Posted on Tue, Mar 10, 2009
Pioneered by Rudolf Steiner, biodynamic agriculture is rooted in anthroposophy, a philosophy that encompasses the spiritual as well as the physical world and embraces a profound understanding of the human being and of evolution. Biodynamic agriculture involved the use of particular spray preparations as an aid to increase soil fertility, encourage light into the crop and enhance the ‘forces’ of compost. Planting and harvesting are done in tune with particular cosmic alignments, and the farmer, or any of us in our own back garden or allotment is the artist, philosopher and producer with an awareness of all these factors.
A German philosopher, Steiner (1861-1925) gave a series of lectures over a number of years on subjects as diverse as education, development of the child, the arts, science, medicine and history as well as agriculture. His philosophy (known as anthroposophy) sought to guide individuals in their own spiritual experience and investigations and to encourage a greater attentiveness to the manifestation of Spirit in everyday life. Steiner’s approach to agriculture was that the world around us is more that just what we see: it contains life forces and a connection to the spiritual world. Following the lecture, a group of farmers came together and began to work on some of the ideas until both biodynamic practice and anthroposophy were banned in Nazi Germany.
Today there are 173 certified (see Demeter, below) farms in the UK, making up 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares). Germany has the most biodynamic farms: 1,327 farms, on more than 53,000 hectares.
Biodynamic Concepts
One of the central concepts of biodynamic agriculture is that the forms of plants don’t come about randomly or coincidentally but are the effect of four formative forces known as ethers or etheric forces. These are life, water, light and warmth, and the relative strength of these varies during the cycle of both the day and the year.
Another concept that sets biodynamics apart from organic or any other form of agriculture is the idea that animals show in their motion, emotion and behaviour their inherent soul qualities, which should be respected in farming.
The Farmer
The farmer is the link between the cosmos and the earth, and the farmer’s role is to get the right thing in the right place at the right time; to think and plan with the aim of creating balance and harmony within the farm system. The thought process might go something like this, for example: I have this number of acres for my biodynamic farm, I need so much land for grazing and so much for the production of concentrate feed, therefore I can stock so many cows which produce this much milk, meat and manure; the manure needs to be spread on so many acres on which I could grow so much vegetables to supplement the meat and milk. This process is no different from that undertaken by any conventional or organic farmer, but what makes biodynamic farms different is that they aim to be a closed system – one that is self-sufficient and buys in as little as possible.
Biodynamic farmers hold their farm in their consciousness as a being in which the soil is one of the organs, livestock another, vegetable crops another and so on. One practical application of this is that the farmer tries to find time to be still and learn to work intuitively – not easy with exhausting working days!
Biodynamic Preparations
Biodynamic preparations are used to help increase soil vitality, regulate imbalances, improve plant health and bring the farm into harmony with its surroundings.
There are two spray preparations, made from cow manure and ground quartz, which are applied to the soil and the growing plant respectively, and a number of the other preparations are made specifically for use in the compost heap and include yarrow, chamomile, stinging nettle, oak bark, dandelion and valerian. These are mixed into each compost heap, with the aim of stabilising and harmonising the various processes going on within the heap. In common with many biodynamic practices, the preparations appear to have a levelling effect. The preparations can either be made at home or purchased ready for use.
In tune with the Cosmos
Biodynamic practice tells us that during the day, the season and the year there are certain cycles, in which the different life forces are stronger or weaker. For instance, in the early summer the light ether is very strong, as is the life ether, but the water ether is withdrawing and the warmth ether is just becoming stronger. By late summer, the life and the light might be starting to reduce but the warmth is really strong (imagine a day in June compared to a day in August – June has bright, long days that are not necessarily hot, whereas in August the days are already getting shorter but the temperature is at its hottest). What this means to the biodynamic farmer is that some days are leaf days, while others are root days, fruit of flower days, and the farmer decides what to sow, plant or harvest in conjunction with these cycles.
