Applied Biodynamics — Issue 060 (Spring 2008)

Applied Biodynamics Issue 060 (Spring 2008) presents Tierra Miguel as a thriving Southern California model of biodynamic agriculture, community health, protected farmland, preparation making, and regional partnership. It also records the national Biodynamic Preparations Conference, honors Marjorie Spock's environmental and biodynamic work, and reviews Maria Thun's seasonal research.

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Tierra Miguel: sharing the fruits of biodynamics

Founded at Michaelmas in 1999, the Tierra Miguel Foundation brought agriculture, education, healing, and care for the Earth into one practical mission. Its eighty-five-acre Pauma Valley farm became an active biodynamic center in a Southern California region receiving about ten inches of rain each year.

The farm joined wildlife habitat, an experimental orchard, vegetables, strawberries, herbs, seasonal cover crops, crop rotation, biodynamic compost, and preparation work. The San Luis Rey River formed a wildlife corridor along the property, while sandy soils made living fertility and organic-matter renewal central to the farm's work.

A biodynamic rhythm for a bright, arid farm

• Barrel Compound and BD 508 Horsetail were applied sequentially at least three times each year.
• BD 500 Horn Manure was applied three to six times each year to support soil life and root activity.
• BD 501 Horn Silica was used selectively on fruits and herbs to support sugar and essential-oil development in the valley's strong light.
• BD 500 and BD 501 were made on the farm. Nettle and yarrow already grew there, while the team worked to establish chamomile and valerian for future preparation making.

When on-farm compost volume was still developing, Tierra Miguel purchased biodynamic compost from the Van Omaring Dairy. The dairy owners had learned compost making through a Tierra Miguel workshop and could in turn help meet the farm's fertility needs. This exchange demonstrates biodynamic regional cooperation: education, compost, skill, and fertility circulate among farms and strengthen the whole community.

A year-round CSA and a direct relationship with food

A 300-member year-round CSA carried produce to subscribers across San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties. Almost all of the produce was grown at Tierra Miguel, with selected citrus, avocados, and other specialty crops supplied by neighboring organic farmers.

Cool-season brassicas, beets, turnips, leeks, and herbs gave way to summer and autumn tomatoes, peppers, corn, squash, and melons. The demanding harvest, packing, delivery, and crop-planning rhythm made the farm's biodynamic quality visible through the food itself.

Permanent farmland and community health

When development threatened the farm, Tierra Miguel assembled a powerful conservation partnership. A $475,000 joint grant from the California Department of Conservation and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service supported a permanent agricultural easement. The Pauma Band of Mission Indians purchased the protected land and established a long-term lease with the foundation.

A $90,000 California Endowment grant supported the Healthy Life Program, connecting farm visits, school salad bars, family health festivals, cooking classes, teacher training, and nutrition education. Thousands of children encountered farming, health, and food directly. Waldorf classes, college students, 4-H groups, graduate students from several countries, health professionals, and local families all participated in the farm's educational life.

Tierra Miguel received the Palomar Pomerado Health Unity Award, a Governor's Gold Medal for its health programs, a Smart Growth Award, and the Urban Land Institute's Progressive Agricultural Sustainability Award. During the 2007 Southern California fires, the farm remained standing while the surrounding region faced enormous disruption, preserving a center from which land, agriculture, and community could renew.

The national Biodynamic Preparations Conference

About fifty preparation makers gathered in Viroqua, Wisconsin, for the Seventh Annual Biodynamic Preparations Conference. The gathering joined the dandelion plant, the mesentery sheath used for BD 506, nutrition, cosmic and earthly relationships, hands-on demonstration, preparation biographies, and the history of preparation making in America.

Walter Goldstein presented the dandelion preparation in relation to human nutrition and cosmic connection. Harald Hoven spoke about the dandelion plant, Hugh Williams described the mesentery sheath, and Hugh Courtney demonstrated the sheath directly. Makers shared who taught them, where their sheaths came from, and how they hoped the work would develop.

