# Applied Biodynamics — Issue 079 (Winter 2012–2013) **By JPI Admin** · 2025-12-31 **Applied Biodynamics 079** makes a confident case for grain as the rhythmic center of a biodynamic farm. Hunter Francis interviews John DeRosier of With the Grain Farm, where grains, hay, legumes, cover crops, livestock, preparation making, seed preservation, and value-added food production are organized across 150 certified Biodynamic acres. Hugh Courtney then gives compact protocols for 100-square-foot beds, preparation storage, and a household rolling composter. ## Grain as the farm’s rhythmic foundation DeRosier farms four parcels in northern San Luis Obispo County across markedly different soils and microclimates. His crops have included modern and heirloom wheat, rye, barley, spelt, corn, oats, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, amaranth, teff, sorghum, flax, sunflower, sesame, split peas, lentils, and garbanzos, along with research plots of traditional upland Japanese rice. He had planted grain every year since 1997. The rotation joins grain, hay, cover crops, and legumes with nearly 20 ruminants and about 20 chickens. Animals consume straw, stubble, and other fractions people do not eat, clean the field, and return manure. DeRosier moves them through blocks with electric netting and grows all their grain and forage. Grain and livestock become complementary halves of the farm organism. His small-scale yield estimate is memorable: with careful intensive planting, a quarter acre can produce about **1,000 pounds of grain**—nearly three pounds per day for a year—from one crop. Irrigation or summer rain may permit another crop. The example restores grain to garden and homestead scale rather than treating it solely as a thousand-acre commodity. ## From harvest to food A 24-week grain CSA with roughly 35 members gave DeRosier a direct market for wheat, barley, corn, millet, and other crops. A gravity table improved cleaning, while a licensed commercial kitchen opened milling, rolling, cracking, flour, granola, bulgur, and future pasta or bread. The issue identifies the real infrastructure chain: harvest, thresh, clean, mill, process, and market. Cooperative ownership can place that chain within reach of several small farms. DeRosier uses spreadsheets as a picture of the farm’s energy and resource flow. When land, labor, grain, animals, equipment, and markets work coherently, the records show resources accumulating rather than leaking away. Financial tracking therefore becomes another form of observation within the farm organism. ## Preparation making and visible root response DeRosier makes nearly every preparation on the farm and works especially often with [BD 500 Horn Manure](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-500), [Barrel Compound](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bc), [BD 504 Nettle](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-504), [BD 507 Valerian](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-507), and the other compost plants. Because his seed-preservation work begins with small samples, he handles and transplants many grain seedlings. The preparation-treated plants consistently showed a larger, stronger root mass and greater transplant integrity—an immediate, repeatable characteristic visible in the hand. On broad ground he favors applying BD 500 and Barrel Compound before discing or cultivation. Hand stirring remains his most potent method, while a portable fiberglass flowform and a small two-tier unit give him flexible five-gallon and field-scale options. The [BD 500 instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bd-500) and [Barrel Compound instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bc) are current companions to this practice. ## A dry-summer preparation rhythm With average annual rainfall of about seven inches, the farm’s biological activity follows the wet season. DeRosier reserves June, July, and August soil applications for irrigated crops rather than dry, dormant ground. Nettle teas and preparations continue with vegetables and summer grain under irrigation, while the general field program resumes when rain reawakens the soil. His experience turns climate into a positive rule: apply preparations where moisture, roots, and soil biology are ready to receive them. His use of [BD 501 Horn Silica](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-501) likewise follows crop stage, light, and moisture rather than the [calendar alone](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-calendar). JPI’s [BD 501 instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bd-501) give the current preparation and misting sequence. ## New 100-square-foot beds For a newly double-dug 5-by-20-foot bed, Courtney recommends at least **one-quarter teaspoon of Pfeiffer Field & Garden Spray**. Activate it, add enough water for even coverage, stir briefly, spray the bed and rake it in, then repeat that spray-and-rake sequence twice more. The three passes bring the preparation through the prepared soil profile. Treat surrounding paths and future beds as well, and use the remaining activated material on the larger garden, growing crops, or a green-manure stand. Weeds on prepared ground can be treated as an in-place green manure or as ingredients for biodynamic compost. For two acres on foot, a four- or five-gallon backpack sprayer is more efficient than a one- or two-gallon shoulder model. See the [Pfeiffer Field & Garden Spray](https://go.jpibd.org/product-pfeiffer-spray) and its [current instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-pfeiffer-spray). ## Off-season preparation storage Maintain stored compost preparations with filtered rainwater first, then well or spring water. If treated water is the only source, leave it in sunlight for at least 24 hours before use. The material remains stable for a long time before moisture falls below 30%, but it should be inspected and kept from drying. For small quantities, transfer each preparation to its own glass baby-food or jelly jar. A full peat bale can become a ready storage cabinet: cut a separate hole for each jar, seat it in the peat, and cover the opening with a sock filled with the extracted peat. JPI’s larger system uses glazed 15-gallon crocks, each surrounded by three inches of peat in a wooden box within a root cellar. Peat buffers the preparation while the separate vessels preserve individuality. ## Pfeiffer Starter in a rolling composter For a double-chamber rolling composter, add approximately **one teaspoon of dry [Pfeiffer Compost Starter](https://go.jpibd.org/product-pfeiffer-compost) per filling**. When the chamber is about one-quarter full, activate the teaspoon in a small amount of water. After about 12 hours, expand the liquid to one pint or as much as one quart according to the chamber’s moisture, add it, and continue normal turning. Use all moistened starter within 48 hours; the remaining dry unit keeps at least nine months if never wetted. The issue recalls a 1950s Oakland municipal project in which Pfeiffer Starter produced finished compost in as little as 21 days. A rolling chamber’s frequent movement can support similarly rapid integration, making the protocol especially useful where there is no room for an open pile. A single unit of BD 500 should be used within three weeks of receipt or transferred promptly into proper peat-buffered storage. BD 501 stores dry in a glass jar in a sunny window. JPI’s [Making and Using the Biodynamic Preparations](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-preparations) guide brings all three handling systems together. ## New JPI board member The issue also introduces Pat Frazier of Peace and Plenty Farm in Colorado. Her off-grid, permaculture-designed homestead integrates chickens, goats, a dairy cow, medicinal and culinary herbs, fruit, vegetables, education, and on-farm preparation making. Her work in the Rocky Mountain region and the Fellowship of Preparation Makers extends the same relationship among land, learning, and community that animates DeRosier’s grain farm. ## Articles - Finding Rhythm and Meaning in Fields of Biodynamic Grain (Hunter Francis interviews John DeRosier) - Anecdotes and Antidotes—Biodynamics at Work (Hugh Courtney) - New JPI Board Member, Pat Frazier ## Key Topics Covered - Heirloom and modern grains across 150 certified Biodynamic acres - Grain, hay, legume, cover-crop, and livestock rotations - Quarter-acre production of approximately 1,000 pounds of grain - CSA, cleaning, milling, and value-added grain infrastructure - Financial records as indicators of farm energy and resource flow - Preparation response visible in seedling root mass and integrity - Seven-inch-rainfall timing for soil and irrigated-crop applications - Three-pass Pfeiffer Spray treatment for 100-square-foot beds - Backpack sprayer selection for preparation work on foot - Water, glass, peat, and moisture requirements for storage - One-teaspoon rolling-composter activation protocol - Twenty-one-day compost history with Pfeiffer Starter ## Related JPI resources - [Biodynamic calendar guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-calendar) - [BD 500 Horn Manure](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-500), [guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-bd-500), and [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bd-500) - [Barrel Compound](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bc), [guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-bc), and [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bc) - [BD 504 Nettle](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-504) and [guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-bd-504) - [BD 507 Valerian](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-507) and [guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-bd-507) - [BD 501 Horn Silica](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-501), [guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-bd-501), and [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bd-501) - [Pfeiffer Field & Garden Spray](https://go.jpibd.org/product-pfeiffer-spray), [guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-pfeiffer-spray), and [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-pfeiffer-spray) - [Pfeiffer Compost Starter](https://go.jpibd.org/product-pfeiffer-compost), [guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-pfeiffer-compost), and [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-pfeiffer-compost) - [Making and Using the Biodynamic Preparations](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-preparations) ## Citation _Applied Biodynamics_, Issue 079, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamics, Winter 2012–2013. 12 pages. [**Download Issue 079 PDF**](https://go.jpibd.org/ab-079) **Tags:** Applied Biodynamics Archive, Compost, Livestock --- > Source: [The Josephine Porter Institute](https://www.jpibiodynamics.org/blogs/applied-biodynamics/applied-biodynamics-issue-079-winter-2012-2013)