Practical Applications
There is an annual biodynamic sowing and planting calendar (see below) for anyone interested in sowing, planting and harvesting in tune with the cosmos. I am writing this on 15th June, and the book tells me today is an earth/light day, root until 12:00 and flower from 13:00. Today is also the day of the new moon, and the book tells me that bees will be gathering pollen. The book describes what is appropriate on particular days, so, using leaf plants on leaf days as an example, “development in the leaf realm is in the cabbage family, lettuce, spinach, lamb’s lettuce, endive, parsley, leafy herbs and fodder plants. Leaf days are suitable for sowing and tending these plants, but not for harvesting and storage. For these (as well as harvesting cabbage for sauerkraut) fruit and flower days are recommended.”
Demeter
Demeter is the international body that certifies biodynamic farms. Its symbol can be found on products as diverse as wheat, wine, carrots and apple juice. Only strictly controlled and contractually bound partners are permitted to use the Brand. A comprehensive verification process ensures strict compliance with the International Demeter Production and Processing Standards, as well as applicable organic regulations in the various countries. Every biodynamic farm follows the EU 2092/91 rules and regulations on organic production, but always works to increase the fertility of the soil. Biodynamic farming creates whole farm systems, where soils, crops, animals and humans are part of an integrated and coherent, sustainable farm organism.
Written by Rebecca Johns
Registrar at Emerson College
Resources:
The Biodynamic Agricultural Association
www.biodynamic.org.uk
Demeter
www.demeter.net
Emerson College – Training in Biodynamic Agriculture
www.emerson.org.uk
Biodynamic/homeopathic sprays for pest and disease control
www.bdmax.co.nz
Moon Gardening Calendar
www.lunraorganics.com
Book:
The Biodynamic Sowing and Planting Calendar 2008
By Maria Thun and Matthias K Thun, Floris Books
This article was published in Juno Magazine – Issue 14, Spring 2008
To download a copy of the article, please follow this link:
Biodynamic Agriculture Article - Juno Magazine (Issue 14, Spring 2008)
Posted on Mon, Mar 09, 2009
Rebecca Johns takes a walk around a biodynamic, community supported farm.
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Biodynamic Farming is a unique form of organic husbandry inspired by the research of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) and founded on a holistic and spiritual understanding of nature and the human being. Planting, harvesting, and other agricultural activities are undertaken at particular times in response to particular phases of the moon, or astrological cycles – as well as the conventional farmer’s concerns of the weather! |
My family and I recently attended a farm walk at Plaw Hatch farm in West Sussex. There are two things which make Plaw Hatch worthy of note – fist, they’re a biodynamic farm and second, Plaw Hatch, together with another local farm Tablehurst (situated next to Emerson College where you can study on the Biodynamic Agriculture Course), are community supported farms. I’d now like to take you on a tour of Plaw Hatch and describe some of the features of biodynamic farming, how community supported farms work and how this could be a model for the future.
Tom Ventham is the farmer at Plaw Hatch – well, one of them, the master farmer of something! The farm community consists of about 16 people including students, apprentices, gardeners, cheese makers, their families, not to mention assorted visitors and long term helpers from all over the world. Tom has been at Plaw Hatch for seven years and is in overall charge of the farm business which consists of 200 acres of grassland, arable and woodland. The enterprises on the farm include a farm shop (everything sold here is biodynamic or organic, although only 10-15% of everything sold in the shop is produced on the farm), vegetable gardens (6.5 hectares including a number of polytunnels), dairy with cheese making facilities, pig rearing, outdoor laying hens and a small amount of arable.
Ploughing:
The rotation at Plaw Hatch is five - six years of grass, oats or wheat, legume and grass. During our visit, we saw one of the farmers ploughing a grass field to plant it with lupins - not part of the usual farm rotation but in that particular field, there has been a problem with docks, a problem Tom said was caused by the general increase in acidity of the rainfall and soil. Docks are full of calcium and so, he argued, the proliferation of the docks was a self-correcting mechanism. To get rid of the docks, lupins, which are also rich in calcium, are being planted this spring and will be allowed to flower (in about July) before being ploughed back in. I think I'll go back next year and view the results...
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Biodynamic farms are self contained, or largely so - this is what every biodynamic farm would aim for, but its not always possible. The land at Plaw Hatch is sloping and wet in places which precludes large amounts of arable so some feedstuffs are bought in. in basic terms, though, the cows in the dairy eat the food from the fields, which those cows then fertilise to produce more feed for cows. Such practise would have been common until the post war period, but with the increasing industrialisation of agriculture, specialist dairy of cereal or beef units for example have become widespread, and with them, the need to buy in feedstuffs and fertiliser.