Participants brought BD 500 from regions across the United States, combined it in one bowl, and each carried a portion of the shared preparation home. Even after everyone had taken a handful, BD 500 remained in the bowl. The gathering experienced this as a vivid image of contribution multiplying through community: every region gave, every region received, and the preparation work returned home enriched by the whole.

Marjorie Spock: biodynamic gardener and environmental pioneer

Jennifer Greene honors Marjorie Spock as a biodynamic gardener, eurythmist, teacher, author, translator, and pioneering environmental advocate. Spock brought seedlings safely through cold northern springs, maintained great compost heaps, shared abundant young plants, and gave decades of practical and spiritual instruction.

When government aircraft sprayed DDT over Long Island, Spock and Polly Richards joined ten others in a federal case to protect land, health, and the freedom to keep a farm free from chemical intrusion. From 1957 to 1960, Spock wrote daily reports on the proceedings and expert testimony. Rachel Carson recognized the value of these records, requested the trial transcript, and became Spock's collaborator and friend. The case and its extensive testimony contributed to the environmental awakening in which Silent Spring appeared.

The plaintiffs won the right to seek an injunction and a full scientific review before destructive environmental action. Spock later farmed biodynamically, worked closely with Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, and spent forty-three years in Maine teaching, gardening, writing, and mentoring. Her life united spiritual perception, disciplined observation, legal courage, and practical care for the Earth.

Farmers and elemental life

In Of Farmers and Fairies, Spock presents farmers, fishers, foresters, and miners as people working at the threshold of the elemental world. The farmer holds a particularly complete place among earth, water, air, warmth, soil, crops, and animals.

She describes BD 500 as supporting root life and the gnome realm, nettle spray as connected with undines during sap rise and leaf unfolding, BD 501 quartz spray as supporting light and chlorophyll activity through the sylph realm, and valerian tea at flowering and fruiting as an offering of warmth connected with fire spirits. Her account gives poetic and spiritual language to the farmer's attentive relationship with living forces.

Maria Thun's biodynamic year

Hunter Francis reviews The Biodynamic Year: Increasing Yield, Quality and Flavour, a practical distillation of more than fifty years of Maria Thun's research. The book connects planetary rhythms with plant response through charts, calendars, trials, and long observation.

It also presents the biodynamic preparations, Barrel Compost, greenhouse practice, pruning, food storage, foraging, soil preparation, cover crops, rotation, and distinctive care for fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Thun's union of careful observation, seasonal rhythm, and practical instruction makes the book a welcoming guide for both new and experienced biodynamic gardeners.

Key topics covered

• Tierra Miguel's eighty-five-acre Southern California farm, biodynamic spray rhythm, living fertility, and preparation making.
• A year-round 300-member CSA serving five counties.
• Permanent farmland protection, partnership with the Pauma Band of Mission Indians, school programs, health education, and community awards.
• The fifty-person Biodynamic Preparations Conference and its shared national BD 500 gesture.
• Marjorie Spock's northern gardening, environmental case, Rachel Carson connection, and lifelong biodynamic teaching.
• Spock's spiritual account of farmers and elemental life.
• Maria Thun's seasonal research and practical biodynamic year.

Explore related resources

• BD 500 Horn Manure and current instructions
• BD 501 Horn Silica and current instructions
• Barrel Compound, also called Barrel Compost outside the United States
• BD 508 Horsetail and current instructions
• BD 506 Dandelion
• Complete Set of Biodynamic Compost Preparations
• The Biodynamic Year by Maria Thun

Articles in this issue

• Tierra Miguel: Sharing the Fruits of Biodynamics in Southern California — Hunter Francis
• Biodynamic Preparations Conference: A Conference Report — Lloyd Nelson and Mark Proctor
• Marjorie Spock: 1904–2008 — Jennifer Greene
• Of Farmers and Fairies — Marjorie Spock
• The Biodynamic Year: Increasing Yield, Quality and Flavour — reviewed by Hunter Francis

Citation

Source: Applied Biodynamics, Issue No. 60, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Bio-Dynamics, Spring 2008.