Applied Biodynamics — Issue 060 (Spring 2008)

Issue 060 is a documentation and validation issue, emphasizing how biodynamics is practiced, tested, transmitted, and evaluated in real agricultural, educational, and institutional contexts. Rather than advancing new techniques, the issue demonstrates how biodynamics operates as an applied, observational, and community-embedded discipline.

The central article, “Tierra Miguel: Sharing the Fruits of Biodynamics in Southern California,” by Hunter Francis, provides a detailed regional case study of the Tierra Miguel Foundation and Farm in Pauma Valley, California. The article traces the farm’s origins to 1999 and documents its development as a biodynamic demonstration site operating under arid conditions with approximately ten inches of annual rainfall. The farm manages eighty-five acres, with eight to fourteen acres in active crop production at any given time, supported by wildlife habitat, orchards, and forested areas.

Francis documents quantified biodynamic practices at Tierra Miguel, including repeated annual applications of BD 500 (three to six times per year), selective use of BD 501 adjusted for arid conditions, and sequential spraying with Barrel Compound Preparation and BD 508. Compost systems are described in detail, including reliance on externally sourced biodynamic compost when on-site production is insufficient, illustrating adaptive rather than idealized practice. Record keeping, crop rotation, CSA-scale logistics, and preparation storage are all treated as operational variables rather than abstractions.

The article further documents measurable social and institutional outcomes: a three-hundred-member CSA serving five counties, long-term farmland conservation secured through state and federal grants, and quantified educational reach exceeding 5,000 schoolchildren per year. These outcomes are presented as indirect indicators of agricultural viability and food quality, not as proof of metaphysical claims.

The report also records the farm’s survival through the 2007 Southern California wildfires, emphasizing resilience, infrastructure dependency, and regional recovery rather than attributing protection to biodynamic practice.

“Biodynamic Preparations Conference: A Conference Report,” by Lloyd Nelson with commentary by Mark Proctor, documents the Seventh Annual Biodynamic Preparations Conference held in Viroqua, Wisconsin in January 2008. The article provides a procedural account of preparation-making pedagogy, including lectures on the dandelion preparation (BD 506), anatomical specificity of animal sheaths, and historical transmission of preparation knowledge in North America.

The conference is explicitly framed as a research and quality-control forum, not a devotional gathering. Participants raised structured questions concerning succession planning, regulatory risk, centralized versus regional preparation making, and the balance between historical fidelity and innovation. No answers are asserted where evidence is incomplete; unanswered questions are preserved as research prompts.

In “Marjorie Spock: 1904–2008,” Jennifer Greene documents the life of Marjorie Spock as a biodynamic gardener, educator, and early environmental advocate. The article emphasizes Spock’s role in empirically grounded resistance to DDT spraying, her collaboration with Rachel Carson, and her long-term biodynamic gardening practice in northern climates. Her work is framed as methodologically patient, observation-driven, and legally consequential, situating biodynamics within broader environmental science history rather than outside it.

The included excerpt, “Of Farmers and Fairies,” is clearly identified as a literary and contemplative text. Its placement is editorially explicit: it represents cultural imagination and perceptual metaphor, not experimental evidence. No agricultural claims are advanced within this piece.

The issue concludes with a review by Hunter Francis of Maria Thun’s The Biodynamic Year: Increasing Yield, Quality and Flavour. The review emphasizes that Thun’s work is grounded in multi-decade, repeatable planting trials, systematically comparing sowing times, plant responses, and yields. Charts, calendars, and case observations are identified as the empirical basis of her conclusions, distinguishing her work from speculative astrology.

Across all contributions, Issue 060 demonstrates biodynamics as a field that documents procedures, compares outcomes, preserves uncertainty, and integrates with scientific, educational, and civic institutions.

Articles

• Tierra Miguel: Sharing the Fruits of Biodynamics in Southern  California (H. Francis)  
• Biodynamic Preparations Conference: A Conference Report (L.  Nelson, M. Proctor)  
• Marjorie Spock: 1904–2008 (J. Greene) Of Farmers and Fairies  (M. Spock)  
• The Biodynamic Year: Increasing Yield, Quality and Flavour by  Maria Thun; Edited by Angelika Throll-Keller (H. Francis) 

Key Topics Covered

• Regional biodynamic practice under arid conditions
• Quantified use of biodynamic preparations over multiple seasons
• Adaptive compost sourcing and soil management strategies
• CSA-scale food distribution and quality assessment
• Farmland conservation through state and federal mechanisms
• Educational outreach measured in participant numbers
• Conference-based preparation research and quality control
• Explicit identification of unresolved research questions
• Historically documented resistance to chemical spraying
• Biodynamics within environmental legal history
• Distinction between contemplative literature and practice
• Long-term experimental basis of Maria Thun’s calendar research

Citation

Applied Biodynamics, Issue 060, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamics, Spring 2008.