(Intan Tanjung)

She was against the use of chemical fertilizers and artificial food seasoning, but it never occurred to Nila Sari that what she started in 2000 would turn out so well.

Frustrated knowing that too much chemical fertilizer was used in crops and artificial food seasoning in foods, Nila Sari decided to grow vegetables herself.

“At first, I only had spinach, green leaves, bok choy, salad leaves, coriander and parsley in my garden: all for my own consumption,” she says.

Expatriates and tourists passing by her garden noticed what she was doing and asked if they could have the same food she ate.

But it was not until the IDEP Foundation, a Bali-based foundation that works on sustainable development through permaculture and community-based disaster management, opened an office and asked her to manage food catering for its employees that Nila’s business started to grow.

To supply the kitchen, she grew more veggies in her garden. Soon enough her business was growing quickly.

In 2006, she decided to open a simple restaurant, built portably using plastic as its roof, right in front of her house. The restaurant is now known as Sari Organik.

(Courtesy Bali Good Food)

Sari Organik has become one of the most popular restaurants in Ubud because of its unique location in the middle of rice fields and its healthy food.

As her restaurant gets busier, her garden also expands. She now runs two farms, one in Ubud and another in Kintamani. Her Ubud farm operates on permaculture principles, and grows a variety of vegetables such as corn and avocado.

“Here, people can go to the farm, pick up the veggies they want and bring it to the kitchen. We will cook it right away for them. That’s what we want, no secrets in the restaurant,” Nila says.

In the past few years, “farm-to-table” has become a hot trend in the restaurant industry, along with the rise of the “locally-grown” movement.

Many restaurants — especially small ones — no longer need supplies from large-scale distributors that deliver ingredients from the other side of the world and often take a long time. Instead, they plant veggies and bring them to the kitchen in a relatively short period of time and so deliver the freshest harvest possible to customers.

After spending six years in the restaurant business, Gusky Suarsana and Karen Waddell decided in 2003 to acquire a small piece of land in Taro village, Ubud, to plant some local fruits and salad leaves.

That small piece of farmland grew in size and can now supply five restaurants as well as a catering company under the Bali Good Food (BGF) culinary group.

Nila Sari

“The benefit of having our own farm is we can sell the freshest veggies and fruits every morning,” says Ida Ayu Mira Suarsana, a daughter of Gusky and Waddell, and the group’s operation manager.

She says they believe the secret of a good recipe is to have clean and healthy ingredients.

“Owning a farm means we know exactly what we plant, who takes care of it and who harvests the plants,” says Mira. “Unlike other farms in Bali, we are lucky to have access to clean spring water. So not only are our plants well taken care of, they’re also free from polluted water.”

As capacity grows, the group grows more veggies and fruits on the farm, including some non-native plants like mint and wild ruccola for their western menu, along with native spices and roots like lemongrass and ginger.

They grow the plants organically, using a mix of lemongrass and ginger, and then spray it with fertilizer to prevent bugs. BGF does not use plastic straws and chooses to use biodegradable food packaging. BGF also recycles and has committed to using plastic bags.

“At the moment, we have enough to supply our needs.”

While BGF focuses on vegetables, Ubud’s fine dining sensation Locavore prefers to experiment by growing livestock and non-native plants on their farms in Ubud and Payangan.

The restaurant’s chef, Eelke Plasmeijer, who just got back from Holland at the time of interview, says most restaurants there have their own gardens — unlike restaurants in Bali, which tend to import ingredients from abroad.

“That’s what we don’t want to do. You don’t want to go to Bali to eat foie gras, or scallop, you want to try the local food,” he said.

But farming was a new thing for them, and it wasn’t as easy as they thought, especially because they are serving modern European food. “So we use a small amount of Indonesian ingredients,” he says.

After several trial-and-error attempts, they decided to only grow the ingredients that the restaurant needed.

“We feel satisfied to use our own produce. First, our farm is organic, so we know the quality of food is different and it’s definitely fresher because veggies like cucumber and green beans can be taken right away to here,” says Ray Adriansyah, Plasmeijer’s partner.

What makes the restaurant unique — and popular — is how this duo transforms fresh garden produce and artisanal supplies into culinary masterpieces that not only look pretty, but also have mind-blowing flavors. All this without having to use imported ingredients on the menu.

Locavore’s farm supplies 20 percent of the restaurant’s needs due to the limited size of the farm. The rest is supplied from different parts of Indonesia, such as asparagus from Bedugul and fish from Jimbaran and Papua.

Farming for them is a work in progress. Aside from maintaining their farms, they are also preparing a new project: to grow free-range livestock on their farm.

“We’re ready to take it to the next level,” Plasmeijer says. “It could be a great story to tell our guests and I think there’s a future in it.”

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