sol
Sol and Mom
Soul was the first baby born (in an underwater birth) in the Jiwa Damai health room in the Spring of 2012. Margret recently had the opportunity to meet with Soul and his parents, Miquela and Terry, in upstate New York to celebrate Soul's second birthday.
transplant lilies 1
The lily pond got a makeover recently. Volunteers and staff transplanted new lilies and gave the water a thorough cleaning, leaving us with a cleaner pond and lots of good organic matter for the gardens.
lily pads
Our fearless Italian volunteer, Luca, tried his hand at opening the outer shell of our coconuts. The nuts need to be opened, the inner shell cracked, the meat extracted and then grated to produce our wonderful organically certified cold pressed coconut oil, which is an incredible health food.
There were about three hundred to be opened, and Luca managed to open over 50 nuts on the first day. We were in awe.
Luca coconuts
more coconuts
Lilit, Svetlana, and Marina were three of our 30 women strong group, working for 5 days with dance and meditation at Jiwa Damai. All of the guests as well as the group leader came to us from Russia. They looked like butterflies in their beautiful and colorful dresses fluttering through our permaculture garden. We all had a great time together, team and guests. This is the second year they held their seminar here at Jiwa Damai.
Russian women 1
russian women 2
fresh paint full scene
fresh paint detail
The open-air yoga and meditation area got a fresh coat of paint last week just in time for a new group of guests.
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These are our coconuts harvested in December. They were used for the production of our own coconut oil which is also for sale in Jiwa Damai. The coconuts used for oil must be left on the trees until they are dark and dry. The green coconuts are 'young coconuts' or 'kelapa muda' in Indonesian language and are used for drinking as a natural organic rehydration drink - perfect for refreshing us during the hot weather we are getting just now. Guests at Jiwa Damai are greeted with a cool coconut water from our garden on their arrival.
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Putu, our cooking assistant is grinding down the coconuts into what will become the basis for the organic cold pressed coconut oil.
Butu grinding coconut oil
Medicinal Garden
Mine Nur Akarsu spent a full month at Jiwa Damai. Her project was to research and improve our medicinal plant area in the garden. She spent some time with our head gardener Ketut Badung, who is very knowledgeable with the Balinese healing plants. She brought many plant cuttings from his garden and started a directory with the local and English names including the information about the healing qualities and growing requirements of the plants.
Mine
Mine and our experienced gardener Liz have been broadening the existing area, planting, and creating a healing and peaceful environment for our retreat center volunteers, workers, and guests. The written detail will be available for those who are interested in this research.
If you'd like to take a look around our new and improved Medicinal Garden, be sure to stop by as it is a part of garden tour which happens on Wednesday and Sunday mornings. These photos do not do Mother Earth's gifts any justice!
Liz
CoconutOil
Here at Jiwa Damai, we produce our own virgin coconut oil with the organic coconuts grown on the property. Not only do we use the coconut oil in our kitchen for each meal, we also have various sized bottles available for sale in our small shop.
Coconut oil is considered one of the world's top superfoods with thousands of uses and more benefits than we can count! Here's a wonderful infographic explaining just a few of the benefits from this incredible food:
We use a very special process to extract the oil from each coconut, which is done by hand by our lovely Balinese staff. We would love for you to click the pictures below and read more about this process in our simple step by step guide.
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grind it 3
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Have you tried this method before? If not, what other methods have you used? We would love for you to comment below and share with us!
Lava rocks
During his visit, Juergen from Germany, who is a Geomantist, the European version of Feng Shui, observed the property and its layout. Since many waters embrace and flow through Jiwa Damai, he strongly suggested adding stones, preferably Lava stones, the fire element, to balance the water on the property. What a great reason to make Jiwa Damai a home for huge lava stones from Mount Agung, the holy mountain in Bali. After inspecting and choosing the location carefully, a crew of ten men transported each rock, the largest one weighing 350 kg, to its location. The rocks are set 35-40% deep into the earth and placed on the opposite ends of our garden. Five rocks have been brought to Jiwa Damai and two of them are still awaiting their placement.
We are currently enjoying our second flush of organic Jackfruit from the garden. The trees fruited a few months ago before Christmas and are again yielding mammoth fruits for us to savour. Parting the strong skin with a large knife and peeling out the fruit makes our hands very sticky, while providing a unique aroma and taste. We thinly slice some of the fruit to put in our dehydrator, so we can enjoy this delicious treat on the out-of-season months. The seeds can be chopped and roasted for salads, boiled and blended into a delicious rich hummus, or boiled in soups and stews.
Our pond fish enjoy eating the remaining Jackfruit flesh attached to the peel as a special seasonal treat and for some variation in their diet. Yes, pond fish love fruit too! You'll never have to throw away a peel again if you simply compost it or feed it to whatever friendly critters you have around.
You may see trees with large sacks hanging between the branches all over our garden. These are the young Jackfruit which we cover in order to protect from fruit flies that sting and destroy it. All fruit is enjoyed without using poisonous and harmful chemicals.
Jackfruit
Jackfruit seeds
Jiwa Damai is a hands-on, socially responsible organic garden and retreat center.
We are located amidst lush tropical vegetation in the heart of Bali (20 mins from Ubud).
