Foodpreneur Helianti Hilman Shares Indonesia's Heritage

Today I want to give a cheer of celebration and appreciation to Helianti Hilman, a friend, mother and foodpreneur. Here's an interview with her in The Asian Entrepreneur.

Heli is passionate about biodiversity and heritage foods. She has cultivated an extensive network of farmers across Indonesia to help small scale heritage farmers connect with broader markets. 

Heli has spoken at Slow Food Bali events, including my favorite one ever focusing on Indonesia's heritage rice. We sampled ten varieties of heritage rice from around Indonesia and voted on our favorites. You might be surprised at how colorful and delicious a plate full of rice can be!

Here's a 'shameless plug' for Heli's business Javara:

JAVARA works across agricultural value chains from production to distribution in order to preserve Indonesia’s food biodiversity, bringing community-based products to broader market. Such approach enable us outreaching over 50,000 farmers/food artisans, producing over 600 products, of which almost 200 are organic certified for US, EU & Japan. Through product innovations we grow our export to 18 countries in 4 continents, constituting 90% of our total turnover. In 2013, I was named as Ernst & Young as Indonesia’s Entrepreneur of the Year and in 2014 Javara is awarded by Forbes Indonesia as one of Top 20 Global Rising Stars.

Keep up the great work, Heli!

Photo Courtesy of The Asian Entrepreur

The Cost of Living

What does it cost to live in Bali, Indonesia? Well, that depends...

One of the great things about visiting Bali is that visitors have a lot of options. For instance, accommodation can be had for as little as USD $10 a night (breakfast included) in a hospitable homestay or up to USD $1,000 a night at a five-star hotel.

Here are some informative resources:

The Real Cost of Living in Ubud, Bali for One Month
Blog, Erin and Josh Bender

All in a Day's Work
Money issue, Inspired Bali


Nila (pictured), who cooks and owns Sari Organik (highly recommended) earns about IDR 250,000 a day. Photo: courtesy of Inspired Bali

It's eye-opening to compare what your average visitor or expat born in a wealthy country like the US or Australia spends on lunch (IDR 50,000 or less than USD $4) and the average daily wage of many Balinese. A seamstress (IDR 50,000) or barista (IDR 60,000), for example, earns in a day about what the average visitor might spend on lunch. A retail sales person (IDR 25,000) or midwife (IDR 33,000) likely earns less.

Despite income discrepancies, there doesn't seem to be a lot of socioeconomic envy going around. There's much less, I think, here than in your average community in the US.

Ubud Food Festival Promises Deliciousness

What does it take to inspire me? FOOD!

Sitting down to write - or blog - on an empty stomach is never a recipe for success. Luckily, inspiring food abounds in Indonesia.

The first ever Ubud Food Festival will take place this June 5-7 in Ubud, Bali, so it feels like a good time to begin a series on IndoVisible about the joys of eating across the archipelago. From the same team who brings us the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival comes the premiere international event celebrating Indonesian food.

Perhaps I'll be inspired to launch IndoEdible!

Stay tuned here for yummy tidbits. Though an 'intuitive' in the kitchen, I may even offer up recipes.

In the meanwhile, here's a savory bit about Slow Food Bali, the local incarnation of the international movement that supports good, clean and fair food. This was published in the Gratitude issue of Inspired Bali magazine.

Selamat makan!

Good food & gratitude

By Melinda Chickering

When you sit down to eat, what do you do before the first bite hits your palate? Some people pray, asking divine blessings for their food, giving thanks for the meal and those who share it with them. Some offer their own blessings to the food or breathe in a bountiful waft of aroma, preparing their bodies for the pleasure and nourishment to come. Some gather together at a harvest table to share food with family and friends while others tend to eat alone, perhaps sitting close to the earth, as is traditional in Balinese culture.

Some of us merely sit down and dig in. We may even forget to chew the first few bites as we race to quiet a rumbling stomach or finish the meal and get back to work. If you’re like me, you may have neglected to even sit down before taking the first bite of your most recent meal.

