Meeting at Warung Bambu on 23 Aug 10

The meeting took place at Warung Bambu, Pemaron, 3pm-5pm.
Participants: Beate and Nana, Tanya, Susanne, Ibu Widi, Wayan Ardika and myself. We welcomed John Palmer as a new participant.
The main subject was to organize a marketplace in Lovina for local organic products like fresh vegetables, herbs, homemade preserves, traditionally manufactured arts and crafts, recycled products, natural cosmetics etc. and for sharing information about healthy and sustainable living.
The following issues came up:
Where, when, how often
Conchita is asking the permission of the members of the Rotary Club for the use of their meeting hall. The market will take place every Saturday from 9am to 12am. The starting date and the details still have to be decided with the members of the Rotary Club.
Certification
As it might be difficult to get organic certification all products for sale must state their origin with producer name, adress and phone number and it should be possible to visit the production or growing site.
Who, what
We made a list with products to start with:

• Pegasusfarm: herbs, vegetables and seedlings
• Susanne: aloe vera, seasonal fruits
• Gaia Oasis: aloe vera, eggplants, salads, basil, rucola, lemon grass, honey
• Beate: Bali rice, Bali Asli products, Neem Oil
• Wayan: cocoa powder, oranges in May/June, compost, eggs, honey
• Justin: natural cosmetics and mosquito repellents

As soon as place and start date are fixed the organic market will be announced to the public by local newspapers, flyers, round letters, information boards, websites etc. If you want to take part in the market as a seller please contact one of the participants.

organic Bali rice on the left side

• Nana provided a rice tasting of his organically grown Bali rice and the conventional rice where we could see the difference with our eyes and smell it with our taste buds. The Bali rice takes 140 days to ripen while the conventional rice is already ripe in 90 days.
• Susanne informed that the Indonesian government currently imports rice and garlic from China which is cheaper than the local rice and garlic and gives the local farmers a hard time. So watch out what you are buying!
• Wayan informed that the quality of the cocoa beans of our region is very good according to some german chocolatiers who tasted them.
• Beate wants to know how F1 Hybrids are made and how they work.
  
• Nana mentioned that the flavour of fruits from plants which get seabreeze is often more tasty.
• Please have a look at the website of Embun Pagi. It is a newly opened Permaculture Education site 40km from Kuala Lumpur where you can join the 72h Permaculture Design Certificate Course from 23 Nov to 5 Dec taught by Greg Knibbs and Chakra Widia from Bali.
• By googling for "organic indonesia" I just found the website for all things organic in Indonesia which I added to the link list.

Our next event will be an excursion to Green Leaf Farm in Bedugul at the end of September. Details will be emailed.