BSP Farm
"Rooted in the land, grown by hand" - Where we are: BSP Farm sits on the southern slope of Gunung Salak, in West Java. Forty hectares, between 700 and 1,200 metres above the sea. On one side our neighbour is the protected Halimun–Salak forest. Vegetables, fruit, herbs, rice fields, coffee and tea grow here side by side. Not in tidy separate fields — mixed together, which is how the land seems to prefer it. Most of the farm sits at around 850 metres. At that height the mornings are cold and the mist comes down into the gardens. By midday it has usually gone. - How we got here: This land has been farmed since 1990. In 2002 we stopped using chemicals and started again, organically. That first year was hard. The soil had grown used to being fed from a sack, and it had forgotten how to feed itself. It took several seasons before the land came back. We have farmed this way ever since. - How we farm: We feed the soil, not the plant. Everything else follows from that. Compost from our own waste. Crops that change place each season. Trees left standing between the beds, because the shade and the roots do work that no fertiliser can. Bees, birds and insects we did not invite but are glad to have. We are not trying to control this land. We are trying to keep up with it. Our rule is simple: the farm should never damage the place it stands in. If a thing earns money but costs the land, we do not do it. - What grows here: Produce — vegetables, fruit, herbs. Grown without chemicals, in soil we build ourselves with compost and rotation. Crops — coffee, tea, rice. Our robusta grows on the slope behind the houses. The tea is picked and rolled by hand. The rice comes from the sawah our guests walk past. From our animals — raw honey and free-range eggs. The hens live outdoors. The honey comes from stingless bees that feed in our own gardens. Weekly vegetable box — Jakarta only. Picked to order, so what is inside changes with the season. It is never quite the same box twice. - The people: The farm is worked by people who have lived on this hill most of their lives. They know which slope holds water and which dries first. Much of what we know about this place, we learned from them. Their families also cook for our guests. The food that reaches the table is the food they grow. Everything here can be seen for yourself. We keep a few rooms on the farm, and guests are welcome to walk out into the fields, pick something, and eat it the same evening.
Self-reported by the farm — never independently audited.
- Soil & fertility
- Compost made on the farm from our own green waste and animal manure. Crop rotation on every bed. No synthetic fertiliser since 2005. Trees left standing between the beds for shade and root structure. We feed the soil and let it feed the pla
- Pest & weeds
- Hand-weeding, and companion planting between the beds. We leave hedges and flowering plants so birds and predatory insects stay. Losses to pests are accepted as part of the cost — no synthetic pesticides or herbicides, and none since 2005.
- Water
- Spring and rain-fed. The farm sits between 700 and 1,200 metres on the slope of Gunung Salak, so water comes down to us by gravity rather than being pumped. The rice paddies hold and slow it on its way through. Mulch on the vegetable beds t
- Seeds & crops
- Mixed cropping, not monoculture — vegetables, fruit, herbs, rice, coffee and tea growing side by side. Rotation by season on every bed. We save seed where we can and buy in the rest. Robusta coffee on the slope, tea picked and processed by
- Animals & grazing
- Free-range hens for eggs, kept outdoors with herbal care rather than routine antibiotics. Stingless bees that forage in our own gardens for honey. Animal manure goes back into the compost. No grazing livestock.