Star and furrow 109

JOURNAL OF THE BIODYNAMIC AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION ■ ISSUE NO: 109 ■ SUMMER 2008 ■ ISSN NO: 1472-4634 ■ £4.50

PREPARATION STIRRING - Research Trials SPIRITUAL SOVEREIGNTY OF THE FARMER SUSTAINABLE BEEKEEPING

THE BIODYNAMIC AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION (BDAA)

Demeter Certification The Association owns and administers the Demeter Certification Mark that is used by biodynamic producers in the UK to guarantee to consumers that internationally recognised biodynamic production standards are being followed.These standards cover both production and processing and apply in more than forty countries.They are equivalent to or higher than basic organic standards.The Demeter scheme is recognised in the UK as Organic Certification UK6.

The Association exists in order to support, promote and develop the biodynamic approach to farming, gardening and forestry.

This unique form of organic husbandry is inspired by the research of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) and is founded on a holistic and Apprentice Training spiritual understanding of nature and the A two year practical apprentice training human being. course is offered in biodynamic agriculture and horticulture.Apprentices work in exThe Association tries to keep abreast of change for board and lodging on established developments in science, nutrition, education, biodynamic farms and gardens and receive health and social reform. It is linked to the tutorial guidance and instruction from exAgricultural Department of the School of perienced practitioners. Practical training is Spiritual Science (Switzerland) and affiliated supported with regular theoretical sessions as a group of the Anthroposophical Society either on the farm or in coordination with in Great Britain. It is also a full member of other local centres.Two week-long block Demeter International, SUSTAIN, IFOAM courses are offered to all UK apprentices and the Five Year Freeze. each year. Graduating apprentices receive a certificate from the BDAA. Membership is open to everyone interested in working with, developing or learning about Funding biodynamics. Current rates are £30 (£15.00 The Association is a small organisation concessions). Members receive a quarterly wholly dependent on subscriptions, donanewsletter, Star and Furrow twice a year, tions and grants.There is a healthy and regular information on events and access to growing interest in biodynamics and to meet a member’s library. Many local groups exist this welcome development additional funds for further study and the exchange of practi- are being sought to supplement the limited cal experiences. resources available. Becoming a member and encouraging others to join is an important The BDAA stocks more than a hundred way of supporting the work. Donations over books on biodynamic agriculture and related and above the recommended membership subjects.These are available from the office subscription are also extremely helpful. Even by mail order. the smallest contribution can make a real difference. For those considering making a Will Seed development project and possibly leaving something to support The Association is working to develop a sus- biodynamic development, a legacy leaflet is tainable on farm plant breeding programme, now available. Please contact the office for increase the availability of high quality seed a copy. varieties suited to organic growing conditions and encourage the establishment of For information on all aspects of the Associaa cooperative network of biodynamic seed tion’s work contact: producers.The breeding and development of Biodynamic Agricultural Association, appropriate site adapted varieties is of vital Painswick Inn Project, interest to biodynamic farmers and offers Gloucester Street, Stroud, the only long term alternative to biotechGlos, GL5 1QG nology. It also requires an ongoing research Tel. 0044 (0)1453 759501 commitment that is entirely dependant on Email: office@biodynamic.org.uk gifts and donations.

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Star & Furrow Issue 109 Summer 2008

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STAR & FURROW Journal of the Biodynamic Agricultural Association Published twice yearly Issue Number 109 - Summer 2008 ISSN 1472-4634 STAR & FURROW is the membership magazine of The Biodynamic Agricultural Association (BDAA). It is issued free to members.

Non members can also purchase Star and Furrow. For two copies per annum the rates are: UK £11.00 including postage Europe (airmail) £13.00 Rest of the World (airmail) £16.00 Editor: Richard Swann, Contact via the BDAA Office or E-mail: rswann@biodynamic.org.uk Design & layout: Dave Thorp of ‘The Workshop’ Printed on a 50% recycled FSC paper

by Severnprint, Gloucester Published by the Biodynamic Agricultural Association © B.D.A.A. 2008 Charity No: 269036 VAT No: 791 2859 91 The function of Star and Furrow is to encourage the free exchange of ideas and experience among those who work with, or are interested in biodynamic farming, gardening and related subjects. Contributors subscribe to no dogma and are bound by no rules.Their contributions are personal documents, not official utterances by the Association.

Final dates for contributions are 1st April for the summer issue and 1st October for the winter issue. Copy should either, be typed/printed in black on A4 paper, on disk in a format accessible to Microsoft Word or sent by e-mail. Please send articles to the editor at the BDAA Office.

BDAA COUNCIL Chairman: Sebastian Parsons Treasurer: Ian Bailey Other Council Members: Brian Cavendish, Liz Ellis, Richard Gantlet, Robert Lord,Tony Mathews, Nick Raeside, Richard Thornton-Smith and Chris Stockdale BDAA Executive Director: Bernard Jarman Email: bjarman@biodynamic.org.uk Association Secretary: Jessica Standing Email: office@biodynamic.org.uk DEMETER STANDARDS COMMITTEE Chairman: Huw Shepherd Tel: 0131 229 7803 Scheme Co-ordinator and Secretary: Moira Ross Tel: 0131 552 6565 Email: demeter@biodynamic.org.uk Demeter Manager: Timothy Brink Tel: 0131 478 1201 Email: timbrink@biodynamic.org.uk STAR AND FURROW EDITORIAL GROUP Richard Swann, Bernard Jarman, Jessica Standing, Anna Irwin and Jane Cobbald, Front cover picture: © Richard Swann

JOURNAL OF THE BIODYNAMIC AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION ■ ISSUE NO: 109 ■ SUMMER 2008 ■ ISSN NO: 1472-4634 ■ £4.50

Editorial

CONTENTS page

Trials on methods of Stirring Preparation - Dr. Uli Johannes Much has changed in the world since 1924 when Rudolf Steiner gave the König and Dr. Uwe Geier lectures for the renewal of agriculture. We now find ourselves in times where Machines, Enthusiasm and the consumerism is rampant and food quality is being seriously challenged.

Biodynamic Preparations With the pressures of the modern world, biodynamic farmers and gardeners - Bernard Jarman are constantly needing to reassess and reaffirm their practices and attitudes.

Feeding the foundation of health Some of the articles in this issue of Star and Furrow reflect this. Over the - Simon Ranger course of the next year or so the BDAA will pilot a mentoring scheme to help support Using Liquid Manures-Lynette West biodynamic practitioners with their striving to uphold farming and gardening practice You’ll love to play with Vortices based on spiritual values. Rienk der Braake reports on Holland’s attempts to develop a at home - Patti O’Brien scheme to suit the needs of their farmers and gardeners The Flocks on the Hills As larger farms take up the challenge to convert to biodynamics a debate is - Bernard Jarman running as to the best way to stir and spread the Biodynamic Preparations over a large Sustainable Ecological Earth area. Ongoing research in Germany is being carried out using very sensitive evaluaRegeneration with Rockdust tion methods. These clearly reveal the qualitative effects that stirring with a machine - Moira Thomson has. Similar work is now being carried out on mixing the Preparations using flow The Spiritual Sovereignty of the forms, the results of which we hope to be able to report on in a future issue.

Farmer - Bernard Jarman The Agriculture Course is a fount of inspiration and research for all of us in Sustainable & Bee-Friendly Beekeeping - David Heaf the biodynamic movement. This is especially apparent in the work that Enzo Nastasi Homeodynamics Workshop has been carrying out for the past couple of decades. He presented the fruits of this at - Mike Atherton a seminar earlier this year. It inspired many of those attending to go home and try out Biodynamic Professional some of his indications on their farms and gardens. Homeodynamics is a word, I feel, Development - Rienk der Braake we will be hearing more of over the next few years.

Land and Spirit - Vivian Griffiths There is much in this issue that may provoke discussion or debate. This is to Biodynamic Seeds in the UK be welcomed and I am happy to provide such a platform in the next issue. So I look - Bernard Jarman forward to your emails and letters.

Q & A on the planting calendar Richard Swann EDITOR - Ian Bailey D Bo Botton Nutrition weekend FOO H Y with Carlos Janowski WITR IT G E - Ashley Lovett T IN OSTEfR e Book Reviews P ack page o thInisteisgsruity’ b New DVD on Biodynamics - Liz Ellis h e r it On th ew ‘Food w available fo nw n People: P Fiona Mackie and ly o e e d h e be is t is fr e: nd can r.This Sebastian Parsons poste licensees a AA websit BD . ter Around Aroun the Biodynamic World Deme d from the mic.org.uk loade w.biodyna ww

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4 8 10 15 17 18 20 24 28 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 47 48 49

Hand

Flowforms

Machine

Control

Hand

Second Trial

Flowforms

Germination research showing the relationship between side and main and side roots:

First Trial

Oloid

■ Location of trial: Demeter-Farm “Hof Michael” in Endeholz on the border of the Lüneburg heath. The soils on sandy moraine with coarser soil-skeleton components (flint and siliceous debris) are nutrient-poor and give only low yields.

The soil quality index is under 35.

■ Trial layout: block layout with 4 replications; plot size 30 x 60 metres.

■ Trial plant: potato, variety ‘Agria’.

■ Application of preparations: 2 x horn manure (500) in spring; 2 x horn silica (501) in summer ■ All cultivation procedures were carried out by the farmer in the usual way for that farm. Only the spreading of the preparation was done by the experimenter himself.

THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES to various stirring and spreading techniques most commonly used for the biodynamic preparations (see next article on pages 8-9, Machines, Enthusiasm and the Biodynamic Preparations) especially as regards stirring and the amounts used.What was presented there is supplemented by recent results of trials which are described here.

Previously preliminary studies on various stirring methods were carried out at IBDF together with the Institute of Flow Research at Herrischried (cf. Jacobi 2004 and König 1998). Those compared hand stirring with machine stirring and mixing with flow-forms and the oloid. However, in container experiments on beans the results showed no unequivocal tendency. Sometimes hand stirring was superior to the other methods, and sometimes all preparation stirring methods were ‘better’ than controls. It was clear at that time that the particular quality of the stirring method is insufficiently reflected in a conventional experiment

Machine

IN BRIEF: ■ The biodynamic preparations were tested in a field trial with potatoes using various hand and machine stirring techniques as well as with reduced quantities of water.

■ There were hardly any differences in yield and content of substances at harvest.

■ It was possible to distinguish the stirring methods with both picture-forming methods and the assessment of formative forces. The results favoured hand stirring, including using reduced quantities of water.

Control

by Dr. Uli Johannes König and Dr. Uwe Geier

These trials were restarted in 2006 on the basis of new approaches in research methodology. It was hoped that it would be possible to demonstrate the influence of various stirring and spreading methods by direct observation of life forces (formative forces research according to Schmidt et al.) after stirring and spraying the preparations. In addition, the products were investigated with various methods of quality assessment. In setting up the trial, the question arose as to reducing the amount of the stirred preparation. The initial results of this trial are described in what follows.

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© All pictures - Uli König

THE VARIABLES INVESTIGATED Three stirring methods for preparing preparations were compared: Ò the farm’s usual hand stirring method in an (old) cylindrical wooden barrel (ca. 350 litres in a capacity of 500 litres; 73 cm diameter, 120 cm high) with a large besom (Fig. 1); Ò a mobile hand stirring method for a higher concentration of preparation, consuming reduced quantities, in a small unglazed clay pot (ca. 20 litres in a capacity of 35 litres; 31 cm diameter, 46 cm high) with a large besom that is not suspended (Fig. 2). Later the clay pot was replaced by a copper tub which was similar in size to the machine (ca. 160 litres in a 300 litre capacity; 63 cm diameter, 96 cm high) with a large besom, firmly suspended (Fig. 3); Ò the mechanical method in a tirring machine after Podolinsky with a copper tub (ca. 135 litres in 190 litres; 62 cm diameter, 64 cm high) with two stainless-steel paddles; change of direction by a level switch (Fig. 4); Ò for the controls no preparations were used.

The same amount of preparation was used for all methods: four horns of horn manure (500) per hectare or 4 g silica (501) per hectare. The amount spread for the farm’s usual method and that of the machine was 40 litres per hectare; for the reduced method 5 litres per hectare. The water (tap water) was heated to body temperature (ca. 36 ºC) with a gas continuous-flow heater. The spreading method was usually: Ò horn manure (500) was spread with a stainless steel backpack sprayer with an extension tube and with the nozzle (atomizer) of the jet sprayer removed. Through rapid swinging back and forth of the spraying wand, large droplets fell like rain. The width covered was about 15 metres; Ò horn silica (501) was spread as a fine spray with a back-pack atomiser. The width covered was 15 to 30 metres depending on air movements.

Method 1: Hand stirring in a wooden barrel

Method 2a: Hand stirring in a clay pot, small quantities spread

RESULTS: SUBSTANCE COMPOSITION AND YIELD The effect of stirring the preparations on the action of formative forces was studied at several points in time. The plots were also investigated for differences in formative forces, each time immediately after spreading and in the course of the following day. The potatoes harvested were tested in the laboratory for vitamin C content and for extract darkening, as well as by means of picture-forming methods. There were no significant differences in the yields of potatoes. They averaged 312 dt/ha. The variance between the plots was small, which indicated an even growth of the potatoes. This is important for the further investigations in the laboratory.

The potatoes were size sorted and stored in a cellar. Only the middle-sized tubers were used for further investigation. The vitamin C content did not show any significant influence of the preparations either. Nor did the extract darkening test.

However, the variance between the tests of these two parameters was relatively high.

Method 3: Stirring machine with copper tub

PICTURE-FORMING METHODS RESULTS In contrast, the investigations with picture-forming methods in blind experiments led to unequivocal characterisation of the various methods. Apart from one of the blind tests, the four methods permitted a clear ranking assessment to be made. At the top was placed the hand stirred and hand stirred reduced methods and at the bottom the machine

Different vessel, different stirring = different effect? Here is method 2b with hand stirring in a copper tub.

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Capillary-dynamolysis of potatoes.

stirred. The control came in between. The results for the two methods, capillary-dynamolysis (Steigbild, rising picture) and copper chloride crystallisation agreed with each other. To help understand this abbreviated appraisal, it is necessary to present the assessment criteria and to characterise the different methods.

We can use reference pictures to make quality assessment statements from the colour and form differences of the pictures. It is known how ripeness, unripeness, ageing, interfering effects (such as radiation) or processes typical of the plant organs (Geier 2005a) are revealed in the pictures.

Samples for comparison can therefore be characterised against this background. As a rule, assessment on the basis of such reference pictures says the same as that of compositional analysis, for example of ripeness parameters, though often more clearly. And in the present case too, the compositional analyses (see above) were not able to discriminate significantly.

A further procedure in quality assessment is to allow the pictures to impress themselves on one’s mind in an unprejudiced manner and to grasp the impression conceptually (cf. Picariello 2005). This procedure can be described as empathic observation (cf. Geier 2005b). With appropriate concentration on the part of the observer, this kind of picture assessment can lead to Inspiration. In this case both kinds were used, supported with reference pictures for the physiological status of the plants, and empathic observation.

In this context the methods were characterised as follows: Ò Controls: root emphasised, heavy, powerful, mobile and somewhat vegetative; Ò Hand stirred and hand stirred reduced: relatively delicate, radiant and differentiated; certain features of flower and fruit pictures; with the reduced method the differences from the control less prominent; Ò Machine stirred: more delicate and more differentiated than the controls, however not as clear as with the hand stirred and hand stirred reduced. In addition an unharmonious undertone enters. In empathic observation also described as disturbingly mobile or ‘bulky’ in movement.

The earthy emphasis or root-related character that showed in the control is a known feature of potatoes.

Through the preparation treatments the pictures become more delicate, more radiant, more differentiated and more even. These are features that occur with ripeness and flower and fruit organs of the plant. Against the background of the reference pictures it is thus possible to detect an improvement of quality through using the preparations. The difference from the controls is somewhat greater by hand stirred than by hand stirred reduced. Further investigations would have to show whether this difference is relevant to quality.

The machine stirred method showed better ripeness qualities than the controls, albeit less clearly than with the hand stirred and hand stirred reduced. But with the machine stirred method an unharmonious formative characteristic appeared. Such disharmonies have already been found with disturbing influences such as electronic radiation (see Matthes et al. in Lebendige Erde 3/2007), genetic manipulation (Richter & Wirz in Lebendige Erde 1/2007 and Richter et al. 2005) or by prolonged ageing. Thus, in the blind assessments, the machine stirred method was judged to be the least favourable.

Spray preparation hand stirred;

Control without preparations;

Spray preparation machine stirred.

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RESULTS OF RATIONAL FORMATIVE FORCES RESEARCH The observations that could be made with formative force methodology were even clearer, and by a long way. Here we summarise the individual methods (2nd horn manure (500) application; source: experimental procedure of D. Schmidt).

It will be presented in more detail in due course in a more comprehensive research report. Ò Control: From the periphery, sharply focused rays strike the silica-rich ground. Mineral rays predominate in these. Under this severe influence of forces the plants have to ‘strive’ and are somewhat abandoned. ÒUsual hand stirred application method: During the stirring the farm’s barrel was surrounded by groups of helpful elemental beings, who were already very familiar with the process and co-operated by richly etherising and astralising the spray mixture. In the field, the preparation had a vigorously enlivening effect on the soil realm and stimulated (encouraged) the elemental beings responsible for the soil. The effect went far beyond the plants involved (‘landscape changing’). Ò Reduced quantity of water: Around the small pot ruled busy elemental creativity, but in a very sober mood. In the field, the effect of the preparation was restricted to intensive stimulation of the life of the plant from the soil upwards, and this appeared to support it in a very orderly way that was appropriate for its species. Ò Stiring machines:Ahrimanic beings (characterised by Rudolf Steiner as intrinsic forces that work in machines etc. with a tendency to solidification and cooling) assembled over the tub and suppressed into a form of slavery the otherwise playful manifestation of the weavings of the elemental beings. They worked under compulsion in a kind of reluctant mood. In the field, the effect of the preparation went over the plants as a sort of ‘atmospheric change’. From this region over the plants, forces alien to the plants worked into the foliage, hardening it.

A supportive enlivening current hung in something like a canopy underneath the leaf surfaces and the surface of the ground.

CONCLUSION These investigations demonstrate that by increasingly improving the methods (and by involving the realm of life forces) we can obtain a more differentiated picture of the effect of the biodynamic preparations than with methods that relate only to externalities. How far these results can already help the individual in their search for a new inner relationship to the preparations, will be for each person to decide.

However, a way presents itself as regards dealing with the preparations, not only for solving many questions pragmatically, according to criteria of feasibility, but also of working with the intention of optimising our use of the preparations.

Nevertheless, the work published here is only an initial step towards making statements about the influence of the preparations stirring technique on product quality. It is true that the results agreed with those for formative force observation in the field and with earlier observations, but for conclusions that go further than this it would be necessary to conduct more investigations and assess their results. ■

© Dorian Schmidt

Control

Usual hand stirred application method

Reduced quantity of water

Stirring machine References GEIER U. 2005a: Pflanzenorganbildtypen in Kupferchloridkristallisation und Steigbild.

Lebendige Erde 5, 42-45. (available in German on line at: www.forschungsring.de/index. php?id=alte_hefte) GEIER U. 2005b: Ebenen der Auswertung in den bildschaffenden Methoden. Elemente der Naturwissenschaft, No. 85. Dornach (CH).

JACOBI, M. 2004: Rühren und Flowform-Mischen bei der Herstellung der biologischdynamischen Feldpräparate. Wasserzeichen 20/2004, 19-47.

KÖNIG U.J. 1998: Erste Ergebnisse aus dem Rührwirbelprojekt. Arbeitsbericht IBDF 1998, 21-24.

KÖNIG U.J. 2007: Begeisterung bei der Präparatearbeit. Lebendige Erde 3, 48-49.

KÖNIG U.J. 2007: Effiziente Präparatearbeit - handgerührt. Lebendige Erde 4, 46-47. (see summary of these two references in the next article) PICARIELLO C. 2004: Schritte der Auswertung von Tropfbildern. Elemente der Naturwissenschaft, No. 81, Dornach (CH).

MATHES C., GEIER U., SPIEß H. 2007: Elektronenbeize und Vitalität. Lebendige Erde 3, 44-47. (available in German online: www.lebendigeerde.de/index.php?id=heft_2007_3) RICHTER R., WALDBURGER B., GEIER U., KNIJPENGA H., WIRZ J. 2005: Qualitative Untersuchungen an transgenen Pflanzen im Nachbau mit ganzheitlichen Methoden.

Zwischenbericht. Forschungsinstitut am Goetheanum, Dornach (CH). (In German at: www.forschungsinstitut.ch/350.html) RICHTER R., WIRZ J. 2007: Gentechnisch veränderte Pflanzen. Lebendige Erde 1, 42-45. (Available in German online at : www.lebendigeerde.de/index. php?id=heft_2007_1) SCHMIDT D.: Observations in the Field of Formative Forces in Nature - Methods and Results. Available from the BDAA Translation by David Heaf

Institut für Biologisch-Dynamische Forschung im Forschungsring e.V., Brandschneise 5, 64295 Darmstadt, www.forschungsring.de

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Machines, Enthusiasm and the Biodynamic Preparations

by Bernard Jarman THE STIRRING AND SPRAYING of biodynamic preparations requires commitment and time.

