# Applied Biodynamics — Issue No. 103 (Spring 2022) **By JPI Admin** · 2026-08-10 **Applied Biodynamics, Issue 103 (Spring 2022)** opens with spring as the farm year’s true beginning. JPI moves from winter planning into preparation orders, flower and leaf gathering, horn and organ sourcing, workshops, field sprays, and expanded cultivation of [yarrow](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-502), [valerian](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-507), [chamomile](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-503), [nettle](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-504), and [dandelion](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-506). The spring checklist brings this rhythm into farm practice through [Tree Paste](https://go.jpibd.org/product-tree-paste), late-frost valerian, equinox applications of [BD 500](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-500) and [BD 501](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-501), and continued study of the [biodynamic calendar](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-calendar). [**Download Issue 103 PDF**](https://go.jpibd.org/ab-103) Mary Maruca’s profile of Spiritual Foods for the New Millennium documents a consumer-founded urban CSA connecting metropolitan Washington, D.C., with biodynamic and organic farms. Its strengths are practical and repeatable: fair farm pricing, reliable transport, neighborhood drop sites, volunteer coordination, prepacked boxes, half shares, supplementary foods, winter production, and community service. Over more than two decades, the CSA grows by solving one logistical problem at a time while keeping soil, nutrition, farmers, and members in one relationship. The companion profile of Frank Kurylo and Kimberton CSA shows how a ten-acre Demeter-certified farm feeds more than four hundred member households across its own CSA and Spiritual Foods. Eleven greenhouses, winter greens, stored roots, manure from the neighboring Seven Stars dairy, and attentive seasonal transitions extend production through the year. Frank’s work with BD 500 and BD 501 belongs within a whole-farm rhythm of planning, greenhouse management, field observation, labor, and personal steadiness. The memorial section honors Jack McAndrew as a master of biodynamic compost. His students remember a teacher who joined exacting standards with practical adaptation, experimentation, careful study of the [_Agriculture Course_](https://go.jpibd.org/book-agriculture-course) and [planting calendars](https://go.jpibd.org/calendar-stella), and reverence for the smallest entity in the pile. Compost making emerges as a high agricultural art whose results appear in soil vitality, food quality, and the living farm organism. Taken together, Issue 103 shows biodynamics moving from inner commitment to visible systems: preparation work on the farm, food distribution across a city, year-round protected growing, and compost knowledge passed faithfully from teacher to student. ## Articles in This Issue - From the Editor — Mary Maruca - News From the Farm — JPI Staff - Exploring Spiritual Foods, An Urban CSA — Mary Maruca - Introducing Frank Kurylo, Kimberton Farmer - Crossing the Threshold — Jack McAndrew - Jack McAndrew, A True Gem — Stefan Hagopian - What’s Happening With the Fellowship Conference? - Dandelion Blossoms Sought ## Key Topics Covered - Spring preparation orders, material gathering, workshops, and farm renewal - Tree Paste, BD 507 frost support, and equinox BD 500 and BD 501 spraying - Consumer-founded urban CSA design and biodynamic food access - Fair farm pricing, transport, drop sites, half shares, and winter shares - Kimberton’s year-round Demeter greenhouse and field system - Whole-farm integration of dairy manure, protected growing, and preparations - Jack McAndrew’s exact, practical, and reverent compost method - Transmission of biodynamic knowledge through mentorship and records ## Repeatable Practice in This Issue - Forecast spring preparation needs by acreage and keep one shared calendar for gathering, packing, workshops, orders, storage, and field applications. - For the equinox sequence, apply BD 500 in mid or late afternoon and BD 501 the following morning before the dew has dried; record weather, soil moisture, crop stage, timing, and field response. - Track CSA membership, routes, box contents, share sizes, winter supply, volunteer hours, waste, and farmer payment so the system improves through each season. - For compost, record dimensions, materials, proportions, moisture, temperature, preparation placement, turning, aroma, structure, and finished humus. ## Related JPI Resources - [Biodynamic calendars](https://go.jpibd.org/calendars) · [calendar guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-calendar) · [cosmic rhythms guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-cosmos) · [Stella Natura Planting Calendar](https://go.jpibd.org/calendar-stella) - [BD 500 Horn Manure](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-500) · [guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-bd-500) · [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bd-500) - [BD 501 Horn Silica](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-501) · [guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-bd-501) · [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bd-501) - [BD 502 Yarrow](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-502) · [guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-bd-502) - [BD 503 Chamomile](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-503) · [guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-bd-503) - [BD 504 Stinging Nettle](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-504) · [guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-bd-504) - [BD 506 Dandelion](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-506) · [guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-bd-506) - [BD 507 Valerian](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-507) · [guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-bd-507) - [Biodynamic Tree Paste](https://go.jpibd.org/product-tree-paste) · [protocol](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-tree-paste) · [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-tree-paste) - [BD 502–507 Compost Preparation Set](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-502-507-set) · [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bd-502-507) - [Making and Using Biodynamic Preparations](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-preparations) - [Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course](https://go.jpibd.org/book-agriculture-course) ## Citation _Applied Biodynamics_, Issue 103, Josephine Porter Institute, Spring 2022. **Tags:** Applied Biodynamics Archive, Compost, Farm Economics and Community --- > Source: [The Josephine Porter Institute](https://www.jpibiodynamics.org/blogs/applied-biodynamics/applied-biodynamics-issue-no-103-spring-2022)