COCONUT : PART 20

Coconut fruit has sepal on each base.

This part is wasted too, but for creative person it will be a great material for artistic products.
Look these dried 'flower'...

Source : Tristar

They are so beautiful, aren't they?
We can find lot of women that produce dried flower that made from so various waste, especially natural waste  such as feath, seeds, ruits, kernel, shell, bark, leaves, branch, and others.
They spend their rest time to do productive activity and funny too.

COCONUT : PART 19

Coconut flower cluster is wrapped by a couple of spatha or sheath.

Look the brown part like a 'ship' on the picture above..., that is the sheath of coconut flower.
The sheath is so strong.
Here in Indonesia, we call it as 'pelepah kelapa' and Javanese call it as 'mancung'.
Long time ago, this part was only thrown away  or used as 'fire wood' on the village.
When I was a little girl, I used to collect the sheath to make ship toy or 'plate'.
But, there are a lot of creative people here that processed this waste into beautiful products.
There are so many products such as fruit plate, lamp caps, pencil holder, pen holder, miniature of ship, tissue holder, partition, and many more.
You can see here.

Source : riaucraft.wordpress.com

The price of that products is not cheap anymore.
Cause these waste become a product that have high value on art.
That process is really increasing the value of the waste, and of course environment friendly.

COCONUT : PART 18

Coconut wood is well known as good material for building and furniture.
Here we can find so many traditional buildings that use coconut wood as the main material.
Coconut wood also used for ethnic and modern style furniture, both of indoor and outdoor furniture.
Actually not just for that purpose above, but we can find so many products that made from this wood.
There are glass, cup, place mat, tray, spoon, mortar and pestle, pencil holder, knife holder, tissue holder, rubbish bin, jewelry box, and many more.
You can see so various product using coconut wood here.
All look so interesting, cause this wood has very beautiful pattern, so natural and exotic.
This wood has a strong typical wood, but it's not too tough, so it fairy easy to be processed.

 
This is my rice spoon that made from coconut wood.
Look the pattern of the wood...
It's so beautiful, isn't it?

During the expo, we can find so many products from coconut waste.
The best time to add more collection that made from coconut parts.

A great idea to process all waste into a better product.

COCONUT : PART 17

Coconut leaves have straight and elastic veins on the center of the leaves.
As a very slim and elastic stick
Indonesian call it as 'lidi', and we are Javanese, call it as 'sada'.

Here, we use to make any handy crafts from it.
Actually, we had used this stick on making Indonesian traditional meat dish 'sate' or satay.
The simplest product is outdoor broom or we call it as 'sapu lidi'..
I think, every body here have broom like it on their house.
Until this time, on the village area people still make their own broom by their selves.

They pick the old green leaves and remove the leaf part that resembles a ribbon to get the stick.
The green leaves have a strong, and fairy elastic, so not easy to broken.
Than a handful of the sticks will be tied using bamboo ring or plastic rope.
So... we get our own broom now.

But at this time, not just broom that we can make from this stick.
There are bags, table runner, plate, fruit basket, bowl, vase, lamp shade, wipes holder, decoration, jewelry box, and many more.
Look our little jewelry holder that we got from a wedding reception several weeks ago, so pretty...

You can see many creations from coconut stick here and how to make handy craft from that stick here.

COCONUT : PART 16

Yesterday we have talked about making activated carbon and coconut charcoal from coconut shells, now we will talk about making handy crafts from that stuff.

Coconut hull is very hard part, but have a beautiful shape and pattern.
Here, there are a lot of  equipment that made from coconut shell.
Look my soup spoons..., just a simple craft, a traditional craft.

The handle is made from coconut wood, with a very beautiful pattern.

These are the buttons of my dress...

They are made from coconut shell too.

We can find bag, bowl, glass, box, tea pot, wipes container, belt, lampshade, and many more handy crafts here, so various.

The producers and designers are so creative.

You can see so various handy craft here and here.

Actually there are lots of products that I can't mention it one by one.

Next we will talk about coconut leaf stick.

Enjoy your day...

COCONUT : PART 15

This month, we will continue the coconut series.

Now, we will talk about how to get economic value from coconut waste, especially the endocarp or coconut shell.