As with most kinds of work however skill and the careful use of technology can greatly increase efficiency.While technology is particularly helpful for shifting and distributing quantities of material the biodynamic preparations affect living processes and living organisms.Any mechanisation used in this realm needs to be considered far more carefully.The following is drawn from two articles written by Uli Johannes König of the Institute for Biodynamic Research (IBDF) in Darmstadt.They appeared in Lebendige Erde (2007 3, 48-49) “Enthusiasm and the Preparations” and Lebendige Erde (2007 4, 47-47) “Efficient Preparation work - Hand Stirring” The spraying out of the preparations is essentially a mechanical process even though when it is done by hand using a bucket and brush, additional qualities may be imparted. In answer to a question as to whether the use of a powerful sprayer could destroy the spiritual qualities of the stirred preparation Rudolf Steiner replied that “ when you are dealing with spiritual things - unless you drive them away yourself from the outset - you need not fear that they will run away from you nearly as much as with material things”. Spraying technology so long as it allows the appropriate droplet or mist spray can be made extremely efficient. The latest research undertaken by IBDF in Darmstadt indicates that an application of as little as 3 litres of stirred preparation per hectare can still be effective.

The question of stirring and whether it should be mechanised is a complex question. The latest research results published here in Star & Furrow comparing the quality of preparations stirred by hand and those by machine demonstrates how sensitive this can be. In his article “Enthusiasm and the Preparations”, Uli Johannes König of IBDF, draws

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Star & Furrow Issue 109 Summer 2008

together some of the statements made by Rudolf Steiner concerning the mechanisation of stirring.

In response to a question about the use of machines on farms he said “You can hardly be a farmer nowadays without using machines. Needless to say not all operations are as akin to the most intimate processes of nature as is stirring”.

At the end of the lecture in which he introduced the spray preparations he states: “All our considerations begin with the human being - the human being is our foundation.” This is reflected in the image of the inverted human being given in the second lecture of the Agriculture Course. It also expresses itself in connection with the one hour needed for stirring. The 24-hour day has on average 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night. One hour is therefore 1/12th of a day.

The 12-fold division of the day has always been reckoned a cosmic measure of time and provides an important link between mankind and the cosmos. As regards stirring and the human element he said: “There can be no doubt, stirring by hand has quite another significance than mechanical stirring ... you should consider well what a great difference it makes, whether you really stir with your hand or in a mere mechanical fashion. When you stir manually, all the delicate movements of your hand will come into the stirring. Even the feelings you have may come into it.” He then adds: “With enthusiasm, great effects can be called forth. If you do (stirring) in an indifferent and mechanical way the effects are likely to evaporate.”

Then of course there is the well-known comment that “Simply by having many guests invited and doing it on Sundays, you will get the best results without machines!” Creating a joyful festive mood is certainly a good foundation for bringing enthusiasm to the stirring. Another approach is to tackle it in a meditative mood. Concentrating on the actual stirring process, living into it and trying to grow aware of what is happening with the preparation or in the surroundings can engender an inner enthusiasm for the world of formative forces. Both approaches are valuable. Can similar

enthusiasm be engendered when a machine does the work?

For a hard pressed farmer struggling to find time for everything it is indeed daunting to think of stirring by hand for one hour not once but fifty times over in order to spray the entire farm! In fact it is impossibility. Quoting again from the Agriculture course: “Why should it not be possible to develop machines, able to extend over whole fields the slight sprinkling that is required”. The important thing is to develop the right equipment so that much smaller amounts of liquid can be sprayed out over large areas. Instead of spraying 60 -100 litres using a 12 metre spraying width, why not aim to spray 5-10 litres using a 20 metre width. In the first case 250 litres of stirred preparation will be enough for 2.5 - 4 ha, in the second the same amount will cover 50 ha! This is a huge difference and will save an enormous amount of both stirring and spraying time. The quantity of liquid can even be reduced further so that as little as 3 litres is needed per hectare. The technology needed is very simple and can be easily put together by the farmer. During the conference at the Goetheanum in February this year an example of such a construct was on display.

It had been developed at IBDF and consisted of two separate systems one for horn manure and one for horn silica spraying. The first consisted of a simple boom with a single spray outlet on each end. The liquid was pumped out and distributed as droplets over a large area with the help of an oscillating hose mechanism. The horn silica had a separate (shorter) spray pipe with a misting nozzle.

The novel idea here was to construct an air channel using plastic fall pipes through which air could be driven (with the PTO) into the spray mist. This then drove the mist out over a very large distance drastically reducing the number of passes needed. The idea of having two separate systems is to have both permanently ready for use. Such an arrangement allows small quantities of water to be sprayed out over a very large area. Efficiency of course does not only depend on having the right equipment but having it all ready to use when it is needed.

Can such a small amount sprayed over a large area still be effective? The answer is yes but the principle here is not “the more the better” but “the higher the quality the stronger the effect”. By emphasising this quality aspect it is possible to engender much more enthusiasm into the process. This in turn appears to improve still further the quality of the preparation applied. By bringing enthusiasm into the stirring and increasing the number of applications far better results can be achieved. It is fairly well established that while machine stirring or flow forms may be a useful substitute method, the best quality preparation is always achieved by hand stirring. The possibility of using smaller quantities of liquid over larger areas can perhaps be an incentive to carry out more hand stirring.

Hand stirring of course unless carried out in an efficient manner can be very laborious and hard work. Stirring anything above 150 litres in a barrel is very hard work although some manage to stir 500 litres. Apart from the size, other improvements can be made to reduce friction and make stirring easier. Firstly a straight-sided cylinder is better than a traditional wine barrel. It can be made of wood and then lined with a skin of copper or stainless steel. Plastic of all kinds should be avoided. A smooth inner surface makes

Vortex forms

stirring easy. The size and proportions of the stirring broom are also important. It should be solid and fixed at the top using a universal joint. It should not be too thick and with its brush twigs should reach nearly to the bottom of the barrel.

All these factors contribute to low friction stirring.

As for stirring itself many opinions have been circulated over the years about the kind of vortex. Uli suggests that based on Steiner’s recommendations and careful observation of the process the vortex should be created by stirring vigorously on the outer rim so that towards the centre it becomes still. By stirring from the middle the opposite kind of vortex is created and active movement occurs in the centre while outside it is more still (see diagram above).

This second example is seen in the bathtub and has a quality of sucking in forces from the cosmos while the first has a more earthly downward pressing gesture. The second seems more appropriate to the preparations since the task is to release the forces contained rather than drawing them in from elsewhere.

The research currently being undertaken at IBDF using Dorian Schmidt’s formative forces observations opens up new possibilities for understanding the way we work with the preparations. Some exciting discoveries concerning the effects of machine stirring are described in the research article published in the current issue of Star & Furrow. Further work will then follow, hopefully in the next year, in which the use of flow forms as a replacement for stirring is investigated.

Though beautiful to watch and proven water improvers, it has been calculated that water must pass through them eight times in order to achieve the equivalence of a single stir. The type of vortex created is also of the sucking bathtub variety rather than the downward pressing crater and then there is the effect of the pump. Nonetheless many good experiences have been made with this kind of mixing and it will be interesting to see what effect there is on formative forces when the research is done hopefully by next year. ■

Close up of spray nozzles

Demonstration of the nozzles for spraying Preparation 500

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Feeding the foundation of health CELEBRATING ITS 10TH YEAR from unlikely startup as a remote organic food producer, an AngloScandinavian venture called Seagreens® has charted a course somewhere between intuitive faith and commercial reality to effect an innovation in the use of seaweeds in human nutrition and health. by Simon Ranger

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A BALANCED VARIETY OF FOODS is required on a daily basis to give our bodies in turn, not only the balance of nutrients they need to perform their multitude of daily functions, but to avoid and counter imbalances which cause disease.The relationship between balance and health first stimulated my interest in seaweed.

At the heart of biodynamics is the idea that through understanding and appreciating the natural relationship between all that is in this world separate1, Man, as an intelligent spiritual participant, can play his God-given role in the Creative process, a healing agent for the wholeness which the Cosmos is deemed to be.

Through a joint business venture in the late ‘90s I found myself far north of the Arctic Circle, among a vast archipelago of Norwegian islands, eagles, elk and reindeer in an ancient fishing community, harvesting wild seaweed. Extensive research had been carried out on its horticultural use, but at the time I was interested mainly in its potential for the human diet. As one of the earliest forms of vegetation, quite different from land plants, many seaweed varieties incorporate a balance of all the nutrients capable of sustaining life.

Among hundreds of seaweed varieties, these cold water ‘brown’ seaweeds particularly, provide in themselves, a remarkably balanced profile of virtually all the known nutrients2,3,4, including a significant proportion of ‘micro’ nutrients like the B vitamins and trace minerals as well as complex micronutrients.

However well the soil is husbanded, these micronutrients may still be deficient in land foods5,6,7,8, particularly difficult to obtain in special diets, and wholly absent from ‘artificial’ processed foods. This is because, except by flood, volcanic eruption or other catastrophic event, Nature has few means of replenishing the Earth with these vital components of the balance in our soils9,10. Even in biodynamic compost-

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ing and seed soaking, seaweed is used for this purpose11. The effect on plant growth can be easily demonstrated at home by soaking the seeds of bean sprouts overnight with a sprinkling of our granules mixed in the water.

Nutritional imbalance is implicated in all our modern pandemics from autism to obesity as well as our ubiquitous degenerative diseases, not to mention our susceptibility to disease from weak immunity. It behoves us to play our part in the natural and sustainable recycling of nutrients.

The brown ‘wrack’ seaweeds from our own sustainable harvest, still central in Asian diets as they were once prized in Europe, can help fill all of these nutrient gaps, are easily assimilated3,4 and contain a significant level of special seaweed polysaccharides, slow-digesting sugars which among other things, aid detoxification and intestinal healing12. Off the Lapland coast of Norway, we are fortunate in having a pristine, wild habitat where by harvesting in the summer months we obtain seaweeds in their most active state. Several independent reports have remarked on their exceptional energetic values. They are characterised by their density and slow growth because strong Arctic storms effectively ‘cull’ the old seaweed each winter.

As all in this world forms into opposites, seaweed mirrors land vegetation in a number of ways. The best seaweeds grow in cooler climes; the best land plants in warmer.

A balance of nutrients is only obtained from the land in a wide variety of foods; in seaweed, from a single or a very few species. It is not a matter of ‘either, or’ but of seeking their combination to balance out the whole. This is why in Japan, in one of the world’s most traditional and sophisticated diets, a very small amount of seaweed turns up in almost every meal. Once again, our focus might turn to the relationship between things, rather than to the things themselves, to find our own balance.

Regular, long term dietary inclusion of wrack

What is in it?

Typical nutrient profile of 1 gram Seagreens® mixed seaweed Food Granules Protein 75mg Carbohydrate/fibre 700mg (of which the non-starch polysaccharides Algin 230mg, Fucose and Fucoidan 90mg, Mannitol 65mg, Methylpentosans, Laminarin 40mg, Mannuronic acid 270mg) and essential fatty acids EFAs Vitamins A (antioxidant carotenoids beta carotene, and fucoxanthin, violaxanthin and chlorophyll) 178µg, B group (including B12 Cyanocobalamin 0.004µg, Bc Folic and Folinic acid 0.6µg, B1 Thiamine 0.3µg, B2 Riboflavin 7.5µg, Niacin (anti-pellagra) 20µg, Pantothenic acid, B6 Pyridoxin, Choline) 8.9µg, C (antioxidant) 1.25mg, D (Cholecalciferol) 0.01µg, E (antioxidant) including the complete set of isomers 0.23mg, H (Biotin) 0.30µg and K (Menadione) 10µg Minerals Calcium 20mg, Chlorine 35mg, Magnesium 7mg, Nitrogen 10.5mg, Phosphorus 1.5mg, Potassium 25mg, Sodium 35mg, Sulphur 30mg Trace elements include Antimony trace, Boron 0.06mg, Cobalt 5.4µg, Copper trace, Fluorine 0.2mg, Germanium trace, Gold trace, Iodine 390µg, Iridium trace, Iron 575µg, Lithium trace, Manganese 0.03mg, Molybdenum 0.65µg, Platinum trace, Rubidium trace, Selenium 0.15µg, Silicon 1mg, Silver trace, Tellurium trace, Titanium trace, Vanadium 2.3µg and Zinc 0.13mg Amino acids Histidine trace, Isoleucine 0.53mg, Leucine 5.3mg, Lysine 2.78mg, Methionine 0.68mg, Phenylalanine 0.83mg, Threonine 2.33mg, Tryptophan trace, Valine 2.63mg, Alanine 4.57mg, Arginine 11.17mg, Aspartic acid 4.88mg, Cysteine 0.90mg, Glutamic acid 5.18mg, Glycine 3.90mg, Proline 3mg, Serine 2.25mg, Tyrosine 1.05mg Betaines Glycine Betaine trace, Gamma Amino Butyric Acid Betaine trace, Delta Amino Valeric Acid Betaine trace, TML (Laminine) trace, L-Carnitine trace, Trigonelline trace; enzymes and valuable compounds which cannot be artificially formulated such as the phenolic compounds including free phloroglucinol, fucophorethols, and phlorotannin derivatives. 1g = 1000mg = 1000000µg And what is not?

Seagreens® was selected in 2007 for independent Food Innovation studies at Sheffield Hallam University. The research, completed in March 2008, confirmed Seagreens® wrack seaweeds to be free of all the likely ocean-borne environmental contaminants, toxic metals and microbial pathogens (33, 34). When Seagreens® began in 1998 it became “Britain’s first organic ocean-to-table seaweed producer” (The Times, October, 2005) and in 2003 was approved for use in biodynamic as well as organic foods and farming systems.

pursue a conventional marketing strategy which would have been to establish what was needed by a particular customer group and develop a product to fulfil it. Other people have done just this, for example by extracting fucoxanthin from seaweed and targeting it at weight loss. Equally, Seagreens® should not be confused with common kelp, mostly from industrial-scale harvesting to ‘feed’ the alginate industry for extracts used in a wide variety of manufacturing applications.

In 2001 a leading pioneer in amalgam-free dentistry discovered that Seagreens® Food Capsules (a wholefood mix of wrack seaweeds) were more effective © Simon Ranger

seaweed is reputed to assist nutrient absorption and metabolism, support gut and bowel health, the lymphatic and endocrine systems including the thyroid, help stabilise the acid-alkaline balance, strengthen immunity13, bind and remove toxic metals including mercury14,15,16,17,18,19 regulate fatty acid metabolism and electrolyte imbalance, and improve dry skin, listless hair and poor circulation20.

These indications of research conducted during the past four decades, reflect our own unique experience with Seagreens® over the past 10 years, both in everyday use among the general population, and among practitioners using our products in connection with therapeutic interventions in a wide variety of health conditions. Seagreens® has also shown itself to be non-allergenic and it appears to complement drug and nutritional supplement protocols, possibly assisting their uptake and efficacy21.

Although my introduction to seaweed began in horticulture, we have focussed almost exclusively on direct human nutrition. We now have a small range of products for consumers and medical and dental practitioners which make it very easy to include a gram or more in the daily diet for the whole family - as a food ingredient, encapsulated food, by inclusion in juices and smoothies, or in salads and other vegetables - or indeed for growing your own.

This contrasts with and complements the culinary uses of traditional Japanese seaweed varieties, but is entirely different from so-called ‘superfoods’ like wheat and barley grass, chlorella or other blue green micro algæ like spirulina, which are normally the product of fresh water farms where the nutrient profile is similar to that of land plants and to a large extent dependent upon the nutrient content of the growing medium. As an accomplished international marketing man myself, I shun the jargon like superfood which can distort more than it explains.

Our founding business idea was simply “to get a gram of the best seaweed into the human diet on a daily basis”22 and much of what has actually happened has been haphazard and organic, because in any case we never had the funds to

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and gentler than his existing protocol which was a combination of nutritional supplements, herbs and occasionally drugs23. Its ability to bind and remove toxic metals like mercury was then picked up by practitioners in autistic spectrum disorders where mercury retention is a common problem.

That led to clear indications of Seagreens® efficacy in the gut, immunity and hormonal balance24, whilst others began using it both as a comprehensive source of nutrients and as a detoxifier in cancer therapy, and so on.

As Seagreens® has developed, our focus has begun to broaden. Last year we introduced our first consumer

Tom Ventham says: “Winter feeding conventional milking cows was always a complicated science for me at college, balancing intake with maintenance of production and pregnancy, calculating deficiencies and supplementing accordingly. Feeding milking cows on a Biodynamic farm is completely different. We can really only produce milk from what we grow for the cows. The bulk is hay, giving the milk an untainted taste, some oats for energy and beans for protein, and that’s it! Choosing the breed is crucial: one that can support itself on this ration. For the 6 months of summer grazing at Plaw Hatch, the cows flourish on grass alone.

In my early years here we had problems with fertility in winter, retained placentas, poor coats, general unthrifityness, and taints in the milk. This was a direct result of the poor quality forage we produced which ultimately was a result of poor pastures. Consulting vets suggested among other things, to implant boluses with calcium cobalt and selenium to slow-release over time. We tried a few cows - poor things - with no results to suggest improvements.

We tried feeding expensive molasses-based mineral licks which the cows seem to eat at an alarming rate, but still no improvement (the left over buckets were the most useful part!).

I then discovered Simon’s seaweed, with its well balanced analysis of just about every mineral and trace element in perfect proportions. I remember offering some in my hand to a cow that licked it clean of every granule before the next cow picked up the scent. So we tried it, and to this day we still routinely feed Seagreens® to all the milking cows (and sows) during the winter and all the problems of fertility and poor coats etc., have gone. I tried to do comparative blood tests before and after, but the results were not conclusive (probably over too short a time period), so I have relied instead on the longer term external effects.

I think the main point for me was to understand the function of seaweed in its natural environment, and the detailed balance it provides to correct subtle changes in the cow’s constitution. We feed approximately 5 grams per day per cow - and I have about the same!”

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product for cats, dogs and horses, but five years ago Tom Ventham, the dairyman at Plaw Hatch Farm in Sussex, began feeding it to his dairy cattle. We understand it has now reached the farm’s wonderful cheeses and indeed, many Sussex cheese lovers! As a result this year we have introduced a discounted direct delivery service for biodynamic and organic farms.

Largely because of a government campaign to reduce salt in the human diet, we approached a number of bakeries because most of the excess sodium was said to be coming from our daily bread! The first and most sincere initiative in this direction came from Artisan Bread, a biodynamic producer in Kent, where Ingrid Greenfield replaced salt with Seagreens® in most types of loaf, ensuring a balance of all the minerals in her bread.

We have begun to supply other, carefully chosen food producers who want to include our branded Certified Ingredients in their own products. These ‘Brand Partners’ include Beannachar Herb Workshop in Aberdeen which supplies nutritional supplements to children in and beyond the Camphill Communities, Bart Spices in Bristol (who won a West of England Gold Food Award for their mix of rock salt and Seagreens®), and Waitrose which also sells our consumer products!

Salt replacement has now become important enough for Seagreens® to be selected for a government sponsored project at Sheffield Hallam University, once again leading us into new areas of potential. Since 2007, Sheffield’s ‘Food Innovation’ project has been studying natural alternatives to a number of less than desirable ingredients used for taste or expediency in manufactured foods, including salt. Seagreens® proved not only to provide a balance of all the mineral salts, but to behave as a natural preservative, so increasing shelf life, by significantly inhibiting the growth of microbial pathogens, and by stabilising the water content and acid-alkaline (pH) balance of the food25.

Once again these antibiotic or antibacterial and alkalising qualities reflect our experience in daily use and research carried out elsewhere. A Japanese study in 1986 showed that whereas rats given excess salt died of heart failure, those fed wrack seaweed as well as the salt did not, the seaweed being an antidote to the excess sodium26.

I was never so obsessed that I believed seaweed to be the panacea for all ills, but even before University, I was interested in the relationship between diet and brain, mind and behaviour, (what goes in, comes out) which led me to explore neurology and psychology, vegetarianism, and most recently traditional Japanese diet and macrobiotics.

At a material level, I felt that our seaweed would provide an adequate basis for a brand with integrity, and I coined the phrase “Feed the Foundation of Health” which accompanies the Seagreens® trade mark. But having committed “to deliver goodness and value in all our relationships”, our ability to match this with spiritual and corporate integrity requires a continuous act of faith, as I quickly found.

