Applied Biodynamics — Issue 062 (Fall 2008)

Applied Biodynamics Issue 062 (Fall 2008) joins plant contemplation, Manfred Klett's vision of the biodynamic farm organism, a practical northern Idaho preparation-making network, and JPI's commitment to sustaining high-quality preparation work.

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Contemplating the plant

The opening meditation follows the plant through the full year. In spring, shoots and buds carry the plant idea into appearance; in summer, the plant flowers and ripens; in autumn, its visible form withdraws while the seed remains as a concentrated anchor for renewal.

This Goethean view invites the farmer to experience material substance and formative being as partners. The living plant is approached through attentive observation of growth, transformation, withdrawal, seed, and return.

Nature as teacher and the farmer as conscious partner

Christy Korrow's journey through the north-central United States and Washington coast becomes an education in living relationships: great grazing herds, thermal springs, fire-adapted life, moving water, and horsetail and yarrow growing together.

Her practical invitation is to step beyond the cultivated field, observe a living landscape on its own terms, and bring those patterns back to the farm. Biodynamics receives nature as a wise system and asks the farmer to become an awake, creative participant through observation, husbandry, and the preparations.

Manfred Klett and the biodynamic farm organism

Hunter Francis presents Dr. Manfred Klett as a farmer, soil scientist, researcher, educator, and leading voice of the German biodynamic movement. His path included agricultural work in Syria, apprenticeship at Dottenfelder Hof, doctoral study in soil science, research at the Institute for Biodynamic Research, and a return to Dottenfelder Hof in 1968.

Klett describes the biodynamic farm organism as an ecological, economic, social, educational, and cultural unity. Crops, livestock, horticulture, processing, marketing, plant breeding, research, apprenticeships, and community life are consciously reunited. The farm becomes more self-supporting in fertility, seed, feed, knowledge, and relationships.

At Dottenfelder Hof, five families initially took stewardship of the farm with the goal of self-sufficiency. The enterprise developed dairy cows, chickens, pigs, arable crops, gardens, fruit, a creamery, bakery, restaurant, farm shop, seed work, research, residential learning, apprenticeships, and public education. By the time described, around forty people lived and worked within the farm community.

Three essential fields of development

Klett identifies three tasks at the heart of biodynamic agriculture:

1. the formation of the human individuality;
2. the development of a human community in and around the farm;
3. the continuing growth of the farm organism.

The preparations belong within this whole. Making, stirring, applying, and observing them develops a direct relationship with natural and cosmic processes. Klett describes the farm as a microcosm that brings living relationships into a consciously formed individuality.

Northern Idaho grows biodynamic growers

Merla Barbarie records a practical beginning for a regional biodynamic group. Forty people attended an introductory library meeting and a screening of Peter Proctor's How to Save the World. The group built an email and phone list, named shared interests in the preparations, planting calendar, seed exchange, farm tours, and Steiner's lectures, and scheduled hands-on workshops on local farms.

The model grew through action:

• gather people in an accessible place and exchange contact information;
• name shared goals and invite experienced guidance;
• rotate workshops among farms so hosts and participants share responsibility;
• share material costs and divide the finished preparations;
• send participants home with something they helped make;
• continue through the seasons so knowledge and friendship deepen together.

Tree Paste, BD 500, Barrel Compound, and horsetail

At Mitch and Colleen Rifkin's farm, participants prepared cow manure, clay, and sand for Tree Paste. They took turns stirring BD 500 for one full hour, stirred Barrel Compound, and included Equisetum tea in the Tree Paste method described at the workshop. Each participant filled a container and took finished material home for use.

The day joined greenhouse and field tours, practical making, shared food, and application materials. One farm gathering became many home applications and a stronger regional preparation community.

Making Barrel Compound together

At the Barbarie homestead, the group mixed cow manure, basalt powder, and ground eggshells in a snow sled. They moved the mixture to a kiln-brick-lined pit, placed half in the pit with one complete set of BD 502–507, added the remaining mixture and a second complete set, then protected the burial with burlap and a wooden cover.

The participants shared the cost of the preparations and planned to divide the mature Barrel Compound for autumn use. The workshop combined exact ingredients, complete preparation sets, protected burial, shared stewardship, and distribution back into many gardens.

Stinging nettle and horn silica

At Will and Lisa Shock's farm, the group harvested flowering nettles for BD 504 and buried them, while participants also carried nettles home to establish their own preparations. Quartz was crushed with a double-pipe crusher and iron mortar and pestle; about two-thirds of a cup of BD 501 material was packed into a horn for burial and later sharing.

The network planned to press valerian flowers, gather dried dandelion, make the autumn preparations, exchange plants, tour farms, and continue shared study. Seasonal work transformed an introductory gathering into an enduring culture of preparation making.

Sustaining JPI preparation quality

Fiscal Reality Revisited explains JPI's 2008 price adjustments for preparations, shipping, publications, and the Associative Contract. The prices belong to their historical moment, while the principle remains current: excellent preparation making requires sound materials, skilled labor, careful storage, teaching, administration, and responsible stewardship.

Financial clarity supports JPI's ability to make preparations freely available for work and research while maintaining the institution that produces, stores, teaches, and distributes them.

Key topics covered

• Plant growth, flowering, withdrawal, seed, and renewal as a Goethean seasonal picture.
• Nature observation and the farmer's conscious partnership with living systems.
• Klett's biodynamic farm organism as ecological, economic, social, educational, and cultural unity.
• Dottenfelder Hof's integrated crops, animals, processing, plant breeding, research, apprenticeships, and community life.
• A forty-person northern Idaho group developing through hands-on Tree Paste, BD 500, Barrel Compound, BD 504, and BD 501 workshops.
• Shared costs, finished preparations, seasonal continuity, and JPI's institutional stewardship.

Explore related resources

• Rudolf Steiner's Agriculture Course
• BD 500 Horn Manure and current instructions
• Biodynamic Tree Paste and current instructions
• Barrel Compound, also called Barrel Compost outside the United States
• BD 502–507 Compost Preparation Set
• BD 504 Stinging Nettle
• BD 501 Horn Silica and current instructions
• BD 508 Horsetail
• Stella Natura Planting Calendar

Articles in this issue

• Contemplating the Plant — excerpt from Rudolf Hauschka
• Reflections on Biodynamics and Its Significance for the Future by Dr. Manfred Klett — Hunter Francis
• Northern Idaho Grows Biodynamic Growers — Merla Barbarie
• Fiscal Reality Revisited

Citation

Source: Applied Biodynamics, Issue No. 62, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Bio-Dynamics, Fall 2008.