Applied Biodynamics — Issue 056 (Spring 2007)
Issue 056 connects Slow Food and Terra Madre with biodynamic food quality, natural field renewal, the living beehive, JPI sequential spraying, and Elizabeth Courtney.
Published by The Josephine Porter Institute Download PDF ↗
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Applied Biodynamics Issue 056 (Spring 2007) connects the international Slow Food and Terra Madre movements with biodynamic food quality, traditional farmer knowledge, natural field renewal, the beehive as a living community, practical sequential spraying, and the legacy of Elizabeth Courtney.
Taking time for food and agriculture
Hunter Francis reports on the 2006 Terra Madre gathering in Turin, where more than 8,000 farmers, orchardists, vintners, dairy and meat producers, fishers, fiber producers, educators, researchers, cooks, and activists came together from 148 countries. The gathering celebrated food culture as a living relationship among land, craft, nourishment, ecology, and community.
Slow Food grew from a commitment to food that is buono, pulito, giusto: good, clean, and just. Its local convivia build taste education and relationships with producers. The Ark of Taste had cataloged more than 500 heritage foods, while Presidia supported artisan communities in keeping threatened foods, breeds, crops, and practices alive.
Alongside Terra Madre, the Salone del Gusto welcomed more than 130,000 visitors to foods from every continent, workshops, demonstrations, and culinary traditions. Together these gatherings made pleasure, quality, biodiversity, and producer knowledge powerful forces for agricultural renewal.
Where Slow Food and biodynamics meet
Francis presents Slow Food and biodynamics as natural allies. Both recognize food as a relationship among land, grower, culture, and eater. Both value flavor, nutrition, keeping quality, biodiversity, regional identity, ecological care, traditional knowledge, and fair recognition of the farmer.
Biodynamics deepens this picture through the farm organism and the spiritual-scientific relationships among soil, plant, animal, human being, and cosmos. Francis sees biodynamics as offering a particularly deep understanding of dynamic forces and a regenerative way of farming that can strengthen Slow Food goals, connect farmers and consumers, and help reunite material and spiritual life.
Traditional knowledge in a worldwide community
Terra Madre brought farmers, cooks, researchers, academics, policy-makers, and indigenous knowledge holders into one conversation. The gathering honored the practiced intelligence of people who work directly with land and invited institutions to help carry that knowledge to future generations.
Francis emphasizes the breadth of the community: participants from many nations, religions, regions, and disciplines shared food and experience in a spirit of cooperation. Biodynamics contributes a further understanding of community that includes the farm, the natural world, and elemental and spiritual relationships.
A field is a teacher
Sharon Carson describes a Delaware field that had been used for repeated corn and soybean production before being left fallow. With time, grasses, pokeweed, tree seedlings, blackberries, larkspur, wind-carried seeds, groundhogs, birds, and other life returned.
The field became a direct lesson in natural succession. The changing plants, animals, colors, shelter, and pathways showed the land actively reorganizing itself. Carson states the lesson simply: nature restores herself when given time and room.
The beehive as a living community
The issue pairs its bee coverage with Rudolf Steiner's picture of the hive as a whole community permeated with relationship. Individual bees live within the life of the entire colony, and the hive expresses an integrated social organism. This picture supports attentive cooperation among the mineral, plant, animal, and human kingdoms.
Sequential spraying for moisture conditions
The issue preserves Hugh Courtney's 2007 abbreviated two-day sequence for dry conditions: Barrel Compound with BD 500 near sunset on day one, followed by BD 501 with BD 508 near sunrise on day two, with a Leaf or Water constellation chosen to strengthen moisture conditions. Courtney also names separate stirring and application of each traditional preparation as the fullest approach when time allows.
JPI's current sequential-spray schedule expands that rhythm for both attracting and deterring moisture. To attract moisture during a Leaf or Water constellation, use Barrel Compound on the first evening; BD 501 on the second morning and BD 500 on the second evening; and BD 508 on the third morning. To deter moisture during a Fruit or Fire constellation, use Barrel Compound on the first evening; BD 508 on the second morning and BD 500 on the second evening; and BD 501 on the third morning.
Use the current Biodynamic Sequential Spray Kit for Weather Extremes and instructions for present-day sequencing and timing.
Elizabeth Courtney and the human foundation of JPI
Nick Franceschelli remembers Elizabeth Liz Courtney as the steady human foundation beneath JPI preparation making, education, and hospitality. She welcomed guests, sustained daily life, offered counsel, created community through theater, loved animals, studied Anthroposophy, and brought skill and generosity to the kitchen.
The Elizabeth Scott Courtney Memorial Fund was created to secure land, strengthen educational facilities and gardens, and provide workshop scholarships. Its purposes carry her hospitality forward as a home for the preparations, a place for teaching and community, and access for people called to the work. Readers can support JPI today.
Key topics covered
- Terra Madre and the international Slow Food movement.
- Flavor, locality, biodiversity, cultural continuity, and respect for producers.
- Biodynamics as a regenerative and spiritual-scientific contribution to the wider food movement.
- Traditional farmer knowledge shared through a worldwide community.
- Natural succession and self-renewal in a fallow field.
- The beehive as a living social organism.
- Hugh Courtney's historical two-day spray sequence and JPI's current three-day schedule.
- Elizabeth Courtney's contribution to JPI and the memorial fund established in her honor.
Explore related resources
- Biodynamic Sequential Spray Kit for Weather Extremes and instructions
- Barrel Compound and application instructions
- BD 500 Horn Manure and instructions
- BD 501 Horn Silica and instructions
- BD 508 Horsetail and instructions
- Complete Set of Biodynamic Compost Preparations and instructions
- Rudolf Steiner's Agriculture Course
Articles
- Taking Time for Food and Agriculture: The Slow Food Movement through the Eyes of Biodynamics by Hunter Francis
- In Memory of Elizabeth Courtney: 1940–2007 by Nick Franceschelli
- New Fund for JPI
- A Field Is a Teacher by Sharon Carson
- Genetically-Modified Genes Found in Honeybees by Christy Korrow
- Best Sequential Spray Periods If Moisture Lacking, recommendations by Hugh Courtney
Citation
Source: Applied Biodynamics, Issue No. 56, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Bio-Dynamics, Spring 2007.
