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
Latest writing
Biodynamic Planting Calendar Primer
Russell Blackstone’s planting-calendar primer introduces root, flower, leaf, and fruit days through the four elements. Practical crop examples, transplanting rhythms, and pauses for reflection show how a biodynamic calendar can guide fieldwork while deepening a gardener’s relationship with the land.
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The Morning After Summer Solstice 2023
At sunrise after the summer solstice, Russell Blackstone follows his horn-manure offering with horn silica. Warmed water, a meditative stir, birdsong, and the first light over the garden become a personal practice of balancing earthward nourishment with light, warmth, and ripening.
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Summer Solstice Biodynamic Horn Manure Offering
Russell Blackstone shares a personal summer-solstice offering of horn manure: warming water in sunlight, stirring with gratitude, and walking the garden as evening settles. His account brings practical preparation work into a heartfelt relationship with the soil, the stars, and the life of the land....
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Cosmic Journal #004
Cosmic Journal #004 welcomes the June 2023 solstice as a turning point in the earth’s seasonal breath. Flowering, leafy, fruiting, and root crops each receive attention, alongside morning horn silica, evening horn manure, and the descending Moon’s transplanting rhythm.
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Summer 2023 JPI Farm Update
A newborn calf, growing neighborhood partnerships, and freshly made preparations mark JPI’s summer 2023 progress. Ben Nommay shares how cooperative grazing, haymaking, compost, and a hands-on spring workshop are helping the Floyd farm develop toward a more self-sufficient organism.
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Harvesting Earth and Sky
Natalie McGill’s lyrical reflection honors the receptive, feminine dimension of agriculture. Seasonal observation, the legacy of women in biodynamics, and the shared ritual of making horn manure reveal farming as a living relationship between earth and sky, ancestry and future growth.
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Even Better Compost
Weeds, fragrant flowers, and medicinal herbs can all become gifts to the compost heap. Stewart Lundy explores how biodynamic preparations, moisture, and careful handling preserve the farm’s vitality, turning everyday weeding into an active contribution to future fertility.
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Cosmic Journal Entry #003
Early June 2023’s Cosmic Journal follows the full Moon toward the summer solstice, linking flower, leaf, fruit, and root days with practical garden work. Doug Wilson highlights a dawn horn-silica offering, the turn toward an ascending Moon, and moments for the land to rest.
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Introductory Chromatography
Chromatography offers a picture of the subtle life of soil and biodynamic preparations. Stewart Lundy introduces the method’s silver-treated filter paper and colorful patterns, then explores the attentive, flexible perception through which gardeners learn to recognize quality and become more capable caretakers.
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Cosmic Journal Entry #002
Late spring’s greening landscape sets the scene for Cosmic Journal Entry #002. May 2023’s Taurus New Moon, Ascension Day, and flowering rhythms offer occasions for horn manure, fruit and root crop care, and a thoughtful transition into transplanting time.
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Growing the Sense-Organ of the Farm
How does a farm learn to perceive? Drawing on Rudolf Steiner’s Philosophy of Freedom, Stewart Lundy explores the farmer’s observation, imagination, and intuition as living capacities of the farm itself. Practical exercises connect the universal idea of a farm with each landscape’s unique individuality.
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Spring 2023 Spring Biodynamic Gathering
JPI’s May 2023 spring gathering brought preparation making, shared meals, and cosmic reflection together in Floyd, Virginia. This invitation outlines hands-on work with horn silica, yarrow, chamomile, and dandelion, and the inner development that accompanies caring for the living earth.
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