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
Biodynamics and Returning to the Wild
Wild edges belong at the heart of a living biodynamic farm. Stewart Lundy explores hedgerows, spontaneous fermentation, vigorous wild plants, and the return of birds and other creatures, inviting growers to cultivate a generous relationship between tended land and the wider life surrounding it.
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Cosmic Journal #44
June’s garden work unfolds through perseverance, receptivity, and the approach of the summer solstice in this May 2025 Cosmic Journal. Kate Heming follows transplanting, seasonal celebrations, and the complementary gifts of horn manure and horn silica while reflecting on the wider planetary rhythms.
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Spring Biodynamic Preparation Making Workshop
This May 2025 invitation welcomes participants into the working life of Perennial Roots Farm for a June preparation-making weekend. Farm-grown food, practical learning, and community fellowship accompany nettle, yarrow, dandelion, and chamomile work rooted in the farm’s own plants, animals, and soil.
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Reflections on Working With the Preparations
In this Spring 1995 archive essay, Nick Franceschelli reflects on preparation making as a living process that unfolds over time. Drawing on his years at JPI, he explores patience, careful practice, sound farming, personal development, and the communities formed through service to the land.
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Cosmic Journal #43
Kate Heming guides readers through the busy May 2025 garden, with transplanting rhythms, preparation herb care, and the joyful traditions of May Day. Practical calendar guidance is paired with an invitation to observe the soil, sense local moisture needs, and work in relationship with the...
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Harvesting Earth and Sky
Natalie McGill reflects on farming as a living marriage of Earth and sky, guided by receptivity, ritual, and close attention. Seasonal observations and the making of horn manure reveal how biodynamic practice can renew both the fertility of the land and the imagination of its...
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Making the Stinging Nettles Preparation
Stinging nettle offers an accessible doorway into making biodynamic preparations. Stewart Lundy shares detailed harvest and burial experience, including the use of unglazed clay vessels, protection from roots and earthworms, and the year-long transformation that brings this generous plant into service of living compost.
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Parallel Streams
Kate Heming explores Alan Chadwick’s living legacy through the craft of the biodynamic French intensive garden. Carefully prepared beds, compost, close planting, and seasonal attention reveal a practical artistry that continues through gardeners, archives, and the work of John Jeavons.
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Holy Week
Holy Week becomes a lens for contemplating valerian, aromatic oils, and the upward striving of plant life. Stewart Kahn Lundy connects the image of anointing with compost and soil care, exploring gypsum and valerian as expressions of the meeting between earthly substance and cosmic activity....
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Biodynamic Pest Management
The second part of Stewart Lundy’s pest-management exploration follows the transformations of seed, decomposition, and carefully tended fire. Drawing on Steiner, Chadwick, and practical garden experience, it places weed peppers within sound cultivation, ethical purpose, and the wider circulation of fertility.
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Cosmic Journal #42
Kate Heming welcomes spring’s celestial drama and the practical work of April in this March 2025 Cosmic Journal. Seed starting, horsetail, sequential spraying, and preparation herb gathering accompany reflections on Easter, devotion, and the gardener’s participation in the rhythms of the wider cosmos.
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An Invitation to Incarnate
Spring’s awakening becomes an invitation to bring winter intentions into living action. Russell Blackstone reflects on seeds, elemental activity, the seasonal polarity of Virgo and Pisces, and the farmer’s opportunity to cultivate love, beauty, and responsibility as the growing year begins.
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