Frog Farm
It might all seem a bit bizarre, but we are quite serious about our plan to start a medium scale frog farm to help support Glowing Hearts.
In the culinary culture of the west, the concept of amphibian cuisine is a bit of a joke. However, here on our side of the planet, Kermit and his friends are quite a bit more popular at dinner.
I have been researching this unique crop and talking with a few Thais and foreigners about frog wrangling in Thailand. The one consistent comment is frog farmers cannot keep up with the demand. Right now frogs can go for as much as 120 baht a kilogram. Mature frogs weigh more than .5kg each so at least 60 baht ($2) per frog can be realized depending on the market. The numbers are lower for whole sale.
Now the beauty of frog farming is the fact that frogs are a low maintenance, low expense animal, with a ridiculously high reproduction rate, and a short time span from birth to maturity. Frogs can live on low cost, high protein fish food and commercial frog food is also available (slightly more expensive). But frogs eat less than fish raised in a fish farm, mature faster, and sell at a higher price. As a bonus, feeding the frogs earthworms from a coexisting worm farm boosts their growth rate, and worms eat for free on leaves and garbage while creating fertilizer.
Anchalee’s father has 2 acres of land where their house sits that cannot be used for agriculture because he cannot use village water for irrigation (short supply). But, he does have more than enough overflow water to make frogs happy, and plenty of room to start a frog farm. The biggest concern would be villagers who would likely help themselves occasionally; we would have to install a chain link fence. But other than that there is no reason except finance to keep this from happening.
Our idea is to create 8 frog pens large enough for 200 mature frogs each. As well as putting up something over top for shade. We will also need to surround the pens with a chain link fence for security. Frog farms I have seen use 1 meter tall brick walls surrounding a cement floor and about 3 inches of water which can be drained and replaced. Estimated materials between $800 and $1,000 CAD.
We feel this would be an excellent opportunity to raise funds for Glowing Hearts. We are praying for someone to partner with us in our frog farm. This is guaranteed to be a unique way to prosper the Kingdom, and a great story to share with friends.
God Bless