High in the lush mountains of Bali, a young tamu couple are teaching local vegetable farmers to grow organic heirloom parsnips.
There's a ready market for fresh organic produce in Bali in the expat and Indonesian communities and top hotels and restaurants. Ben and Blair have a vision of bringing prosperity to Balinese growers by teaching them niche market farming to serve the tourism industry and the general growing demand for organic food.
When they met 7 years ago, Ben was studying for his degree in sustainable agriculture and managing an organic farm in Washington. Blair has just graduated from university; she quickly ditched Art History in favour of composting. They'd probably be running an organic farm somewhere in the States by now if Ben hadn't taken a gamble in a smoky bar one night and won a pair of free airline passes to anywhere in the world.
Serendipity brought them to Bali. When they arrived in Padangbai they went directly to visit friends in Sideman, an enchanting mountainside area in the shadow of Mount Agung. They quickly fell in with the local farmers and talk turned to organic farming. The Balinese were fascinated by the concepts; many could remember the traditional farming techniques used by their fathers and grandfathers before growing food with chemicals became the norm. After just two days in Sideman, Serendipity stepped in again. Ben and Blair were offered 8 are of land, free. Pak Nyoman, the owner, was intrigued to see what they could do with the patch of heavy clay from which every trace of topsoil had long eroded away.
" It was amazing," recalls Ben. "The arrangement was that we would create a garden there, and when we'd made enough money from the garden we would build a house which Pak Nyoman could rent out when we weren't using it. We were just about broke. I gave him $5 as a sign of good faith and we shook hands on it."
Building a house in Bali was a distant dream for the young couple with empty pockets. They made their way to Malaysia to fly home. But Serendipity wasn't finished with them yet. In Ipoh, they both landed jobs with the filming of "Anna and the King" and in six months earned a useful sum of money. They returned to Sideman and used it to build a house.
Now they had land and a house, but no money. Returning to the US, Ben finished his degree and they both managed organic farms. Over the next three years they worked for 9 months a year and spent the remaining time in Bali, bringing in seeds, setting up composting sites, building up the degraded soil and farming it intensively. Today, it's the richest soil in Sideman thanks to double digging and generous composting. The neighbouring farmers watched closely as an increasing number of different vegetables were planted, grew and thrived in Sideman's cool climate.
A year ago, Ben and Blair sat down, did some research and wrote a business plan, then returned to Bali for good to manifest it. "We want to develop a model of a sustainable tropical organic farm marketing fresh produce," they explain. "We haven't been able to find any existing models or even books that focus on niche farming in the tropics. All that keeps small farmers alive in the US is savvy, initiative and niche marketing. This concept has the potential to be very lucrative for Bali's vegetable farmers." But they would need more land to realize their goal, and land in Bali is very expensive.
Serendipity again. A businessman heard about their plan and offered Ben and Blair an easy rental on some land in Tabanan and an office for their new business, cv Big Tree Organics. They also manage the organic farm which is integrated with his factory near Mambal.
After just over a year in operation, Ben and Blair manage three farms totalling 4.5 hectares including 80 are of experimental padi. Their new company is called Big Tree Organics. They hire over 20 Balinese men and women, all of whom have expressed a deep interest in and commitment to organic growing. Learning is a two-way street, with the Balinese sharing local tips on fertility and organic pest control with the Americans. Four of these people are being intensively trained to manage organic farms for themselves; two are graduates from agricultural school and two are rice farmers.
Ben and Blair's grand plan is to train the Balinese to drive them out of business. "Our goal is that these will become model farms, that others will spin off them and the farmers will form a co-operative. We'll help them find markets and distribution channels, and when they're well established we will step out. We anticipate a 100% farmer-owned co-operative for organic gourmet produce that will take over the lion's share of what is currently being imported from Australia, with the possibility of export as well. We live very simply here, but local farmers will be able to undercut us and still make great profits. We'll be driven out of business, and we're looking forward to that!"
Ben and Blair's other dream is to become the first certified organic farm in Indonesia, but the massive expense involved for that initiative has put it on the back burner for now.
They farm hard every day, and the results are spectacular. All three farms are flourishing, with over 50 types of vegetables growing year round and more being tried all the time. Crops include salad mixes, beets, chard, kale, tomatoes, romaine, brocolli, cauliflower, snow peas, snap peas, Italian eggplants, sweet corn and potatoes.
Most of their land is steeply terraced and much research has gone into erosion control, using vetiver grass and an ancient Mayan technique of grading and drainage to capture eroded silt. These farms are now models for marginal land that was previously not fit for growing vegetables.
Big Tree Organics regularly supplies very fresh organic produce to top restaurants including Kudeta, Faces and Huu as well as to all three Aman and both of the Four Seasons hotels. They also supply private homes with a weekly delivery of a wide range of vegetables, enough to feed a family of four on a mixed diet or a strict vegetarian couple for a week. The program costs Rp 3,000,000 for three months and includes lunch at one of the farms and a weekly newsletter.
Blair and Ben were married this morning in their Sideman garden. May Serendipity continue to bless them with health, contentment, abundance and magnificent parsnips.
To join the home delivery program, call Ben, Blair or Wahyu at (0361) 980-888 extension 177, or email bigtreeorganics@eudoramail.com
