Practical Permaculture & Sustainability Course — Sahainan

The Practical Permaculture and Sustainability Course is a ten-day, hands-on introduction to permaculture at Sahainan Permaculture Organic Farm in Thung Chang, Nan. Where the Permaculture Design Certificate course leans into design theory and certification, this course puts the emphasis on doing, and it is aimed at people who learn best with tools in their hands and who want a solid grounding in the daily skills of self-reliant living before, or instead of, committing to the longer certificate. Two runs are offered in the second half of 2026, from 1 to 10 September and from 26 October to 4 November, with days running from eight in the morning until five in the afternoon on the farm.

Across the ten days the course works through the practical backbone of a permaculture homestead. Participants make compost and build garden beds, work with bamboo and timber, and take part in design exercises that connect the hands-on work to the reasoning behind it. They learn to press coconut oil and make natural soap, harvest from the food forest, prepare herbal remedies and cook with what the land provides, and they take dedicated training in medicinal plants. Each of these is a genuine self-reliance skill rather than a demonstration, so a participant leaves able to turn a harvest into stored food, a plant into a remedy and raw bamboo into a useful structure. Because Sahainan is a working organic farm and not a show garden, the skills are taught in their real context, so composting happens where the compost is needed and building happens on structures the farm actually uses.

The wider ethos of the place shapes the experience as much as the timetable. Sahainan is built around simple living, self-reliance and the belief that real wealth lies in the ability to create your own resources, and the course is designed to send people home able to start doing exactly that, whether they have a balcony, a garden or several rai of land. Living on the farm for the full ten days is part of the learning. Meals are cooked from the gardens, the days end together, and the northern Nan setting, with its forested hills and slow rhythm, gives the course a quiet, grounded character that is hard to find in a weekend class. It suits beginners, travellers who want more than a tour, and anyone planning a move toward a more self-sufficient life who wants to test the daily reality of it first. The ten days are active and physical, spent largely outdoors and on your feet, and much of the learning happens shoulder to shoulder with other participants and with the farmers who run the place, so people tend to leave with new contacts and friendships as well as new skills.

The fee is 8,800 baht and includes food and accommodation for the duration, with a day-rate option of 1,200 baht per day for those who cannot attend the whole course, though only participants who complete the full ten days receive certification. A deposit of 3,000 baht by bank transfer secures a place, and it is non-refundable if a participant cancels but refunded in full if Sahainan cancels the course. Graduates receive a Certificate of Permaculture Education, which recognises the practical training rather than the full design qualification, so those who later want to teach or consult can go on to the fourteen-day Permaculture Design Certificate course. Because each run begins on the same day as a Permaculture Design Certificate course at the same farm, it is worth asking Sahainan how the two relate if you are weighing one against the other. To book, email your full name, home address and your motivation for attending to [email protected], or call +66 95 350 8145 or +66 95 761 2702.