One of the practices unique to biodynamic farming is the spraying of various preparations. For example, horn manure. This involves burying a horn filled with manure in the ground over winter to absorb various life forces before its removed, dissolved in water which is stirred to a vigorous vortex with a thing that looks like a with's broom, inside a large barrel. This is then sprayed on the field to enhance nutrients and Tom told us you can see the results!
Cattle and Calves
Meuse Rhine Issel (MRI) cows are used at Plaw Hatch as the basis of the 45 strong milking herd because they're even tempered, and content inside for up to six months of the year when there's insufficient grass for them to graze outside. This is also a breed particularly suited to the biodynamic system, as they produce an adequate milk yield without enormous amounts of concentrate feed - which means less has to be bought in again.
Pigs:
Two litters of three week old piglets share a space in the barn. Apparently, they find their own mothers at feeding time. After weaning at about eight weeks old, the sows are reintroduced to the boar and fertility is maintained by this rapid breeding. Meanwhile the piglets will be finished off outside at about six months of age and the meat sold through the farm shop.
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A Sussex bull is used to produce beef steers which eventually go through the farm shop, and the milk is made into cheese and yoghurt or delivered as milk via the farm's own milk round. In this way, the farm is in control of the end product and, more importantly, the prices those products achieve - this farm, like every other, has to survive financially.
Every attention is given to animal welfare at Plaw Hatch - the cows even have their very own back scratcher!
Dry cows are housed with heifers and the bull, and when the calves are born, they stay with their mothers for about three weeks, longer if necessary, depending on the particular cow and calf, before being separated. The calves shown here are autumn born animals, outside the following March and enjoying the first spring grass.
In common with many organic farms, the grassland at Plaw Hatch is under sown with white clover both to fix nitrogen and improve the feed quality for the cattle. As the livestock is rotated around the grazing areas, and the annual rotations of crop type are made, so associated problems of parasites, pests and diseases are minimised.
Hens:
Another of the enterprises at Plaw Hatch is outdoor laying hens. In an effort to provide shade and a ‘natural; area for the 250 hens, various areas around the farm have been planted with orchard trees (apple, plum, pear and so on) and the hens are regularly moved around these areas. Day old chicks are currently brought in to restock the laying population, but there are plans to set up an incubation unti so the farm can raise their own replacements, again reducing the number that have to be bought in.
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Accommodation
As I mentioned earlier, the community of people living and working on the farm is about sixteen strong. Some are housed in mobile homes, others in rather less mobile looking mobile homes and some lucky ones in a beautiful cabin which took just a few months to build (with the help of a skilled volunteer). The small wooden building beyond the main cabin houses the compost loo.
Community Involvement
Plaw Hatch is a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project which is a relationship of mutual support between the farmers and those who eat the food they produce, thereby creating support for sustainable farming practices into the future. Community involvement ranges from the local community buying at the farm shop, to attending farm walks, the annual barn dance and barbeque, volunteering on the farm and buying shares in the farm. A co-operative owns the farm business, and shares (which cost £100 each) can be bought in any number, by anybody. Although the co-op members own the farms, they don’t interfere in the management of the business. Plaw Hatch farm has a management team which includes co-op representation, but this is largely under the control of the farmers. The aim is that day-to-day farming decisions are left to the farmers, with the wider co-op only becoming involved in important questions of principle which could be sent o affect the broader objectives.
More information:
Tablehurst and Plaw Hatch Community Farms – tablehurstandplawhatch.co.uk
Biodynamic Association – http://www.emerson.org.uk/www.biodynamic.org.uk
Community Supported Agriculture: http://www.cuco.org.uk/
Written by Rebecca Johns
This article was published in Country Smallholding Magazine – June 2007
To download a copy of the article, please follow this link:
Calves in the Community - Country Smallholding Magazine, June 2007
Posted on Mon, Mar 09, 2009
WWOOF volunteers have given 1000’s of hours of help to organic producers. But what exactly is WWOOFing – and how can people get involved?
