PHILOSOPHY
ETHOS Honesty, transparency & freesponsibility.
VISION To inspire and facilitate a re-connection between food, people and place. Our vision is that of a world where humans live in harmony with nature and themselves, nurturing each other. We are thriving to be part of a positive change and to create an oasis where the exhausted wanderers can find inspiration on their way to live a less impacting life and where farmers willing to farm more sustainably can find guidance to transition towards organic farming and agroecology.
MISSION Provide fresh and high quality vegetables to our community. Create a beautiful, functional and realistic example of a small scale diversified organic farm that can be adopted and replicated by local farmers. Provide job opportunity for the younger generation. Create a business model that allows all its employees to thrive by using the permaculture ethics: earth care, people care and fair share.
HOW WE GROW
- Lombok Organic farm principle No 1) Always keep the soil cover with mulch: Mulch is a protective layer of organic matter applied over the soil to prevent erosion, keep soil moisture and feed soil micro-organisms. Mulching is one of the key component of our soil fertility management strategy, alongside composting and green manure.
- No 2) AOM (Add Organic Matter) is our mantra! Decomposing plant material enhances fertility by providing food for soil organisms, increasing soil organic carbon content and providing plant nutrients. Green materials are nitrogen rich and break down rapidly while dry materials decompose slowly and are rich in carbon; mixing both allows reaching a nice balance.
- No 3) Use locally available materials.
- No 4) Produce your own seeds: Seed saving allows, through a process of selection, to obtain crops adapted to our specific environmental context.
- No 5) Use IPM (Integrated Pest Management): We are experimenting with insect nets to protect the crops from the brassica family (cabbage, broccoli, kale, arugula etc.) from caterpillars. Preventing is always better than trying to cure.
- No 6) Work with time and space: Relay cropping is the practice of growing simulteanously different crops with different life cycles in order to provide a greater yield in a given space. Here lettuce is grown between two rows of pole beans. By the time the beans are blocking the sun the lettuce is ready to harvest. This allows making a better use of space.
OUR STORY
Having been part time residents in Lombok since 2007 involved in different projects we eventually grew tired of the lack of quality food available. For us, healthy food is an important part of life and as more people moved into our community we also saw the need for this amongst our friends and neighbours. Over time the idea of starting a farm began to grow, we where inspired by the principles of permaculture but had no experience from farming so we set out on a path of trial and error. The idea is to start with a small market garden, but we will not stop here, the vision is much bigger and step by step we will hopefully reach our bigger picture and goal. Today we have an amazing team working with us and the future looks both interesting and bright.
STAY WITH US
In a quiet east Lombok farming community right on the boarder to Mt Rinjani National Park, you find us just below the Jeruk Manis waterfall. Tetebatu, being the closest developed tourist area is about 5km downstream. Our beautiful house "Rumah Tipis" was built in 2017 with the main view west over pristine rice field terrace and the national park forest; a forest filled with animal life such as Black Ebony Leaf Monkey, Leopard Cats, Rusa Deer and countless birds (note the singing sound of the Doves flying by each morning). Clear mornings you will be treated with crispy views of Gunung Rinjani, as well as cool mountain air and fresh water from the mountain. While staying with us you become part of food transparency and support our vision-quest to re-introduce food-eaters with food-growers. For more information please visit our AIRBNB