The Jakarta Post

The BBQ Mountain Boys story

The great outdoors, fresh coffee, grilled meat and good times – for Hedi Rusdian and Gianjar Saribanon, having fun is what’s important.

Almer Mikhail — PHOTOS COURTESY OF BBQ MOUNTAIN BOYS

Contributor/Bandung

Take a look through the BBQ Mountain Boys’ YouTube channel, and you’ll find montages of a life unfamiliar – yet intriguing – to many. Physical labor in the fields, fishing in a river, planting greens and open air cooking – these brief glimpses present an alternative to city life. Curiously enough, barbecue came later in the BBQ Mountain Boys’ journey.

Jewelry artist Hedi Rusdian, 28, and blacksmith Gianjar Saribanon met in 2012 while they were both working full time in their respective trades.

When Hedi left his company in 2015, he tried to think of other avenues to channel his energy. During his days as a jewelry artist, he frequently traveled to Japan for trade shows, where he always made time to attend courses on two subjects: agriculture and food culture. This prompted him to suggest to Gianjar, who came from a long line of farmers, that they start a farm together. Before going forward with the plan, Gianjar warned Hedi that being a farmer was not easy. “Do you feel that [farming] is something cool and fun?” he asked Hedi. “If you feel that way, then let’s go for it.”

They started Saux Farm in 2016. Located in the Jayagiri highlands of West Java, Saux Farm grows various types of arabica coffee, including Ateng, Kartika, Linie S and Sigararutang.

“The motivation was simple, we started this because we liked drinking coffee. I also fell in love with the mountains – the air, the ambience and the lifestyle,” said Hedi. Their modest goal was to drink coffee produced through their own labor. “Since enjoying our own coffee was what we set out to do, we often finished most of our harvest ourselves, with only a small portion left to sell,” Gianjar said, laughing.

This laid back attitude is the core of Saux Farm’s philosophy. Hedi and Gianjar’s priority is to have fun in nature, as opposed to maximizing profit.

“Because we do this for fun, tending the farm never feels like a chore for us. We don’t force ourselves to come every day to yield the greatest quantity of produce, so it’s always a good time,” said Gianjar.

While they recognize the systemic issues of industrial agriculture, they insist they are not activists. Their mission is simply to introduce their take on modern farming to younger audiences and hopefully help build a new farming culture.

One of their concerns about farming is its stagnation, which results in a decreasing number of farmers. Hedi feels that this is caused by a lack of figures the younger generation can look up to. Farming in Indonesia isn’t seen as something interesting or “cool”, which is what Hedi and Gianjar are trying to change.

Hedi said, however, that they had started sharing Saux Farm’s vision with the world too early, which had made it less effective. “There wasn’t much to appeal to our intended audience at first. We then tried to think of ways to build our narrative, its universe, so to speak. To communicate our ideas, the younger generation needed to be able to look at the bigger picture first, the lifestyle.”

So they started grilling.

A primal practice

The impetus came when a tree fell on the farm’s cabin. In the process of building a new one, Hedi and Gianjar grilled some meat together and shared their experience on social media. Unexpectedly, a lot of people seemed to be interested. It was then that they thought of using barbecue as an entry point to share their lifestyle with the world.

For Gianjar, barbecue holds a deeper meaning. It’s a primal form of cooking that can be found in every culture and civilization. “It is the root of all cooking. It’s a very simple procedure that we still practice to this day. It’s also the most relevant method of cooking for farmers, since it can be done in nature without many appliances,” he said.

Hedi and Gianjar then started BBQ Mountain Boys, a YouTube channel where they shared their experiences

New ground to sow

farming, cooking and doing everything in between. In the first episodes, they delved into American-style meat smoking and coffee processing. These early videos have garnered hundreds of thousand views since they were uploaded in late 2018.

“If we say that farming is important because it is the backbone of our society, nobody will be interested. If we instead frame it as something fun, more people will be open to trying it,” said Gianjar. Hedi added that they wanted to build a larger culture and network of farmers in the long run.

“We’re trying to show that there are more ways to get into the lifestyle, rather than just planting seeds, shoveling and tending to the fields. You can start small, as a hobby,” said Hedi.

“Three years back, if I spoke at a farming workshop, none of the audience would have said they were interested in becoming farmers,” said Gianjar. “In the past year, I’ve started to see that change. Nowadays, when I ride my bike down to the farm, people will stop and ask me to teach them how to be a farmer. I’d like to think we had some influence in changing the perspectives of the younger generation. It’s something I take joy from.”

Ultimately, through the proliferation of modern farming culture, Hedi and Gianjar want to build a deeper appreciation for local farmers and their produce, along with the processes that they go through. They would also like to see local farming communities embracing and initiating farmers’ markets of their own, so that customers will begin to view artisanal agricultural products as normal.

One method of developing appreciation for quality produce is apparent in the duo’s recent venture: BBQ Mountain Boys Burger. All of the items on the burger joint’s menu have been developed meticulously by the team, with ingredients supplied directly by local farmers. Nearly everything is made in-house, from the buns to the pickles. At the moment, they are preparing new signature drinks to accompany their burgers.

Collaborations have also kept the duo busy. They have created special menu items with Po Noodle Bar and Lawless Burgerbar. Other partners include Guinness and Sasa, which provided them ingredients to experiment with in their cooking. Outside of the culinary world, they have recently collaborated with Sepatu Compass on two pairs of mountain-inspired sneakers. Currently, they’re serving three limited-time menu items in Gormeteria, inspired by Hedi’s travels to Japan.

With plenty collaborations and growing popularity, what’s in the pipeline for the BBQ Mountain Boys? “We’re developing a coffee shop where Kang Gia’s [Gianjar’s nickname] character and stories can truly be told,” said Hedi. As for the farm, they’re planning to create food items, drinks and ready-touse ingredients with their harvest. Their experiments have included jams, powdered herbs and spices and wines. Their long-term goal is to start more farms and to facilitate and arrange ecocamps in the future.

“We’d really like to create a camp where the participants can be in touch with nature, with courses in farming from IPB University lecturers and researchers,” Hedi said. “What we want is for people to be able to experience the fun we’ve shown them in our videos.”

FEATURES

en-id

2021-06-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://thejakartapost.pressreader.com/article/281814286809995

INACTIVE The Jakarta Post