Katherine Hallewell explains
In 1971, Sue Coppard organised a working weekend for herself and three other Londoners on a local organic farm. They were all looking to get out of the city and into the countryside for fresh air and exercise. Sue made a deal with the farmer at Emerson College: they would help out with work that needed doing on the land in exchange for food and accommodation.
This simple idea would guarantee the visitors plenty of exercise in a beautiful spot, while keeping their trip affordable. But little did they know that their working weekend would develop into an international movement.
The Land Army
The farm manager at Emerson was initially reluctant to give the city-folk a try. But by the end of the weekend, after the four visitors had successfully cleared ditches and cut back brambles, he asked them to come back the following week. Soon, regular trips to the farm were taking place every third weekend.
News of ‘Sue Coppard’s Land Army’ gradually spread and other organic farms got in touch – even one in New Zealand – all keen to offer their hospitality in exchange for help from willing volunteers. Working Weekends On Organic Farms – or WWOOF – was born.
Sue’s initial choice of organic hosts was a purely practical one, based on her assumption that organic farms were more likely to need unskilled labour. However, as each WWOOF weekend gave the visitors a deeper understanding of the benefits of organic farming, before long learning about – and supporting – the organic movement was at the very core of the group’s aims.
Another key principle that still stands today is that no money changes hands: hosts provide wholesome food and suitable accommodation in exchange for help from volunteers. In return, volunteers experience a different way of life, get their hands dirty and learn about organic techniques by working alongside others.
Today, WWOOF stands for ‘World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms’. An estimated 50,000 volunteers can visit over 6,000 registered ‘hosts’ across 88 countries – from Alaska, Madagascar, Nepal or even Tonga – to gain experience and be part of the organic movement.
Increasingly, however, many are choosing to volunteer at host farms across the UK. While WWOOFing is regarded as a great way to travel responsibly outside the UK, interest in ‘local’ WWOOFing is growing in response to concerns about climate change and peak oil, as well as a general desire for a deeper connection to the local environment and community, and WWOOF UK membership has doubled in the last year.
How does it work?
To ‘WWOOF’ is to arrange a stay on a host farm to volunteer. ‘Host’ farms are those organic growers, farmers or smallholders who are willing to provide food and accommodation for volunteers. Hosts submit an application to WWOOF and, once approved, are listed in the relevant WWOOF directories and on the WWOOF website. WWOOFers can then contact hosts directly to arrange a stay. A WWOOFing visit can last for anything from a weekend to several months – it is up to the individual host and WWOOFer.
Every WWOOFer has a different reason for WWOOFing, just as every host can provide a unique opportunity to learn something new – and benefit from the volunteer’s help. In return for food and accommodation, hosts might ask WWOOFers to clear out and restore that old outbuilding or to lay new hedges, clear ditches or remove weeds. Being a host is also a fantastic way to meet people from all walks of life who share your values.
For the public, WWOOFing represents a great first step into the world of organic farming and growing – and a training ground for the more committed. Arjen Huese – who teaches at Emerson College where WWOOFing started all those years ago – actively encourages any would-be organic students to go WWOOFing as a way of dipping their toes into the world of organics. And by hosting WWOOFers, he says, farmers and growers are making a real investment in the future of organic.
But WWOOFing is more than the exchange of food for labour: it is an opportunity to be inspired by people, places, conversations and shared achievements. Hosts invest trust in their visitors, offering hospitality to WWOOFers in return for their work. WWOOFers rely on their hosts for the chance to really learn – and not just carry out a list of odd jobs that need doing. When it works, which mostly it does, WWOOFing is magical.
For more information on WWOOF and how to join as a host farm or a WWOOFer, call 01296 714652. Visit www.wwoof.org.uk Katherine Hallewell is an active WWOOFer and part of the WWOOF UK team. Contact her on kath.hallewell@wwoof.org
Want to find out more?
- Interested in becoming a host? You will need to:
- Farm or grow using ecologically sound methods
- House and feed WWOOFers in exchange for a reasonable day’s help (we suggest 5–6 hours with suitable breaks)
- Share your knowledge and skills with WWOOFers – they have come to learn by working alongside you
- Have patience and a good sense of humour!
