Making Biodynamics Together: JPI’s Fall 2026 Workshop

It doesn’t take a lot of people to get a lot done.

At our Fall Biodynamic Workshop, October 16–18 at Perennial Roots Farm in Accomac, Virginia, a small group made two pits’ worth of Barrel Compound and filled and buried thousands of horns for biodynamic horn manure. It is remarkable how much work gets done once everyone has something to do.

“We see the material world as breathing and glowing with unquenchable spirit.”

— Rob McCall, Speckled Bird

The farm as our classroom

We spent part of each morning feeding the animals, and Natalie and Stewart walked the farm with the group. The cows have to be cared for whether we have a workshop or not. Their manure goes into the preparations, the preparations go back onto the land, and the land feeds the cows. When we make the preparations here, we can follow these relationships through the farm itself.

When inclement weather drove us indoors, we spent time with chromatograms and Stewart gave an impromptu talk on the alchemy of biodynamics: the activity of planetary powers here in our own microcosmic existence. We keep returning to the question of how we learn to see these things for ourselves. With a chromatogram in front of us, we have something to look at closely, and to return to after our first explanation has worn thin.

Natalie kept us well fed with homemade meals, including vegetables and meat from the farm. Feeding the people is a considerable part of putting on a workshop, and we are grateful to her for taking such good care of everyone.

There was live music and fire dancing, too. The short video below gives a glimpse of the evening.

Work that continues through the winter

We made Barrel Compound with Patrick Dodson, and the filled horns are now buried for winter. We also soaked the preparations that had been hanging through the summer—yarrow, chamomile, and dandelion—and buried those as well. What had spent the summer above ground now goes into the earth. We have done our part for the moment; the transformation continues out of sight.

A participant asked a perfectly reasonable question: why cow horns and cow manure? Why not other combinations? We buried different horns and manures to begin looking into it. The colored tape lets us keep track of which is which. We don’t yet know what we will find. We will have to look at what comes back out of the ground before saying anything about the results.

Thank you to everyone who came and helped. There is a good deal of work behind a jar of preparations. We are grateful to the people willing to come and do it, and to those who support JPI so that it can continue.