Siem Reap, KH – SS and the Peaksneng garden shop promote organic growing – 31 May 2021

SS is a village official who assists the people, and is a believer in the value of organic growing and compost fertilizer. He practices what he teaches, and as a result enjoys a good harvest of vegetables and fruit from his organic Food Always In The Home (FAITH) garden.

His garden was inspired by learning the FAITH garden organic principals from Rey and the Peaksneng Garden Shop team. His garden has enabled him to reduce his family’s food bill by eating vegetables from his garden. He is not a young man, but he found that gardening was good for keeping his physical and mental health strong. He feels it is important to share this knowledge with his neighbors because he beliefs that natural farming is all about people, animals, food and organisms living in harmony.

SS believes in giving back, so he has assisted Rey’s team by selling some of his land to the shop so that Rey’s building team could build affordable housing for disadvantaged families. There are now over twenty homes with home and market vegetable gardens on the land, so that families and their children have a safe and secure home, sufficient food, and income from selling vegetables. These homes provide healthy stable environments that enable children to relax and grow their capacity to learn at school.

Like other families in the area, he faces the well known challenges of extreme heat during the dry season and flooding in the wet season. This and stray animals damage plants and lower the garden’s productivity. When productivity is not a challenge, he often faces low market prices. It is hard to win!

SS has a dream to assist other people to build good lives, so he and the shop team are a good partnership.