- Get the appropriate insurance cover.
Joining the WWOOF UK Host Farm Network costs just £30 a year and includes a listing in the printed host list (circulated to all WWOOFers three times each year), an online listing and a quarterly newsletter.
- Want to be a WWOOFer? You will need to:
- Have an interest in growing organic food and treading lightly on the earth
- Be flexible and willing to get stuck in
- Have a good sense of humour
- Bring clothes, gloves, boots and waterproofs for working outdoors
- Be willing to help with daily chores (cooking, washing up) as well as your WWOOFing tasks.
Joining WWOOF UK as a volunteer costs £20 a year, giving you access to the host farm list, online or in hard copy, and quarterly newsletter. For information on WWOOF UK call 01296 714652 or visit www.wwoof.org.uk
Being a Host
“Over the last eight years we have accommodated nearly 100 WWOOFers on our 6ha smallholding. Our description in the UK Host Farm List reads “Fun, variety, fulfilment and new experiences…” and the hands-on, low impact life-style we offer certainly seems very popular! We provide our visitors with a mix of seasonal daily chores, like milking goats, garden maintenance, or cheese and yoghurt making, together with new skills like coppicing and green woodwork.
“When WWOOFers join the household – and we prefer two at a time – their presence adds a fresh and buoyant dynamic. They learn from us while we learn from them: it is a two-way opportunity, where cultural, social, cooking and other skills are eagerly exchanged. Sometimes I deliberately relax during a ‘WWOOFer spell’ with a sense that – at long last – we are catching up! I love hearing two newly arrived WWOOFers babbling away in the vegetable garden, making friends with each other and the space they occupy.
“At the end of a visit, off they go. And I must admit I sometimes find myself shedding a tear or two as they disappear round the corner.”
Edward and Romola Acland farm 6ha at Sprint Mill near Kendal, Cumbria, with sheep, poultry, goats and vegetables and coppice woodland.
Willing & Able
WWOOFing is work: that is the bottom line. I discovered that this ‘work’ really suits me, despite being at the mature end of the scale. My early life on a farm in South Africa bred into me a liking for the smells and sounds of rural life. I relish the pleasure of getting my hands into the earth, of being in the open air. There is also something about pace, finding efficient ways of doing jobs, solving practical problems, and being trusted.
A host needs jobs to be accomplished in certain seasons, like weeding, mulching or harvesting. And then there are the ongoing things, like maintenance, sorting or shifting. A WWOOFer arrives with just the right aptitude to tackle the untidy tool cupboard or shed.
Apart from tasks having their own intrinsic reward, there are the relationships that flourish, both with other WWOOFers and with hosts. It is being part of a fraternity that binds us. We know that the daffodils will bloom, the leeks will grow, and the coppicing will continue to pay off long after we have left.
Verona Bass started WWOOFing at the age of 60, going on a backpacking trip to Australia and New Zealand. Since then she has had over 40 placements in both countries, as well as the UK.
This article was published in Organic Farming Magazine – Winter 2008
To download a copy of the article, please follow this link:
WWOOF Article - Organic Farming Magazine, Winter 2008
Posted on Sun, Mar 08, 2009
So we’ve all heard of organic, as in organic food, farming, cotton etc, but what about biodynamic? Do you know what Demeter is, what the symbol looks like or what it stands for? What concepts underpin biodynamic practice for the farmer, smallholder or gardener and how can these be applied to anyone’s backyard? Intrigued and slightly dubious, but open and wanting to learn more about biodynamic farming, I recently attended a weekend course in Biodynamic Agriculture at Emerson College in Sussex to learn more.
Pioneered by Rudolf Steiner, biodynamic (BD) agriculture is rooted in anthroposophy, a philosophy which encompasses the spiritual as well as the physical world and embraces a profound understanding of the human being and of evolution. As farmers or growers, BD involves the use of particular spray preparations (such as horn sicila, see below for more info) as an aid in enhancing light into the crop and enhancing the ‘forces’ of compost. Planting and harvesting are done in tune with particular cosmic alignments and the ‘farmer’ (grower, gardener, smallholder but for ease, let’s use the generic term, farmer) is the artist, philosopher and producer with awareness of all these factors. It might sound rather alternative and wacky, but if, as smallholders, you are interested in going Beyond Organic or looking for a niche market, then this might be of interest!
