Applied Biodynamics — Issue 097 (Spring/Summer 2020)

Applied Biodynamics, Issue 97 (Spring/Summer 2020) brings together practical work with preparation water, biodynamic plants, corn, seed selection, orchard transition, and regional preparation making. Its reports emphasize vitality, careful observation, and the positive results that can grow from sustained biodynamic practice.

Read or download the complete Issue 097 PDF

Positive Findings Reported in This Issue

Mike Biltonen’s “Water Biodynamically Stirred, Cosmically Imbued” presents clean water as both carrier and active participant. It describes a full hour of hand stirring through alternating vortex and chaos, and connects attentive water work with greater vitality across the farm organism.

Abigail Porter’s “Heal Yourself, Heal Your Garden” celebrates dandelion and stinging nettle as biodynamic preparation plants, garden allies, and contributors to a diverse farm organism. The article describes their cultivation, harvest timing, culinary uses, and traditional household preparations.

The Viva La Vida report describes a farm under biodynamic cultivation for 12 years. In its featured 1.5-acre corn planting, many stalks developed multiple stems, every stalk produced multiple ears with fully formed corn, and the harvest reached approximately 240 bushels. Pumpkins and squash planted along the field edges also thrived, with some plants producing three, four, or five full-sized pumpkins. The season’s documented spiritual-farming protocol formed part of the farm’s wider biodynamic practice.

Stewart Lundy’s seed-selection article reports testing seed from different sources, including certified biodynamic sources, and finding widely different results, with some seed sources performing much better than others. It presents water-and-salt density sorting as a practical way to select the most contracted seed fraction, and shares farmer reports of about a 20% first-generation improvement in disease resistance and yield when saved seed is selected by density.

“In Transition—Apostrophe Orchard” reports favorable progress in a 2.5-acre young orchard planted in 2017. The trees had taken off and overall development was going well after two seasons that included BD 500 each spring and BD 508 about twice during the growing season, together with compost, mycorrhizal wood chips, and biological foliar support.

The Finger Lakes prepmakers report shows regional biodynamic work becoming practical through local materials and shared labor. The group made Barrel Compost, BD 501 Horn Silica, BD 505 Oak Bark, and BD 504 Stinging Nettle in spring, then made BD 500 Horn Manure, stuffed BD 503 Chamomile and BD 506 Dandelion, and lifted its BD 501 in fall. Barrel Compost is the same preparation JPI calls Barrel Compound in the United States.

Issue 097 also reports a whole-farm carbon result from Yates House, a large British mixed livestock and arable farm following biodynamic principles pioneered by Alex Podolinsky: the farm was sequestering ten times more carbon than it emitted. It shared that result at the January 2020 Oxford Real Farming Conference.

Articles in This Issue

• “From the Editor” — Mary Maruca
• “Water Biodynamically Stirred, Cosmically Imbued” — Mike Biltonen
• “Heal Yourself, Heal Your Garden” — Abigail Porter
• “Corn Trials at Viva La Vida Foundation” — Mary Maruca
• “One Intern’s Experience at Viva La Vida” — Joe Couling
• “How Do You Choose Your Best Seeds? Seed Saving Quality and Biodynamics” — Stewart Lundy
• “In Transition—Apostrophe Orchard” — Mike Biltonen
• “New York Regional Prepmakers Group Forms” — Mike Biltonen
• “Farewell to Pat Frazier, Hello to Garett Long” — Clay Wesson
• “Did You Know?”

Practical Work Highlighted

• Clean source water and one-hour hand stirring through alternating vortex and chaos
• Dandelion and stinging nettle as preparation plants and garden allies
• Holy Nights seed work, Three Kings preparation, and conscious intention
• Positive corn and companion-crop outcomes at Viva La Vida
• Seed-density sorting with plain-water and successive salt-water fractions
• BD 500 and BD 508 within a developing orchard system
• Regional preparation making with local materials and shared review
• Whole-farm carbon sequestration within biodynamic mixed farming

Related JPI Resources

• Making and Using Biodynamic Preparations
• BD 500 Horn Manure
• BD 501 Horn Silica
• BD 508 Horsetail
• BD 506 Dandelion
• BD 504 Stinging Nettle
• Biodynamic Tree Paste
• Three Kings Preparation

Citation

Applied Biodynamics, Issue 97, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamics, Spring/Summer 2020.