A movement to slow down and savor good food, appreciate its role in our lives and foster clearer connections between producers and consumers of food began in Italy in the 1980s. This movement, a reaction to the increasing popularity and prevalence of fast food, became Slow Food, an international grassroots organization with convivia in 150 countries and over 100,000 members worldwide.

Slow Food’s values can be summed up in three words – good, clean and fair. We all know good food tastes good and smells good. It pleases the senses and comprises an important part of our local culture. Clean food is produced and consumed bearing in mind the health and wellbeing of our bodies, our planet and our fellow travelers including animals. Fair food can be accessed by consumers at a reasonable price, with producers benefiting from sustainable prices and conditions. Consumers have such a strong role to play in promoting and preserving good, clean and fair food through their purchasing and eating choices that Slow Food calls consumers “co-producers”.

Choosing more locally-sourced over imported food brings fresher food to your table and better prices for both producers and co-producers, while also reducing your food supply’s carbon footprint. Fresher food tastes better and retains more nutrition than processed food, that has taken a long journey from farm to plate.

We are blessed in Bali to enjoy a wide variety of high quality local food. The year-long growing season provides bountiful harvests of rice and vegetables, a constant supply of vibrant tropical fruit and deliciously unique nutritional power houses like cacao and moringa. Local cuisine includes vegetarian delights like urab and succulent traditions like babi guling. To drink, the island hosts some of the world’s most tantalizing Arabica coffee and a copious supply of revitalizing coconuts. We have much to be grateful for!

Bali’s culture has centered on agriculture for at least a millennium, but it is now shifting in tandem with economic imperatives. The booming tourism economy heightens demand for land and water, rendering these resources increasingly dear both for Balinese people and visitors. Whether in Bali for a short or long stay, there are many ways you can show your appreciation and play a positive role as a co-producer on the island. Here are a few:

Buy food directly from producers by patronizing farmers markets.

By eliminating the middle men, you get fresher food to your table and higher revenues to food producers. Co-producers may get better prices in some cases, too; at least you know you are investing in fresh food rather than lengthy supply chains and flashy marketing techniques.

You can also buy directly at local traditional markets, which pop up daily all around Bali, so long as you get up early in the morning! Trading usually opens in the wee hours before sunrise, and you can not beat the prices so long as you are ready, willing and able to bargain.

Grow your own food.

With plenty of moisture, sunlight and green-thumbed friends to help you, Bali is a great place to learn how to produce your own food. You can pick up seeds or seedlings at a farmers market and follow your instincts or take a permaculture training course with IDEP Foundation (www.idepfoundation.org).

Dispose of waste responsibly.

What does trash have to do with food? Believe it or not, those tasty morsels from the kitchen did not appear there magically. Food is the edible part of a cycle that includes waste, decomposition, nourished soil and cleansing water, growth of new plants and healthy animals, which then become food again. Waste management is a growing concern in Bali as the island’s population of locals and visitors both continue to boom. Many river ravines and road sides have become unfortunate informal waste dumps. Organic waste that can decompose and return to the earth can be composted. You can learn how to compost from IDEP or Eco Bali (www.eco-bali.com).

You arrange to have inorganic solid waste picked up from your house by Eco Bali or from your business by Bali Recycling (www.balirecycling.com).

Join Slow Food Bali

The local convivium of food lovers who participate in the international Slow Food movement through local events and programs. Even if you are just passing through Bali, you might attend an event and perhaps be inspired to join your local convivium at home.

Patronize restaurants that serve good, clean and fair food, such as those participating in Slow Food Bali’s Snail of Approval program. Look for the red snail. If you find a restaurant in Bali that you think deserves the Snail of Approval but does not yet participate, you can nominate it for the Snail of Approval!

Educate yourself about Bali’s food, culture and environment.

The subak system of irrigation and farmers’ organization in Bali has been recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage. This international recognition for subak, farmers and the Balinese traditional philosophy of Tri Hita Karana may contribute to greater appreciation, both within and outside Bali, for the underpinnings of a healthy and sustainable food culture. Without that appreciation, Bali’s beautiful rice paddy landscapes and delicate coral reef underwater ecosystems, as well as its unique culture, will be in jeopardy.