Here we call it as batok kelapa or tempurung kelapa.

This is the hardest part of coconut fruit.

Look... there are a bountiful 'waste' from processed coconut industries.

There are so many products that made from batok kelapa.

The most famous product is activated carbon.

The coconut shells will burned without oxygen for about 3-5 hours until the smoke become thin and clear. 

And we will get the black coconut shell on a flat form or we call it coconut charcoal.

Then, the coconut charcoal will be pounded or mashed into very small part.

The coconut charcoal powder will be activated to be an activated carbon.

Activated carbon is usually used on industry as filter or absorbent material.

The charcoal also will be mixed with thick diluted tapioca/cassava flour, then put it on the mold and after that dried on the direct sun shine for about a day. 

Now we get the briquettes of coconut charcoal as 'fuel' for our stove.

WEEKLY HARVEST : DECEMBER 2014

These our harvest on December...

Amaranth, garlic chives and green beans

Edible weeds : Purslane and Legetang

Purslane / krokot

Lettuce, garlic chives, red amaranth, celery, and cabbages

Cabe keriting (curly peppers), chilli and leunca

Pumpkin and jamur kuping hitam (Black mushroom)

Jamur kuping hitam

Garlic chives, hyacinth beans, kara beans and celery

GIFT OF THE WEEK : KATU AND DAUN SINGKONG

This week I got a lot of  'gifts' from my neighbors or family.
Last Sunday, I got some greens from my neighbor.

Yes, there were Daun Katu (Saoropus androgenus) and daun singkong or cassave leaves (Manihot esculenta).
Very fresh greens from my neighbor's hedge, an edible hedge.
So... very productive hedge.

Actually my family really love daun singkong, we use to boil it and eat it with sambal (traditional ground chili sauce).

Daun katu is so great for soup both of clear and gravy soup.
Thank you so much for the gift friend...
I think, I should make my hedge more productive too...

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY...

December 22 is a special day for me...
All of Indonesians are celebrating Mother's Day or we call it as 'Hari Ibu'.

First...
I will thanks to my parent, especially my mother for all of your love, attention, hard works, time, energy and everything.
Thank you so much my lovely husband for your love, time, attention, family warmness, lessons, sweet home and many more..., and I'm sorry for all of discomfort that I've ever done.
For my children, thanks for the love and cheerfulness, you make me be a real mother.

Second...
As a mother, I have a simple wish.
I want to be a person that my presence could be useful for others.
I could encourage others, become better.

I wish I could be as a jasmine.
Just a little flower, a simple flower.
But it could be spread its nice scent surround.
Refreshing...
Jasmine also has so many purposes, not just as ornamental plant, for medicinal stuff also perfumery and cosmetic industries.
So useful...

Third...
For all of my friends and regular readers... 
Thanks for visiting and following this blog...
And of course for sharing a lot of things, and these are great lessons for me to be a better mother.
You have been opening my mind.
You make my world become wider and nicer.
Thank you so much...
And I'm so sorry...
Hope next I'll be better in everything...
Be a real good mother.
I wish...
For all mother from all over the world happy Mother's Day...
Lets be a great mother for our children and make our world much better.

HARVESTING BLACK MUSHROOM

Here they are my black mushroom or 'Jamur Kuping'.
I bought it on the expo about three weeks ago.
I put them near the sink on my kitchen.
You can see the mushroom when they came in to my 'kitchen garden' at the first time here.
I harvested the first mushroom a week after I bought it, but the yield was not good enough.
The growth of this mushroom is much slower than my oyster mushroom. 

Look my bag logs now... the mushrooms look so healthy on my kitchen.

They are ready to be harvested soon.

I think they will be a great dish.
Can't wait for it...

PEACH HIBISCUS, A PRETTY SHOES FLOWER

I really love this peach hibiscus.

We call it Kembang Sepatu.
Kembang means flower, and Sepatu means shoes.
Do you think the name is appropriate?

Peoples say that the flower is usually used as traditional shoe polish, to make the leather shoes look glossy.

Whatever... the flower is so pretty, and I love it so much!

And old fashion flower...

A simple flower...

Please enjoy the beauty...