A single grain of rice.....

After seeing many fields of rice harvested, I will never again leave a single grain on my plate! We had the chance to see fields of rice being harvested in Japan, China, and Indonesia.  As we stayed at a home in a rice field in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia, we really got to see how much work it really is, and that was just the harvest!!!

The stalks of rice resemble a stalk of wheat.  In Bali, they were hand cut with a scythe like tool, laid in bundles, and then gathered and hit hard against a wooden, slanted board.  This process caused the individual grains of rice to fall from the stalks, and slide down the board onto a tarp.  From the tarp, someone gathered the grains in a large wicker sieve, and shook to remove the chaff.  This cleaned rice was then put into sacks, which were then carried out on shoulder.  They were big bags of rice, probably at least 25 kg.  Not only is is very labour intensive work, but it was done in very warm temperatures in Bali!!

I'm sure there are farms dedicated to producing rice to the world, and are not done in the traditional methods I just explained, but it was absolutely amazing to see what people did to harvest rice for their families.

When we were staying in Munduk, Bali, we had a guide take us on a walking tour.  Again, this accommodation was located with in the rice fields.  He explained that when he was a child, he came from a very poor family, and he would beg to work in the rice fields, doing the very hard and tiring work.  As this was the main source of work at the time, there was a lot of competition for the work.  He told us now though, nobody wanted to work in the rice fields, and the owners were out begging people to work in the rice fields.  Tourism is now a very big part of Bali.

Our guide also told us, that as a child, they would usually not have enough to eat, so he would be sent out to live on the land.  As we walked through the natural areas surrounding the hotel, we saw banana, papaya, guava, passion fruit, jack fruit, snake fruit, nutmeg, clove, cacao, coffee and avocado trees.  So much was growing in the wild!

Pineapple

Avocado

Cacao

Cacao

Peanuts

Cloves drying