Bali Silent Retreat - Mrs.SSSSS - Tomat Super Strong Self Sustaining Seedlings Tomatoes

Our Garden’s SSSSS’s Veggies (Super Strong Self Sustaining Seedlings)

Growing anything without commercial fertilizer is challenging, because the vegetable seeds today (even the organic ones) have grown lazy and accustom to super stimulation with super fertilizers.

We discovered veggies who (we anthropomorphize them, ‘cuz they’re our friends) survived drought, flood, neglect, etc., and keep on giving and giving and giving.

Here’s the story:

A cherry tomato plant, next to Bungalow 3, survived our Balinese rainy season and then survived dry season in terrible soil and unloved conditions. Walking by, I’d talk to her every so often with compliments to her endurance and tenacity. (We named her Mrs. Tomat.)

By the 3rd generation, I finally realized ( . . . duh . . .), eureka!!!  This is what is needed in the world; a strain of vegetables that sustain themselves ! ! !

The garden crew tossed some compost at her feet in celebration and awe. Her growth and health took off with gratefulness and gusto fattening her stalks and stems. It almost looked like she was smiling sometimes . . .hahaha.

Mrs. Tomat launched our SSSSS program where we grow and give away live baby plants – seedlings which have popped up their little heads, often with other vegetables such as eggplants and cucumbers; seemingly happy in the same neighbourhood.

The process is;

  • 1st fruit is left to drop on its own onto composted soil – 30cm deep.
  • Left to dry for a few days,
  • More compost is thrown on top.
  • There is abundant fertile soil for the plant’s roots to grow down and out.
  • The soil has abundant worms and an occasional fish head or two.
  • The rest of the fruits ripen and are harvested for our kitchen angels to prepare the culinary delights you eat every day.
  • When the strongest seeds survive to pop up as babies, we quickly pop a cover over them to protect them from marauding insect-pirates, so they can grow naturally into seedlings (or as we say elementary school)
  • We then move them to 3 different places:
    1. other soil rich ‘neighborhoods’ in the garden, with compatible veggies to play their veggie-growing-games.
    2. our Bibbit house, where they grow into teenagers and placed in experimental locations.
    3. given to friends, neighbors, or your friends in Bali if you’d like to share.

If you want to meet and see some of these Super Strong Self Sustaining Brave veggies, our office can schedule a few minutes with our garden crew.

Super Strong Self Sustaining Seedlings – Not for sale, but for Free . . . take to a friend in Bali.

Bali Silent Retreat Ricefields overlooking Mount Batukaru

Is the so called ‘Green Revolution’ turning brown?

Look around you. Everything you see came from soil, and one day will return to soil.

The industrialization of agriculture since World War 2, commonly called the ‘green revolution’, has changed every aspect of our lives. This modern way of food production is credited with saving a billion people from starving. As the way we live and eat continues to change at a fast pace, questioning its sustainability has become critical for humans to thrive as a species on this planet.

  • Can we measure the success of an agricultural system merely by counting numbers of produce bags per hectare of land?
  • What does our dependency on finite resources such as crude oil, gas and precious water mean for us in the future?

Find out why it is important to ask the question, what do I want for breakfast tomorrow? In order to understand the impact and issues around our modern ways of food production, let’s break recent history down into simple steps. Read more

Growing bamboo

Building a simple shack with bamboo

Click on this photo to see the video.

Click on this photo to see the video.

This isn’t an article but it’s a fun little video about building with bamboo. We needed a covered shed to keep the bibbitts (vegie babies) at Bali Silent Retreat. Our bamboo has not been treated, but just cut fresh from our jungle (with hacking knife, called a gergaji). Read more