What preparation-making steps can readers repeat from the JPI seminar?

Label each material lot, then follow the recorded handwork: sew mesentery pockets for BD 506, pack moistened chamomile into cleaned intestines for BD 503, grind oak bark for BD 505, and pack horns for BD 500. Record weights, dates, makers, burial sites, photographs, and consistent finished-batch grades.

How can the English yew and storage observations be tested?

Document root damage before planting, use comparable treated and standard-practice plants, log every input, and measure survival, shoot growth, root spread, fruit firmness, disease, and storage time on fixed dates. Repeating with several plants separates a dependable response from one site history.

How can the horsetail-tea bee report become a repeatable trial?

Start several colonies from the same source, randomly assign syrup with or without horsetail tea, keep equipment and management consistent, and record intake, brood area, adult population, stores, mites, disease, overwintering, and losses at more than one apiary.

How does Issue 022 connect interpretation with practical evidence?

Klett supplies a plant- and season-based framework for BD 502; the seminar records exact handwork; and the tree and bee reports identify observable outcomes. Consistent labels, controls, measurements, and repetition allow those forms of knowledge to inform one another.

Applied Biodynamics archive

Applied Biodynamics — Issue 022 (Winter 1997–1998)

Issue 022 connects Manfred Klett’s treatment of BD 502 yarrow with a hands-on JPI preparation seminar, a tree-recovery field report, and a horsetail-tea bee observation.

December 30, 2025 Published by The Josephine Porter Institute Download PDF

Issue 022 connects the interpretation of BD 502 yarrow with concrete preparation-making, tree-recovery and beekeeping observations, and a call for records that allow other practitioners to compare results.

Download Issue 022 PDF

The editorial announces that Applied Biodynamics will move from four issues per year to three so JPI can concentrate labor and funds on preparation production, training, research support, and more substantial issues. The issue also introduces scheduled telephone consultation hours and fees, documenting the institute’s transition toward a more formal advisory service.

Hugh J. Courtney introduces Manfred Klett, then head of the Agriculture Section at the Goetheanum. In “The Yarrow Preparation,” Klett approaches BD 502 yarrow through plant form, habitat, sulfur and potassium processes, the stag bladder, and the seasonal sequence of summer hanging and winter burial. These are spiritual-scientific interpretations rather than measured agronomic mechanisms. For practical comparison, makers can nevertheless record the plant source and harvest stage, sheath source, filling weight, hanging and burial dates, site conditions, recovery yield, and the finished preparation’s color, aroma, texture, and storage behavior.

Robert Grimes’ “Looking Back on the J.P.I. Prep Seminar” records a four-day seminar with fourteen participants. The report describes mesentery sewn into pockets and packed with moistened dandelion blossoms for BD 506; cleaned intestine tied, packed, and sealed for BD 503; oak bark grinding and skull preparation for BD 505; and approximately 2,000 manure-filled horns prepared for BD 500. The article is valuable as a record of materials, handwork, sequence, and group organization.

In “Some Effects of the BD Preps,” Stephen Storch reports moving a severely root-damaged English spreading yew, later applying BD 500, BD 501, equisetum, and biodynamic compost, and observing extensive new roots when the tree was dug again. The account is a single-site observation without an untreated comparison; it identifies useful measurements for a future repeat, including initial root loss, treatment dates, root spread, root mass, shoot growth, and survival.

Evrett Lunquist’s “Horsetail Tea and Bees” compares his experience feeding one package of bees sugar syrup made with horsetail tea with another beekeeper’s package from the same source. The report explicitly says that the apiaries, forage, management, and chemical exposure differed and that the author could not identify horsetail as the deciding factor. A repeat would require several colonies, balanced assignment, identical management, and records for syrup intake, brood, adult population, stores, mites, disease, winter survival, and losses.

Woody Wodraska reviews Beth Wieting’s Gardening Basics, a concise introductory guide covering planning, companion and succession planting, soil and fertility, bed preparation, seed sowing, and a planting calendar.

Articles

Manfred Klett (H. J. Courtney)
The Yarrow Preparation (M. Klett)
Some Effects of the BD Preps (S. Storch)
Horsetail Tea and Bees (E. Lunquist)
Looking Back on the J.P.I. Prep Seminar (Oct. 29–Nov. 1, 1997) (R. Grimes)
Book Review: Gardening Basics (W. Wodraska)

Key Topics Covered

BD 502 yarrow, plant observation, the stag bladder, summer hanging, winter burial, and spiritual-scientific interpretation.

Hands-on making of BD 500, BD 503, BD 505, and BD 506 at JPI’s 1997 preparation seminar.

Documentation of root recovery after transplant damage and preparation use.

Horsetail tea in bee syrup as a preliminary observation requiring controlled repetition.

Publication scheduling, advisory work, and introductory biodynamic gardening.

Repeatable Practice

Label each preparation batch with material source, weight, maker, dates, burial location, photographs, recovery yield, and finished-quality notes.
For tree recovery, photograph and measure root damage before planting, map treatments, and compare several treated and standard-practice trees on fixed dates.
For a bee trial, use several colonies from comparable stock, assign treatments before the season, keep management consistent, and record health and production outcomes.
Report every outcome, including null results and losses, so a practical observation is not mistaken for proof.