In The Biodynamic Food and Cookbook, Wendy Cook suggests that “When it honours the particular piece of land that forms it, in all its true depth of potentiality, the farm is a world of symbiotic relationships and processes. Then the farm becomes the most excellent, cheap and efficient place to study botany, zoology, chemistry, physics, water, soil, chemistry, nutri-

Research report from NHRDF (the National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation), Maharashtra, India: Okra and onions are grown on a commercial scale all over India and okra has important export potential. Seaweed and synthetic fertilisers are used but Seagreens® Liquid Purée is a novel product produced directly from whole, fresh, cold wet seaweed without the conventional use of high temperatures and powdering which destroys much of its goodness. Sponsored trials began in 2007 using Seagreens® as a foliar spray against the main competitors, and will be repeated several times to establish a clear result. All of the trials in this series used Seagreens® and the competitors at different strengths, with a control using water and sticker only.

challenges of function, but of packaging, regulatory control and delivery. Last year we achieved FDA regulatory compliance and registered our trade mark in the United States at huge expense. With the kind and proactive help of Timothy Brink at the BDAA we also obtained US Biodynamic® and NOP organic approvals.

Like one of those spectacular flowers which takes years to bloom, we can see our business opening out to an increasing variety of partnerships which can benefit from co-operation and take us in exciting new directions - animal nutrition, composting, and healthcare among them.

All photographs © Simon Ranger

tion, cooking, animal husbandry, crafts, climatology, astronomy and true economy; to manage nature’s household properly we will need to develop a new and qualitatively different understanding of economic principles”27. And that is pretty much what I am facing, too.

In pursuit of an unconventionally slower but steady development, we have nonetheless sponsored a London study into the use of Seagreens® in eczema, and with friends in Germany, horticultural trials against some commercial fertilisers in India. As with our consumer products, much will depend on our ability to respond creatively not only to new

Results from this initial series showed few significant differences among treatments overall, but in both crops the highest yields were achieved using a lower dose of Seagreens® than of the other products. In the okra trials, the highest number of leaves and plant stand at one month and harvest were also achieved with Seagreens®. In onions, the lowest incidence of stemphylium blight disease was recorded using a higher dose of Seagreens®, though no higher than the highest dose among the competitors.

Conversely, the consistent highest yield at 15, 30 and 45 days after planting, and the lowest incidence of thripe, was recorded using the weakest Seagreens® solution (less than half the strength of the weakest competing solution). The largest bulb size was recorded using Seagreens® at the medium solution. The names of competing products cannot be published until the completion of all trials.

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Our discounted pricing for biodynamic organisations is not just goodwill, because between us we want to engender new science, applications and products. Where so many commercial enterprises remain ‘closed’ and guarded in a hostile environment, we are determined to keep this flower truly ‘open’, discerning at every step the potential in relationships which will add value and goodness to those which already exist. This is, as I have hoped to make clear, a quest not just for a healthier business, but a healthier life. Is it possible to have one without the other?

Everywhere there is a need for mankind to exercise responsible self-governance, not only in political terms, but in the public space, the natural environment, in business and financial management, agriculture, and preventive healthcare. In pursuit of this for the next 10 years, we are beginning a long term programme through which we aim to stimulate conversation about The Foundation of Health from many points of view. We will also encourage greater involvement in our business and decision-making from stakeholders - including consumers, farmers, health and food writers, medical practitioners, researchers, retailers and wholesalers.

Above all we will continue to build a business rooted in a spiritual approach to commercial solutions, which remains our guiding purpose for Seagreens®.

I see this flowering in many other places and through many new alliances. Carlo Petrini, founder of the Slow Food Movement which readily allies with biodynamics, has said: “It is useless to force the rhythms of life. The art of living is about learning how to give time to each and every thing”. Many of us now see that we do not have to do it all by ourselves – nor do we have the time – but through co-operation great things can be achieved between us. In this turning outward, in the business world as much as anywhere, to place as much importance on relationship as self, I seek the further expression of balance at the heart of society and to lay yet another foundation stone of health.

If you would like further information including details of our special terms for biodynamic and organic enterprises, please contact Seagreens® Information Service: post@seagreens.com or 0845-0640040 (from outside the UK +44-1444-401207). The full article of which this is a slightly shorter version appears at www.seagreens.com. ■

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1 R. Steiner, Agriculture Course (Lecture 2), 1924 2 G. Blunden, M. D. Guiry, Seaweed Resources in Europe: Uses and Potential,

John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, New York, 1991

3 V. G. Cooksley, Seaweed, A Field Guide to Seaweed, Stewart,Tabori & Chang,

New York, 2007 p. 172

4 S. Surey-Gent, G. Morris, Seaweed - A User’s Guide, Whittet Books, 1987 5 Daily Mail, London, March 2001 6 The Guardian, February 2006 (quoted in The Week, London, 11.02.06) 7 Changing Diets, Changing Minds: how food affects mental health and behav-

iour, a joint report of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, January 16, 2006, in partnership with the Mental Health Foundation

8 Feeding Minds:The Impact of Food on Mental Health, a report of the Mental

Health Foundation (MHF), February 2006

9 H. C. A.Vogel,The Nature Doctor, (Manual of Traditional and Complementary

Medicine), Mainstream Publishing Company, Edinburgh, 50th Edition, 1989.

10 D. E.Thomas,The Mineral Depletion of Foods (1940-2002), Nutrition and

Health, 17, 85-115, 2003 and research compilation for a London Conference on Obesity, April 2005.

11 For example Peter Proctor and Savdanen Patel in How to Save the World, a DVD about biodynamic farming in India (from BDAA) 12 H. Aihara, Acid and Alkaline, Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation, 1986.

13 G. E. Abraham, J. D Flechas, J. C. Hakala, Optimum levels of iodine for greatest mental and physical health,The Original Internist, 2002, 90: 5-20 14 Y.Tanaka et al.,The Binding of Lead by a Pectic Polyelectrolyte, Environmental Research 14:128-140, 1977 15 S. C. Skoryna,Y.Tanaka et al., Prevention of Gastrointestinal Absorption of Excessive Trace Elements Intake,Trace Substances in Environmental Health VI, Symposium, (D. D. Hemphill, Ed.), University of Missouri, Columbia, 1973 16 Y.Tanaka et al., Studies on Inhibition of Intestinal Absorption of Radioactive Strontium, Canadian Medical Association Journal 99:169-75, 1968 17 S. C. Skoryna et al., Studies on Inhibition of Intestinal Absorption of Radioactive Strontium, Canadian Medical Association Journel 91:285-88, 1964 18 J. Jellin, P. Gregory, F. Batz, K. Hitchin, S. Burson, K. Shaver, K, Palacioz in Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database, 3rd edition, pp. 27-28.Therapeutic Research Faculty, Stockton, California, 2000 - www.naturaldatabase.com 19 M.Y. Arica et al., Alginates bind heavy metals, Journal of Hazardous Material, 2004 20 J.Tommey, Pure, simple, effective and essential,The Autism File, Issue 21, Winter 2006 21 Summary for Healthcare Practitioners, 22nd Edition, Seagreens®, 2008 22 T. McLoughlin in Organic & Natural Business magazine,Vol. 6, Issue 2, p21, February/March 2008 23 The late Dr J. G. Levenson initiated the UK’s first major conference on the dangers of mercury in 1985; was founder and President, British Society for Mercury-Free Dentistry; Dental Adviser and Executive Committee Member, Environmental Medicine Foundation; member of the British Dental Editors Forum; responsible for the dental sections of the Allergy & Environmental Medicine Departments of the Wellington & Lister Hospitals, London 24 J.Tommey, ‘Pure, simple, effective and essential’,The Autism File, Issue 21, Winter 2006.

25 A. C. Fairclough, D. E. Cliffe,The potential for the use of Seagreens® wild wrack seaweed as a bacteriostat and its effect on shelf-life, Sheffield Hallam University, March 2008 26 Y.Yamori et al., Dietary Prevention of Stroke and Its Mechanisms in StrokeProne Spontaneously Hypetensive Rats - Preventive Effect of Dietary Fibre and Palmitloleic Acid, Journal Hypertens 4(3):S449-S452, 1986.

27 W. E. Cook,The Biodynamic Food and Cookbook, Real nutrition that doesn’t cost the Earth, Clairview Books, 2006

By Lynette West

WHEN USING LIQUID MANURES in a biodynamic system we need to ensure that we are not feeding the plant directly. In a biodynamic system the plant must be able to feed naturally according to its requirements.The biodynamic practitioner needs to ensure that plant nutrients are maintained in colloidal form. In the case of liquid manures nutrients need to be held as liquid colloids.

© Richard Swann

Using Liquid Manures

colloidal bonding of nutrients. This activity in nature is performed by microorganisms and bacteria that live under aerobic conditions and which feed on organic compounds.

AEROBIC BREAKDOWN In making liquid manure the same principles apply as when making compost. All healthy systems in nature are aerobic, continually in the presence of oxygen. This principle applies to all composting systems, whether solid as in compost or in liquid processes as for liquid manures.

PLANTS FED NATURALLY To maintain aeration in a liquid manure process In a Biodynamic system plants must be fed naturally aerators can be used to pump oxygen into the liquid twenty through the fine white feeder root hairs. The challenge when using liquid manures is to avoid feeding plants directly four hours a day. This ensures the process remain aerobic at through the water roots as is the case when we use artificial all times “To neglect any fertiliser that is not organically fertilisers. For a plant to feed naturally nutrients must be colloidally bonded to an organic molecule and must never pass alive will result in the corresponding decline in soil microbiology.” out of this colloidal form. “….draws in the substances it needs into an organic process we never go out of the living realm into that CHELATION Nutrients contained in plant materials are not in a form of organic chemistry.” digestible to plants unless they are chelated. There are two There is a great deal of difference between the development of fine white feeder root hairs from plants fed chelating agents in nature; humus and aerobic bacteria.

Through the chelating action of the aerobic bacteria, nuvia water soluble fertilisers and plants fed via the colloidal system. Plants fed via the colloidal system will develop three trients are in the perfect form for a plant to utilise and have become part of a living organism. to four times as many fine white feeder root hairs. This “All our fertilising practices must be within the enables the plant to make entirely different use of the mineral nutrients and affects the whole health and vital- living realm to be truly beneficial to plant life.” ity of the plant and the life of the surrounding soil. Nutrients in this form do not leach from the soil but are available LIQUID COLLOIDS A colloid is a physical state of matter which can hold subwhen needed. stances in suspension whether they are gas, liquid or solid.

This increased ability to absorb nutrients which For a plant to feed naturally all nutrients must remain in are in a colloidal form is not only true for plants. Every this colloidal form. This is a most important factor in an cell in the human body is made up of colloids arranged to perform specific functions. For our body to absorb nutrients agricultural system.

Colloids provide the most important link or minerals these must be in a colloidal state or they will be excreted, however, if these minerals are colloidally bonded, between the inorganic and the organic, a clue to the very source of life. It is now understood that plant nutrients they will be completely absorbed. pass from soil solids to plants without leaving the sphere When we understand this important aspect of of the colloidal form. plant and animal nutrition we can see that there is a direct Liquid manures are stirred for twenty minutes link between human health and our current agricultural prior to use. The action of vortex stirring puts an electrical practices. Human nutrition is linked to this process, we charge on the particles of matter suspended in the water are not separate from it. We must understand processes in thus rendering them colloidal. nature, based on the laws of life itself, which lead to this

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,

, g

,

, p

BIODYNAMIC COMPOST PREPARATIONS BD502 TO BD507 To ensure the process of converting all the macro and micro nutrients contained in liquid manures are guided in the right direction the biodynamic compost preparations (BD502, 503, 504, 505, 506 and 507) are added to the liquid the process. Whenever we breakdown organised material we enter the realm of chaos and it is here that these preparations find their realm. The compost preparations are quite specific aids and regulators, on the one hand they guide and support the breakdown process and on the other increase the plants receptivity to substances and forces coming from the cosmic environment.

HOW TO MAKE LIQUID MANURES Collect plants, seaweed or fish wastes that are to be used as the ingredient for the liquid manure. Two-thirds fill a barrel or similar container with the plant material, chopped seaweed or fish wastes; fill the container with rain water.

ADDING THE BIODYNAMIC COMPOST PREPARATIONS To add the biodynamic preparations BD502-507; wrap the six preparations BD502 to 506 in small hessian bags with a small stone added to hold these bags down into the liquid.

Tie a string onto the bags and secure to a wooden cross which will sit on top of the container. Lower these preparations into the liquid. Stir preparation BD507 in 4.5 litres of warmed high quality water for twenty minutes and pour FLOWFORMS over the top of the liquid. Cover with a loose fitting lid to The formative forces of water express themselves in flow patterns, spirals and vortices. Throughout the fermentation allow for air circulation but to keep out rainwater.

Everyday lift out the wooden cross with the prepaprocess flowforms can be used to regularly enhance the vitalrations suspended from it and stir this liquid vigorously for a ity of the water and mirror this vortical action. The use of few minutes. This is to help keep the whole process aerobic. flowforms brings the liquid into a more enlivened state.

To support aeration in the liquid the use of aerators such as an aquarium pump which will pump oxygen into the tanks APPLICATION Liquid manures have an important role in establishing and twenty four hours a day are recommended. This ensures the process remains aerobic at all times. maintaining a healthy and vital environment that is rich in The liquid manure will be ready from six weeks microbial activity. They are ideal mediums through which to six months depending on the ingredients used. It should macro and micro nutrients can be maintained in the soil be a clear, sweet smelling, caramel coloured liquid. Liquid with no loss of nutrients. manure is stirred for twenty minutes before using.

Liquid manures are also excellent mediums for spreading the influences of the biodynamic compost BENEFITS OF USING preparations over larger areas of land than would WEEDS IN LIQUID MANURE otherwise be possible.

Weeds can also be made into liquid manure to which the biodynamic compost preparations are added. These plants LIQUID MANURES (BASED ON are specialists at producing the substances that the soil lacks, SEAWEED, FISH OR PLANT WASTES) thus contributing to soil improvement. They accumulate These act as tonics or stimulants to the soil and plant these substances in high dilutions, condense them into a processes. They are used as aids to the humus formation more concentrated form and carry them into the soil. processes in the soil, not as a replacement for them.

The farmer or gardener can remedy deficiencies Liquid manures can be made of plant and/or animal materials. Each ingredient will have a different stimulat- in his soil by spreading this liquid onto the soil where these ing effect on the plant. A wide range of plants can be used to weeds were growing. Any soil deficiencies are then make liquid manures; stinging nettle, comfrey, thistles and remedied in an organic form which is in harmony chickweed are very beneficial and also contain high quanti- with biological processes. ■ ties of many trace minerals. Seaweed is very beneficial as an NUTRIENTS THAT ARE all purpose tonic as it contains a wide range of macro and AVAILABLE IN DIFFERENT PLANTS micro nutrients required by plants.

Blackberry: iron ■ Borage: potassium ■ Bracken fern: potassium THE PROPER BREAKDOWN PROCESS FOR LIQUID MANURES To ensure that the plant is able to feed naturally according to its requirements the nutrients contained in the liquid need to be chelated and bound as a colloid. The table below is a summary of how this can be achieved in a biodynamic system.

Requirement

■ Broom: magnesium, sulphur ■ Buttercup: cobalt ■ Cabbage leaves: sulphur ■ Chickweed: phosphorus, boron, zinc, iron, calcium, magnesium, manganese, silicon ■ Comfrey: phosphorus, calcium, potassium, iron, sodium, manganese, chromium, selenium ■ Dandelion: calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, potassium, silicon ■ Fennel: copper, potassium, sodium, sulphur ■ Inkweed (phytolacca): potassium ■ Lucerne: potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus ■ Petty spurge: boron ■ Ragwort: copper ■ Stinging Nettle: iron, potassium, sodium, sulphur, calcium, selenium, chromium, silicon, cobalt, zinc, magnesium, manganese ■ Thistles: nitrogen, copper, silicon ■ Willow: calcium ■ Yarrow: potassium

How this is achieved

A requirement for biodynamic plant nutrition is that plants are fed naturally.

We need to ensure all nutrients are chelated and bound to an organic molecule.

Aerobic bacteria are chelating agents. You can help to keep the liquid manure aerobic through daily stirring of the liquid when working with plant materials. With more solid materials such as seaweed or fish the use of aerators such as are available in aquarium shops is recommended to ensure the process remains aerobic.

We should never leave the sphere of the colloid.

All nutrients need to be colloidally bonded.

Stir the liquid manure for 20 minutes before applying to create a colloid state within the water. Use flowforms during the breakdown process as the action of the vortex renders the water molecules colloidal.

Sustain the etheric energy of all organisms.

We need to maintain the right fermentation to ensure there are minimal losses of nutrients.

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Benefits

Star & Furrow Issue 109 Summer 2008 Trace minerals and nutrients.

Flowforms create water with a strong ‘life energy’.

The biodynamic compost preparations 502 to 507 are used to achieve the right fermentation in the breakdown process.

Ingredients used Seaweed, fish comfrey, nettle and others.

‘You’ll love to play with vortices at home’

by Patti O’Brien

taking notes, and after six days of mind-boggling brain strain, our group of already dedicated organic growers went home confident in their ability to work more constructively with nature and everything that lives.

A spirited group, Lynette’s enthusiasm, plus the machinations of the cosmos made for a heady brew. The farm workers and grooms crossing the yard outside our classroom might well have expressed doubt at our supposed earnest application. What they witnessed were frequent eruptions of laughter, bizarre circling processions on the terrace (role play performing the interrelation of planetary orbits) and oversized children playing with clay, water and food dye – not forgetting of course the staple of our mucky games - buckets of sloppy, fresh cow pat. Lynette’s inner child is in good form, few minutes passed without her cheeks dimpling. She relishes her practice: ‘You’ll love to play with vortices at home’. As for the realities of striving for perfection, she aims high.

As a record of a handful of memorable days, Duchy Home Farm deserves a good mention. Our classroom, a rustic and attractive stone building, opened onto the farmyard, where chickens scratched, dogs wagged and ponies watched us eating lunch from their loose boxes. A welcoming host, David Wilson, the farm manager, took us for a guided tour of his diverse and beautiful acres one evening after class.

Throughout the course Jessica brought along a wide selection of books and calendars from the BDAA, and what with the fine camaraderie and nibbles a-plenty we were reluctant to leave at the end, begging Lynette to hold a question-andanswers session when she is back in the country.

So often ecologists look to the wild to observe plants and animals at their best. Lynette however, gives the impression that the ministerings of enlightened man can create an even better state, a super-vital environment for all of its myriad denizens. Enhancing your cultivations by harnessing the energy of terrestrial and cosmic rhythms is more than a useful agricultural refinement – call me a romantic, but what can be more splendidly life-enriching than gazing up at the stars at night and feeling your connection between earth and the heavens? Yours is a small but enviable position, raking the stars for the vitality of your plot. ■ Patti O’Brien, 40, smallholder and garden journalist © Richard Swann

IF THERE IS ONE PRACTICE that unites all biodynamic growers, it must be consulting the pages of a sowing and planting calendar to decide on the plan of action for the day and weeks ahead. If the columns of arcane symbols that denote astroevents leave you confused more than informed, the basic recipe is still very helpful. Is it a root, leaf, flower or fruit day, or one when you are warned to leave the soil well alone?

Lynette West, founder of the Biodynamic Education Centre, has a mission to teach not just the practice of biodynamics, but the science behind the art. In six days spread over three weeks (there is only so much you can absorb in one hit), her foundation course systematically interprets the calendar from the most basic to a sophisticated level. She covers the theory of biodynamic husbandry including the preparations, and afternoon practicals range from stirring and applying equisetum tea to compost building and soil profiling.

The atmosphere at the April 2008 course at Duchy Home Farm was vibrant. Around the room, twenty faces alternated between fierce concentration and illuminated delight. A diverse group of farmers and growers, of every age and stage, but sharing a passion for growing, we were all gripped by Lynette’s enthusiastic delivery, and the astonishing knowledge that we were gleaning for the future. Trevor (TG) Sutton affirms ‘We were very fortunate in having Lynette as the messenger, for her deep knowledge, dedication and commonsense approach eased my understanding of a complex subject…it’s the only promising direction that I can take in my future growing’. Dide Lucas adds, ‘Organic Gardening has reaped beautiful rewards for us, in so many ways it seems almost unreasonable to imagine wanting more. Lynette has opened a door and I can’t resist going through it.’

Lynette’s commitment to biodynamics as a solution to many of the planet’s pressing problems prompts her to travel to Britain biennially from her home in Australia. A resurgence of spiritual land husbandry is up-and-coming on this island. With the help of a vast suitcase of prescient quotes, plastic orbs, role-play accessories and pictures, she is energetic and inspiring. ‘She brings BD thinking and practice literally to life’ (Jessica Standing). A trilogy of manuals to take home ensures students can concentrate fully without

An appreciation of Lynette West’s Foundation Course at Duchy Farm

Star & Furrow Issue 109 Summer 2008

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by Bernard AT THE NORTHERN BIODYNAMIC conference Jarman held at Brantwood in the Lake District on 4th and 5th May, some interesting questions arose concerning the future of Cumbrian hill farming and whether biodynamics might have a role to play.