Learn more about the subak system and its pivotal role in Balinese culture by reading either of anthropologist Stephen Lansing’s books A Perfect Order or Priests and Programmers. Another fine read is the recipe-laden memoir of restaurateur Janet De Neefe, Fragrant Rice.

You can also simply take a walk in almost any part of Bali and learn about the island’s subak system, ceremonies and food culture. Experiential learning around these parts will give you plenty to chew on.

Melinda Chickering is a proud member of Slow Food Bali (www.slowfoodbali.com) and eats about three to six times a day.

Contributing Editor for Inspired Bali, Melinda became a journalist and freelance writer in 2002. Living in Indonesia since 2008 has afforded Melinda myriad opportunities to explore her favorite topics in writing—including the nexus of culture, nature and economics as well as that of the head, the heart and the flesh.

You can order Melinda’s book Becoming Home: A Memoir of Birth in Bali at the CreateSpace store (https://www.createspace.com/4946236) or Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Home-Memoir-Birth-Bali/dp/1502342332/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412042999&sr=1-2&keywords=Becoming+Home).

Mangroves Making a Comeback in South Sulawesi

Tanakeke is a small island in South Sulawesi where villagers who cruise around in boats rather than cars or motorbikes are rehabilitating their mangroves. There is no soil across most of Tanakeke, so the houses are built and boats are tethered to conglomerations of dead coral glued together with cement. It's not easy place to eke out a living.

Mangroves here were destroyed in the '80s and '90s to make room for shrimp farms, most of which boosted incomes for a few years then failed due to virus infestation. The areas where land meets sea are now being rehabilitated with mangroves. The mangroves provide various benefits including storm buffer, seafood nursery and timber source.

Hundreds of villagers are involved in mangrove rehabilitation. Over 400 hectares of mangroves, a third of what was once destroyed, have been rehabilitated over the past five years by teams of villagers with support from Mangrove Action Project (MAP)-Indonesia. 

Meanwhile, seaweed cultivation is providing more sustainable livelihoods in Tanakeke. Seaweed requires less labor as well as less capital. It also grows spontaneously in this seascape environment. 

People in Tanakeke report that sea levels are rising. During the rainy season, their homes, schools and mosques flood with high tide. It's unclear how they'll face the future if the ocean continues to encroach upon their villages. One solution most here seem to agree on is that a step backward, to a time when mangroves were valued rather than destroyed, may be two steps forward in the end.

Support Gentle Birth Options for Indonesian Families

Christmas is coming! I know…. It’s only October…. But it isn’t too early to start thinking about gifts you can give your loved ones. Here’s a great way to also give a gift to an Indonesian family you’ve never even met…

Yayasan Bumi Sehat is a non-profit organization based in Ubud, Bali, that serves Indonesian families for free. Most of their services are directed to pre- and post-natal care for mothers and babies and helping families birth their babies as gently and naturally as possible. YBS offers holistic, natural, culturally appropriate and respectful family care—for FREE!

How does YBS do this? Donations, of course. Midwife and YBS founder Ibu Robin Lim is tireless crusader for mother and babies. In 2011, Ibu Robin was recognized by CNN as their Hero of the Year for her work through YBS.

Everyone loves mothers and babies, right?

Now you can shop for yourself or your loved ones on Amazon and donate 0.5% of your total purchase price to the charity of your choice, and you can choose Yayasan Bumi Sehat.

You can order Becoming Home: A Memoir of Birth in Bali and learn more about my experience as an expat living in Bali and giving birth at Bumi Sehat. It was a really positive experience for my family, and I hope you will find the story inspiring.

Or (if you already have a copy of Becoming Home, of course) you can order anything else on Amazon and donate to Yayasan Bumi Sehat through the Amazon Smile program. It does not raise the price of your order; it just funnels a few dollars to a very worthwhile cause.

Every baby matters. Every mother matters. Every dollar makes a difference.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon Visits Green School Bali

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon visited Green School Bali to speak with students and sign an agreement to promote environmentally aware education throughout Indonesia.

The UN Office for REDD+ Coordination in Indonesia (UN ORCID), the Republic of Indonesia and Green School Bali signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create Green Schools for Sustainable Development. The aim is to educate one million Green Youth Ambassadors across Indonesia by 2017.

