Coconut Shells

At Jiwa Damai we are using a special way to place our coconut shells around the base of our plants. Since we are producing our coconut oil form our own coconut trees , the shells are available and we are using them for several purposes. During the rainy season they can collect some of the water with their inner softer hairy material thus allowing to keep some water away form the plants.

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The second reason is to have them soak up the water we are distributing in the dry season  around the fields. They will hold the water longer for the plants to feed .

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Last but not least when they decompose they will make an excellent nutrition to be added to the soil. On some plants we are just setting them directly around the root of the plants.

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Production of our Bali Virgin Coconut Oil

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When I arrived at Jiwa Damai as an intern, I had to organize the production of the Coconut House.  A very interesting and exciting project that I enjoyed doing with the help of Margret and Libby.

The production begins with Nyoman and Ketut opening  the coconuts in the tropical garden.The coconut meat is extracted before being transformed in flakes with a grinder.

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Inside, in a green atmosphere, fruits are drying while the filtering process of oil is done by hand.

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Empty jars and glass bottles are ready to package the delicious virgin coconut oil.

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You can use it on your skin or for cooking. It is a really healthy food with lots of benefits. I had the pleasure to enjoy it in the delicious Balinese meals that are prepared by Made. Finished products are then nicely put together in the small shop of Jiwa Damai and other outlets.

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Bee hives at Jiwa Damai

Bee hive up in the tree

Some of our readers might already know about the Balinese bee hives that we set up some time ago in the organic garden.

We started out with only few bees living in these traditional Balinese bee hives located in different locations all over the garden.

After a few months we were able to harvest the first honey. It was quite difficult to extract the honey from these traditional bee hives and the men doing it had to operate with a lot of care.

(complete post: First honey harvest in Jiwa Damai)

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Since then, the bee population has increased, thus more honey is being produced. To give more space to the bees and to facilitate our honey production, we decided to move the bee family from the traditional Balinese bee house  into a new house. In this classical, western bee stock it will be much easier to extract the honey.

Bee hive

Bee hive

Bees

Bee hive

The relocation of the bee family was not an easy task.

But now they are living in the new bee stocks and we are excited to see how much honey can be produced.  We will keep you updated !