Brantwood on the eastern shores of Lake Coniston is the former home of John Ruskin. Today it is owned by the Brantwood Trust whose purpose is to commemorate the work of John Ruskin and make it more widely known. It is in a beautiful position and it is claimed to be the finest house in Cumbria. The house is surrounded by beautiful gardens conceived by Ruskin not so much for their aesthetic value but as places to research and experiment. It is this interest in researching practical solutions to our environmental and social problems that led Brantwood Trust, Ruskin Mill Further Education Trust and the Northern Biodynamic Group to arrange this conference around the launch of a special research project on one of the fields close to the house and beside the lake. This research project aims to assess the benefits of biodynamic techniques for the Cumbrian uplands.

The Brantwood Hay Meadow Project will run for three years and focus primarily on the application of biodynamic preparations. The field chosen is permanent grassland which is cut for hay and then grazed by sheep.

Each year it has received a small application of farmyard manure occasionally supplemented with artificials. The field is being divided into three sections. Grazing, cutting and manuring will be common to all three. One section will receive artificial fertiliser, the second will receive nothing extra and the third will be treated intensively with the horn manure, horn silica and barrel preparations. For half of the year the field will be grazed by sheep and a horse. There is no fence separating the areas and one test will be to see if the animals prefer one section over another. Soil analyses and chromatograms will be made from each section every year.

In this way it is hoped that the effect of the preparations can be clearly demonstrated. Because of its unique and highly visible position beside the lake and the bird’s eye view of it from the house, any visible differences between the various sections will become readily apparent.

If the trial offers tangible results it will support the growing interest of local farmers in biodynamic practice and help them overcome any remaining scepticism. A few of them attended the conference and heard two excellent presentations on biodynamic methods given by Peter Bateman of Freeman College and Ian Bell of Heritage Prime. Interest in biodynamics is growing not least because traditional hill farming is under increasing threat. The younger generation no longer wishes to scratch a meagre living keeping sheep

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Star & Furrow Issue 109 Summer 2008

on the fells. Added to this is the devastation caused to the sheep population by the contiguous cull policy administered during the Foot and Mouth tragedy. Farming in the Lake District as elsewhere is in serious decline.

The unique features of Cumbrian farming were eloquently described by John Atkinson a neighbouring farmer who continues to keep a flock on the hills. He described how one third of all England’s common land is in Cumbria. Local farmers have inherited commoner’s rights to graze these areas with cattle and sheep. There are 180 commons across the county and these include both the high fells and the salt marshes next to the sea. Most of these areas are owned as they have been for generations by the local manorial estates.

Nearly a quarter of them however no longer have any legal owner though the commoner’s rights continue. Each common is cared for and managed by the local farmers through a cooperative Commons Association. The 180 Associations are linked together through an umbrella Association covering the whole county. The farmers in the Associations work together and support one another with their various seasonal tasks. At the same time each farmer has his own flock which occupies a clearly delineated area of hill known as a heaf.

It was the FMD disaster that the brought the concept of a hefted flock into public consciousness. The extensive culling carried out in 2001 resulted in the loss of between 30% and 60% of the Cumbrian breeding population and many areas still remain seriously under stocked even today. A hefted sheep flock is one which has learnt to remain in a clearly defined area. The flock knows how far it can roam and where any dangers may lie. It is also intimately adapted to the specific conditions of the hill. Knowledge of their area is passed down through the generations of sheep from ewe to lamb. They are all related to one another and share a common group identity. These hefted flocks belong to the mountain and are passed on with the commoners rights to successive farmers. They are very valuable since as well as being truly acclimatised the farmer can leave his animals on the hill knowing that they will not stray beyond the limits of their ‘heaf ’. This is why the loss of a hefted flock is such a tragedy. Ruth Watkins on www.warmwell.com wrote at the time of the FMD fiasco: “Re-hefting sheep is expensive and time consuming. Extra shepherding is needed for at least five years. Initially the shepherd may have to live with the sheep and then visit daily to turn back sheep into their heaf. Where the whole mosaic of hefted flocks has been disrupted or vanished, electric fencing is being tried. Very large areas of moorland and mountain will present special difficulty, supposing they can be rehefted at all. The process is not complete for ten to fifteen years.”

There is a very close and fragile relationship

two polar opposite principles. On the one hand it implies a mixed farm confined within a clearly defined boundary.

Within this boundary or skin of the organism the life of the farm takes place. On the other hand the life of everything on the farm is integrated with the infinite expanses of the universe. The context of a biodynamic farm is not limited to any physical processes and substances but extends to the entire living and spiritual universe.

This is a paradox and yet it might open up possible answers to the question of how to reconcile a farm organism with the regular migration of animals to the wide open hill. The challenge is not dissimilar to that between settled and nomadic peoples. Biodynamic farming is established in settled communities, can it equally serve the world’s nomads? These are big questions but in some parts of the world partial answers have been found.

On the Lakeland Fells and its age old system of common grazing it is the idea of hefted sheep which perhaps holds the key. These animals have been trained over generations to know and identify with a very particular and defined area. During the season they are regularly rounded up, move from the hillside to the farm and return again. When they do the flock knows exactly how far it can roam. The area of a ‘heaf ’ is hard to calculate and varies in size according to forage quality, remoteness and the way a common has been subdivided. On one mountain area an average heaf extended to 200ha with a stocking rate of up to 1.7 sheep per ha or about 117 sheep in a heaf.

A hefted sheep flock is intimately connected to one unique piece of moorland. Adaptation often appears to have gone so far that a sheep placed in a neighbouring heaf could well suffer from parasites and the like which on home turf it would be immune to. Such intimacy of relationship approaches that sought for on many a biodynamic farm.

This piece of open hill with its invisible boundary created by the flock masters some thousand years ago, could naturally form part of a biodynamic organism. The sheep feed on the farmer’s grass and hay during harsh periods and lambing time and upon the rough mountain fare the rest of the time.

A closed system is formed between them. The heaf could then be treated with biodynamic preparations and perhaps cattle could be brought in once more to make it richer and more diverse. The main thing though is that an ear is given to listening to the language of the hill, to the messages of the sheep and above all to the wisdom of the remaining shepherds who continue to farm these fells. ■

Star & Furrow Issue 109 Summer 2008

© All photographs - David Taylor

between sheep, farmer and landscape. Both over and under stocking can seriously affect the way the landscape develops.

The farmer and his grazing animals together ensure that the fell landscape which so many thousands of tourists love to visit each year remains accessible. The disappearance of managed grazing would change the whole character of the hills.

In days gone by it was not only sheep but cattle too which grazed the hills. Traditional breeds like the Galloway are ideally suited to this terrain and thrive on the course grasses growing there. Cattle are particularly valuable because they are less selective in their grazing. It is partly because so few cattle are now grazing the hills that there is more rough grass, bracken and scrub than there used to be.

It is no longer viable to keep cattle on the hill - they grow and finish far more slowly than their lowland equivalents.

The thirty month rule brought in to control BSE was particularly devastating since hill cattle need three to four years to fatten.

Farming these areas is becoming increasingly difficult and most farmers have to supplement their income with other work. This means that they are forced to pay less attention to their sheep and as a result simple problems are often overlooked and remain untended for longer resulting in a general decline in the health of hill flocks. The situation is worsened by well meaning programmes designed to increase production - such as headage payments which encourage overstocking. On the other hand conservation measures designed to reduce the sheep population cause the opposite problem. What can be done? At the conference it was pointed out that these farmers are the real stewards of the landscape and that they should be paid a living salary so that they can continue doing what they have done so well for thousands of years.

Perhaps this is where biodynamic agriculture comes in as a conscious means to improve the quality and health of livestock, improve the vegetation and the soil and create a new social and economic structure within which these valued hill stewards can exist as citizens of the modern age. This of course brings up very interesting questions as to whether it is possible for this semi nomadic farming system to become truly biodynamic. It was the question which lived silently and unanswered through the conference.

“A farm is true to its essential nature, in the best sense of the word, if it is conceived as a kind of individual entity in itself - a self-contained individuality.” This much quoted sentence from Rudolf Steiner’s ‘Agriculture’, indicates the direction in which a biodynamic farmer needs to go. The concept of a farm individuality lives in the tension between

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Sustainable Ecological Earth Regeneration with Rockdust

© SEER

by Moira Thomson

ROCKDUST IS CATCHING THE IMAGINATION of gardeners and farmers and its use is spreading in the UK and beyond. Consumer demand is bringing Rockdust’s miracle effects into our gardens and farms and into the environmental, farming and food debates.

The SEER Centre Trust was established as a Recognised Scottish Charity in 1997, following 13 years pioneering work by co-founders Cameron & Moira Thomson, advocating Rockdust as The Solution to achieving Sustainable Ecological Earth Regeneration. The SEER Centre is a working model for conversion to sustainable organic “remineralised” agriculture by application of rockdusts and recycled municipal composts for soil creation, maximum soil fertility, minimal soil erosion and maximum protection from climate-change weather extremes. The charity aims to attract scientific research into the benefits of Rockdust.

Since 1997, on the foothills of the Grampian mountains in Strathardle, Perthshire, the infertile, acidic, upland grassland site, although exposed to severe weather at 1000 feet, has been transformed into an ecologically diverse environment by the Thomson’s soil creation with rockdusts and municipal composts. (This growing medium is called “SEER Rocksoil”). Remarkable terraced gardens have been created. Deep fertile soils produce convincing heavy mineral-rich crops of tasty organic vegetables, fruit and bright flowers.

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Cameron & Moira share how they achieved this and why they are so enthusiastic about spreading the benefits of Rockdust.

Moira points to her daughter holding a huge freshly cut calabrese head weighing 1.75 kg, saying, “this kind of food contains all the nutrients, energy and natural forces that nature intended our food should bestow to us - all food sold in all markets and shops should be grown with rockdust!

Mineral Replacement Therapy (MRT) with Rockdust is natural fertility treatment. NPK chemical fertilisers, which cause ecological imbalances and soil erosion, are not. If we humans can manage to cover the Earth’s soils with various chemicals several times a year to chemically grow our crops, we can surely cover Earth’s soils with Rockdust!

We believe that using Rockdust on a global scale for sustainable organic gardening, agriculture, forestry and composting can boost fertility and regenerate natural ecosystems which, in turn, can nourish our increasing populations with nutrient-rich organic foods for current and future generations”.

SUSTAINABLE SOILS Soil is our most important and fragile resource. The fertile soils in volcanic areas like Lanzorotti are productive and high yielding due to the abundance of minerals and trace elements in volcanic soils. BBC Horizon, “The Blue Nile” in 2004, traced the Blue Nile to its origins in the highlands of Ethiopia where the weathering of volcanic rock flow-

ing down the river is deposited on the Nile delta making it famously highly fertile. The Blue Nile is called so because it is coloured with blue-grey rockdust.

It is possible to create such mineral-rich soils in your very own garden by spreading a dressing of SEER Rockdust. Quarried from ancient 420 million year old Scottish volcanic rock, it is rich in the minerals and trace elements that are deficient or missing from the majority of our soils globally, having been used up by vegetation and eroded by weather over the last 10,000 years since the last ice age ended.

Soil is the mineral-rich sponge that enables the Earth to sustain life and absorb carbon. Without fertility, this sponginess disintegrates and erodes.

Glaciers crush rocks during the 90,000 year long ice ages. Their advancing and retreating action releases enough minerals and trace elements from the crushed rocks to grow and sustain soils which life uses and depletes during the 10 - 12,000 year long interglacial periods between the ice ages.

The exact length of each interglacial is determined by the amount of rock that was crushed by the glaciers and the minerals and trace elements released. There have been 25 of these Earth fertility cycles in 2.5 million years resulting in 25 fertile interglacials. The present interglacial is 10,800 years old.

We can simulate the beneficial effects of glaciers when we spread Rockdust to “remineralise” our soils.

Earthworms digest rock particles in the soil and decomposing vegetation and deposit “remineralised” organic matter in their wormcasts which contain nitrogen, carbon, minerals and thousands of micro-organisms which ultimately become organic, mineral-rich plant food. The more worms in your soil, the better the rockdust will be worked into the soil.

Many of today’s medical conditions are attributed to mineral and trace element deficiencies in our bodies and our diets which result from eating food grown in mineraldeficient soil. We would need to eat five apples to get the nutrition we would have got from one fifty years ago! We can take mineral supplements to address some of these deficiencies in the food chain. For those of us who grow our own food, spreading Rockdust puts minerals and trace elements back into our soil, increasing microbial activity which makes our soil grow gradually darker and the crops more vigorous, mineral-rich, flavoursome and heavier yielding. We can really feed the world this way, promoting health and wellbeing, reducing disease and costs of disease management.

CREATING THE OASIS IN THE GLEN Deep fertile soils and dense forests once covered this poor Perthshire grazing land. The soils have been used up by vegetation and eroded, leaving the glacial moraine, dumped by the last ice-age, covered by shallow soil with a PH of 4.5 - a challenging site offering the perfect opportunity to demonstrate soil remineralisation and soil creation.

In April 1997, with our two shovels and a wheelbarrow, we built dry stone walls then started making the first two terraces with 200 tons of recycled resources donated by Dundee Council’s Discovery Compost and Tayside Contracts Collace quarry.

We filled the terraces with “SEER Rocksoil” a strip at a time so we could start planting right away and keep up with the growing season. We finished a few months later in July 1997. By this time the five children were tucking into

the first-sown juicy crops. By 2000, the young remineralised trees were beginning to grow profusely, providing shelter and wildlife habitats around the perimeter.

ROCKDUST EXPERIMENTS The large spruce trees that towered above the house shaded and impoverished the soil and were cut down in 2001. We spread 2 inches of “SEER Rockmix” (the SEER top dressing) on the surface of the poor soil and grew impressive potatoes. The soil was transformed in one growing season.

We made the fourth terrace, the soil terrace, with topsoil we’d saved from the car park construction. Plants in this poor acidic soil got smaller, going blue and yellow, so we added a 2 year dose of Rockdust on the southern half of the terrace. The following year brassicas were gown in both halves and were noticeably bigger and higher-yielding on the rockdusted half. A year later, potatoes on the rockdusted half showed an obvious effect yielding twice as many potatoes and they were twice the size than those on the untreated half. We’d quadrupled the yield! There were also bigger plants and yields on the “soil only” half, directly next to the rockdusted half – the worms had been taking rockdust to the poor half and doing their own remineralising! This proved that rockdust does boost fertility without the addition of compost.

We erected a Greenhouse in 2001. We made a path using bricks and cement and deep rubble infill between the two borders to ensure worms couldn’t travel from side to side to mix the two treatments and skew the results. Compost and Rockdust (Rocksoil) fills the east side. Poor soil and rockdust fills the west side. We grew equally giant organic tomatoes in both sides! The rockdust achieved equal results on both sides in one growing season.

In 2003 we ploughed some flat land that hasn’t been ploughed in living memory. We spread 8 inches of “Rocksoil” on top of the ploughed bed and planted potatoes. Seven weeks of drought followed but we didn’t irrigate because we’ve observed that remineralised soil can retain moisture in the particles of stone. We grew the biggest potatoes ever and they stored with perfect shelf-life, lasting until the following June.

The first two terraces are now in their 12th growing season and are still producing bumper nutritious organic crops, year after year! Everything is healthy, lacking nothing, no pest damage or disease. We really don’t know when these deep terraces will run out of minerals!

THE EARTH’S FERTILITY CYCLES Cameron explains that Planet Earth’s natural soil history, soil creation and soil demineralisation patterns during the present interglacial are part of Earth’s natural fertility cycles that cause climate changes and how our species responded to these changes in the past or may respond to the present climate change chaos.

“Soil erosion and climate change threaten the survival of civilisation. The world’s weather becomes extreme and unpredictable when Earth’s soils become severely demineralised.

Climate change is pre-glacial tension. We’re convinced that spreading Rockdust on a global scale could enable Earth’s soils to absorb sufficient amounts of excess atmospheric carbon to stabilise global climate change!”

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© SEER

Mesocratic Oligocratic

2,800 years

3,000 years

5,000 years 10,800 years

(Dr. Johannes Iversen, State Geologist, and Svend Th. Andersen, Geological Survey of Denmark, 1960’s)

170 yrs

The Present Interglacial has four main phases.

These phases are approximate due to varying localised conditions around the globe.

Protocratic

Telocratic

Record cold temperatures, such as -9°C in Greece in January ’04 with 1 foot of snow and the lemon crop frosted, are becoming the norm. Record hot temperatures and forest fires, torrential rainstorms, floods, giant hail, mud/land-slides and soil erosion, are becoming the norm.

Increased frequency and size of hurricanes and earthquakes, extreme climatic catastrophes are becoming the norm, globally, due to climate change.

Can we continue paying the cost of cleaning up, rebuilding and “prevention” over and over again? Can we actually solve any of the problems? There is one do-able solution to the whole problem that lies beneath our feet in the soil. To shape the future we need to understand the past.

These climatic catastrophes indicate that we are living during the final stages of the present interglacial. Twenty five glaciations, in 2.5 million years, each lasting about 90,000 years and 25 interglacials, each lasting about 10,000 years, are more than coincidence.”

HUMAN RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGES At the end of the Mesocratic phase there was a slight global cooling. Our species response was to stop being nomadic; doDuring the Protocratic phase the Earth turned green. mesticate our animals; build villages and towns and introduce Pioneer trees grew in the crushed rock and dropped leaves politicians and taxation. which biodegraded to form soil.

At the end of the Oligocratic phase 170 years ago, our species response was to apply lime to the acidic land; mine During the Mesocratic phase Global for ores; cut down forests to make charcoal for iron smeltaverage soil depth was 7.5 feet. ing, emit more carbon into the atmosphere. This response, Trees during this “post -glacial climatic optimum” phase 170 years ago, was the Industrial Revolution. The Telocratic were up to 8 times bigger in bulk than any trees left on Earth phase lasts 170 years! Our species response, at the end of the today. Deserts of sand and rock in the Tropics were minimal, Telocratic phase is the Technological Revolution! as were the ice sheets. Atmospheric carbon was 270ppm (today it is 378ppm). The carbon that was once in the deep soil WARMING OR COOLING? and giant trees has returned to the atmosphere, along with Oceanographers are telling us “global warming” is melting our fossil fuel emissions. Today soil depth is 4.5 – 7.5 inches. the edges of the ice caps and we may be in a stage of transition into global cooling because the melting freshwater ice The main feature of the Oligocratric phase is cools the warm ocean currents, such as the Gulf stream, that soil demineralisation and soil acidification. keep our British climate warm.

As the minerals in our soils were depleted, the soil chemistry When the sun’s rays strike the Earth, there is more and the type of tree cover changed. The Caledonian forest heat impact in lower latitudes, the Tropics, than in higher appeared 6,000 years ago in Scotland. Before that, during latitudes. Also, the sun shines on lower latitudes all year long, the Mesocratic phase, a mainly deciduous thick impenetra- but not on higher latitudes. Since the Industrial Revolution ble forest covered Scotland. People lived on the coasts. our species has been, and still is, “turning up the volume” of the greenhouse effect - the Earth’s warming mechanism The main feature of the final Telocratic phase, - mainly in the lower latitudes. Because the lower latitudes which lasts 170 ± 45 years, is soil erosion, are hotter than normal, more water than normal evaporates when torrential rainstorms wash whatever minerals are left and is transported to the higher latitudes. It passes over in the soil into the rivers and seas, ending in an approximate the temperate zone middle latitudes in both hemispheres, 20 year transition into glaciation. producing more cloud than normal (contributing to global

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Star & Furrow Issue 109 Summer 2008

CLIMATE CHANGE

Large surface area EQUATOR

Small surface area

Large surface area

ALBEDO EFFECT High reflectivity of the planet turning lighter in colour - The Earth’s cooling mechanism. As we turn up the volume of the greenhouse effect in the lower latitudes, the Earth automatically turns lighter in colour with deserts of sand, rock, cloud, snow and ice, reflecting more and more heat back into space.

Sir George Simpson, a Scottish scientist, postulating on the possibility of glaciation in1939 said that in order for glaciers to build up in the higher latitudes, a lot of water would need to be transported to the higher latitudes.

The overheating of lower latitudes is the engine that drives the water to the higher latitudes.

When our weather in the middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere comes from the south, summer or winter, temperatures are warmer than normal. When our weather comes from the north, summer or winter, it is colder than normal.

26.5°C is necessary for a hurricane to form. If tropical oceans are hotter than normal, we have increasingly more destructive hurricanes than normal.

Warmer than normal ocean currents, coming from the overheating tropics are melting the edges of the ice sheets at the higher latitudes. The fresh water ice melting into the salt water oceans is closing down the warm Gulf Stream.

All of these extreme climatic catastrophes indicate that we are fast approaching the end of the present interglacial. We can put this into reverse if we reduce the impact from the greenhouse effect and the albedo effect simultaneously, by reducing levels of atmospheric carbon using several possible methods such as remineralised soils absorbing carbon, reducing carbon emissions, sequestering carbon into oceans, mechanically recovering carbon (Prof. Wally Broker, Ohio State University, USA). The most simple achievable method is to remineralise the soil, whether window box, garden, farm or continent. It’s so simple and achievable.

