"Welcome to Five Senses Coffee"

I can still remember my first meeting with the farmers of Tri Karya quite vividly. We met them under the lean-to of a ramshackle little roadside shop a few miles past Bedugul. The rain was pouring down outside and I watched as Santosa made the customary small talk that precedes any “business meeting” in Bali. With some ceremony, they handed over a small plastic bag containing the most motley assortment of green beans I’ve ever seen. With my best poker face I said I would take it back to Australia for further assessment. Not exactly an auspicious start, but what was immediately evident was the eagerness of the farmers to learn and take control of their own destiny. I filed that away and we left with warm handshakes and started the drive back to Ubud. The mountain was now shrouded in cloud and we drove slowly, my mind full of thoughts, wondering whether we could help this group of eager farmers. The sample? I slipped that quietly into the first bin I could find!

Back in Australia I hatched a plan to establish a nursery at Tri Karya. This would allow us to make sure they planted the right varietals from the start. I sent the message via our Bali network and the idea was met with typical enthusiasm. I was a little surprised when they responded with the information that they wanted to plant out 23 hectares! Suddenly this had gotten very big on us, and I was a little concerned about our ability to pull this off! I had a fairly detailed nursery guide which I had received from prominent Australian coffee authority Tony Marsh – and that became my bible.

The plan was to pick the seed from Ulian Murni, a mixture of S795 and USDA. It was critical that the seed selected was from the best trees available, as the quality of their DNA would become a huge factor in the success (or otherwise) of the whole project. Our brave band of Aussie pickers, an assortment of baristas and cafe owners, set out to pick the cherry guided by Made Sukerta. I carefully divided the groups up to concentrate on the separate varietals to ensure we didn’t get any cross pollination. One of the issues in Kintamani is that of random planting, with a “fruit salad” of varietals scattered across the farms. With the different ripening times and characteristics, harvest time is inefficient and it is very difficult to keep varietals separate when assessing quality. After a few hours of diligent picking, we had sufficient seed for the nursery and we headed to the pulper to remove the pulp and get the seed ready for planting. We painstakingly “floated off” all the defective beans, and left the ferment in the capable hands of Made Sukerta and Komang Sukarsana. After ferment, Komang diligently removed all the peaberry (which are sterile) and we were ready to go!

We arrived at Tri Karya on a beautiful clear day and after a quick team meeting we set to work. With the help of our various translators and some improvised sign language, the “imports” quickly merged with the farmers and the nursery site soon became a hive of activity. Bamboo was split into a variety of sizes to accomplish different tasks, timber was carted to create walls for the beds and progress was astonishingly fast. It was heart-warming to look over the site and see our team scattered amongst the farmers, laughing and working side by side. It wasn’t long before we were ready to get the seed into the ground. This was quite a meditative task, carefully placing each seed flat side down at an even spacing, row after row after row. With about 1700 seeds for each bed, this was quite a job, but with many willing hands, the work was finished surprisingly quickly. The beds were thoroughly watered in before the plastic sheeting was secured to provide protection for the vulnerable seedlings. The farmers’ ingenuity with bamboo was staggering, not a single nail or screw was used in the whole construction.

It wasn’t long before the beds were completed and we were being ferried out on a fleet of scooters back to the main road to start the journey back to Ubud. The mood within the camp was buoyant and ebullient, with good reason. We had planted enough high quality seed to plant out 7 hectares of coffee plants. With financial and technical support from Five Senses, these seedlings will go into the ground in February 2012. We were dangerously close to a “group hug” but denied the urge! We rode the buzz all the way back to Ubud, reflecting on how lucky we are to be in a position to assist these farmers to take control of their destiny. The marginalisation of agriculture and the march of the “Villa Army” is a huge problem in Bali – and one which is stretching an already ailing infrastructure and struggling eco system. By planting more trees and trying to help improve returns on agricultural investments, hopefully we can assist in a small way to keep land in the hands of the farmers and out of the reach of property developers. Here’s hoping!