About 5Eyes nature-lab
Selamat datang (welcome)
5eyes nature-lab - Our Story
5eyes Nature-Lab is an organic permaculture farm in Bogor, West Java, on the slopes of Mount Salak, just outside Jakarta. It is a collection of projects centred on sustainability, good food, hands-on learning and a different way of living with the land. We grow food, develop forest gardens and regenerative farm systems, run workshops and educational programmes, and provide simple accommodation for people who need a place to rest, retreat and reset.
We arrived in Bogor in 2016 with a simple hope: to reconnect with nature, with tradition, and with the slower, hands-on ways people once lived. We didn't come with a perfect plan, just a desire to grow, build and learn. What followed has been a journey of experiments, challenges, failures and unexpected discoveries.
Building here had its challenges. Securing land, regenerating depleted soil, constructing spaces, establishing forest gardens and developing integrated farm systems all grew us as well. Our early vision was idealistic and, honestly, a little unclear. We tried many things that didn't work. We failed, started again, redesigned and kept going.
Over time, however, the pieces began to come together. What started as a small farm project became something broader: a living place where food, nature, education, hospitality and practical sustainability meet.
Today, 5eyes Nature-Lab is still a work in progress. We are not presenting a finished model or claiming to have all the answers. We are learning by doing. The farm itself is our laboratory, and the land is both our teacher and our testing ground.
We grow food, experiment with ways of regenerating soil and biodiversity, make things from what the land provides, and invite others to come and experience it for themselves. Through field trips, hands-on workshops, good food, stays and simply spending time here, we hope to create opportunities to slow down, pay attention and reconnect with the living world around us.
That's what 5eyes has become: a place to learn, make, grow, eat, rest and rethink how we live with nature
Meet Danti and PJ
Hi, we are Danti & PJ, co-founders of 5eyes nature-lab. We met in Bali in 2009 have lived worked and travelled together, East and West. Beginning 5eyes nature-lab was an experiment in living off the land and innovating with building, growing, recycling and sustainable practices. We warmly invite you to experience 5eyes nature-lab first-hand.
Danti
Engineer by instinct, chef by delight, hostess by heart. Part mechanic, part designer, part builder—fully maker. A guide when the path bends, a mother loving wife always. Beneath it all, a creature of pure instinct and grit: just an animal, and proud of it. 🜁
Jonathan (PJ)
Reader of worlds, writer of possibilities.Dreamer in daylight, teacher by calling. A quiet seer, a wandering philosophat, a theologue with ink-stained thoughts. Father, loving husband, and—when the wind permits—just a kite, lifted by whatever sky he’s given. 🜂
A passionate educator both in and outside the classroom with extensive experience teaching in multicultural contexts. Jonathan loves writing and is interested in practically everything.