S U N ’ S R AY S

“dimming”); causing more rain, floods and mud/landslides than normal. Any water not falling on the middle latitudes falls at the higher latitudes as snow.

This evaporation and transportation of moisture causes a weight-loss at the lower latitudes and a weight-gain at the higher latitudes. This difference of pressure on the Earth’s crust results in increased tectonic activity causing more earthquakes and volcanoes.

SUN

CAN HUMAN INTERVENTION STABILISE CLIMATE CHANGE? Rockdust contains certain minerals which can combine with atmospheric carbon to form carbonates in the soil and lock them into the soil, improving the potential for soils to absorb excess carbon from the atmosphere.

Dr. D Supkow PhD, has degrees in geology from Rutgers University and the University of Maine and a PhD in hydrology from the University of Arizona. In his paper on the “control of CO2 build up and the greenhouse effect” in “Remineralize The Earth”*, issue no. 7-8, 1995, Dr. Supkow estimated that in order to keep atmospheric carbon stable at today’s level, 0.8 - 3.2 tonnes of rockdust would need to be applied to every acre on Earth, every year (apart from Antarctica and Greenland). He says, “When rockdust is applied to the land, the calcium and magnesium content combine with atmospheric carbon, forming carbonates”.

By increasing the mineral availability in soils, along with carbon absorbed from the atmosphere, it is possible to recycle excess carbon and re-grow soil, simulating that 7.5 feet which covered the Earth during the Mesocratic phase, thus reducing the impact from both greenhouse and albedo effects.

The SEER Centre has demonstrated that 20 tonnes per acre of Rockdust can be applied every 10 years, (5kg per square meter). We think this is an achievable, local, sustainable solution.

The SEER Centre trading arm “Rockdust Ltd” works in association with Angus Horticulture Ltd. to supply SEER Rockdust products to retail outlets throughout the UK and beyond. www.seercentre.org.uk and www. angushorticulture.co.uk ■

Star & Furrow Issue 109 Summer 2008

* “Remineralize The Earth” magazine and website followed on from the work of Americans, John Hamaker and Don Weaver, and their book “The Survival of Civilization” that founded the theory that climate change precedes an ice age and soil remineralisation can prevent one.This possibility influenced Cameron and Moira’s aims in achieving nutritious self sufficiency and sustainable Earth management. www. remineralize.org

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The Spiritual Sovereignty by Bernard Jarman Based on a lecture given by Ueli Hurter at the conference on ‘Spirituality and Agriculture’ held at the Goetheanum in Dornach, February 2008

THE OVERALL THEME of the international biodynamic conference at Goetheanum in February this year was “Agriculture and Spirituality”.

It covered a wide range of issues including questions concerned with individual freedom. Connected with this is a topic which simply had to be addressed namely that of sovereignty and more especially the spiritual sovereignty of the farmer.

It was taken on as a subject very appropriately by a farmer. Ueli Hurter runs the farm in L’Aubier, a vibrant initiative near Neuchatel in Switzerland.

L’Aubier is mostly known for its special eco hotel providing high quality accommodation and biodynamic food, a fair proportion of which is grown on the farm.

There is a 35 ha farm with a 24 cow dairy herd producing a range of Swiss cheeses, yogurt and cream cheese. Field vegetables (carrots, beetroot, onions, parsnips, squashes etc.) are grown to supply the hotel. Plant breeder Peter Kunz from Sativa Seeds uses the farm to carry out his breeding work. This is a mutually beneficial arrangement since the wheat variety he is working with called ‘Aszita’ is especially good for bread baking. The wheat is milled daily on the farm and used for serving delicious breads to Hotel guests. The farm at an altitude 750m has been managed biodynamically since 1979. L’Aubier is owned by a charity and the business operates as a company limited by shares with the charity holding a majority stake.1 The lecture began with a consideration of the region surrounding the farm. It is the French speaking part of western Switzerland and for those with little knowledge of Swiss geography it is not far from Geneva, a town known across the world as the seat of many global organisations including the World Trade Organisation (WTO). This global awareness for Geneva came home to the speaker while visiting a nomadic tribe in Mali a few years ago. On one occasion he found himself surrounded by a group of young boys fascinated by these strange Europeans. They could communicate in French and naturally soon asked where he came from. Switzerland, Neuchatel and likely most other places in the world mean nothing to them. When told however that he came from a place near to Geneva, they knew immediately for that is the seat of the UN and WTO and a great centre for humanity. They showed him their notebooks where they had marked Geneva on the world map.

FOOD SOVEREIGNTY Back in Switzerland he was driving through Geneva one day when he came upon a big placard stating: “No to the WTO, yes to Food Sovereignty!” This set him thinking.

Independence, self determination and self reliance, these are the values connected with food and food sovereignty.

Was not the very word sovereignty linked to that biographical moment when he took the decision to become a farmer?

Is this not the future oriented perspective out of which our agricultural goals are born? This call “No to the WTO, Yes to Food Sovereignty” lived as a positive idea within him for many months.

The WTO currently comprises 150 countries. It is the organisation which enforces global trade agreements. Its goal is to achieve free trade throughout the world, remove all tariff and trade barriers and create an unregulated, privatised

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global economy. The ultimate consequence of this of course is that food will no longer be produced to feed people but to supply an anonymous global market whose prices are determined by speculators on the stock exchange.

The idea of food sovereignty stands in direct contrast to this free market concept. Its objective is to enable each region or country to determine its own market conditions and avoid such distorting factors as for instance export and production subsidies. Localised production is a key concept, the position of women in agriculture is valued and acknowledged, seed remains under the control of the farmer and GM technology is prohibited.

These values are a good starting point and it is important for farmers to supply the needs of their immediate circles of consumers. It is also important for consumers to eat local produce. The question however arises as to whether this is the sum total of what constitutes agriculture.

Is there not more to being a farmer than this? Agriculture is a cultural impulse, the farmer is an artist, farms are centres of innovation and enterprise, farm communities are the germination points for new models of social life; they are places where humanity can demonstrate its practical responsibility towards the planet, and they are focal points for developing economic partnerships. These are all essential considerations for anyone wishing to be a biodynamic farmer, they are also central to the concept of sovereignty. Sovereignty reaches to the core of biodynamic existence. “The search for genuine comprehensive sovereignty was the driving force behind my becoming a biodynamic farmer” said Ueli Hurter “I believe that existential sovereignty is the goal for all biodynamic farmers if it is rightly understood.”

WHAT IS SOVEREIGNTY? Sovereignty implies outward independence and inner self determination. The sovereign has the power to act freely and hopefully wisely on behalf of his people. Taking the example of direct democracy as practised in Switzerland: Swiss citizens vote four times a year in referendums to approve or reject proposed legislation. Later when the results are declared the statement appears in the newspapers that ‘the sovereign has decided ...’ In this old usage of the word the deeper reality of sovereignty can be discerned. Switzerland applies the concept of a Citizens Initiative by which any group of people able to collect 100,000 signatures is entitled to propose legislation which if accepted by the people through a referendum must be adopted by the Federal Government.

In 2005 a Citizens Initiative proposed a five year moratorium on GM crops. This was put to a referendum and approved by the people. The morning afterwards when the results were declared, a pro GM and free market Zurich newspaper announced that - ‘the Sovereign has decided’ - what it meant was ‘We were and remain opposed to the GM moratorium but the sovereign has decided otherwise’. It is therefore not only that the result of a majority vote has been accepted but that collective competence for making that decision has also been acknowledged. It is not the individual citizen who is here deemed competent but all eligible voters of the population. When individual people vote it is not their conscious and thought-through viewpoints alone that are expressed, but many subconscious elements too, feelings, antipathies, sympathies but also hopes, intimations and ideals. In this

of the Farmer way the human individual as a whole is acknowledged and becomes part of the greater populace. Everyone belongs whether they are French, German, Italian or Romanic speakers, Catholic or Protestant, town or country people, young or old. Together they are sovereign and can make decisions on behalf of the whole people. This means that the being of Switzerland exists as a concept, that the ‘sovereign’ is in touch with this folk being and that the decisions it takes are a recognised and legitimate form of self determination.

Sovereignty in this sense does not mean having control over everything. To be sovereign is to be outwardly independent and inwardly self determining. It means to be existentially competent and responsible.

BETWEEN TRADITION AND SCIENCE The primary activity of the farmer is within nature. In the Agriculture Course Rudolf Steiner points out that only those who have practical experience of agriculture will be able to speak meaningfully about farming or farm economics. The world of living nature is the work place of agriculture in which case where is sovereignty? Where does a farmer find guidance for his work? The farmer lives in the tension between tradition and science. Both provide rich sources of inspiration and yet both tradition and science have the tendency to become authoritarian and absolutist.

Through his agriculture course, Rudolf Steiner is able to show how the farmer can free himself from the chains of tradition and dependency on modern science and technology and develop his own spiritual sovereignty.

The concept of the farm as a living organism with its soil, plants, animals and the cosmos enables the farmer to arrive at appropriate decisions. No one, no expert is able to know more about the farm than the farmer himself. Like everyone else today of course the farmer needs to exchange experiences, receive advice and have interchange with others. These contacts however need to support his sovereignty and not make him dependent. In this way a biodynamic farmer can put into practice what he himself has come to understand. He is not dependent on external sources of manure, sprays or industrial fodder. He can develop the farm in such a way that it comes into balance and develops year by year in order to achieve better yields, greater health and increased long term fertility.

Developing the spiritual sovereignty of the individual farmer is something quite new in the history of mankind and is one of the fundamental elements introduced

by Rudolf Steiner through the Koberwitz course. It is a vitally important means for helping farmers wherever they are to break their shackles of debt and dependency and is one which needs to extend way beyond the existing biodynamic community.

If now the concepts of food sovereignty and the spiritual sovereignty of the farmer are placed alongside one another then a picture begins to emerge of the farmer as an independent culture bearing entity with the capacity to live conscientiously and creatively between nature and society.

Such a picture can help lead into the future. It is a path into the future however which will meet considerable resistance from the WTO and the idea and powers of global free trade standing behind it. These forces continue to present a direct and existential threat to every farm and to the rightful place

of agriculture in the economy and society. We are part of a worldwide movement which is fighting for an independent agriculture. A further mission of biodynamic agriculture is to develop the spiritual independence of the farmer.

SOVEREIGNTY AND SPIRITUAL SCIENCE The question of sovereignty can also be approached in quite another way. All of us who are working with anthroposophy need to ask ourselves in connection with spiritual sovereignty: What is my relationship, what is our relationship to Rudolf Steiner and anthroposophy? Does Rudolf Steiner not stand as an authority for me? Is anthroposophy simply a body of knowledge? If so, are we not compromising our own spiritual sovereignty and giving up part of it to an external source? These are difficult questions to answer but we do need continually to ask ourselves whether we are genuine and authentic, whether we truly demonstrate spiritual sovereignty or succumb to yet another belief system?

Rudolf Steiner can be taken as a reference point on the search for spiritual sovereignty: “He opens very wide horizons for me and possible paths become visible” says Ueli “But nothing will happen within me unless I do it myself. I am offered new areas to explore but when I set out to explore them the effort is mine”. Spiritual sovereignty remains the goal.

Rudolf Steiner was however also a great scientist of the spiritual world. In an earlier period of history he would have been referred to as an initiate. He had capacities which enabled him to see directly into this spiritual world.

Although most people today do not have these capacities there are increasing numbers who do. In his book ‘How to achieve Knowledge of Higher Worlds’2 Steiner describes a clear a systematic inner training method which will lead to the development of new organs of perception.. Although it is a difficult path requiring perseverance and lots of patience, those who develop new tools of perception will be able to verify for themselves the truth or otherwise of Steiner’s research.

Many people are surprised to discover that biodynamic farmers continually return to study the eight lectures which Steiner gave about agriculture. Surely one may ask, once you have read them you will be familiar with their content and can move on to something else? Does not continual reading of them lead to a further compromising of spiritual sovereignty? The fact is that apart from a few directly practical indications there is nothing in these lectures which can be applied as a recipe and every paragraph presents a challenge to really understand. Because of this there is always something new to discover. These lectures are a source of continuing inspiration both for practical work and for developing an ever stronger image of the farm or garden one wishes to create in all its diversity, health and fertility.

A study of the lectures alone however needs to be complemented with work on the land and an evaluation of it.. This opens up the need for conversation and an exchange between the practical experiences with nature and life on the farm and the thoughts and images arising from the lectures.

Through this interchange an understanding can develop which involves intuitive, reasoning and experiential capacities.

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WISE ADVICE A second example was given through an anecdote about a visit to his farm by a well respected biodynamic researcher called Edwin Scheller. It had been a very difficult year on the farm and many of the crops were in a poor state. Edwin Scheller was an expert in the field of plant-soil relationships and of soil and humus processes. For the farmer this visit seemed like a golden opportunity for gaining some much needed help and advice from a wise old man. They walked over the fields together looking at all the problem areas.

The guest asked a few questions but spoke very little. The farmer waited in vain for practical advice. It was a case of a stressed out farmer meeting a silent scientist! The farmer was beginning to get impatient. There are so many obvious problems on this farm he thought and yet this expert doesn’t share his knowledge with me? He can surely tell me what I have done wrong and what I can improve! After walking all round the farm they went back to the farmhouse. The farmer had some urgent matters to attend to and left his guest to relax on the terrace. On returning he found him lying in a deckchair with a cool drink in his hands. He went and sat in directly front of him, poured out all his woes and

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again asked him to please make some suggestions. His guest smiled, looked him in the eye and said: “My dear friend when was the last time you sat in this deck chair?”

It was only later long after his guest had departed that the farmer understood what he meant. The message was now very clear “If you are stressed and rush around spreading discontent everywhere then life withdraws, crops grow less well and most importantly you lose your sovereignty as a farmer. Calm down, take a rest and review the situation. This will allow the being of the farm to speak once more, life will return and you will find your own answers to the knotty problems which eluded you previously. It is after all only you the farmer who can really know the farm” THE NOMAD AND THE FARMER A third example was given in relation to a film3 which has been made about nomadic herders in the Sahel and how their life contrasts with that on the European (Swiss) farm of L’Aubier. During one scene there was a conversation between a herdsman and our farmer. The African herdsman explained how for his people the cows determine their lives and how they follow their herd. Our Swiss farmer responded that in Europe it is the human being who directs and leads the animals. Afterwards when the cameras were turned off the African herdsman began to praise the cows at L’Aubier. He had been to many farms and livestock shows in Europe but never before had he seen such a beautiful and valuable herd. The farmer tried to deflect the praise and pointed to the open airy barn which created a good environment for the animals and how it had been paid for by the shareholders of L’Aubier. It was thanks to them that the cows were so healthy. The African herdsman responded “I can well understand how such beautiful cow can find supportive shareholders!” Perhaps the herdsmen are right. Their relationship to their animals far from being subservient expresses true sovereignty.

The three examples given by the speaker led him to a very authentic experience of what is meant by spiritual sovereignty. They all have something in common, they begin with the human being. Human encounter enables a spiritual presence of mind. While the spirituality in nature can be quite hidden, the human beings around us – neighbours, colleagues, visitors, the living and dead, provide real evidence for what can be called the spiritual sovereignty of the farmer. We as human beings can open doors for one another into the spiritual dimension of our existence. It is our challenge when we visit each other’s farms, converse with one another and meet as colleagues. That this spiritual sovereignty is discovered, supported and deepened in each one of us. Through such mutual empowerment, spirituality in agriculture can become a reality. © Richard Swann

COURAGE TO TAKE A RISK In 1999 L’Aubier celebrated its 20th anniversary. In preparation for this event the idea came up of marking the occasion by sowing a field of corn by hand with all the guests and co-workers at L’Aubier. The seed chosen was of course the biodynamic seed developed by Peter Kunz. The next question was which field to choose and after some consideration it became clear that only one field was suited for this.

The problem was that this particular field had only recently come to the farm. It belonged to an old neighbour who had been born, grown up and lived all his life on the farm. He farmed in a traditional manner and in his old age sold the farm. Although there were other potential buyers he sold it to L’Aubier for reasons which were not then entirely clear.

Soon afterwards he died.

The question was whether it was right to sow the grain on this very new field which had not yet gained full biodynamic status and so soon after artificials had been used? In the end this field was chosen and the day of the celebration – October 2nd - approached. September was extremely wet and only on the evening before the event was it possible to plough the field. Then the big day arrived.

Over 500 people stood ready on the edge of the field each with their portion of seed. The day was overcast and gloomy but after the last speech had been given the clouds broke miraculously and the sun came out to shine as the seeds were being sown. It was a wonderful gift that made the event a real success. Everyone was deeply moved by the occasion.

A week later Ueli visited his old neighbour’s widow and told her how they had sown corn on their field and how the sun had shone at the critical moment. She was not at all surprised and told him that October 2nd was the birthday of her deceased husband! Then he knew that he had chosen the right field and that it had been a true gift from heaven and that his deceased neighbour had willed it so. He also realised that the parameters of spiritual sovereignty allow and encourage the farmer to take risks. The spiritual world can then accompany the courage of a sovereign deed.

Wall paintings in Botton Bakery by David Newbatt

STRENGTHENING SPIRITUAL SOVEREIGNTY IN BRITAIN For many years there has been a meeting place for biodynamic farmers to explore some of the deeper questions of their work. This is the Experimental Circle. All practising biodynamic farmers and gardeners are welcome. The sharing of insights, experiences and questions arising from the work can empower and strengthen spiritual sovereignty.

It also offers a further bridging opportunity to bring clear insights to tradition and holistic warmth to science.4 Another means of supporting the sovereignty of the farmer could evolve in the context of the proposed farm talks. Although still in the early stages of discussion the plan is to encourage farmers to visit another colleague on an annual basis, to see the farm, share the challenges and offer human support. How this will happen in practice is yet to be finalised but similar schemes on the continent are proving valuable and empowering for those participating. ■

© Richard Swann

1 For more information about L’Aubier visit www.aubier.ch 2 “Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment” by Rudolf Steiner GA 10 is published by Anthroposophic Press 3 “Begegnung auf der Milchstrasse” is a film produced by Jürg Neuenschwander set in Mali, Burkina Faso and Switzerland. About nomadic life, livestock and inter cultural exchange. Available as DVD. 4 The Experimental Circle is an expression of the Agriculture Section in Britain.

It has been in existence since before the founding of the BDAA. Its purpose is to share insights and experiences and research a deepened understanding of biodynamic practice. It is open to all practising biodynamic farmers and gardeners and members of the school of spiritual science. For further information on how to apply contact the BDAA office

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SUSTAINABLE &BEE-FRIENDLY BEEKEEPING David Heaf

Everyone must, in reality, take the greatest interest in bee-keeping, for in fact, more in human life depends on it than one usually thinks. (Steiner ) 1

BACKGROUND The media has featured honeybee health more than usual lately, largely because of reports from the USA and continental Europe of huge losses of colonies. Random tests on honey show that some beekeepers routinely treat colonies with antibiotics.The worldwide spread of the Varroa mite has forced beekeepers to dose hives with chemicals.

And relatively recently in the history of beekeeping, bee disease bureaucracies were set up at public expense.

This small selection of bee health phenomena justifies the question: is modern framed-hive beekeeping, spanning little more than a century out of some three millennia of beekeeping, laying the foundations for its own demise?

Rudolf Steiner, speaking in 1923 about artificial beekeeping, warned that bees would die out in 80 to 100 years.

In case we are seeing the beginnings of the vindication of Steiner’s prophecy, I describe here a bee-friendly way of keeping bees that is arguably healthier as well as being more sustainable in the broadest sense of the term. I hope to encourage readers to experiment with it - as I am doing alongside my hives with frames - and to join a network to exchange experiences.

I started beekeeping in 2003 with five 11-frame hives and by 2006 had covered my start-up costs for 20 hives and all equipment. I was just considering starting an experiment with the horizontal top-bar hive, a hive with no frames, when a friend at the Goetheanum interested in ‘bee-appropriate’ (wesensgemäß) beekeeping sent me a copy of chapters from a book which describes the hive of Pfarrer Christ (1739-1813).2

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The main message in that article is that Nestduftwärmebindung, i.e. keeping in place the scents and heat of the brood nest, is absolutely essential for optimal colony health. Indeed, a bee colony is a warmth organism par excellence, that has been likened to a mammal. Wild and skep colonies exhibit this heat-retention through the sides and top of the combs being fixed to the walls of the cavity.

Cul-de-sacs between the combs, opening at the bottom, allow the controlled ingress of fresh air, the discharge of CO2 and the maintenance by the bees of optimal nest warmth and humidity. The integrity of the almost closed cavities is essential for creating a ‘germ-free’ atmosphere in the nest.

By contrast, hives with so-called moveable frames constantly thwart the bees’ efforts to maintain nest integrity, mainly by letting out the nest atmosphere and heat into voids above and beside the frames, and into supers, the honey boxes on top. This stresses bees, increasing honey consumption and risk of disease.

