Rattan

rattan crafts (source)

One of our respectable export commodity is rattan crafts. About 70% rattan in the world comes from our country. And I have to be proud, because Cirebon, where I live now, is national’s biggest rattan crafts producer.

People around the world likes rattan because it’s more eco friendly than woods. It’s easier to harvest and it grows faster, yet it’s durable and elastic that is easier to be shaped.

Here in Cirebon, there used to be a lot of rattan craft industry centers. They produced furnitures from rattan braids, as chairs, tables, baskets, and many more. It used to be so well-known, but now it’s almost gone.

Yeah, the our local rattan industries is dying. Lack of raw materials is the main factor. Actually, world demand over rattan is still high, but then we have this strong competitor from China, who produces rattan craft massively with cheaper price.

Who’s to blame?

Believe it or not, we export the raw materials to China ourselves. Yeah, I know. It sounds awful. It is.

Over 60% of 400 rattan craft industries in Cirebon went bankrupt. Hundreds of ready stock rattan crafts piling up the stores, and eventually will get perished by time and weather.

There used to be this giant rattan chair in the middle of the road when we are entering the city, but now it’s not there anymore. It’s kinda sad, because the industry once our pride, now is coming to the end.

However, I’m still proud of rattan. In fact, I’m sitting on one right now. I really hope our rattan producers will get a better condition in the future, as our goverment has to do something with the raw material exporting stuffs.

For the time being, let’s buy and use local rattan crafts!

[OR]

Palm Fiber (Ijuk) Broom

A palm fiber (Ijuk) Broom (source)

Everyone must know what a broom is. What are the materials to make a broom then? I am not sure how nowadays kids would answer it. Maybe they’ll answer broom is made from plastic and wood as its cane.

If it was when I was a little kid, we would usually answered broom was made from palm fiber (ijuk) or coconut’s hairs and rattan or wood as its cane.

At first I didn’t really pay attention to this thing. A broom for me was just a tool to clean up the house. Nothing special about it. I was just realized palm fiber broom specialty lately when I grew up and ever had chance to live in a big city.

When I went to supermarket, I saw the brooms sold there, most of them were made from plastic and wood as their cane. At the beginning I really liked the broom with plastic hair because we can wash it and the hair also not easily broken, so it could last longer.

However after I re-considered, it came out that the palm fiber broom apparently has more benefit rather than plastic broom – at least based on me and my mom’s opinions. My mom felt that the floor is cleaner when she swept using palm fiber broom because the dusts and the dirt could roof at the palm fiber hairs. Other than that, according to my mom, the palm fiber texture which is more flexible makes her prefer using the palm fiber broom.

As for me, I have other reasons that I just thought lately. I used to dislike palm fiber broom because it was easily broken compared to plastic broom and if it was soaked, the palm fiber would be lumpy and not that comfortable to be used. But then I realized there were many advantages using palm fiber broom.

The palm fiber broom is more environmentally friendly. With its materials which are from palm fiber and rattan or wood, if it is unused anymore, the waste could just decomposed and processed directly by nature. Other than that, because the productions of palm fiber brooms are usually done by many small and medium businesses, by buying the palm fiber broom we could support the broom craft-men’s businesses. So, now I prefer using palm fiber broom. =)

(FK)

Winnow

winnow (source)
Rice is the staple food of Indonesian, especially those who live in the west and the middle zone. In Indonesia, the cooked rice is called ‘nasi’, while the raw rice is called ‘beras’. The rice is actually the fruit of paddy grains. When it was harvested, sometimes there are still many rice skins (grains) left and mixed with the rice.

Today when I was about cooking the rice, as usual I removed the dirt – small rocks and/or the grains- which are mixed in the rice. Now I don’t use any special tool to sort out the grains from the rice, but it brings memory when I was little I used to love threshing rice by winnowing.

Winnow is a large plate made from woven bamboo. The shape is round with rattan circling ring. When I was still a little kind – and I don’t know since how many years before that – when the rice sold usually still mixed with lots of grains and dirt because the farmers still hadn’t use the modern rice peeler, a lot of people used winnow to clean rice from grains.

The way to do it was by pour small amount of rice on the winnow, then swing that winnow up and down that the rice and the grains are jumping around. The logic is like this: grains are the paddy’s skins – which are very light, so when the grains and the rice are jumping in the air, a small wind would be able to blow the light grains aside and separate it from the rice. I really loved did that because the sound produced when the rice was dancing and jumping around on the winnow sounded like music, moreover if there were many people did that together each with different rhythm, we could really produced ‘the song of the rice’. ^^

Maybe winnowing is still popular in more remote villages or between the farmers. However in the city, most of the people chose to buy really clean rice that no more mixed with grains that they no longer need to thresh the rice. So it turns out the winnow now switching function as a base for serving food. Usually the winnow is used as the ‘plate’ for huge rice cone or various traditional and modern snacks. It is a cheap plate, and of course unique because it is added the traditional sense in the presentation.

[FK]