Steiner and Anthroposophy
The German philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) gave a series of lectures over a number of years on subjects as diverse as education, development of the child, the arts, science, medicine and history as well as agriculture. Steiner delivered a lecture in 1924 on agricultural practice at the estate of Von Keyserlingk in Germany, as a response to the increasing use of chemical nutrient applications of farms. He sought to awaken individuals to their own spiritual experience and investigations and encourage a greater attentiveness to the manifestations of spirit in everyday life.
Steiner’s approach to agriculture was that the world around us is more that just what we see, but also contains life forces and a connection to the spiritual world. Following the lecture, a group of farmers came together and began to work on some of the ideas until both biodynamic practice and anthroposophy were banned by the Nazi government in Germany.
Today there are 173 certified (see Demeter below) farms in the UK making up 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares). Germany has the most BD farms – 1,327 farms on more than 53,000 hectares.
Etheric Forces
One of the central concepts of BD agriculture is that of etheric forces – the forms of plants don’t come about randomly or coincidentally but are the effect of four formative forces. These are life, water, light and warmth and the relative strength of these varies during the cycle of both the day and the year.
Soul Qualities in Animals
This is another concept that sets BD apart from organic or any other form of agriculture and means that animals show, in their motion, emotion and behaviour, their inherent soul qualities that should be respected in farming. The animal kingdom is divided into three depending on the soul qualities of particular animals.
- Nerve sensory beings – most related to the head, fast moving, agile, quick response animals which eat rich feed – for example, birds.
- Rhythmic beings – those with large chests, predatory animals – lions etc
- Digestive beings – big slow animals that eat a lot of low nutrient food, such as cows.
The Farmer as Artist and Other Things
The farmer is the link between the cosmos and the earth, and his role is to get the right thing in the right place at the right time, to think and plan with the aim to create balance and harmony within the farm system. For example, the thought process would go something like this: I have this number of acres for my BD farm, and I need so much land for grazing and so much for the production of concentrate feed. Therefore, I can stock so many cows which produce this much milk, meat and manure, which needs to be spread on so many acres on which I could grow so much vegetables to supplement the meat and milk. This process is no different on any conventional or organic farm, but what sets BD apart is that they aim to be a closed system – one which is self-sufficient, buying in as little as possible. This isn’t always practical – BD farms might buy in buckets of Crystalix at lambing time, but routine purchase of concentrate feed, for example, isn’t part of the system.
BD farmers work with a consciousness of their farm as a being where the soil is one of the organs, livestock another, vegetable crops another and so on. One practical application of this is that the farmer tries to find time to be still on his farm and learn to use his intuition – not easy when we’re all busy rushing from here to there and ending the day exhausted!
Spray Preparations
BD preparations form a unique and integral part of the biodynamic approach to farming – their use helps to increase soil vitality, regulate imbalances, improve plant health and bring the farm into harmony with its surroundings. There are two types of spray preparations and six compost preparations which BD farmers use. The spray preparations are horn manure and horn silica:
- Horn manure is made with cow manure, placed in a cow horn and buried in the corner of a field in September, and dug up again around Easter time. It’s sprayed towards evenings as rough water droplets on the soil prior to sowing and planting. It encourages healthy root growth, assists the plant in finding nutrients and mediates the terrestrial forces of life (such as water). In drought situations, it encourages deep rooting.
- Horn silica is made with ground quartz crystal placed in cow horn and buried in March/April and dug up again in September. It’s sprayed as a fine mist directly onto the growing plant at specific stages in its development. It also benefits the ripening process in all kinds of crops.
When the horns are dug up at the specified time of year, the preparations are dissolved in water (ideally, slightly warmed in rain water) and vigorously stirred for an hour before being sprayed immediately onto the fields. The aim of the stirring is to create chaos (so you stir one way and then the other to create a vortex) which, when sprayed, encourages various forces beneficial to the crop.
