It’s All About the Rice

The people of Bali have cultivated rice for thousands of years, and today follow the same rituals, and even some processes, that date back centuries. According to Nyoman, virtually every family has a rice field, and when it’s planting time (as it was during our visit), it’s all hands on deck to get the tender seedlings into the ground as quickly as possible.

Rice is central to Balinese cuisine, from black rice pudding for breakfast to fried rice (nasi goreng) to sticky rice balls filled with sweetened coconut.

In some areas they still use oxen to plow the fields for planting, but this man-powered plow is more the norm. We watched these guys move this heavy machine from one paddy to another below — a dangerous and strenuous feat!

Irrigation canals surround and snake through the fields.

A well-deserved rest after a back-breaking morning of planting rice by hand.