Jackfruits at Jiwa Damai

This is the time to bag our Jackfruit. When they are small we will hide them in big bags, and they will actually grow to the size of the bags. This is done in order to avoid insects from hosting inside. The next photo shows the grown jackfruit. When green we use it as a vegetable, when ripe, it is juicy insides and can be dried and also eaten as a fruit.

At Jiwa Damai we offer different products. You can see more here.

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Fire ceremony at Jiwa Damai

Final fire ceremony of our participants of the 24th days sadhana yoga teacher training in the gardens at the fireplace at Jiwa Damai. On this occasion the Certificats were adhered out as well as celebrating, chanting and dancing took place.

We loved to have you here. For more information on further courses go on the website of Jiwa Damai, here.

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Gifts for the Jiwa Damai team

The 24 day yoga teacher training has come to its final day. The lovely participants expressed their gratitude by making a gift basket for the Jiwa Damai Team which took care of them and tried to make Jiwa Damai the home away from home during the 24 days.

Our team will share the gifts equally, for kitchen and garden since each was involved hosting and providing for the really great group and their teachers.

Find out more about our workshops at Jiwa Damai here.

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Blacky and our yoga teaching training group

The last two days of the Sadhana Yoga teaching training. Quite a few tears flowed, leaving this intense time behind and moving into their respective worlds again. Blacky, our Jiwa Damai balinese dog has to be in the picture as well.

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Fendi, the Jiwa Damai Garden Planner

This month you will get to know our gardener planer who is taking care of the coconut trees and of the garden at Jiwa Damai.

Fendi our garden planer is feeding the roots of our coco palms to strengthen them against the Rhinoceros beetle. He inserts bamboo pipes into the earth about 1 1/2 m away from the trunk and fills it with compost tea to directly nourish the trees.

Find out more about our work in the garden here! 

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Healthy growth of the coconut tree in 10 steps

There are probably no other insects against which the United States military had to intervene except for the Rhinoceros coconut beetle. It happened just recently, in the Autumn of last year when the U.S. Navy had to respond to the “invasion” of these insects at the military base in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The invasion left 175 trees infested and the military had to remove them.

The news made the headlines and got some good coverage but the infestation provoked by the Rhinoceros beetle was already creating important disturbance in many ecosystem in most of the subtropical and tropical of the planet.

The Asiatic rhinoceros beetle, known better as the Coconut rhinoceros beetle and scientifically as Oryctes rhinoceros, is a species of rhinoceros beetle belonging to the Scarabaeidae family according to Wikipedia.org. The rhinoceros beetle attacks the developing fronds of coconut, oil, and other palms in tropical Asia and a number of Pacific islands.

The damaged fronds show typical triangular cuts and the beetle kills the palms (particularly newly planted ones) when the growing point is destroyed during feeding. The larvae of the rhinoceros beetle, however, do not damage crops, but instead grow in dead, decaying trunks and other organic matter.

This beetle’s favorite habitats for breeding sites are dead, standing coconut trees and fallen coconut logs, but they can survive on many different types of decaying vegetation.

The eggs are laid in manure pits or other organic matter and hatch in 8-12 days according to recent studies. Larvae take another 82-207 days before entering an 8-13 day non feeding pre-pupal stage. The pupal stage goes between 17-28 days. The larvae is usually yellowish-white and can grow quite long, reaching almost 4 inches or more.  Adults remain in the pupal cell for 17-22 days before emerging and flying to palm crowns to feed. The beetles are active at night and hide in feeding or breeding sites during the day. Mostly mating takes place at the breeding sites. Adults may live for 4-9 months and each female lays 50-100 eggs during her lifetime.

Coconut rhinoceros beetles favor downed trees as breeding sites, so the mortality of young trees may be the first stage of a developing positive feedback cycle that would be essentially impossible to contain once initiated. To prevent this from happening young trees must be protected and dead ones must be cleared in areas of infestation.

Here at Jiwa Damai, being located in the island of Bali in Indonesia, we are also struggling to support the healthy growth of our coconut trees that have been in some cases infested by the rhinoceros beetle.

In tackling this difficult issue for which there is no known cure at the moment we have developed by our own means and experience and collaborating with specialist from local and abroad a system in ten easy steps to help to coconut trees in our garden survive the invasion of the rhinoceros beetle.

The first step was identifying the problem and symptoms and ascertaining the presence of the rhinoceros beetle. We had found holes in the coconut tree trunk and the leaves of the coconut tree started to look brown and dead. That led us to believe that the Rhinoceros beetle had infected the coconut trees.

The second step was verifying the existence of the rhinoceros beetle in the coconut trees here at Jiwa Damai. There for we sent coconut climbers in the trees to check if the rhinoceros beetles have gone inside the coconut tree leaves. We also had to cut down some trees to see if the larva had infected the bottom part of their trunks. We found the Rhinoceros beetles and larvae from the trees thus ascertaining the infestation of our coconut trees with this insect.

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Coconut, its healing power

The coconut oil has so many healing powers that there is an actual coconut research center documenting them. The smell of the cold pressed coconut oil we produce at Jiwa Damai is filling our kitchen every time we are preparing the food for our guests. We believe that the smell itself is enough to make your day brighter.

It used to be believed that the coconut oil is unhealthy because of its high saturated fat content. However, now it is known that the fat in coconut oil is a unique and different from almost all other fats and possesses many health giving properties.

Here are just a few of the benefits which have been medically proven according to the coconut research center.

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Coconut lemon energy snack recipe

This month we are bringing you a delicious and healthy recipe which contains both coconut and lemon, two ingredients which we love.

1 lemon, zest

2 lemons, juice

¼ c. chia seeds

1 ½ c. raw almonds

8 dates, pitted & chopped

½ c. unsweetened shredded coconut (plus for more garnish, if desired)

¼ t. sea salt

3 T. virgin coconut oil

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