Field Notes
Letter from the President
In this Michaelmas 2026 letter, JPI president Teresa O’Shaughnessy shares the move of packing and shipping to Perennial Roots Farm and introduces the people carrying the work forward. The update renews JPI’s commitment to accessible preparations while honoring a season of rest for its Floyd...
From the Field Notes archive
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The Future of Biodynamics
Approaching biodynamics’ centennial, JPI reflects on a renewed commitment to the living farm organism. This 2023 update connects its own cattle, expanded herb gardens, preparation research, practical education, and the digital future of Applied Biodynamics with an evolving vision of service.
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Update: Experimental 500 Horn Manure
JPI’s 2023 preparation work comes into view through comparative chromatograms and a radish-germination exercise. Stewart Lundy and Ben Nommay explore the character of well-transformed horn manure, root-cellar preparation, and finished compost, using close observation to deepen practical quality assessment.
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Job Opening at JPI & Invitation: Demeter Colloquium on Biodynamic Preparations / Invitacion
This November 2023 update marks a staff transition at JPI and looks outward to biodynamics’ worldwide community. An international colloquium brings preparation making in dry climates, Indian cultural traditions, and tropical agriculture into a shared conversation about working faithfully with place.
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Cosmic Journal #009
Garlic, cover crops, and autumn preparation work shape Cosmic Journal #009. The late-October 2023 entry follows the sky into November, linking root-day soil care and Pfeiffer Field and Garden Spray with a subsequent morning offering of horn silica.
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Interpreting Chromatograms
Barbara Shinn introduces two complementary ways to read chromatograms: the qualities expressed in concentric zones and the whole image’s warmth, light, tone, and life. Illustrated preparation and compost examples invite a deeper, more attentive understanding of what unfolds beneath the surface.
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The Farmer's Almanac of the Spirit
M Mueller shares how Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul can become a farmer’s inward companion to the seasons. Autumn verses, daily attention to the sky, and a simple zodiac board connect the work of fields and herds with the changing life of the human soul....
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Making Biodynamic Preparations
JPI’s fall 2023 workshop renewed a living tradition of practical preparation making, friendship, and music. More than 5,000 manure-filled horns went into the ground, while participants made Barrel Compound and buried the herbal preparations begun in spring—carrying shared experience into another season.
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Human Freedom and The Artist
The concluding Human Freedom essay turns toward art and the creative life. Stewart Lundy connects a farm’s growing independence with the time, knowledge, and vitality needed for human expression, exploring the gardener and artist as participants in bringing living possibilities into form.
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Human Freedom and the Farm Individuality
A farm individuality creates room for life to flourish in its own way. In the second Human Freedom essay, Stewart Lundy explores local fertility, adaptation to place, demonstration farms, and apprenticeships as practical foundations for a freer, more generous agricultural culture.
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Cosmic Journal #008
Michaelmas brings courage, harvest gratitude, and the first autumn preparation applications into Cosmic Journal #008. This September 2023 entry follows the transition toward root and flower days, transplanting time, and JPI’s fall gathering beneath a changing autumn sky.
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Human Freedom and the Plant
What would freedom mean for a plant? Stewart Lundy opens a three-part series by exploring balanced nourishment, seed saving, and crop rotation as ways to help plants express their own character. Biodynamic care becomes an invitation to carry life’s inheritance creatively into the future.
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From Hand to Heart to Head
Biodynamic understanding grows through doing. Stewart Lundy traces a path from the work of the hands to the feeling life of the heart and the clarity of thought, showing how repeated preparation making and community learning can transform both the farm and the farmer’s imagination....
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