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Four Hands Organic Farm

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Commenced:	01/01/2010
Submitted:	17/12/2013
Last updated:	07/10/2015
Location:	Mangesta, Penebel , Tabanan, ID
Website:	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Four-Hands-Organic-Farm/187341571469278
Climate zone:	Wet Tropical

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Four Hands Organic Farm

Project Type

Rural, Residential, Community

Project Summary

Four hands organic farm is a small family farm located on Bali island near Tabanan in a semi-mountainous region. Based on traditional building techniques associated with the principles of permaculture, it is here that Wayan a young Balinese acupuncturist and Ayurvedic medicine practitioner settled followed by her husdband an incredible Cubano-American artist. This place releasing a special energy offer the necessary space to the experimentation of alternative, environmentally friendly and sustainable lifestyle as much as a rest for the mind where time disappears absorbed by a pervasive culture aspects hardly imaginable even for the most seasoned travellers.

Project Description

Four hands Organic farm takes its inspiration from the Hindu religion , referring to the four hands of the deity Ganesha , the god with the elephant head. This project took shape of an organic farm on the island of Bali in Indonesia , it is here that me, Wayan, and my husband acquired land to give shape to our dreams. Like many alternative project of life , the desire to break away from the influence of the monetary system and materialistic atmosphere pervasive in our society today is at the base of this project. Having traveled extensively around the world in search of ancient tribal art , Bali finally seems to be the perfect place to lay the foundation for something lasting. The desire to build a spiritual center associated with a simple lifestyle, self sufficient and sustainable for our children here is the original idea. When we acquired the land , it was shaped in terraces rice paddies as the main crops here. A culture style that we have perpetuated for quite a while, but if the overall aesthetic is breathtaking we soon noticed that this resulted in increased soil erosion during the rainy season with even landslide, it was more difficult to walk around at ease between the terraces without tightrope. That is why one of the first resolutions was to stop growing rice and do something more productive starting with introducing principles of permaculture. Give a pleasant shape of the cultures sculpting the landscape , round corners, smooth slopes, favorise corridors , move flowerbeds and plant fruit trees on erosion-prone edges . This work is still in progress and is part of a long term transformation. Evolving and continuously adapting to channel the boundless energy of this place. Actually we grow mainly cassava , string beans, spinash, hot peppers and just made a big harvest of organic ginger. Fruit production is rather sparse and include bananas, passion fruits, papayas , pineapples, mangos steam, jack fruits and coffee beans. We also have a whole forest of cacao.
Currently we are starting a medicinal garden wich is mainly composed by Siri vine, Moringa wich is an amazing plant, guavas and durian fruit.

We have gradually converted the space livable for our family , using traditional methods of construction, involving the adobe walls with bamboo frame and an open design to the outside environment. We settled three buildings in total , we can accommodate visitors in a charming little house along the river. At the moment we are finishsing the grandmother's house, Odah, just next to ours on top of the hill. A temple was also erected here as very important to the Balinese, it is the way to honor ancestors and to stay connected to his roots . We are also working to develop a spiritual path circling around the area leading to the plateau where we want to build a dome of meditation. We derive excess water feeding the rice fields and filter it through two water tank filled with plants. Hot water is provided by an electric ball. One of the future projects would be to install a turbine at the river to generate our own electricity drawn from the force of the current . We are also currently creating a serie of four ponds for fish farming where a water source seems to sprout. And finally ending with the main projects we plan to create a community kitchen with a traditional clay oven .

If you seem interested in what we are doing and would like more information don't be shy to contact us or take a look at our facebook page :

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Four-Hands-Organic-Farm/187341571469278

If you want to spend few days here exploring the Balinese culture or simply enjoying a retreat in the middle of nowhere between two paddies , let us now ! It would be a pleasure to meet you and share your ideas, feedback but mostly the vibe here !

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