Intrigued by the article’s arguments, I decided to experiment with its beekeeping concept. The same friend then told me that the modern equivalent of the Christ hive is that of Abbé Émile Warré (1880?-1951) and sent me plans of it, which, however, were by Jean-Marie Frèrès and JeanClaude Guillaume from L’Apiculture Ecologique de A à Z, not by Warré himself.3 Their book has a wealth of meticulously illustrated practical detail about Warré beekeeping, and their hive differs mainly in that each hive-body box has a shuttered window. I made some of these hives in the winter and populated six of them in spring/summer 2006.

Wanting fully to understand Warré’s original beekeeping concept, I read his book L’ Apiculture pour Tous.4 As it was well worth translating, if only to have handy for quick reference, Pat Cheney and I translated it and published it as Beekeeping For All on the Internet.5 He called his hive The People’s Hive.

WARRÉ’S BEEKEEPING CONCEPT In his book, Warré recounts: “Each winter, all my childhood friends ate an abundance of delicious bread and honey, just as I did.

Twenty years later, I was the only person who had beehives. In some gardens, there was an abandoned Dadant or Layens hive, empty of course. The owners had let themselves be tempted by the adFigure 1: vertisement of some on displays at agricultural Abbé shows. They believed they would do better with these modern Emile Warré hives. In fact they abandoned the only hive that suited them. [...] At my parent’s home there was always plenty of honey for masters and workers, even for the farmyard animals. All our friends in the village also had their share each year”. (Ref. 5, pp.

35 & 37) Steiner, who was almost a contemporary of Warré and who experienced beekeeping in his youth, also commented on the former commonness of beekeeping and the abundance of honey that was given away to friends and neighbours. Warré regarded the traditional practice in skep beekeeping of harvesting honey by sulfuring the bees as barbarous and thus did not advocate returning to ‘skep-

E

pism’. Instead, he sought a system that was just as simple and economical as skeppism so that bees would once again be commonplace in gardens. The ideal hive had to be easy to construct by anyone with elementary woodworking skills.

The annual management had to require little time, be easy and need minimal and inexpensive equipment. The bees had to winter on their own honey, yet leave a reasonable surplus for the beekeeper. The method had to give rise to docile bees so that people would not be fearful of starting beekeeping.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE WARRÉ HIVE A Warré hive is a tiered top-bar hive comprising a stack of at least two boxes each of internal dimensions 300 x 300 x 210 (deep) mm with eight 8 x 24 mm top-bars (comb supports) at 36 mm centres. The floor, a plain board, is notched to form a 120 mm wide entrance and has an alighting board nailed underneath. The internal dimensions of the box resulted from long researches involving the construction of some 350 hives, but are essentially developed from features, such as cavity size and shape as well as the number and dimensions of combs, embodied in the hives of Abbé Voirnot and Georges de Layens The box walls are at least 20 Figure 2: Exploded mm thick; mine 25 mm. The view of top-bars rest in 10 x 10 mm Warré rebates, but, to ease conhive struction, can just as securely rest on battens nailed 10 mm below the box rim. The bars have a bead of wax or starterstrip fixed to the centre line of their rough-sawn undersides and a coat of linseed oil on the planed upper surfaces to prevent adhesion from the bottom of the comb in the box above. My first boxes had unnecessarily robust jointing. Warré recommends simple butt jointing fixed with nails. Each box has ample, firm handles.

On the top Figure 3: Warré box rests a layer of hive coarse-weave hessian body/ sacking stiffened with box flour paste to prevent fraying. Above that is a 100 mm deep box, the coussin which we have translated as ‘quilt’, as this term conveys its function better and is not unfamiliar to beekeepers in this context. The underside of the quilt is covered with sacking and the top left open. It is filled with natural insulating material such as wood shavings, sawdust, straw or dried leaves. Apart from its insulating function this helps control humidity through absorbing excess moisture onto the large area of hydrophilic surface. This probably has a humidity buffering function. There is no condensation in winter.

On the quilt is a wooden ridged roof containing a board to keep mice out of the quilt, and a ventilated cavity, which not only reduces solar heating of the top of the hive but also, so I am told, prevents the roof lifting off in strong winds. For various reasons, my first batch of roofs were on a conventional, not Warré, hive pattern, i.e. flat, containing a cavity ventilated in four directions and covered with recycled sheet aluminium. There are two arguments against this pattern. One is that sheet metal has a high carbon footprint and therefore violates a criterion of sustainability. The second is that, according to Warré, the drumming of rain on flat metal-clad roofs disturbs the bees.

Warré discovered that the hive body height of 210 mm, under the conditions of natural comb development, is crucial to the ease of separation of the boxes at harvest.

The square box and tall, narrow format results in a brood nest whose dimensions correspond closely to a natural swarm when suspended freely, and, in approximating to a cylinder, is thermally efficient compared with most modern hives. The unit is reminiscent of a hollow tree with the quilt forming a roof that has a thermal conductivity not too unlike rotting wood.

Günther Hauk argues the benefits of a round form for a hive as that form was chosen by instinct by ancient Man and in esoteric knowledge it is an expression of the life forces.6 Warré would have preferred the rounded, cylindrical form like the hollow tree but recognised its difficult practicability.

Whilst Warré based his concept on a wooden hive there is no reason why it cannot be transferred to a straw or clay hive. Matthias Thun gives construction details for divisible straw hives.7 MANAGEMENT Basic management needs only two visits a year and on only one of these is the hive really opened. A swarm or artificial swarm of at least 2 kg is introduced at the start of the main nectar flow and, if necessary, fed with diluted honey from the same apiary. Three boxes can be given at the outset to save adding another later.

Figure 4: Artificial swarming from a National (11-frame, 50,000 cells) brood box shortly before removing the National: the brood with an advanced queen cell is above and the queen and field bees are in the Warré hive. In between is an adapter board and queen excluder.

If windows are used, comb growth can be monitored without lifting the hive, otherwise windows are of little observation value, increase the hive’s carbon footprint and reduce its cost advantage.

Comb growth starts in the top box, continues as far as a bee space above the top-bars of the box below and resumes under the bars. An artificial swarm I hived in April 2007 extended to three boxes of

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Figure 5: View through a hive body window (Frèrès & Guillaume modification)

Figure 6: An acrylic Warré demonstration hive, wood casing removed.

Photo: Marc Gatineau

Figure 7: Gatineau-type forklift for Warré hives

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comb by the September, similar to the situation shown in Fig. 5, despite it being the worst season in 30 years.

In a good season, further boxes may have to be inserted underneath. If an assistant is not available, this can be done with a simple fork-lift.8 Mine was made mostly of scrap, but there was no escaping the £20 outlay for the pulleys and cord. Note that inserting boxes does not involve opening the hive, i.e. does not let the heat out. I have inserted boxes on busy foraging days without needing smoke. The bees seem wholly unconcerned, although Warré recommends smoking the hive entrance at every intervention.

The real hive opening occurs only at harvest, in my locality in late August or early September. The top box is gently loosened with the hive tool. The roof, quilt and cloth are removed and the bees smoked down into the box below. Any wax bridges to the top-bars below are sheared by gentle rotation of the box in both directions and the underside of the comb is inspected for brood. If there is no brood the box is taken for harvest by draining or pressing the comb.

If the hive has extended to four boxes, the next box can be examined and removed in the same way provided that 12 kg of honey and two boxes are left for winter: the upper box with mostly honey and the lower with mostly comb and a diminishing brood nest. The rim and top-bars of the upper box are scraped clean, a new cloth fitted, the contents of the quilt renewed, the quilt and roof replaced and a mouse guard affixed for wintering. The wintering situation just described applies to the climate of lowland France. In colder climates, a greater weight of stores may be required, perhaps three boxes and, in extreme cases, insulation and wrapping.

In spring, the mouse guard comes off, a clean floor is substituted and a fresh box or more added underneath the two that overwintered. That is all.

MOBILITY OF COMBS Unlike in skeps, this hive is designed for removing comb if the beekeeper wishes. This is particularly important in countries where beekeeping legislation does not allow honeybees to build a bee-appropriate nest, i.e. to fix their comb to the sides of the hive, the importance of which is described above. (To my knowledge, this applies in New Zealand and in most states of the USA, Canada and Australia.) But as with all top-bar hives, much greater care is called for when removing comb, because the comb attachments to the walls have to be cut with a thin, serrated knife and the comb, fixed to its top-bar, kept vertical at all times. Warré commented on the so-called moveability of framed comb and said that he found cutting through the comb bridges in his hive easier than unsticking propolised frames in his conventional hives. Another advantage of removing comb is to have some drawn comb spare for the various standard beekeeping manipulations. Accordingly, Warré describes a simple adapter cage for extracting honey from unframed comb in a tangential extractor. However, reusing comb is not done to the extent that it significantly undermines the brood nest renewal process that is built into the Warré hive concept.

Roger Delon introduced a modification of the Warré hive by inserting a 3 mm thick stainless steel wire in the top-bars so as to pass round the three remaining edges of the comb.9 This wire is essentially ‘invisible’ to the bees in that,

unlike with wooden frames, they still allow a natural nest with comb touching the walls. Although this counters Warré’s aims of simplicity and cheapness - and stainless steel has a high embodied energy - it might be an acceptable temporary help to comb mobility while legislatures are catching up with the ideas of bee-friendly beekeeping.

SWARM CONTROL Swarming is greatly reduced in the Warré hive because of its potentially infinite brood nest expansion and ample space for bees to hang under the developing comb. There is never the shortage of space that so often triggers swarming. Most of the manipulations of beekeeping are possible with a Warré hive but only one additional manipulation is mentioned here, namely Warré’s ‘pioneering method’ of swarm control. At the start of the main nectar flow the whole of a strong colony may be artificially swarmed into three fresh boxes, the old brood destroyed, the honey harvested and the wax rendered. A colony with no brood to hold it back generally develops very rapidly and usually gives a honey surplus. Alternatively it can be performed so as to retain the brood by leaving its hive on the old site. The interruption of egg laying in both the ‘swarm’ and the parent colony greatly helps with Varroa control.

VARROA CONTROL Frèrès and Guillaume recommended that, in combination with the pioneering method of swarm control, the colony spends a short time hanging in a decontaminator box fitted with a fluvalinate strip. We do not want synthetic pyrethroids in our hives and withVarroa developing resistance, in the author’s region this is anyway no longer an option for beekeepers. Some Warré beekeepers put thymol, for example ApilifeVar, in their hives. This risks undoing the whole point of Warré beekeeping, namely letting the bees maintain their health by suitably structuring their home. Reports that Warré hive mite counts are about one tenth those of framed hives in the same locality still need to be verified scientifically. However, several beekeepers are letting their bees co-evolve with Varroa without chemicals.

One has three out of three colonies entering their fourth season withoutVarroa treatment, so I am risking my six colonies that way, at least until the end of summer 2008, to see how things develop. Günther Hauk recommends that organic acids be used againstVarroa to help the bees through what could be a long period of co-evolution with the mite.

QUEEN REPLACEMENT So many of Warré’s views on beekeeping harmonise with those of Steiner that I would recommend all biodynamic beekeepers to read Warré’s book.5 One important similarity is worth noting here. Both argued against artificial queen breeding.

Replacement of queens should be part of the natural swarming process. Steiner pointed out that with artificially produced queens the strong bonding of queen and colony would be damaged and in the very long term (50-80 years) this would be detrimental to bee health.1

WARRÉ’S AIMS ACHIEVED The Warré hive is easy and cheap to make. The management time and effort is relatively very little. The equipment required is minimal: a centrifugal extractor is not required, although, if you have one, Warré gives precise instructions for extracting unframed combs. The bees winter on their own honey. Sugar is fed only in emergency. Warré found that the bees, left almost entirely in seclusion, as indeed befits them, became so docile that he could work his hives veil-less with his spaniel sitting at his feet. A commercial Warré beekeeper corroborates the observed docility.10 Warré and other beekeepers have proved that honey from such hives is cheaper to produce than that from framed hives. The brood nest is constantly moving down onto new comb, therefore healthier. The bees themselves determine worker cell-size and drone cell numbers. It is natural, organic, bee-friendly, sustainable beekeeping.

A colony needs its drones. They are part of its sense organs. The modern practices of preventing drone brood from forming and drone-culling can be likened to de-horning cattle.

Most modern experience with the Warré hive resides in France and Belgium with some in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. However, in January 2008 an English web portal for Warré beekeeping was set up.11 This points to source material and introduces various modifications that have arisen since Warré’s time. It also links to a newly established English Warré beekeeping e-group and a web forum. Warré experiments are now starting in USA (including Alaska!), Canada, Spain and Sweden. Progress of the experiment described in this article can be followed on the author’s web page.12 There is, may be, little in Nature which permits us to look so deeply into Nature herself, as the activities of the insects; the insects are strange creatures and they have still many a secret to disclose. (Steiner1) ■ References 1. Steiner, R. Bees 8 lectures, 3 Feb-22 Dec 1923, GA 351, Anthroposophic Press, NY. 2. Thür, J. Bienenzucht: ‘Naturgerecht einfach und erfolgsicher’. 2nd ed. Friedrich Stock’s Nachf. Karl Stropek (Buchhandlung und Antiquariat), Wien, 1946.The essential parts of this are available in German on Bernhard Heuvel’s sustainable beekeeping website: http://www.selbstversorgerforum.de/bienen/bienenindex. html and in English at http://www.mygarden.me.uk/thur.pdf.

3. Frèrès, J-M & Guillaume, J.C. ‘L’Apiculture Ecologique de A à Z’ (VillelongueDels-Monts, 1997) Ordering details at www.ruche-ecologique.org/. Currently available only as a bound printout, but a publisher is now working on a new edition and it will also appear in English.

4. Warré, E. ‘L’ Apiculture pour Tous’ 12th edition. (Saint-Symphorien, 1948).

Downloadable free at lo.gui.free.fr/apiculture/apiculture.php/200-apiculture.html.

5. Warré, E. ‘Beekeeping for All’.Trans. Heaf, D. & Cheney, P. (Llanystumdwy, 2007) Downloadable free at www.mygarden.me.uk/beekeeping_for_all.pdf.

6. Hauk, Günther (2002) ‘Towards Saving the Honeybee’ Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association, San Francisco.

7. Thun, Matthias K. ‘Die Biene Haltung und Pflege - Unter Berücksichtigung Kosmischer Rhythmen’. M.Thun-Verlag, Biedenkopf.

8. Gatineau, M. ‘L’apiculture, telle que je l’aime et la pratique’ (Serres, 2006).

Ordering details www.apiculturegatineau.fr.

9. http://www.biobees.com/delon.htm 10. Gilles Denis: www.ruche-warre.com 11. http://www.biobees.com/index.html 12. David Heaf’s Warré page: www.mygarden.me.uk/ ModifiedAbbeWarreHive.htm

Contact details of author Dr. David Heaf Hafan, Cae Llwyd, Llanystumdwy, Criccieth Gwynedd LL52 0SG Wales, UK Email: 101622.2773@compuserve.com

Star & Furrow Issue 109 Summer 2008

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HOMEODYNAMICS

by It had always been the intention of Rudolf Steiner Mike that we take what he could offer in his available time Atherton and using these tools and the power of our own thinking, to live fully in the times and needs of the present. Never was it his intention that his teachings should become a recipe to be followed, and anecdotal stories remind us of his annoyance at his words made dogma.

I think the above would be fair assessment of the attitude brought by Enzo Nastati to his life’s work in agriculture and to the forty-ish participants at Oaklands Park. This conference was a précis of his thirty years efforts investigating Steiner’s indications in agriculture and anthroposophy (among a vast range of other knowledge) and his attempt to practically grapple with the needs of our time. Upon the fact that Steiner intended to give two further agriculture courses (existent in the etheric realm) Enzo had given much consideration as to what might have been their content given the dramatic changes occurring since 1924. What are these, changes?

Taking the starting point of Steiner’s Christology Enzo has followed the descent of Christ into the etheric body of Earth culminating in complete incorporation after the Sun eclipse of August 1999 as prophesied by Steiner. This major event precipitated a profound transformation in the life-body of the Earth, completed in 2005. Since that time a transformation of the Sun is taking place, itself to be completed in 2012 and from which time will be required a new approach to agriculture, and indeed to all organisms possessed of life.

The warming up of the Earth witnessed at present was seen by Enzo as a period akin to a fever in a human. A brief period of purification between something old and the coming of something new. An interesting synchronicity occurred on the evening of his climate change lecture. NASA announced that its observations of the Sun had revealed a change rotation and sunspot absorption. This, they said, usually preceded a cooling on Earth bringing a mini ice age, as occurred in the 17th and 18th century, and that once observed the delay in its commencement was about four years!

This change in the etheric body is now showing its effects upon plant life. Initially the plants which Steiner described as ‘deaf to the cosmos’ will appear to grow well i.e. unconnected to the change, while those with some connection i.e. biodynamically and homeodynamically grown, will appear to suffer. When the changeover is complete the ‘deaf’ plants will die off leaving those with a cosmic connection.

In the old etheric circulationii we see that the life-ether becomes active at Candlemas, 2nd February (northern hemisphere) until St. Laurence, 10th August, while the light-ether is active from Easter until Michaelmas. Working from All Souls this gives us, in each period, the following number of ethers active at any time; 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 2, 1. We follow the rising activity from winter through the summer and back to winter again when only the chemical ether is active.

Compare this with the new etheric body. The only ether unchanged is that of ‘warmth’. The sequence now is; 1, 1, 2, 1, 3, 3, 2, 3. The easy familiar flow of the old body now has a twist. Where between Easter and Pentecost we had a steady inTHE CHANGE IN THE ETHERIC crease in ether activity, we now find a dramatic drop to only one.

BODY OF THE EARTH We are without the important forming and organising activities Because the Milky Way sits at an approximate right angle to the solar system and that the precession of the equinoxes takes of the light and chemical ethers! Once again a further discussion of this can be found in the aforementioned calendar.

25,920 years to complete, the Sun (in relation to the Earth) Much of the conference was devoted to giving us the passes the galactic equator once every 12,960 years. This is more fully described in the Astronomical Agriculture Calendar issued tools whereby we could engage personally in the development of

by D’Albero DellaVitai each year. It is at this moment that the practices suitable to these changes. In fact, due to the inclemency life-body of Earth undergoes complete renewal. This event last of the weather that week only once were we allowed off our chairs took place on 1st January 1999. We are therefore experiencing and into the rich grounds of Oaklands Park to try and apply this knowledge - a task, alas, we were found only too wanting in. three phases of this change; our familiarity with dealing with Enzo claims to have read the Agriculture Course some living organisms in Earth’s old life-body, a difficult transition 200 times and this had led him to an intense study of Occult Sciduring the transformation, and a change into working with the new purified life-body. What this means practically for the ence in his attempt to build up a picture of the new requirements.

It was the Greeks who, still with a toe in the spiritual progress of the seasons is shown in the following two drawings.

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WORKSHOP worlds, were able to formulate principles consistent with Earth and Man in a four-fold realm. They lived in the elements of earth, water, air and fire and recognised in each its role in incarnating and excarnating life. Form arrives in matter through the doorway of ‘warmth’, itself upward looking to the four ethers in reverse relationship to the four earthly elements. Though recognising the above picture what we have lost since Greek times is the concept that life itself has two forms. The Greek knew of an earthly life called BIOS, that which is studied by us in Biology. He knew also of a divine life which he called ZOE, to which appeal must be made to the Zodiac. It was for this reason that Enzo was somewhat nonplussed by the term ‘biodynamics’ given that it is cosmic life which our agriculture seeks.

One familiar with medicine would, in the above description, recognise the activity of potentisation; spirit becoming form and the process in reverse whereby matter rhythmically treated can reveal its true spiritual nature. Enzo has taken this modern alchemy a stage further by reaching out through the ‘doors of the zodiac’ and into the influence of the milky way -an activity expressed also in Hahnemann’s LM potencies.

By such thinking some 500 new preparations have been developed. While this might sound excessive it is consistent with Enzo’s insistence on the accuracy required of remedies for plants. For humans homoeopathic remedies kickstart an existent healing capacity so can be broad in their activity.

Animals are less able to do this and plants still less so.

Given the depth and range of subject matter presented (I’m sure most of us felt like the farmers at the Koberwitz conference) it would become a lengthy treatise to deal with the whole conference. I will, however, give one example of the kind of thinking that Enzo encouraged us to engage in.

A question arose about the Equisetum preparation 508. Did we use the preparation, he asked? Yes. Had we noticed any success? We hesitated. Steiner did not state which part of the plant to use. Using the homoeopathic model Enzo suggested that the part to use is the early brief stage of the plant where appears a small fungi-like growth. As for a sheath the hoof of a cow was suggested as being the part most in contact with the earth, whereas the horns have more of a moon quality. How we bring the moon into the process is by using the rear hooves, the front of the cow being more of the Sun. But is it the left or right hoof? If one homeopathises, the direction of movement is significant as to whether we incarnate or excarnate a process.

