Friday, 11/07/2025, 18:32

From Volunteer to Founder: How Organic Farming in Thailand Inspired HuyEco Coffee Farm

Wednesday - 21/05/2025 06:22
A volunteer journey through Thai organic farms sparked a new vision for sustainability—and led to the creation of HuyEco Coffee Farm in Vietnam.
From Volunteer to Founder: How Organic Farming in Thailand Inspired HuyEco Coffee Farm

Introduction: A Journey That Sparked a New Path

In 2020, I set out on a journey to visit organic farms and sustainable agriculture projects in Thailand. It was a trip filled with hard work, deep learning, and unexpected challenges—but most importantly, it reshaped my perspective on environmental sustainability and local economies.

Through this experience, I gained valuable insights that not only helped me understand eco-farming, but also inspired the business direction of HuyEco Coffee Farm, where we now focus on sustainable coffee production and immersive farm tours.

This is the story of that journey.

Volunteer clearing dry leaves to create a firebreak at Sahainan Farm, Thailand—as part of a community-led forest fire prevention effort.
At Sahainan Farm, I joined nearly 100 local villagers in clearing dry leaves through the forest to create firebreaks—a powerful experience that taught me sustainability is rooted in collective action, not just ideals.

Preparing for the Trip

🌍 Basic English skills – Essential for communicating with international volunteers.
🎒 A well-packed backpack – Clothes, essentials, and gear for rural farm life.
🧠 An open mindset – You’ll meet people from different backgrounds, and not all interactions will be easy.
💰 Budgeting for expenses – Flights, transport, food, and farm stays.

At many organic farms, volunteers contribute a small fee (around 200 Thai Baht or 150,000 VND) for meals and accommodation. This provides basic necessities—but if you want better meals, you can ask the farm owner to purchase food for you to cook yourself.

The Living Conditions

🏡 My stay was in a simple hut, without walls, with a thin mattress and mosquito net.
🌙 Nights were cool, but the lack of security might feel unsettling, especially for solo travelers.
🌧 Unlucky first night—heavy rain seeped through the thatched roof, soaking my bed. Sleeping with raindrops hitting my face all night was... an experience. 😆

Life here is deeply connected to nature. It’s raw, real, and a test of patience—but if you embrace it, you’ll find unexpected lessons.

Open wooden hut with thatched roof in the middle of nature at Sahainan Farm—where volunteers live in minimalist conditions close to the environment
My accommodation at Sahainan Farm was a simple wooden hut with no walls and a thatched roof. Fully open to nature—where I slept with the sound of insects and woke up with sunlight and wind. A raw yet grounding experience that taught me to slow down and appreciate the essentials.
View from inside a mosquito net in an open-air wooden hut at Sahainan Farm—no walls, just nature all around.
The view from inside my mosquito net at Sahainan Farm. No walls, just a thin net and the forest beyond. At first it felt a bit exposed, but soon I found peace in the openness—sleeping with nature, not against it.

Getting to Sahai Nan Farm

Sahai Nan Farm is located in northern Thailand, near the Laos border.

🚍 12-hour bus ride from Bangkok.
🚶‍♂️ A 6km walk from the bus station to the farm.
🌄 First impressions – Watching monks walk through villages at dawn, collecting alms from locals.

Leaving Bangkok's urban chaos behind, I stepped into a rural world where life moved at a different pace—where farming was not just survival, but a philosophy.

Google map showing the night bus route from Bangkok to Thung Chang, Thailand—a 12-hour journey into the rural mountains to reach Sahainan Farm
The 12-hour night bus ride from Bangkok to Thung Chang, followed by a 6km walk into the forest, marked the beginning of my transition from urban life to a raw, immersive experience in organic farming and community-based sustainability.

Minimalist Living & Self-Sufficiency

Sahai Nan Farm operates on permaculture principles, meaning:
🍽 Coconut shell bowls – Even utensils were nature-made.
🔆 Solar power electricity – Everything was self-generated.
💧 Filtered drinking water – Cleaned through natural processes.
🥦 Seasonal food only – Limited variety, but full of local flavors.

The mountain-grown rice was exceptionally good—rich, earthy, and satisfying. One day, I helped mill rice using solar-powered machines—a perfect blend of tradition and innovation.

And once a week, we visited the local market, where we bought fresh produce and shared meals. Simple moments like these made life beautifully communal.

Coconut shell rice bowl with seasonal rice and beans grown at Sahainan Farm—reflecting a minimalist, nature-based lifestyle
A simple meal at Sahainan Farm: rice and beans grown on-site, served in a coconut shell bowl. No packaging, no waste—just seasonal food and deep appreciation for every grain.

Farm Work & Sustainability Efforts

🌱 Compost making – Understanding the full cycle of soil regeneration.
👩‍🌾 Planting nitrogen-fixing crops – Helping enrich the soil for future rice harvests.
🔥 Biochar production – Learning how organic charcoal improves soil and even filters water.

One of the most physically demanding yet rewarding experiences was participating in a community-led wildfire prevention effort.

🚶‍♂️ A 10km walk through the forest, alongside nearly 100 local villagers, clearing dry leaves to create firebreaks.
🛤 Manual work in the heat, but a deep sense of teamwork and responsibility.
🌲 A lesson in environmental stewardship—seeing firsthand how locals protect their own land without waiting for outside intervention.

That year, Chiang Mai saw one of the worst wildfires in its history—a reminder that preserving forests requires both action and vigilance.

Through this effort, I realized that sustainability isn’t just about individual practices—it’s about collective action.

