10th Hari Organik by CETDEM

June 23rd marked the 10th occurrence of Hari Organik (Organic Day) in the Klang Valley. The event was held in the park adjacent to the market in SS2, Petaling Jaya.

Preparations began several months prior to the event, but I became involved one month prior. Individuals were tasked with program organization, seedling propagation (Chinese herbs), publicity, publications, baking, tent rentals for commercial vendors, vetting of vendors for organik products, site setup, and finance. This is a well-oiled machine where things just appear to happen.

A discussion on Composting

I was tasked with re-editing the press release, and preparing the inventory of publications to be sold at Hari Organik. The publications included many written, edited and/or published by CETDEM. Others included 'organik' farming materials written for the Malaysia and Asian audience. The bestselling item was a RM 5 colour brochure detailing how you can create your own home compost. CETDEM even sold compost bins for the adventurous. BTW composting is really easy.

Liz was in charge of selling Chinese herb seeds. Now we all know she know nothing about seeds and growing plants, much less Chinese herbs. However that did not stop Liz from pulling in experts who could tell people which herbs were easy to grow, and which herbs could be planted together. All told, over 100 RM2 packets of seeds were sold.

Lush Chinese Seedlings

Chinese herb seedlings were also sold. They had been grown organically from seed and progressively transplanted. It was amazing to see the plants being sold, when two weeks earlier; they looked to the untrained eye (mine) to be on their last legs. They had been transplanted the day before into larger pots and were suffering. They were being watered using an eyedropper to minimize the damage to the fragile seedlings. CETDEM uses collected rainwater and homemade compost in this project.

Slow food is an important part of Hari Organik. Home baked bread products were sold, all made from 'organik' materials. Herbal snacks were available, and a gentleman from Penang made steamed noodle rolls which delighted the attendees of Hari Organik. Staff was provided with rice, chicken curry and vegetable curries to snack on, but in keeping with the focus of Hari Organik, we provided our own recyclable plates and utensils to minimize waste. It was amazing to see the garbage bins at cleanup. No plastic bottles, no plastic bags, no excess waste paper.

Slow Food (Fast Eaters?)

Vendors of organik products flanked the main stage. I visited a fermented organik soy products vendor (I replenished my supply of light soy sauce), kampong honey (I purchased honey, made from bees that had feasted on cinnamon flowers), and a vendor of bath soaps.  There were vendors of organik noodles, and many other supplies too numerous to mention.  At the end of the day, we heard sales teams from one of vendors vocalizing cheers.  Everybody cleaned up their work spaces.

All in all, we had fun, after a tiring day that began at 7am.  Our friends left us at our condo and went off to the Bukit Bandar Raya AGM (annual general meeting) for the neighborhood association.  Local democracy in action.