Applied Biodynamics — Issue 096 (Fall/Winter 2019)

Issue 096 shows biodynamic farms growing through skilled practice, cooperative ownership, sound enterprise planning, and preparation-making comparisons. Its source-recorded outcomes include Stony Ridge Farm’s sixty-family CSA, Winter Green Farm’s long-running 171-acre cooperative model, a three-year BD 500 burial-timing comparison, greater vitality in fresh-blossom BD 502, and visibly stronger form, color, and vigor in vegetables following compost made from the farm’s own manure.

Read the complete original Fall/Winter 2019 issue (PDF).

“How Do We Meet the Need for Healthy Food and More Farms?” presents farming as a profession requiring soil, crop, livestock, business, marketing, labor, and legal knowledge. Wali Via recommends broad farm exposure before starting, five to seven years of experience where possible, careful cash planning, equipment matched to intended scale, safe and meaningful employment, and regular renewal of the farmer’s sense of purpose. The article also encourages compatible farmers with different strengths to consider cooperative ownership.

“Stony Ridge Farm: Transitioning to a Market Garden” documents how Lorrie Schoettler and Bob Shelley developed a five-acre Maryland farm without prior commercial experience. They strengthened their crop rotation, amendments, pest management, succession planting, and four-season production with experienced guidance, then had their business plan reviewed in year five. One acre of vegetables was served by ten hoop houses, each approximately 10 by 70 feet. The CSA grew to sixty families and was supported by Baltimore deliveries, recipes, farm events, preserving workshops, design products, and targeted communications. The farm identified its CSA as its most successful enterprise and maintained a waiting list of customers.

In “If Farming Isn’t Always Good Vibes and Friendly Fairies, Is It Still Worth It?” Natalie McGill describes the discipline and purpose that sustain daily farm work. She places the farm’s rewards in food grown and shared, new seedlings, newborn animals, the first harvest of the season, and love for the work and its living community.

“Winter Green Farm—A Model for Future Farms” records a mature cooperative on 171 acres: 23 acres of intensive market crops, 105 acres of cattle pasture and hay, and the balance in wetlands, riparian buffers, woodland, roads, and buildings. Fertility comes from biodynamic compost, crop rotation, green manure, and pasture rotation. Its CSA began with 35 households, reached a peak of 600, and stood at 450; approximately 85% of sales were direct to consumers. The farm employed seven year-round and about thirteen full-time seasonal staff, tracked each enterprise for profit or loss, adjusted crops and markets accordingly, and used equal owner votes and consensus-based decisions.

Winter Green’s succession structure preserved farm continuity and created a path for working farmers to become owners. Long-serving younger partners first entered the shared LLC, then purchased produce, CSA, market, wholesale, and retail operations through a new LLC under favorable terms. The original LLC retained the land and cattle enterprise and became landlord to the operating business, keeping housing, skills, and cattle within the farm organism.

In “For the Earth as for Human Beings,” Karen Davis-Brown’s interview with Mac Mead presents preparation making as an observational, repeatable practice. Mead compared mid-September and mid-October BD 500 burials for three consecutive years. The September horns achieved complete transformation with dark-brown material and a neutral, woodsy aroma; the October horns reached approximately 65–70%. The repeated result led the Pfeiffer Center to move its routine burial to mid-September, with an additional festival batch on September 29.

Mead also reports a clear whole-farm compost observation. Vegetables following compost made from the farm’s own manure showed what he called an enormous leap in vitality, visible in their form, color, and vigor. The result reinforced the value of a self-contained farm organism and home-sourced fertility.

For BD 502, Mead compared bladders filled in early June with dried yarrow blossoms moistened by yarrow-leaf tea against bladders filled in early July with fresh blossoms. Both batches hung in the same place and were buried in the same pit behind dividers; he found greater vitality in the fresh-blossom preparation. He also records a field-specific BD 501 variation made from one-third fine field soil, one-third farm sand, and one-third powdered quartz, prepared beside a conventional BD 501 batch for comparison.

The memorial for Alex Podolinsky records his commitment to testing biodynamic work at agricultural scale. It reports that an agronomist measured carbon dioxide locked in the soil on his farm over a six-year period of biodynamic practice and recorded 1,614 tons per hectare during that time. The issue also presents JPI’s Permadynamics workshop, preparation-community news, and board secretary Teresa O’Shaughnessy.

Articles

• How Do We Meet the Need for Healthy Food and More Farms? — Abigail Porter
• Stony Ridge Farm: Transitioning to a Market Garden — Abigail Porter
• If Farming Isn’t Always Good Vibes and Friendly Fairies, Is It Still Worth It? — Natalie McGill
• Winter Green Farm—A Model for Future Farms — Abigail Porter
• For the Earth as for Human Beings: Mac Mead on Making the Biodynamic Preparations — Karen Davis-Brown
• In Memory of Alex Podolinsky — Mary Maruca
• Permadynamics: Conceptual Marriage of Permaculture and Biodynamics in Farm Design Introduced at JPI — Pat Frazier
• Introducing Our Newest Board Member: Teresa O’Shaughnessy, Secretary

Key Topics Covered

• Five-to-seven-year learning path for new farmers
• Farm scale, operating capital, safety, and labor planning
• One-acre market garden with ten 10-by-70-foot tunnels
• CSA retention, niche markets, and multiple income streams
• Weather-resistant infrastructure and enterprise risk records
• Cooperative ownership and enterprise-level accounting
• 171-acre farm allocation and direct-market strategy
• LLC-based succession from retiring to working owners
• Three-year comparison of BD 500 burial dates
• One-third soil, sand, and quartz BD 501 variation
• Paired fresh- and dried-yarrow BD 502 batches
• Home-sourced manure and whole-farm fertility

Related JPI Resources

• Download Issue 096 PDF
• BD 500 Horn Manure · guide · instructions
• BD 501 Horn Silica · guide · instructions
• BD 502 Yarrow · guide
• BD 507 Valerian · guide
• BD 502–507 Compost Preparation Set · instructions
• Making and Using the Biodynamic Preparations
• Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course

Citation

Applied Biodynamics, Issue 096, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamics, Fall/Winter 2019.