Field Notes
Letter from the President
In this Michaelmas 2026 letter, JPI president Teresa O’Shaughnessy shares the move of packing and shipping to Perennial Roots Farm and introduces the people carrying the work forward. The update renews JPI’s commitment to accessible preparations while honoring a season of rest for its Floyd...
From the Field Notes archive
Latest writing
Experiment for Yourselves
Kate Heming revisits Maye Bruce’s Quick-Return composting method through the contemporary experiments of gardener Katrina Wolff. Their stories invite small-space growers to work creatively with herbs, flowers, kitchen materials, and what is close at hand while deepening a living relationship with compost.
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Biodynamic Pest Management
The first part of Stewart Lundy’s biodynamic pest-management exploration introduces weed and pest peppers through careful preparation, dilution, and sustained observation. Historical references and practical distinctions show how this work belongs within a long-term relationship with the living farm and its particular conditions.
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The Eye of the Cosmos: Viewing Soil Life through Chromatography
This March 2025 announcement introduces JPI’s hands-on soil chromatography workshop in Floyd, Virginia. Stewart Lundy describes how making and observing chromas can deepen a grower’s relationship with soil, alongside plans for practical instruction, shared samples, and an accessible recorded presentation.
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Index of Articles
Explore Applied Biodynamics through a growing index of practical guidance, spiritual reflections, and historical writing. This March 2025 resource points readers toward preparation work, compost, soil chromatography, the Cosmic Journal, The Vault, and Spanish-language articles, with keywords to help find a path through the collection....
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A Letter from the JPI President
In this March 2025 letter, JPI President Teresa O’Shaughnessy shares a winter farm experience shaped by reverence, friendship, and renewed purpose. Personal reflections on working with the preparations accompany an invitation to support community learning and the year’s hands-on workshops.
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Cosmic Journal #41
Kate Heming introduces her urban biodynamic gardening practice and joins the Cosmic Journal with a welcoming guide to spring preparation. This February 2025 issue brings seed starting, community learning, and March calendar indications together with a hopeful celebration of the spring equinox.
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Contemplative Chromatography
Soil chromatography becomes a practice of disciplined perception in this meditation on living images. Stewart Kahn Lundy connects careful laboratory work with patient observation, inner preparation, and Goethe’s exact sensorial imagination, inviting the observer to grow alongside the pictures being formed.
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Cosmic Journal #40
Fresh from the Fellowship of Preparation Makers gathering, Russell Blackstone carries community inspiration into early spring planning. This February 2025 Cosmic Journal follows sowing, soil care, pruning, and preparation work through a spirit of openness, intention, and shared responsibility for living land.
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Standing on Common Ground
A journey through Colorado and Utah becomes an invitation to let biodynamics take root in each place. Stewart Lundy shares conference work with Lloyd Nelson and Russell Blackstone, soil chromatography, desert landscapes, and reflections on learning to belong to the land we tend.
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Cosmic Journal #039
Winter farm planning meets the approach of Candlemas in this January 2025 Cosmic Journal. Russell Blackstone follows soil care, compost, and early sowing while exploring the Festival of Unbornness and the quiet preparation for new life within the deep season of winter.
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Just a Drop: Chromatography and the Tiniest Entities
What can a tiny addition of horn manure reveal in a soil chromatogram? Stewart Lundy and Jacob Gibbons compare sandy-loam samples with small doses of stirred preparation, sharing photographs and observations that connect soil character, humus care, and the art of seeing living relationships.
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Cosmic Journal #038
Epiphany opens the new year in this January 2025 Cosmic Journal, bringing the Three Kings offering into a wider practice of gratitude and renewal. Russell Blackstone follows the return toward Candlemas through winter farm care, crop planning, and conscious participation in the living world.
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