Household-scale water filtration system at Sahainan Farm—using ceramic filters and simple piping, operating without electricity, aligned with a self-sufficient ecological lifestyle
This water filtration system at Sahainan Farm is entirely handmade: ceramic filter core, basic piping, and no electricity required. A sustainable, low-tech solution that provides clean water while supporting a minimalist, off-grid way of life.
Volunteers and team members at Sahainan Farm making compost from organic materials—part of the soil regeneration and sustainable farming process.
Making compost together at Sahainan Farm—we gathered dry leaves, organic waste, and layered them to create nutrient-rich fertilizer. More than just physical work, it was a lesson in the life cycle of soil and how everything can return to nourish the earth when handled with care.

 

Gravity-fed irrigation system using mountain water at Sahainan Farm, with organic garden mulched with straw to retain moisture and improve soil during the dry season
At Sahainan Farm, a gravity-powered irrigation system channels mountain water to the organic garden—no electricity needed. Straw mulch helps retain soil moisture, suppress weeds, and regenerate the land. A low-tech, climate-resilient solution rooted in ecological wisdom and self-sufficiency.
Volunteers weeding and tending drought-tolerant native legumes in the organic garden at Sahainan Farm—a climate-adaptive and soil-enriching solution.
During the dry season, instead of growing conventional vegetables, we planted drought-resistant native legumes and nitrogen-fixing cover crops. These not only survived with minimal water but also improved soil health. Every weeding session became a lesson in working with nature, not against it.
Dry-season cover crops—native legumes growing in a rice field at Sahainan Farm to enrich soil and protect it before the next planting season
During the dry season, Sahainan Farm’s rice fields are not left bare. Instead, they’re covered with native leguminous plants that fix nitrogen, retain moisture, and protect the soil. A regenerative farming practice that nourishes the land even while it rests.
Volunteers and local farmers clearing dry leaves to create firebreaks at Sahainan Farm—a community-led effort to prevent forest fires during the dry season.
Together with nearly 100 local villagers, we hiked through the forest to clear dry leaves and create firebreaks. No machines—just tools, teamwork, and shared responsibility. A powerful experience that showed me environmental protection is not a slogan, but a rooted collective action.

Lessons & Realizations

The farm owner told me something powerful when I asked why they don’t use government-provided electricity:
💬 “They installed it, but we don’t want to use it.”

That moment made me question my own values.

I admired their dedication to environmental purity, but I also realized:
✅ For sustainability to thrive, it must balance practicality and accessibility.
✅ I wanted to build solutions that not only protected nature but also supported farmers’ livelihoods.

That’s when I knew I wanted to create something more than just a farm—
I wanted to build a business that empowers sustainable farming.

Homemade solar water heater at Sahainan Farm—heating water with sunlight using a DIY setup, without electricity.
At Sahainan Farm, water is heated using a handmade solar panel: black plastic pipes, a wooden frame, and repurposed glass. No electricity, no fuel—just sunlight and ingenuity. A low-tech, eco-friendly solution that saves energy and reduces emissions.

From Volunteer to Entrepreneur: The Birth of HuyEco Coffee Farm

After Thailand, my journey led me to developing HuyEco Coffee Farm—a place where sustainability meets business.

☕ Ethically sourced organic coffee – Elevating farming standards while respecting nature.
🚜 Immersive farm tours – Giving visitors an authentic experience of coffee cultivation.
🌍 Eco-tourism opportunities – Connecting travelers with the reality of sustainable agriculture.

Instead of just observing sustainability, HuyEco Coffee now actively contributes to it, ensuring farmers thrive while protecting their land.

That’s the difference this journey made.

members sharing a meal after visiting the local market—a moment of connection and reflection on farmers’ economic role in sustainability.
After a trip to the local market, we gathered to share a simple meal. Each dish represented the work of farmers—people who nourish communities and deserve to thrive themselves. This moment reminded me that sustainability must include economic dignity for those who grow our food.
The owner of Sahainan Farm applying ash to the field during the dry season—preparing the soil for rice planting when the rains return.
During the dry season, the farm owner spreads ash over the field to enrich the soil, improve texture, and restore nutrients. By the time the rains arrive, the land is ready for rice—no chemical fertilizers needed. A quiet act of care rooted in deep understanding of nature’s rhythms.

 

Barren hillside across from Sahainan Farm degraded by GMO corn and herbicide use—during the dry season, the land resembles a desert
Across from Sahainan Farm lies a once-productive hillside, now stripped bare after years of GMO corn cultivation and herbicide overuse. Without ground cover, the soil erodes, loses nutrients, and cracks under the dry-season sun. A stark reminder of the cost of unsustainable farming—and why we chose a different path.

Final Thoughts: Sustainability is a Shared Journey

This volunteer trip wasn’t just about farming—it was about understanding the deeper connections between nature, community, and economy.

💡 Sustainability must evolve—it can’t rely only on purity, but must integrate economic solutions.
💡 Local action is key—As I saw in Thailand, when communities care for their land, real change happens.
💡 Business and sustainability can coexist—And that’s exactly what we strive for at HuyEco Coffee Farm.

If you want to see how coffee, conservation, and ethical farming intersect, come explore HuyEco Coffee Farm—where sustainability isn’t just a concept, it’s a living experience.


A short video showing how biochar is made at Sahainan Farm—using simple tools and fire to create a soil-enhancing material that supports regenerative agriculture and carbon reduction. A hands-on lesson in sustainable living.

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All articles, images and videos in this article are copyrighted by HuyEcovn, please do not use for other purposes.
In case you want to use the materials for non-profit community purposes, please contact the author at email address: huyeco1125@gmail.com
Sincerely
 Tags: EcoTourism, OrganicCoffee, Agroforestry, ClimateResilience, FarmToCup, HuyEcoCoffee, SustainableFarming, VolunteerAbroad, RegenerativeAgriculture, HuyEcoJourney, VolunteerExperience, LocalWisdom, CommunityAction

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