Other preparations are made specifically for use in the compost heap. These are:
- Yarrow preparation – connected to the potassium and sulphur processes of the soil and helps draw in substances, finely distributes in the atmosphere and beyond to replenish the soil grown tired through many years of cultivation.
- Camomile preparation – connected with living calcium processes and helps to stabilize plant nutrients, dampens down excessive fermentation and invigorates plant growth.
- Stinging Nettle preparation – has a relationship to iron. It develops sensitivity in the soil and helps stabilize nitrogen.
- Oak Bark preparation – rich in calcium substance. It helps ward off so-called plant diseases and fungal attacks.
- Dandelion preparation – connected with living silica processes, it activates light influences in the soil and enables the interrelationships of nature to become fully effective.
- Valerian preparation – has a strong affinity t the activity of phosphorous, provides a warmth blanket to the compost heap and earthworms love it!
(From the Biodynamic preparations list from the Biodynamic Agricultural Association)
All these preparations are mixed into each compost heap, so they can stabilize and harmonise the various processes going on within that heap. In common with many BD practices, the preparations appear to have a levelling effect.
In Tune with the Cosmos
Until I attended the Biodynamics for the Backyard course, I had an idea that the only thing which set BD farming apart from organic, or any other system, is that the planting and harvesting is done in tune with the stars and the moon. As you can tell from the previous paragraphs, there’s much more to BD than this!
BD practice tells us that during the day, the season and the year, there are certain cycles, where the different life forces are stronger or weaker and so on. For instance, in the early summer, the light ether is very strong, as is the life ether, but the water ether is withdrawing and the warmth ether is just becoming stronger. By late summer, the life and light might be starting to reduce but the warmth is really strong (imagine a day in June compared to a day in August) – June has bright, long days but not necessarily hot, whereas in August the days are already getting shorter but the temperature is at its hottest). What this means to the BD farmer is that some days are leaf days, while others are root days, fruit or flower days and the farmer decides what to sow, plant or harvest in conjunction with these cycles.
Practical Applications
Its possible to buy cow horns and the BD preparations (see further information below), so you don’t need your own cow horn or quartz for horn manure or horn silica sprays, and you can have a go at the preparations on whatever scale you’re working, or just in your compost heaps. Many organic or chemical free producers might be searching for that something extra to set their produce apart from other organic items, and BD offers something of a niche market and opportunity to those farmers open to the philosophy and applications.
Other practical applications of BD include the preparation and use of homeopathic biodynamic preparations for the control of various pests and diseases. Also teaching on the course at Emerson when I attended was Glen Atkinson from New Zealand who makes these preparations – including some to discourage cats and possums. We debated the possibility of making a BD homeopathic slug spray, but I shall try the cat one first in my own garden and report its success or otherwise.
For anyone interested in sowing, planting and harvesting in tune with the cosmos, each year you can purchase a biodynamic sowing and planting calendar. I’m writing this in June, and the book tells me today is an earth/light day, root until 12.00 and flower from 13.00. today is also the day of the new moon and the book tells me that bees will be gathering pollen. The book describes what is appropriate on particular days as an example:
Development in the leaf realm is in the cabbage family, lettuce, spinach, lambs lettuce, endive, parsley, leafy herbs and fodder plants. Leaf days are suitable for sowing and tending these plants, but not for harvesting and storage. For these (as well as harvesting cabbage for sauerkraut) fruit and flower days are recommended. (Thun & Thun, 2006)
Demeter
Demeter is the international body which certifies BD farms. Its symbol can be found on products as diverse as wheat, wine, carrots and apple juice. Only strictly controlled and contractually bound partners are permitted to use the brand. A comprehensive verification process ensures strict compliance with the International Demeter Production and Processing Standards, as well as applicable organic regulations in the various countries. Every BD farm follows the EU 2092/91 rules and regulations on organic production, but always works to increase the fertility of the soil. BD farming creates whole farm systems, where soils, crops, animals and humans are part of an integrated and coherent, sustainable farm organism.
Further information:
Written by Rebecca Johns, Registrar at Emerson College
Published in Country Smallholding Magazine – September 2007
To download a copy of the article, please follow this link:
Forces at Work - Country Smallholding Magazine, September 2007