Typical home garden of rural Cambodians, not just a garden!

Home garden may sound like a fun thing to do, for city people who love to plant tiny plants, flowers and stuff like that. 

Home garden for Cambodian, especially those who live in countryside means a whole lot difference.

Rural Cambodians are typical called farmers because of the farmland they live on but farms here in Cambodia can mean two things:

• First, farmers (អ្នកស្រែ/កសិករ) who grow rice on farms. Besides rice field that collect the yield once or twice a year, these people would grow some trees in the garden at home just to feed the family. This post here will talk specially about this case.
• Second, farmers (អ្នកចំការ/កសិករ) who plant commercial agricultural products to sell at a larger scale.

Home garden has enormous functions​, is for feeding the family because the majority of the plants are edible and as food, the bigger plants are mostly fruit trees that give yields to the owners - some even could manage to sell their products.

OWNING this home garden, they do not have to buy food from the market. This article is inspired by my previous articles about rice, and edible plants, this article will talk more about what are available in ones 'garden. 

Home garden can be used for its yielding, shade as well as firewood and many more!

• Fruit trees for fruits (but some fruit trees also have edible leaves): jack fruit, mango, guava, banana, wood apple, palm tree, papaya, java cola, orange, grape fruit, lime, wax apple, coconut, milk fruit.. Some families have all of these, some with smaller piece of land have less. Those fruits can be eaten green or ripen. When these trees become old, bear no more fruits or have too much branches, they become firewood.
• Vegetables and spice: garden plants for cooking and serving as daily food/meal, some are for medical purpose. Many plants I have described in my previous article about garden plants. Vegetables can come in various form such as vine crops, grow and lie on the fence, on other trees or bamboo cell above the ground.

ឃ្លោក	Bottle gourd (Langenaria siceraria)
ល្ពៅ	pumpkins
ត្រឡាច	Winter melon
ត្រសក់	Cucumber
ពពាយ	Winged bean
សណ្តែកគួរ	String bean
ឪឡឹក	watermelons
ដំឡូងឈាមមាន់	purple yam
ននោង	Luffa gourds
ស្លឹកបាស / Bas leave	Ivy gourd leaves

 

Some comes in the form of root (root crop) which can also be vegetables or spice as well:

 

រមៀត	Turmeric (spice)
ដំឡូងជ្វា	Sweet Potato
រំដេង	Galangal (spice)
ឆៃថាវ	Red Radish
ត្រាវ	Taro
ខ្ជាយ	Fingerroot (spice)
ខ្ញី	Ginger
មើមខ្ទឹម	Garlic (spice)
ពន្លៃ	Bengal ginger (Zingiber montanum)

 

• Rice - as the base of every meal, plays the main role for daily food consumption. None of the meal goes without rice!
• Meat from livestock: free range chickens, ducks and fish from around the house (for meat and egg). Bulls and pigs are usually for sale but in the events of big parties, wedding reception or ceremonies - they would use them for food​ as well - but least practice these days!

Inventory of my dad's home garden

Just recently, I have been visiting my hometown and able to see the beautiful rice field of mine and enjoyed the home garden around the house. 

My dad loves to work around the house and few years ago, I took the initiative to do the inventory on the plants my father grew.

I counted to 70 species, included many above names. It is 50% more than other typical families I would say. 

In the inventory - it includes majority the fruit trees, then the vegetables and spice. We have the pond around the house that can provide fish about 40kg when we take out the water! They can be eaten fresh or fermented for long term use. We save a lot of money from buying fruits, vegetables and meat from outside. We have almost everything ourselves.

Since we were young, we would walk around the house to find fruits and we were very healthy because we ate those fruits planting by dad.

Please enjoy some views from my hometown and the home garden of my dad!

Guava grew by dad - yummy!Another type of orange - special species left from grandpaBottle gourd - vine cropWinter melon - vine gropSugar apple grew by dad - yummy!