Farming in Bali by Sarah

                There are people who farm lots of different crops in Bali and sell them.  I’ve seen many fields of rice and other crops along the road on our drives around the island and have tasted many fruits and veggies.  I especially like rice, Rambatans, mangos, Durian and Jackfruit, banana, and many other crops that are grown on Bali.

                Rice is everywhere.  The Balinese people farm the rice almost everywhere on the island except high in the mountains and on the peninsula with Uluwatu.  They farm rice by starting really high and terracing down to the bottom where the deep gutters carry the water to the ocean.  They make retaining walls out of dirt and grass to the steps that hold the rice field.  Each terrace has a hole in the wall that lets the water run down so there is always new water coming in.  The top terrace gets its fresh water from the rain.  The rice gets harvested every 4 months, so farmers get 3 crops in a year.  I think that rice farming is a lot of hard work because it is done mostly by hand.

                Rambatans are yummy.  They are a fruit that have soft spikes on the outside and sweet white flesh on the inside with a pit in the middle.  They are sort of like lechees with the spikes.  They grow on trees in clusters like grapes but not as tight.  Komang, our house manager has a tree in her yard and she brings them for us for dinner.  They are my favorite fruit in the Tropics.

                Durian and Jackfruit are really spiky, green and brown, strange looking fruit.  They are both yellow in side and have spikes on the outside.  But Durian is smaller, about the size of my head. The inside is divided into 7 or 8 chambers that hold a stringy custardy flesh that tastes like a vanilla pudding.  It also has a very strong fragrant, not always nice smell. I tried the Durian first in Cairns and have seen many here for sale in roadside stands.  Jackfruit is larger than the Durian.  Some of them can fit me inside of them!  They are really yellow and stringy in the inside and have a flesh that is firm and tasty, really sweet and sticky.  I like the Durian and Jackfruit but I could not eat them every day because it is easy to overdose on them because they have strong flavors and they are kind of messy.

                Some other fruits that can be found in Bali are bananas, mangos, coconuts, corn, and peanuts.   There are some bananas in our yard, but they are not ripe yet.  I’ve tried baby bananas that are really small, about the size of my thumb, and regular bananas.  Mangos here are green, but they have bright yellow-orange flesh that is sweet and flowery.  There are also coconuts in our yard but I can’t pick them because they are high up.  I did have some coconuts at the beach though.  I also had fresh roasted sweet corn at the beach.  It was really yummy with butter on it.   I have also seen fresh peanuts being sold by vendors who walk around with them on bamboo wracks on their shoulders.  The peanuts that we bought at the store are crunchy and small, but good.

                I liked tasting all the different fruits and veggies in Bali and seeing the on the trees and in the fields.  It makes me feel good because I know they are fresh and grown nearby.  Plus, they are really yummy!

By Sarah