Tomato blessing

Fresh tomatoes

Our fertile lands at Jiwa Damai produce delicious tomatoes.

Since we can not eat all these tomatoes at once, we regularly process them into other products.

We use our fresh tomatoes to make Balinese Sambal. We already shared our recipe for original Balinese Sambal in one of our older posts. Click here to read the post.

The sambal is cooked and then filled into plastic bags, sealed and frozen.

Balinese sambal

Another option is to dry the tomatoes (with our raw food oven). This is an excellent method to conserve fruit and vegetables.

Dried tomatoes

Butterflies in our garden

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These are just a few of the many beautiful butterflies that live in our gardens at Jiwa Damai.

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Homemade basil pesto

In the permaculture garden we also grow basil - Balinese lemon basil as well as western basil.The land at Jiwa Damai is blessed with fertile grounds - and the basil bushes are growing really well !

Basil _2

We use the basil to make basil pesto - Today we want to share with you the recipe for our old fashioned basil pesto.

Fresh Basil

For our flavourful pesto we use the Balinese lemon basil from the garden, combined with stronger flavored Italian basil. At first all the leaves have to be cut in tiny pieces.

Cutting basil

Once the basil is cut, we add garlic, olive oil and shredded parsley. Et voila - the pesto is ready to be eaten.

Basil pesto

Enjoy with fresh pasta !

Selamat makan!

Dried organic fruit and vegetables

Our latest project here at Jiwa Damai is to produce dried fruit and vegetables. We only use the organic produce from our permaculture garden, grown without fertilizers and chemicals. For this purpose we invested in a food dryer / raw oven used in the raw food kitchen.

This is the first batch of bananas ! They are air-dried at very low temperature to retain the flavour. What an incredible sweetness !

Dried bananas

We also dried tomatoes and hot red peppers.

Dried tomatoes

Dried peppers

We pack the fruit and veggies in FDR recommended plastic bags to retain the flavour.

These products can be bought at Jiwa Damai.

Come by and taste for yourself!

Organic potatoes from Bali

In August we wrote a post about the potato tower that we built in the permaculture garden. Since it proved impossible to grow potatoes in the wet soil here at Jiwa Damai, we decided to create a tower that is filled with stones, sand and earth, so the water is able to flow through it and that the potatoes are kept dry.

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Now, that some months have passed, we can finally see the results !

The potato plants are growing really well.

Potato tower

We can't wait for the harvest & to taste our homegrown organic potatoes :-)

Christmas Workshop at Jiwa Damai

Around Christmas time, Dr. Margret Rueffler ist holding a workshop at Jiwa Damai: I, We and It - Aligning with the song of the earth

Mo 19 – Su 25 December 2011

Yoga session

The seminar "Aligning with the song of the earth" provides a space where a deep connection with one's own heart and the heart of the earth unfolds. An alignment with the own potential and the potential of the earth in her present process of transformation takes place. A profound acceptance is needed, to see the symptoms of her movements as change. To align deeply with the heart of the earth and welcome the new.

Everyone interested is very welcome to join !

Experience 7 days of yoga and meditation in a very peaceful and relaxing environment, on an organic farm in the heart of Bali.

Included in the package is the following:

• Six nights accommodation
• Balinese breakfast
• Half board or optionally full board
• Welcome drink
• One full-day excursion
• Legong or Kecak dance in Ubud
• One Balinese massage
• Airport/hotel transfers
• Three workshop-sessions 'Aligning with the song of the earth'
• Daily yoga session
• Daily meditation session 'Unfolding the HeartSelfIntelligence'

For detailed information on the workshop please visit Dr. Margret Ruefflers website: www.pppi.net or write us an email: info@jiwadamai.net

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Balinese religious ceremony

Balinese people are very religious and they regularly hold ceremonies and parades in their communities. They bring offerings to the Gods in order to ask for their good will and to appease them. Wira, the general manager at Jiwa Damai,  invited us to join his familiy in one of the bigger ceremonies held in his village.

We, the foreigners, got dressed up in traditional Balinses clothes. Everyone is wearing a sarong. This is really the essential piece of clothing you need during your stay on Bali!

The festivities started with a ceremony in the local temple.

Balinese ceremony

Afterwards all the people of the village set out to march to the next village, to the next temple to hold the religious ceremony there.

Ceremony walk

The whole march took about 6 hours in the hot Balinese midday sun! The group stopped at 4 different temples to hold ceremonies. It was quite a challenge to walk in the boiling heat for that many hours and for so many kilometers. But it was a very special and rewarding experience at the same time.  We, the foreigners, or the "bule" (how the Balinese people call foreigners) were the attraction of the group. Everyone eyed us carefully & curiously... but they welcomed us in the group with warm feelings.

The Balinese women were all dressed in their most beautiful clothes, carrying basket with offerings on their heads.

Balinese women

And the little kids were absolutely adorable !

Balinese kids

All in all this day was a great experience!

At Jiwa Damai we offer our guests the opportunity to get in close contact with the Balinese people and to take part in ceremonies and local festivities.

To inquire about upcoming festivities and the possibility to join, write us an email> info@jiwadamai.net.

Permaculture on Bali - Flowers and plants

Join us for a virtual tour through Jiwa Damai's huge permacultue organic garden. Check out the beautiful tropical flowers and plants we have:

Balinese water lilly

Black water lilly from karangasen provence

Hibiscus flower

Orange flower

Our own Jiwa Damai pineapples

In the permaculture garden we also grow pineapples. In this tropical weather they grow really well.Once harvested, the green leaves are cut of and replanted.

Ketut with pinapple

single pinapple

2 pinapples

Caterpillar and Praying Mantis in the permaculture garden

This is a fantastic shot of a green caterpillar, crawling away in the permaculture garden. Cool spikes !

Caterpillar

Look at this beautiful praying Mantis. And she is actually praying - look at her 'hands'.

Praying Mantis