# Applied Biodynamics — Issue 026 (Spring 1999)

**By JPI Admin** · 2025-12-31

Issue 026 treats the approach of the year 2000 as a practical test of farm resilience, preparation-making knowledge, and JPI’s ability to support decentralized biodynamic work.

[**Download Issue 026 PDF**](https://go.jpibd.org/ab-026)

An excerpt from Ehrenfried Pfeiffer’s _New Directions in Agriculture_ frames the farm organism as a response to agricultural and social instability. Hugh J. Courtney’s **“Y2K Preparedness and the Biodynamic Preparations”** then considers what would happen if centralized supplies, transport, or communication failed. The article recommends maintaining viable stocks and, more importantly, rebuilding the skills and material networks needed to make [BD 500](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-500), [BD 501](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-501), and [BC](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bc) locally.

In **“JPI at the Threshold,”** Courtney applies the same question to the institute: what responsibilities can JPI reliably carry, and what must remain distributed among farmers and regional groups? The article is candid about leadership, capacity, and the limits of an institution that produces preparations while also teaching and encouraging research.

**“Brick Pit BC (Thun Recipe Compost)”** describes a low-technology way to make BC in a brick-lined pit. The article specifies pit construction, manure preparation, placement of the compost preparations, moisture, covering, and recovery. A repeatable comparison should record dimensions, manure source and weight, preparation quantities, moisture, temperature, dates, weather, finished yield, storage, and performance alongside another established BC method.

Nicola Franceschelli’s **“Interview with Walter Stuber”** presents long experience as a discipline of repeated observation, practical work, and spiritual study. The interview is biographical and interpretive rather than experimental evidence.

Mary Gardner’s **“The Innocent Dandelion—A Messenger from Heaven”** reads dandelion form through medicinal and spiritual-scientific ideas. Alice Porter’s **“Efficient Dandelion Picking or How to Pick When Your Back Hurts”** supplies the complementary field practice: posture, pacing, containers, and work methods for gathering the blossoms used in [BD 506](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-506). Harvest records should include location, species confirmation, flowering stage, time, weather, fresh and dry weights, contaminants, and labor.

The issue closes with reviews of Wilhelm Pelikan’s _Healing Plants: Insights Through Spiritual Science_, Volume 1, and Christopher Williams’ _Bringing a Garden to Life_. Both are presented as aids to observation and practice, not substitutes for field measurement.

## Articles

-   Partial Text from _New Directions in Agriculture_ (E. Pfeiffer) 
-   Interview with Walter Stuber (N. Franceschelli) 
-   JPI at the Threshold (H. J. Courtney) 
-   Y2K Preparedness and the Biodynamic Preparations (H. J. Courtney) 
-   Brick Pit BC (Thun Recipe Compost) (H. J. Courtney) 
-   The Innocent Dandelion—A Messenger from Heaven (M. Gardner) 
-   Efficient Dandelion Picking or How to Pick When Your Back Hurts (A. Porter) 
-   Book Review: _Healing Plants: Insights Through Spiritual Science_, Vol. 1 (M. Gardner) 
-   Book Review: _Bringing a Garden to Life_ (J. Muir) 

## Key Topics Covered

Agricultural resilience, Y2K preparedness, and decentralized preparation-making competence.

JPI’s institutional responsibilities, capacity, leadership, and limitations.

Brick-pit construction and process variables for Biodynamic Compound Preparation.

Walter Stuber’s long-term biodynamic experience and the distinction between interpretation and measurement.

BD 506 dandelion form, identification, harvesting ergonomics, material quality, and labor records.

## Repeatable Practice

1.  Inventory preparation stock, storage condition, source materials, tools, instructions, and trained makers before a supply interruption occurs.
2.  For brick-pit BC, record pit dimensions, manure, preparation quantities, moisture, covering, temperature, dates, yield, and finished quality.
3.  Compare the brick-pit method with another established BC method using the same manure and matched application tests.
4.  For dandelion harvest, document identification, stage, time, weather, weight, drying loss, contamination, and labor per finished batch.

## Explore Related Resources

[Biodynamic Compound Preparation](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bc) · [BC instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bc) · [BD 506 Dandelion](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-506) · [BD 500 Horn Manure](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-500) · [BD 501 Horn Silica](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-501)

## Citation

Source: _Applied Biodynamics_, Issue No. 26, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Bio-Dynamics, Spring 1999.

**Tags:** Applied Biodynamics Archive, Barrel Compound, BD 502-507

---

> Source: [The Josephine Porter Institute](https://www.jpibiodynamics.org/blogs/applied-biodynamics/applied-biodynamics-issue-026-spring-1999)