Minutes of the 3rd Meeting

Meeting was held on April 15, 3-5pm at Warung Bambu, Pemaron, Bali

Present at the Meeting in Warung Bambu: Beate, Gede, Tanja, Burgel, Nicole, Jochen, Yuli, Evelyn, a little later 2 ladies from the Rotary Club Lovina, Ibu Lia and Ibu Summy, joined us

Absent: Burkhard was in Malaysia, Silvia and Brigitta were busy with their projects

The next meeting is scheduled for Friday, May 15, 3-5pm at Warung Bambu, Pemaron, Bali

At 3pm it was pouring with rain, so we waited until everybody escaped from the rain and dropped in. Not so easy to arrive in time in this weather!
Tanja brought a colorful basket full of fresh herbs and vegetables from their organic farm for Warung Bambu. Looked so tempting that Mahesa, Beate's son, could not resist to nibble a Cherry Tomato!

Burgel's easy-to-use compostbox

• First we had a look at the different compost containers. Burgel had built a compost container using welded iron as a frame and attaching split bamboo to it. The container has a round outline with a diameter of 1m. The cost for all materials was nearly 100'000 Rp. Gede brought the compost container he made from split bamboo. What a great artwork and a jewel in a garden! It looks like a box on legs, has a removable bottom and is a bit smaller and cheaper than Burgel's container. The different containers will now be tested.
• Beate told us more about the science of composting. There are many different kinds and systems. So be open to it and find out by yourself.
• Beate informed us about the Temesi project near Ubud, a waste recycling station that was founded by David Cooper.
• Beate showed us the pictures that were made from the children in her project. They splitted in two groups. One group took photos from things they liked, the other group from things they did not like. Very interesting and informative to look at the children's view and judgement! And nice pictures, too!
• Nicole told us that a pitch of Vitamin C powder in the water helps clean the vegetables.
• Ibu Lia and Ibu Summy from the Rotary Club of Bali Lovina gave us details about their river and beach clean up and fun program for school children on April 24. The children are asked to bring their own glas and spoon so that no plastic needs to be used. The food will be served in banana leaves. Adults who want to join the event and contribute their help are very welcome. For further details contact Ibu Summy at 081 338030275. This event will be the start of a 3 year project to clean up villages. The project is sponsored by Coca Cola. Kaliasem will play the role of a model village.
• The question was raised if it is culturally accepted in Bali to give comments when somebody is littering. The Balinese participants give the advice, first to become friends with someone and then comment when there is already a base of mutual respect or short "use the backdoor".
• We all agreed that the relationship between Permaculture in Action and the Rotary Club is valuable for both sides and want to nourish it further with whatever help is needed and can be given. Thank you, Ibu Lia and Ibu Summy, for joining us!

Gede brought for everybody a cherry tomato seedling. Trim its shoots when it is about 50cm high. And give it a grate vine to climb. Water only every 2 days. With too much water the fruits become too heavy and will fall.

Luckily the rain had stopped when we finished the meeting!
As always Beate had led us very easy and skillfully through the meeting.

Good luck with your projects!

3. Meeting Permaculture in action

Today, 15.04.2009 we will meet in Warung Bambu Pemaron from 3.00 till 5.00 pm.
See you :-)

Excursion to Ubud

Lo explains Silvia the ingredients of BioSoap

Finally last Saturday Silvia and me made it to Ubud. Our first stop there was the Organik Market which is held on the verandah of Restaurant Pizza Bagus. I couldn't resist the tempting Cappuccino and so we sat down at a table in the Pizzeria and watched the coming and going on the verandah. On several stands organic products were offered like vegetables, seedlings, home-made jams and nut butters, bread and cakes, colloidal silver, soapnut liquid and others. We were looking for Ibu Sayu from Yayasan IDEP and found her behind a stall with lots of bright green bags with seeds.

shopping bags made from newspapers instead of plastic

I won't forget her bright smile and her name which sounds almost like sayur which means vegetable in bahasa indonesia. She explained us how to find the permaculture demonstration site of IDEP: just 500m down the road, after passing the wairingin tree watch out for the IDEP sign and turn right into the road which takes you to the IDEP site. I was impressed by the strong and healthy looking salads, comfrey leaves and other greenies in the beds thickly mulched with rice straw (jerami).

Gotu Kola at the IDEP site

From there we headed for the Botanic Garden where we spent the heat of the day walking along the little river under the shades of big trees. We were delighted by the Islamic garden with its fountain, fig trees and walls of climbing flowers and passion fruits. We discovered the bright red fruit of Mahkota Dewa and tasted the refreshing fruit of the Roselle Bush, which is related to the Hibiscus family. The dried fruits are used for making tea and are for sale in the shop at the entrance. The strong Taro's in the pond were an eye catcher. Silvia might use them at the ponds in KEV.

Taro in the pond at the Ubud Botanic Garden

Mahkota Dewa Apple in the Ubud Botanic Garden

We ended our Ubud tour with a tasty lunch at Pizza Bagus.
On the way home we stopped at a rice fabric where I filled up the car with bags of rice husks and rice straw thinking of the permaculture principle of making multiple use of resources.