Applied Biodynamics — Issue 063 (Winter 2008–2009)

Applied Biodynamics Issue 063 (Winter 2008–2009) restores Ehrenfried Pfeiffer's whole-farm questionnaire and presents Hugh J. Courtney's method for building attentive, site-specific biodynamic advice from the living relationships of soil, landscape, plants, animals, people, and preparations.

Download the complete original Issue 063 PDF

Restoring a useful legacy from Ehrenfried Pfeiffer

When Hugh Courtney helped transfer Josephine Porter's preparation work in 1984, he received boxes of books and papers from her daughter, Abby Porter. Among them were completed farm questionnaires prepared in anticipation of visits by Ehrenfried Pfeiffer. More examples arrived with the equipment JPI received in 1995 when it assumed production of Pfeiffer Biodynamic Compost Starter and Pfeiffer Field and Garden Spray.

The questionnaires opened a remarkable window into Pfeiffer's advisory practice. They gathered a complete picture of each farm before a visit, enabling Pfeiffer to understand the place as a living whole and to arrive ready for focused observation and useful counsel.

Courtney spent years restoring and modernizing the document with input from experienced farmers and growers. The renewed questionnaire carried Pfeiffer's relational method forward into JPI's own work.

Begin with the geological foundation

The questionnaire embodies Rudolf Steiner's instruction to understand plant growth from the geological foundation upward. A farm profile therefore begins beneath the crop: underlying rock and parent material, soil depth and texture, drainage, water movement, slope, exposure, and the wider shape of the landscape.

The picture then expands into climate, field history, rotations, manure and compost, preparation use, weeds, pests, trees, livestock, yields, crop quality, management, economics, and the human community. The advisor receives a detailed portrait of the farm organism before setting foot on the land.

Pfeiffer's peach-tree diagnosis

Helen Philbrick's Homestead and Garden Memories offers a vivid example of Pfeiffer's observational method. Asked about a wounded peach tree whose trunk continued to decay, he examined the whole setting: tree, soil, hillside, sky, nearby woods, road, drainage ditch, and fences.

Philbrick reports that Pfeiffer identified white shelf fungus growing on distant fence posts as the active source related to the wounded tree. He explained the fungus as part of the living cycle through which decayed wood becomes soil, advised addressing the source, and the peach tree went on producing fruit for years.

The story demonstrates Pfeiffer's characteristic whole-landscape vision. A visible symptom is understood within the wider pattern of soil, vegetation, structures, decomposition, water, and place.

A high-response advisory network

The Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening Association reportedly sent the questionnaire to members and received responses from more than eighty-five percent of those contacted. Pfeiffer returned remarkably helpful answers, often written in his own hand.

This structure made personal advice possible across many farms without erasing farm individuality. Every grower answered the same broad fields of inquiry, while every response produced a distinctive portrait and an individual conversation.

From questionnaire to living farm knowledge

A strong contemporary use follows a simple rhythm:

• Baseline: complete every category, add a field map, and photograph consistent observation points.
• Recommendation: connect each proposed practice with the soil, landscape, crop, animal, or management relationship it serves.
• Application record: note the preparation, quantity, stirring, weather, timing, equipment, and treated area.
• Seasonal return: revisit the same categories, maps, and photographs so the farm's development becomes visible.

The questionnaire gives memory a durable form. Advisor and farmer can see which relationships are strengthening, how the farm organism is becoming more integrated, and where the next attentive action belongs.

Application and creative collaboration

Pfeiffer emphasized that every farmer can use the biodynamic method. As practice deepens, the farmer develops a more complete understanding of biological processes, interconnections, and the dynamic play of forces in nature.

For Pfeiffer, application grows into creative collaboration. A known method provides the beginning; sustained observation, farm memory, seasonal experience, and responsive judgment allow the practitioner to meet the preparations and the farm organism as they live in a particular place.

The questionnaire trains that collaboration. It guides attention, makes observations communicable, and supports increasingly confident biodynamic judgment through years of engaged work.

Pfeiffer's continuing practical legacy

The issue also records JPI's offering of Pfeiffer books and lectures on composting, soil fertility, fruit trees, sprays, weeds, self-sufficiency, and biodynamic method. These subjects belong together: careful landscape reading guides action, preparation work sharpens observation, and repeated observation strengthens creative collaboration.

The restored questionnaire stands as a practical memorial to Pfeiffer and as a tool for the continuing development of biodynamic agriculture.

Key topics covered

• Recovery of Pfeiffer's historic farm questionnaires from Josephine Porter's archive and later JPI materials.
• Whole-farm profiles encompassing geology, soil, slope, water, weather, vegetation, crops, animals, fertility, economics, and management.
• Steiner's geological foundation as the beginning of plant and farm understanding.
• Philbrick's positive peach-tree account and Pfeiffer's whole-landscape diagnostic method.
• The more-than-eighty-five-percent response to the association questionnaire.
• Baseline maps, application records, seasonal return, farm memory, and creative collaboration.
• Pfeiffer's continuing practical legacy through books, preparations, and attentive advisory work.

Explore related resources

• Pfeiffer Biodynamic Compost Starter and current instructions
• Pfeiffer Field and Garden Spray and current instructions
• Weeds and What They Tell Us by Ehrenfried Pfeiffer
• Biodynamic Tree Paste and current instructions
• Rudolf Steiner's Agriculture Course

Articles in this issue

• Restoring a Useful Legacy from Ehrenfried Pfeiffer — Hugh J. Courtney
• Homestead and Garden Memories — peach-tree excerpt by Helen Philbrick
• Ehrenfried Pfeiffer on practical biodynamics and creative collaboration
• Books and Lectures by Pfeiffer Available from JPI

Citation

Source: Applied Biodynamics, Issue No. 63, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Bio-Dynamics, Winter 2008–2009.