mae Win district, Chiang Mai. In February 2011 the site looked like this.

The seven acre plot is now mainly a food forest, with fruit trees, hardwood trees, perennial vegetables, edible roots, vines and medicinal herbs, using natural farming and permaculture principles. In the photo below, taken last year, Mae Mut Garden is the square(ish) mainly forested plot in the centre of the picture.

The first fruit tree seedlings were planted in the summer of 2011 and now Mae Mut Garden produces fresh fruit all year round, soursop and papaya, mulberry and jackfruit, limes, lemons and strawberries, pineapple and mango, avocado and rambutan, custard apple and jujube, guava and dates, coconut, bananas and much more.

Every year we grow a small crop of organic rice for our own consumption. We use a number of perennial vegetables that form part of our regular diet, as well as cold season annuals like lima and cranberry beans, tomatoes, eggplants and peppers, onions and garlic,  during the rainy season we eat various typical tropical vegetables, okra, long beans, corn etc.

four years on

italian tomatoes

Since we started, Mae Mut Garden has become much more than just our home, our small community includes permanent residents and close neighbours and the more transient presence of volunteers, friends, homestay guests and short term visitors. We like it much better like this. New people bring new ideas and fresh perspectives and very often new delicious recipes! We strongly believe that community living is the way forward, both from an environmental and a social perspective, it also happens to be more fun.

guestroom

rice field

making bread

our house

planting onions

P’Hom and Serena

lunchtime

papaya

About 60km SW of Chiang Mai, the Mae Win district has many attractions, beautiful valleys and views, rivers and waterfalls, mountain villages and forest temples. All within easy reach, life cannot be just about work, we try and set aside time to enjoy the nature around us. Come join us for a short time or longer, at this stage of the project we really appreciate having some healthy and strong bodies around….This is an opportunity to experience natural farming techniques and strategies for sustainable living, spend some time in nature and live off the abundance that nature produces.

PS. We are not on any volunteering or work exchange platform, as we prefer to rely on word of mouth. if you have stumbled across this site and liked it, please SHARE it with anyone you think might be interested in this kind of thing. We also have a FB page called Mae Mut Garden. Here you can read about the experiences of some of the recent volunteers and also some reviews from our homestay guests.

mae tian near our house

nam manao

pa daeng

baan huay hoy

khun win

nong tao

UPDATE MARCH 2023

We no longer live at Mae Mut Garden, which is now a private residence. We have started a new project in a different province in Northern Thailand and you can check us out at https://offthebeatenthailand.com/