In this case we wish to excarnate mildew, say. To the left brings excarnation and so the rear left hoof is chosen. When and for how long should it be buried? Downy mildew appeared some 140years ago and its remedy was to use lime left in a copper barrel. This became the basis of ‘Bordeaux mixture’. The forces behind downy mildew had, however, changed over this time and this remedy is now ineffective. An external fungus, such as this is, is Luciferic (in the light - an internal fungus being Ahrimanic, i.e. in darkness). To cure it we need to engage spiritual forces of light. This will encourage the exhalation of the forces linked to fungi. The time chosen for burial was the forty days leading up to Pentecost. How long should it be stirred? Here Enzo spoke of the nature of Venus, as a being who takes, elaborates and gives and this is expressed in the eurythmy movement for Venus. The first twenty minutes of a stir are ‘taking’, the next twenty, ‘elaborating’ and the third twenty ‘giving’. In this case twenty minutes is sufficient. Having completed the picture Enzo suggested three universal laws satisfied in the process;

Sympathy (the use of horsetail), economy (homeopathic dosage), and resonance (we bury the hooves in sandy soil to engage the light process. If we don’t have sandy soil then we make a pit for it).

Why then, is Enzo not simply using biodynamics as expressed in general practice? When Steiner gave the first of his intended courses he would not have been dealing with problems such as excessive electromagnetic, nuclear and water pollution or genetic modification and as stated earlier Christ had not fully manifested giving the Earth a different life-body quality. The tools for working with the new circumstances are, however, in the Agriculture Course and other seminal teachings of Steiner, like Occult Science, for example. The direction this work is taking is to become totally conscious of the spiritual needs of living organisms. So much so that Enzo felt that soon - and he meant ‘soon’- both biodynamics and homeodynamics should be unnecessary as what is required for the growth of organisms in the new order will be given by thought. But we must be guided there. This most up-to-date alchemy draws us into forces reaching from out of the far distant future - even beyond the Jupiter phase, and this has a strengthening effect on our practices at a time of great trial when biodynamics must be practiced with ever greater will, clearer consciousness, purer feeling. We will find that this new development, presently being investigated by a number of researchers worldwide, is eminently biodynamic with no contradictions to what was given by Steiner. Here we should not be arguing as to whether we use this or that named method but are we truly engaging with the tools offered to us from out of spiritual science and applying them to our time.

A few years ago the Experimental Circle practised a collective visualisation for one year. The content was broadly stated ‘may biodynamic agriculture be allowed to flourish and the preparations be legally available’. Part way through the year I asked a fellow member how his visualisation was going. He said, ‘I have changed it slightly. I’m now asking for the world to have the best possible food.’ Truly this MAY turn out to be biodynamics as practised now, or it may be a development of it, for example. How can we be sure and which image is the most honest? Should we be dogmatic followers of a system, or should we want the best that we can have? Before we rush to criticise these new impulses on the basis of what they do not say, we should be testing them, internally and externally. Can we afford not to do so? ■ Mike Atherton runs the GREEN experimental and educational garden at Upper Grange in Stroud. He is including homeodynamic trials as part of that work.

For more information on Enzo Nastasi’s work visit the website: http://albios.it/en/pages/agri/agr.htm Links to research based on Enzo Nastasi’s work can be found on the Considera website: http://www.considera.org/reslit.html i ‘Astronomical Calendar: An English translation of the calendar and other

works by Enzo Nastasi (including “Introduction to Homeodynamics”, “Foundations For A Development Of Potentisation”, “Homeodynamic Handbook”, “Pollution Dossier” .. ) can be ordered from Mark Moodie : mark@considera. org . Funding is also being sought for the translation of Enzo Nastati’s 400 page Commentary on the 1924 Koberwitz Agriculture Course.ii For a good explanation on the four ethers see: ‘The Four Ethers: Contributions to Rudolf Steiner’s Science of the Ethers’ by Ernst Marti, published Schaumberg Publications, Illinois, 1984. Also see ‘The Etheric Formative Forces in Cosmos, Earth and Man’ by Guenther Wachsmuth, Anthroposophic Press, New York, 1932.

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Biodynamic Professional Development

by Rienk ter Braake

THE COACHES The group of coaches is diverse. Everyone has his or her specific background and expertise. However they have one thing in common and that is an enormous enthusiasm for Biodynamic agriculture. This is a prerequisite. Being a coach is hard work and can be very demanding, especially when you encounter social problems or questions on a farm. But it can also be very rewarding, and there I do not refer to financial reward. The expenses, travelling, telephone etc., can be refunded and there is a little honorarium for each contact with a farmer or group. The reward lies in the (however small) solutions you find with the farmer and also to feel that you are part of this process. These are the victories!

Another rewarding aspect for the coaches, in our experience, is their own personal development both as a coach and as a person. These go hand in hand. In order to get the necessary support for the coaches the project organises three meetings a year with them. These are to reflect, share, support, inspire and practise. They include both technical (coaching systems) and Biodynamic aspects.

Some of the coaches are Demeter farmers (4), with their own practical and theoretical background. Others are researchers (4), advisors (4), professional coaches (3) and THE GOALS The project is open to all farmers interested in Biodynamic teachers (4). All openly exchange experiences and technical agriculture and who are members of the Biodynamic Asso- knowledge. A coach might very well ask a colleague to take ciation, whether or not they are Demeter or even organically over if the issues being dealt with demand specific expertise.

To maintain professionalism the project is mancertified. The spiritual impulse is open for anyone. Only if they intend to market products as organic or Demeter would aged by professionally paid coaches. The start of the project they need to comply with a set of requirements. Therefore was financially supported by the (anthroposophical) Iona Foundation, but nowadays it is funded from member fees. there is a clear separation between the Demeter certification, by Stichting Demeter, and participation in the project METHODOLOGY organised by the Biodynamic Association.

INDIVIDUAL COACHING There is a big difference between advising and coaching. If you hire an advisor you expect him/her to bring The project started with individual coaching. For some that would mean an annual visit to look back and evaluate the (technical) expertise, so he or she can offer solutions for past year. What went well and what went wrong? Where your problems or questions. In most cases the farm is the main focus. A coach rather brings social expertise (as well as can I, as a Biodynamic farmer, improve myself or my farm? technical expertise) to mirror you, as a Biodynamic farmer, Maybe the workload is too big and I have to make choices to be more successful? Have the initial development plans so you get a clearer picture of your problems or questions. become a frustrating burden, as a result of social problems?

The clearer you can get this picture, the easier it is to find the solutions suitable for you and your specific situation. It is How can I solve them first?

Other specific issues can be discussed in a frequent not the farm, but you yourself that is the main focus. time schedule say once every six weeks. Such issues can be The coach is responsible for the process to help very personal: Maybe you have become frustrated and have you find your own way. For instance, a question on say a lost all inspiration for farming, let alone for Biodynamic shortage of manpower can be answered by an advisor who development. How can you get back on track or even step will help you get in touch with an agency that specialises back for a while? Maybe there are specific ideas for changes in organic farm hands. Through this you can find suitable employees for your farm. A coach would rather try to figure on the farm but it is a struggle to realise them. What are out, why employees would want to work on your farm. And personal hindrances and what are practical? How can they even with you? Questions such as: ‘Can’t you get farm hands be worked through? or don’t they want to stay with you?’ may arise. There might be solutions for finding better ways to connect with the people coming to work with you.

SINCE 1996 the Dutch Biodynamic Association has had a project for Biodynamic farmers to help with their Biodynamic professional development.

One of the challenges Rudolf Steiner mentions over and over again, is to always “scientifically” review your own daily work - to experiment and to gain conscious wisdom”: “In the days when they were not intellectual, they were not so clever, but they were far wiser and learned through their feelings how to go about things; and we must learn to act with wisdom once again through Anthroposophy, but this time the wisdom will be conscious.”

How do we go about that with our daily hectic life and enormous amount of work? The Biodynamic coaching project (now called Biodynamic profession development) was started to support farmers with this struggle and to help them find words for talking about their striving for the best Biodynamic practice.

At the moment fifty five Biodynamic and Demeter farmers participate in the project with fifteen coaches available to reflect and support them.

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INTERVISION In 2000 a new working method was introduced: Intervision.

Whereas “supervision” is the development of ideas with the help of a supervisor who has more experience or knowledge, “intervision” is the development of ideas amongst colleagues (inter- = between). Intervision is group work and usually consists of about five to seven participants. There have to be enough participants to be diverse, but not too many to still be intimate. As all group members are in a similar (not the same) situation they can reflect each other in a way that is not possible with supervision.

The idea of intervision is that each group member formulates an open question, relevant to him or herself, such as: ‘How can I draw a line between the farm work and family life?’ or ‘How can I make a decision on the rebuilding of my cow shed?’ The group makes a choice on which question they will deal with. Then the person with the question tells the background to the problem with no interference from the others. They just listen.

For the first round each participant asks open questions in order to get a fuller picture of the farmer’s question. For example: ‘Can you describe the most difficult situations where you feel that there is too much interference between your farm work and your family life?’, ‘How do you think your partner feels about that?’ or ‘Can you describe a situation where you felt you could draw a suitable line?’

Merely asking open questions seems quite simple but is very hard. In most groups the coach often has to interfere methodically at first. For example, someone may relate something personal and you recognise the situation.

You may then easily jump to a conclusion and look for an answer. Through such reactions, the initial input can easily be forgotten. To live into someone else’s question is really hard work! You have to leave out your own prejudices. After this round it might be necessary to reformulate the initial question.

Once everyone has a clear picture of the question, each group member then tries to characterise the situation by means of an impression or image. For example one might say: ‘I get the impression that it is hard for you to draw the line between the farm and your family because you need time to make the switch from your work to joining your family. Because you seem to find that hard you postpone it and keep on working. And that makes you feel guilty’.

After such feedback the farmer with the question can respond if he wants to or ask for further clarification The participants then formulate their advice by giving suggestions on what can be done. This advice needs to be as practical as possible, e.g. ‘You could go to work on a bicycle. By cycling home for half an hour you are able to leave the stress at work and prepare to arrive home’. Now, the farmer

advice.

At the he can tellll the just listens to the advice di A h end dh h group what he is going to do with it.

In the final round everyone is given an opportunity to give an additional tip, for example: ‘You can always give me a phone call on this issue, if you feel like it.’ The next meeting starts by looking back and reflecting on the previous session.

Each person is encouraged to contribute and not just the person with the question.

A coach is there to safeguard the process but not the content. Some groups find they no longer need a coach after a while.

FARM VISITS AND OTHER INITIATIVES The initiative to start with the intervision groups has turned out to be a very effective and stimulating impulse for the coaching project. The initial four groups have doubled in just three months.

After a few years the intervision groups started varying their working method. Some kept on using the techniques but rather than “around the kitchen table”, the discussion took place while walking on the farm. A new form of working was born: Farm visits. This was more suitable for farmers who would rather connect to the practical side of farming than through discussion. Other groups started to work on specific themes for a period of time. Such themes might be reading the Agricultural Course, the feeding of dairy cattle or composting.

The entire project has more or less become a living organism in itself. It is not the methods that play the most important role but rather the needs of the different groups.

The Biodynamic professional development project then facilitates and organises meetings with colleagues, if necessary with a coach. The secret of success of the project might very well be a personal approach rather than a technical one.

EXPERIENCES For a lot of farmers the meetings with their coach or with their group have an enormous impact. A farmer stated that it is “the gold of Biodynamic farming”. Exchange and reflection on personal issues, related to the Biodynamic farm and to one’s work as a Biodynamic farmer has brought back the inspiration to many Dutch Biodynamic farmers. It is always related to personal development.

“By practising intervision I learned to hold back my own opinion and prejudice. That is what I also started doing where my own farm is concerned. Be open for what is about to happen.” ■ Rienk ter Braake is the Certification coordinator for the Dutch Demeter Certification scheme.

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© The Soil Association

A personal reflection of Patrick Holden’s lecture in Stourbridge on the 14th March 2008 Vivian Griffiths

PATRICK HOLDEN by now a well known figure in the organic movement - a regular speaker on radio and television and a skilful person steering the Soil Association from the margins into a well known mainstream organisation, stood in the Christian Community Church in Stourbridge almost faltering. He was perhaps overcome by the different surrounding, the hush of a church and the audience from many strands of local anthroposophical endeavour.These included the Valehead, Camphill Ashfield and Stourton Biodynamic Farms and Gardens as well as the Elmfield Rudolf Steiner School (which incidentally is approaching ‘ecoschool’ status), the local Biodynamic group and local people curious to what he had to say. It was a touching moment.

Linking his grandfather bishop to Philip Conford’s History of the Organic Movement booki, he used the context of his surroundings to emphasise an exoteric relationship to church and countryside. Sadly it has been a struggle for the church’s relationship to nature in the last century to support a natural humus farming technique in the face of the chemical revolution in agriculture and horticulture.

Patrick’s talk to the Stourbridge audience (or should that be congregation) remained a personal testament throughout - to his debt to biodynamics on discovery of this at Emerson College in the 1970s and his journey to find truth and spiritual values in life. This led him as a ‘child of the sixties’ to the centre in Hampshire devoted to the work of Krisnamurti and thence to Guerdjeff ’s writings and to Ouspensky’s thought. A time in rural commune in

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California led him to the land and community issues and his debt of gratitude at Emerson to Dr Koepf and the work done at Busses Farm with Jimmy and Pauline Anderson. He had just arrived on the day of the lecture from Forest Row where he had shared the stage with old Emerson colleagues in launching the Transition Forest Row initiativeii. And it was this Peak Oil movement which had inspired him deeply since hearing Rob Hopkins’s talk on the subject, of which more to come.

His life was traced from Emerson to an organic farm in west Wales with his partner Helene Rebec. It was there where his practical thought training came in since there were no marketing standards to recognise organic.

This subsequently led to the establishing a set of Organic Standards in the early 1980s with, amongst others, David Clement of Broome Farm and the Organic Farmers and Growers Group. That farm in West Wales has obviously been a catalyst to Patrick. Geographically it is in an isolated region yet locally supported by a strong local organic community. This was shown by the re-establishment of the West Wales Soil Association Regional Group.

This was a significant milestone in Patrick’s life story as his regional setting was important to him even though he helped to make the national Soil Association the Bristol based organisation that is celebrating its 20th birthday in the city this year. He spoke of his ‘worldly engagement with the land’ and wishing to make a difference, but asked his biodynamic listeners to understand that his inner commitment remained strong to what he felt to be the Spiritual Foundation of organic farming. The West Wales farm uses the Cow Manure Preparation as well as the sowing

calendar of Maria Thun.

With a £2.6 billion turnover in organic product and the Soil Association’s income from grants, campaigns, membership and publications of just over £1 million, the 1946 established organisation that represents the organic movement has come a long way and there were constant questions of how much compromise was affecting the original passion of commitment.

Patrick heard Rob Hopkins’siii talk on Peak Oil in 2006 at the Schumacher College in Devon along with Satish Kumar the editor of Resurgence and it changed his perspective and the Soil Association’s direction. A complete rethink was needed which looked at questions of an ‘environment damage’ picture from a positive viewpoint rather that the doom laden negative standpoint of the extermination of species and land poisoning that had been the norm It had also been alarming how many environment educators had taken on this doom laden scenario with a whole generation of children frightened by imminent collapse of the planet.

Rob Hopkins’s approach, Patrick mused, was a building of positives on how we could manage our lives, locally, sustainably and creatively when the oil runs out. He went back to his farm and reflected on the amount of diesel used to fuel the four tractors on the farm. He also looked at the huge distribution network that now covers the country and thought long and hard about food security issue. He reflected this in the light of the oil tanker driver’s strike in 2001 and how in the modern philosophy of ‘just in time’ in which everything arrives just in time for production or consumption, the whole country was seriously short of basic foodstuffs within a couple of days.

Add to this picture climate change questions and a new look at population growth the Soil Association found itself with a new approach - a more positive and sustainable one and here is the challenge; a more ‘spiritual’ gesture in the arrangement of priorities, and that is where biodynamics plays a very important part.

“We are all grieving for the Dying Earth” - a quote Patrick used from Joanna Macey’s work on the Great Turningiv which will usher in a new wave of inventive minds to ensure a hopefully more pollution free future. One practical deed is the formation of the Soil Association’s Land Trustv which includes the estate where Hungary Lane Farm is situated. Here land can be gifted for organic production. It is a small gesture to a new agriculture centred environment where to work on the land is considered a social privilege and an economic necessity, where 10 times more people than the present ‘less than 2% ‘of our population can work in agriculture. Patrick looked at what has happened in Cuba and how huge increases in city organically based horticulture happened when the economy collapsedvi.

This new found optimism where we will find ways to change our ways of living and eating was a hallmark of his Stourbridge speech. However, with the embarrassment of large percentages of organic food collecting huge food miles and the lack of a regional infrastructure to provide sustainable farm to plate economies is still a huge challenge.

He cited that 50% of our food is processed with 30% of the carbon footprint in food production - of which 50% before the farm gate in cultivations and effluent and 50% after the farm gate through food processing and transport. Much of

that is the nitrous oxide of chemical fertiliser which can be blamed on the current agriculture.

Patrick threw down the challenge - perhaps to all biodynamic practitioners. We conceivably in the past wanted a more spiritually based humus agriculture to be promoted by the Soil Association which seemed to never come about.

Now possibly the emphasis is on integrating a spiritual perspective into climate change models, environmental science studies, new forms of pollution free travel and regional sustainability infrastructure - a new take on think global, act local.

He finished his talk with the celebration that in April this year the West Wales Regional Soil Association Group will reform at a meeting in Lampeter - a return to a more local structure perhaps. And a minor victory for Patrick’s organically grown carrots! Instead of huge transport costs and miles to Sainsbury’s vegetable processing site in Peterborough he campaigned for a local pickup point. Perhaps his well known personality won the day for the carrots, in a case of change of policy, can now be delivered to the supermarket site at Bridgend - a little nearer - and fresher carrots too!

Patricks talk at Stourbridge followed on from the launch of the DVD on biodynamicsvii at Rush Farm distribution centre in the UK of Dr Hauschka Products and an emerging biodynamic farm in the Worcestershire countryside between Redditch and Droitwich. Archers country if you are that way inclined! It perhaps touched on the increasing link between biodynamics and the organic movement with the staff of Ryton Gardens present for the launch as t he DVD touches on the Biodynamic Garden at the Coventry site.

That was an import at occasion for all of us and shows a new spirit of mutual respect and working together in the world of humus farming and gardening and Patrick paid tribute to this in his talk. ■ Vivian Griffiths is a former Council Member of the BDAA. He is involved in conferences and a research project in Brantford in the Lake District to show the practical work of biodynamics to interested group. i The Origins of the Organic Movement by Philip Conford, published Floris Books 2001 ii For more information on the Transition Town Movement see : www.transitiontowns.org iii More about Rob Hopkins is found at : http://transitionculture.org/ iv See : www.joannamacy.net/html/great.html v A Land Fund has also been set up to generate funds for Biodynamic Agriculture see: www.bdlandfund.org.uk vi ‘The Power of Community’ - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil. See www. powerofcommunity.org vii See article on page 46 of this issue

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Producing Biodynamic Seeds in the UK

by Bernard Jarman

DURING THE COURSE of many thousands of years farmers all over the world a rich diversity of crop plant varieties has been developed. Each locality evolved its own unique strains of cereal, vegetable and fruit varieties and most importantly every farmer saved his own seeds.With the onset of industrial farming and modern plant breeding techniques all this changed and this rich and diverse heritage is now all but lost.Today there is only a very narrow range of highly bred varieties available on the market and these are sold all over the world. Farmers and growers are also discouraged from saving their own seed leaving them with no choice but to purchase the hybrids offered by the big seed companies.These hybrid varieties which do not breed true if saved, are raised in the firms’ laboratories and are bred to thrive under intensive conditions that require heavy applications of artificial fertilizers.The quality of crops produced from these hybrid seeds is also very questionable.

Organic and biodynamic farmers need plant varieties that will grow well under their conditions, can interact with the living soil and respond to the fine qualitative influences carried by light and warmth. Seeds are needed that thrive, are acclimatised to the conditions of the farm and can be saved for future use year after year. Home produced seeds which have been carefully maintained in this way meet these objectives and give the farmer greater sovereignty over the development of his farm.

WORKING TOGETHER It is of course not possible to expect farmers to meet all their own seed requirements. This is particularly so for vegetable growers since for seed production each variety has very specific cultural requirements. Biodynamic farmers and growers can however work together and take on the task collectively. If each farmer or grower focuses energy on producing a reasonable quantity of seed from one or two varieties, he will be able to provide a supply that supports both his own farm and many other producers throughout the country. The Biodynamic Seed Group was formed a decade ago, with the express purpose of facilitating this process and

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sharing out the growing of biodynamic vegetable and flower seeds. Seed growing leads to processing and now there is comprehensive cleaning, grading and testing facilities established at Stormy Hall in Botton Village. Here the seeds are packed by ‘Demeter Seeds Stormy Hall’ and sold via mail order to a growing circle of customers. The seed catalogue includes a broad range of biodynamic vegetable, herb and flower seed varieties. To supplement those not grown by UK producers other varieties are brought in from Germany, Switzerland and Holland where biodynamic seed production is more established. The farm origin of UK produced seeds is always clearly marked. The catalogue has become a valuable resource not only for biodynamic growers but also for many organic farmers and gardeners too. Demand for seeds continues to grow and many more biodynamic producers are needed to provide a good supply of seed.

