Page 137 - EBOOK_Jamu: The Ancient Indonesian Art of Herbal Healing

work, we wouldn’t have achieved anything.” For this family, jamu profits tipped the scales and they
not only survived difficult times, but they are now also moderately well-off.
Ibu Nur’s sons, now all married with families of their own, have repeatedly asked their mother
to retire and take life easy. She has steadfastly refused, claiming that “I’ll be bored and become fat
and old if I don’t have the daily exercise and social contact I enjoy through my work.”
Ibu Nur says she concentrates on jamu for maintaining health. Her recipes include Beras
Kencur and Kunir Asem, Galian for slimming, Enkoo for increasing appetite, a form of cough
mixture, and Cabe Puyang for tiredness, or when the body temperature swings between perspiring
and shivering.

But why does Ibu Nur still cart jamu around in heavy, old-fashioned glass bottles when sellers
in Jakarta use old Johnny Walker or plastic bottles? She explains: “Plastic smells and affects the
jamu’s taste. What’s more it’s unhygienic—how do you clean bottles properly if you can’t use
boiling water?”
The Health Ministry’s efforts to improve standards of cleanliness are obviously having an
effect. For similar reasons, jamu gendong refuse to use electric mixers, as they say the smell from
previous mixtures lingers in the bowl and is very difficult to remove.
What about retirement for Ibu Nur? “I cope quite well with eight bottles, the glasses and my
bucket,” she retorts. “That bucket is more than 20 years old and it’s still going strong.” In the picture
on right, she and her aunt (on left) are setting off on their morning round.