Indonesia is one of the world’s largest carbon emitters, in large measure due to deforestation. REDD stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation.

Green School Bali is build almost entirely out of bamboo, a fast-growing grass that sequesters carbon as it grows, can be harvested frequently once mature, and provides very strong (and bio-degradable) building material. In 2012, the Washington, DC-based Center for Green Schools awarded Green School Bali its Greenest School on Earth Award.

“This Green School is an outstanding proof of concept,” H.E. Mr. Heru Prasetyo, Head of the Indonesian National REDD+ Agency (BP REDD+) said, as quoted in a UN ORCID press release. “The next step is to achieve proof of scale. By 2017, we aim to have one million ‘green youth ambassadors’ in Indonesia”. Supporting Green Schools and strengthening environmentally sensitive school curricula, is one of the ten imperative actions of the National REDD+ Agency in 2014.

Read the UN ORCID press release for more official info.

Photo by Carol Da Riva

A Lesson from Sumatra, to Bali and Beyond

My husband and I chose to give birth at a small clinic in our neighborhood in Ubud, Bali, rather than returning home to the USA, where we were both born. Maternal and post-natal mortality rates are much higher in Indonesia than in the USA, but our pregnancy was textbook normal with no complications. We felt well-supported by the loving and attentive midwives at Yayasan Bumi Sehat.

After our daughter’s birth, we kept the placenta attached for about 24 hours, cradled in a small basket filled with flowers next to our newborn. There is credible research suggesting that leaving the placenta attached to a newborn baby for minutes or even seconds, rather than the standard practice of clamping and cutting it immediately after birth, can significantly reduce the baby’s risk of anemia and benefit brain development.

Where I come from, newborns’ umbilical cords are routinely clamped and cut within a few seconds after birth. Leaving them attached for even 30 seconds after an uncomplicated birth is better, as the cord continues to pulse with blood. About a third of the newborn’s blood remains in the placenta and umbilical cord immediately after birth. Waiting two to five minutes, until the cord stops visibly pulsing with blood, is even better for the baby.

Rather than implementing any standard practice without consultation, our midwife Ibu Robin asked us how we wanted to handle it. We said we didn’t want to keep her attached for a full lotus birth, which means waiting until the whole umbilicus and placenta dry and fall off on their own. We felt a little awkward holding our incredibly tiny and vulnerable little daughter. We anticipated feeling even more awkward if we tried to leave her attached to a flower-filled basket by nature’s strongest string for days, worrying that we might accidently tug away the short umbilicus and cause her belly to bleed. After 24 hours, her cord was certainly finished pulsing with blood.

Ibu Robin suggested we try a ceremony in which we would burn through the cord, rather than cutting it. She had originated this practice in Aceh, where her team had opened up a clinic to serve Sumatran families after the devastating tsunami of December 2004 that left them without so many and so much. She insisted that the burning was not only maximally hygienic—its original reason for being, with a shortage of hygienic equipment in the aftermath of the tsunami—but also had the benefit of driving any remaining chi or life force energy from the placenta into the baby. We liked this idea, so this is how we separated our new daughter from her placenta, ‘the forgotten chakra’ as Ibu Robin calls it.

My daughter and I curled on the bed, with my husband huddled beside us, and we placed a small piece of cardboard with a slice removed to accommodate the placenta between our baby and the fire. Ibu Robin and midwife Tracy sang the Gayatri mantra again as the candle’s flame seared through this lifeline to which she had always been attached. Our baby’s attention flared with the flame, and her eyes remained on its white-yellow light as we all bore witness to this early rite. We would take the placenta home along with her, in its own basket.

Tracy volunteered to help us dry and encapsulate part of it for me to take in case I had any post-partum depression. Pak Pastika from Bumi Sehat also helped us get a small mango tree and large pot, so that we could plant the rest of the placenta under the tree. Perhaps as it grows, we thought, we can transfer the tree to the earth, and it will still be here in Ubud, if some day our daughter returns to visit her birth place.

Order your copy of Becoming Home: A Memoir of Birth in Bali at CreateSpace or Amazon.