All biodynamic farmers and gardeners are urged to consider whether they could take on to produce one or two seed varieties for Stormy Hall. The following guidelines indicate what is required to produce seed for Stormy Hall.

1. The holding needs to be Demeter certified. This is essential in order to assure customers of the seeds’ biodynamic status.

2. Know as much as possible about the crop you are growing e.g. recognise the ideal types, off types and expressions of plant disease. As a successful vegetable producer you will know what the ideal plants look like, how your crop plants produce seed and whether they are cross-pollinators or self-pollinators?

3. Decide whether to produce breeder’s seed, seed for maintenance breeding or unselected multiplication. This will require adapting the selection method accordingly

BIODYNAMIC PLANT BREEDING PROJECT Following the successful 2002 - 2006 Seed Development Project, the BDAA is now launching a new Biodynamic Plant Breeding project in August this year. It aims to build on the achievements of the earlier work and provide further encouragement to growers wishing to produce seed for the catalogue. Biodynamic plant breeding and variety maintenance will be an important goal to be progressed in collaboration with our European colleagues. In order to strengthen the overall work a concerted effort will be made to establish an appropriate cooperative structure to which all stakeholders can contribute and find support.

APPEAL To achieve these objectives the BDAA is appealing for 4. Work out the best isolation distances (cross pollinators) funds. Plant breeding is essentially a form of research and as to other related crops or wild varieties bearing in mind wind such can never be financed through production and the sale of seeds. Thanks to the donations we have received we can direction and source of insects. Wind pollinators are the start implementing some aspects of the project this summer most difficult ones to deal with. and will continue to do so with the resources we have available. We need £20,000 per year to implement the full proj5. Consider the minimum number of plants needed and their compatibility as well as previous cropping, rotation etc. ect. If you would like to contribute to this work please send and follow the guidelines* and standards for each crop since donations to the BDAA office. Cheques should be payable to ‘BDAA’ and with ‘Seed Fund’ written on the back. The full these vary considerably. project description is available from the BDAA office and is on the website.

6. Agree with Stormy Hall how much seed to produce Biotechnology and genetic modification is increasand the price to be paid. ingly offered as the only feasible alternative to mass starva7. Crop records need to be kept for each crop (crop entry tion. In reality however it is a major force leading precisely to that scenario. The real solution must be sustainable farming, form, crop inspection reports and crop records). Crop inlocal production for local people and the re-empowerment spections aim to be made by Stormy Hall in midsummer. of small-scale farming communities. Biodynamic farming 8. Delivery of seeds to Stormy Hall should be arranged as methods demonstrate that that it is possible to increase the amount, quality and variety of food produced in a given area soon after harvest as possible. As soon as the crop is tested and cleaned, payments are made. If seed does not meet the while at the same time enhancing soil fertility and biodiversity. Likewise seeds developed using biodynamic plant internal standards no payment is made and we can return breeding methods have an intrinsic vitality and health. They the seed to you. The level of payment is about 50% for of the bulk amount price of the current cata- respond and adapt to local conditions and can be saved and rs for future use. ■ logue. Deductions will be made for difficult- developed by farmers to-clean seed and for the cost of seed supplied to grow the crop. *Guidelines are available from Stormy Hall as well as further advice

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Q A by Ian Bailey

Q. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CALENDAR OF MARIA THUN AND N NICK KOLLERSTROM? A A. THERE ARE SOME D DIFFERENCES, BUT M MAY I BEGIN BY D DIGRESSING AND R RATHER SAY WHAT I THE SAME ABOUT IS T THEM? AND THE A ANSWER TO THAT IS, Q QUITE A LOT REALLY.

DIGRESSION Now many people working in Biodynamics will be familiar with the social care slogan ‘Independence and Choice’! They certainly apply to these considerations but are also indicative of how we live in times when always in relation to each other we go straight to our differences – Jews and Arabs, Bush and Bin Laden, but are we not as human beings all well over 99% the same? And one thing we very definitely all have in common is a capacity for making mountains out of mole hills! This is something to do with perspective and the difficulty of recognising the cosmic dimension of life.

THE PROBLEM But enough of that, let’s go to the differences! How is the Zodiac to be divided up? Where can we make the divisions between the 12 constellations of the circle? In this they certainly differ. It is a powerful and essential exercise to try and explore this question for ourselves. As they look up to the sky not so many people can even say where the ecliptic is lying; so to comprehend, let alone experience different spiritual beings, elemental qualities and life forces being active and radiating influences towards us on earth from different parts of the sky is a challenge. The problem is one of distinguishing where one influence passes over to another. One has to study quite a bit, spend time ‘living in the etheric’, and work towards gaining a capacity for ‘Imagination knowledge’ (etheric formative forces sculpt our visible world, and by looking carefully at any phenomena in the world of nature we can read what forces - supersensible etheric life forces - were at work in its formation). Following the central maxim of the Lord’s Prayer ‘on earth as it is in heaven’ we need to see everything we work with on the land as symbolic of spiritual activity. ‘There is no matter without spirit and no spirit without matter’.

THE IMPORTANCE OF MAKING OUR OWN EXPERIENCES Now, let us take the moon as something of a gateway toward the earth for these 12, 4, 7, 3, or even 9 various numbers of differing cosmic influences that are spread out around the zodiac. We need to try and observe where, when and how things change in the garden or field or in the animals as the moon passes along the path of the sun and stands before each constellation in turn. Soil, weather, growth patterns, what are the cows doing, what is happening in the world of nature, all sorts of things might give us the clue! Use a diary, draw, paint, write poems, tease your observations out of yourself.

Nick Kollerstrom has gone back through the history of astronomy following the research of Robert Powellii, to the ancient Persian times, to the moment of the first division and looked at the stars Aldebaran and Spica. From there he takes Aldebaran, the eye of the Bull, as the dead centre of Taurus and fills out the zodiac beings in 30 degree equal sections from there. It has a reason, a genesis and it gives a neat and balanced structure to the cosmic dance. It has culture, but is maybe also a bit of an intellectual way. Maria Thuniii sowed radishes every day of the circle and took careful note of how they grew. She paid particular attention to how the four elements of earth, water, air and fire were playing out in root, leaf, flower and fruit – a very practical approach!

CUTTING THE PACK Given that difference, what they arrive at is surprisingly similar for the most part. The very few variations between the ‘equal’ and the ‘unequal’ constellations amount to no more than a few hours of moon travel time (the moon moves along through the zodiac at an average 11-12 degrees of arc per 24 hours). The big one of course is between the Virgin and the Scales. We know that somewhere between the Persian epoch and our own the understanding of these two star pictures has changed and there is surely something to explore there in terms of ‘reading the occult script’ once we are well grounded in an imaginative knowledge of our enterprise.

ROLLER COASTING ALONG So, what else might be different? Nick Kollerstrom is not convinced that the ascending/descending moon rhythm has any relevance – he notes that biodynamic calendars are characterized by their use of this cycle and indeed it is fundamental to the working of Maria Thun’s calendar. The descending moon journeying from Twins to Scorpion is a time for putting plants into the earth, potting on, transplanting and planting. The descending rooting forces will help THE APPROACH If we do not want to just take such calendars as recipe books any plant to take root and take hold in the soil most effectively. It is also a time for pruning and spreading manure. without understanding why, then we will probably find Conversely the time from the Archer to the tips of the Bull’s Biodynamics becoming something of a Rosicrucian path horns is an ascending time when the sap is more vigorous in of initiationi into the secrets of existence. We will aim to rising upwards through the plant, a good time for harvestbecome one with the macrocosm through understanding, overcoming ourselves and being free of the power that binds ing, grafting and taking moisture out of the soil. A flowering mood prevails. us. This is a path of knowledge for those who feel within them the discord between faith and knowledge. Rose et CruCHEWING THE CUD cis stands for the union of the cross and the rose. In it one An interesting development in the calendar of Nick Kollerfinds a reconciliation between the visible and the invisible world, the inner & outer, and takes up the task of transform- strom is his recommendation to use an hour either side of the moment of Moonrise for sowing and planting. His ing the substance of Earth into Love.

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Sun, Moon and Planets journey through the zodiac

첡

철

첞첟

첝천첛첚

CELESTIAL ESCALATOR

척

첤

첣

opinion is that this is a very significant moment in the day.

A further refinement follows when we want to work during the daylight hours, leading Nick to recommend Moonrise during the waxing phase of the moon as the auspicious moment for these activities. Maria Thun doesn’t mention this, but I remember Brian Keats wondering whether cows have a special moment of chewing the cud at moonrise.

RETURNING TO THE POINT To sum up there is not a lot of difference. It is mostly to do with finding the divisions in the Zodiac and choice of moon cycle to time one’s cultivations with. If instead of difference, we speak of one or the other being more or less something, then I would say Maria Thun is the more serious BiodyANGLE GRINDING namic work aid to compliment the Agricultural Course. The It is not easy to ascertain what differences there may be with approach of Nick Kollerstrom is more of an exploration of regard to good and bad aspects of the planets i.e. the various lunar folk lore and old country tradition which is fascinating angles at which the planets stand in relation to each other as and worthwhile but doesn’t have the same substance as 55 they move at their different speeds around the zodiac. years of Biodynamic practice and research. They do both There is so much going on all the time that it has very firmly encourage readers to observe and experiment for a lot to do with sensitivity and awareness of these events. themselves and make their own experiences.

This is far more a matter of what one chooses to work with than a matter of difference. Nick Kollerstrom draws from a AND NOW FOR SOMETHING wide spread of old country lore and offers suggestions to be COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! i To find out about the explored, whereas Maria Thun seems far more sure of what If you really want to put yourself through the mill have a Rosicrucian path see she expects to unfold with each aspect, but she does not look at the Astronomical Agricultural Calendar of Enzo for example:The Secret always explain her reasoning in the calendar Nastasiiv. ■ Stream, Rudolf Steiner she just says do or don’t Ian Bailey is the BDAA treasurer and teaches lectures concerning Rosicrucianism – edited do this or that! astronomy on the apprentice training courses.

Ald eba ran

by C Bamford ii For more on Robert Powell’s work see : https://sophiafoundation.org/ iii See ‘Sowing & Planting Calendar’ - Maria Thun, published by Floris Books, Edinburgh 2008 iv Astronomical Agricultural calendar – Enzi Nastati . See contact details at the end of the Homeodynamics article on page 32 KEY

1 Tropical as in Astrology. Sun at vernal equinox = 1st point of Aries (Latin names used) 2 Sidereal Set by fixed stars. Aldebaran is at 15˚ of the Bull constellation.

30˚ equal divisions 3 The Constellations Actual star pictures - unequal.

Further reading: ■ Gardening & Planting by the Moon – Nick Kollestrom (www.plantingbythemoon.co.uk) ■ Northern Star Calendar – Brian Keats ■ Culture & Horticulture – Wolf D Storl ■ Man as Symphony of the Creative Word – Rudolf Steiner ■ The Agricultural Course Rudolf Steiner

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© Richard Swann

Botton Nutrition weekend with Carlo Janowski

by Ashley Lovett TOWARDS THE END OF JANUARY this year a group of Biodynamic apprentices headed to the Yorkshire moors for a weekend on Nutrition.The group represented a reunion for many as it combined both first and second years on the Severn Valley Biodynamic land training. Peter,Tomas, Reuben, Marie and Eva were first to arrive from Ruskin Mill claiming the rooms on the ground floor of Nook Barn.These were followed by Grant, Jenny,Ashley and Robin from Glasshouse College who on stepping into the warmth of the converted Barn were greeted enthusiastically by Marie with a new haircut! The next to arrive were the Camphill apprentices from Oaklands Park,The Grange and Gun Mill. Nara, Chito, Miguel,Tamas and Ted had sat for many hours looking out of the windows of the Oakland’s red minibus with Sarn and Lea sharing the driving. Last to arrive were Jane and Harry who had travelled all the way from Vern Farrow in Herefordshire.At the evening talk we met with the Botton apprentices; Sharon, Daniel, Catherine and Andreas.The first talk of the weekend was in the Joan of Arc hall and was open to the whole Botton community.

With such a large group of farmers and gardeners there were more nutritional values represented than you would find in an alfalfa sprout. Omnivores sat in between the carnivores and the herbivores and the wine makers listened respectfully to the milk enthusiasts. Over the next few days much information would be shared about the fruits of agricultural labour enjoyed by civilised man. Carlo Janowski would provide a theoretical understanding integrating all the information into a holistic view on nutrition in light of Rudolf Steiner’s teachings. Carlo had flown from Switzerland for the weekend where he practises as a curative Eurythmy therapist and nutritionist.

The first lecture was on the breakdown and assimilation of food. A downward line was drawn on the blackboard and Carlo proceeded to describe the processes involved in the breakdown of food from the mouth through to the stomach, the duodenum and finally into the large

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intestine. The invisible life force of plants is actually devitalised in the duodenum and the more vital a cauliflower is for instance the more spiritual effort is required to devitalise this refreshingly crunchy member of the brassica family.

Raw food enthusiasts look to plant enzymes as the reason behind the health benefits of eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. According to Rudolf Steiner however fruit and vegetables must be transformed inside the body before they can be assimilated by the human being: “It is so easy to think that what exists in man’s surroundings, what belongs to the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms and is then taken into the body, that these external material processes which are investigated by the physicist, the chemist and so on, simply continue on in the same way in man himself. There can, however, be no question of this for one must be clear that inside the human skin and its processes everything is different from outside it, that the world inside differs entirely from the world outside.” * The morning lectures were followed by eurythmy practice in the Joan of Arc hall. Weaving in and out, around a circle while holding a copper pole in one hand, the group developed a feel for the dynamic that had been introduced in the previous lectures. Carlo introduced various consonants beginning with the rolling ‘r’ that involved vocalising the sound while raising the arms up above the head and floating the hands forward. Feeling like an impression of a slightly camp lion opposing elements in the circle were reduced to fits of laughter and Carlo skilfully regained control of the situation by providing the vocalisation of the sound while the group performed the associated gesture. There was a different sound and gesture for each of the stages in the breakdown and assimilation of food that we had explored in the morning. The aim of the therapy was to bring to conscious awareness internal digestive processes that are otherwise left in the dark.

After the first eurythmy session the library was turned into a therapy room and Carlo introduced the group to a therapy that can restore balance and harmony to the human being. In a surprising ninety-nine percent of people one leg is shorter than the other. The difference is only slight otherwise we would be walking around in circles and yet in the interest of ensuring healthy joints it is good to have legs

© Ashley Lovett

of equal lengths. In the photograph you can see Reuben pushing Daniel’s uplifted heals together to determine which leg is longer. From this angle his left leg looks slightly longer although perspective can be deceptive and it is important to hold the patient’s smelly feet right up to your face. The longer leg is then eased back into its socket by the patient who clasps his buttock and draws the leg down and back into the hip socket. Most of the group needed their legs worked back into their sockets.

With legs restored to their right and proper length the group made its way through the immaculate herb garden to the coffee shop where lunch was being served. A tasty lunch of beans, beetroot, rice and curried vegetables was served and enjoyed by all. The farms and gardens around Botton Village provide seasonal food and drink for all the houses in the community and visitors are always treated to biodynamic, home-cooked meals. The availability of organic and biodynamic food barely came up over the weekend as Carlo felt that this was a given. At Botton village it most certainly is a given. The food processing facilities at Botton village are very impressive and the butchery is gaining a reputation as the place to go with meat fresh from the slaughter.

A talk in the newly fitted creamery provided apprentices with an understanding of what is involved in adding value to raw milk in making butter and cheese.

Before the weekend workshop, apprentices were asked to prepare a talk on a chosen nutrition-related subject.

Short presentations were given on sugar and honey; milk and dairy products; meat; grains; coffee and tea; water; herbs and spices; salt; fats and oils; and food preservation.

There was the opportunity for discussion at the end of each presentation and Carlo cleared up any misunderstanding that came up during these afternoon sessions.

Few dietary prescriptions were given over the course of the weekend and the focus seemed to be on presenting an occult understanding of nutrition that would inspire others to approach food in an intuitive way which is nevertheless conscious. Breathing is a process whereby oxygen is inhaled and carbon dioxide is exhaled. Sitting in a quiet place without distraction it is possible to feel mineral oxygen entering into the body and becoming enlivened as

it fills the lungs. Milk is rich in living calcium and is more easily transformed into warmth ether and is therefore an ideal food for the rapid growth and formation experienced by newborn infants. Animal products are relatively easy for the body to assimilate as less spiritual effort is required to breakdown the astral forces. Carlo felt that these truths as revealed through spiritual science shed some light on the vegetarian traditions of India. Entirely plant-based diets can provide too much food for thought and it is vital for a person following a vegan diet to meditate regularly so as to allow for the release of ideas and images received through the nervesense pole of the human being. If this is not possible it may be necessary to introduce some animal products into ones diet. Animal products have a grounding effect and can help bring someone back down to earth.

On Saturday evening a hearty meal was enjoyed by all followed by an open discussion that touched upon a lot of the anxiety and fear surrounding future food security. If only human beings could live without food there would be no worries whatsoever. After the discussion the apprentices made their way to the main hall for an anarchic folk dance that would finish with a slow Turkish dance shared with solemn grace. The following morning we would given an insight into the occult scientific view of earth evolution that saw the moon as coming back down to earth! Debating the size of the wave such an event would cause the simple farmers and gardeners from within the Severn Valley bid farewell and the group dissolved into the ether as vehicles headed southwards downstream with newfound knowledge and understanding on the subject of nutrition. ■ *This quotation has been taken from a lecture given in Dornach, Switzerland on the 10th November 1923.

Bold italics added for emphasis.

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Animal Pharm

by Mark Purdey Published by Clairview Books ks November 2007 288pp; paperback £12.95 ISBN 978190557011

As a presence, Mark will be greatly missed, as a pioneering organic farmer, as a role model for what would pionee now bbe called ‘Stakeholder’ involvement in animal health (disease) issues, and as a bulwark of the still developing (disea ‘alternative’ society. One can only hope that his brother and ‘altern others persevere with his work, and that all interested in diverse fields read this book and use it as the excelthese d reference resource it is and as a springboard for further lent re research. resear

Reviewed by Chris Stockdale e THIS BOOK,WRITTEN BY MARK but edited and completed by his brother Nigel after Mark’s untimely and premature death, being an account of Mark’s forays into the world of animal health science, is both (auto-) biography and ecodetective ‘whodunnit’, and is in turns interesting, disturbing, challenging and inspiring.

The multi-factorial nature of the book makes it both easy to read and hard to review – Mark is open about the developments in his theories but steps are omitted, so one is left trying, after several reads, to ascertain the definitive truth about BSE and vCJD; strands of truth, and in particular untruth, appear with clarity, but, doubtless as the obscurantists would have hoped, hard and definitive evidence, whether of malfeasance or misfortune, is hard to pin down. One suspects that a Government Agency with executive powers to open doors, would have fared better than Mark, and Government failure to pursue his ideas, indeed complicity in the evasion of his work, throws a more revealing shadow than reality shall ever see.

That said, Mark’s stoic dedication to his task, his refusal to give up whatever fate, circumstance and detractors threw at him, is a testament to the man’s calibre, and an inspiration to those of us who follow in his footsteps. In the ‘great’ environmental movement that began in the sixties (‘great’ in import rather than achievement to date), many people, espousing environmentalism, attempted to find, lead and develop more sustainable lifestyles, including minimising personal consumption to reduce carbon footprint, avoiding toxic- and seeking ethically-produced products, and, naturally, consuming and/or producing organic and bio-dynamic foods.

In this great drive to survive, animal health, a normal function of the latter practices, is more or less taken for granted, unless or until our conventionally farming colleagues or other external factors bring another plague upon us; these issues when they arrive, (one thinks of BSE, Foot and Mouth, Bluetongue, possibly Avian Influenza, and Bovine Tuberculosis at present) tend to be mentally compartmentalised – ‘awful for those involved’ - and quickly pushed to the back of the mind, as more pleasing and potentially productive activities return. Mark was a man who would not let these issues go, and who bravely put himself in the firing line where he knew that he would be criticised as an amateur and a trouble-maker, and that his farm (and family) would be worse off. Would that Mark had turned his attentions to the origins of the UK FMD outbreak of 2001 (although his comments on page 146, unreferenced and allegorical, remain to tease).

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Nutrition and the Inner Sense of Giving

by Heinz Grill Published by Lammers-Koll-Verlag (www.lammers-koll-verlag.de/com/) 2007 100 pp; hardback €14.90 ISBN 978-3-935925-53 Reviewed by Wendy Cook THIS IS AN INTERESTING LITTLE BOOK whose central tenets definitely resound and concur with Rudolf Steiner’s idea on Nutrition. Indeed Steiner’s work is referred to on several occasions.

Initially I had some difficulty in relating the concept of ‘giving’ in the act of eating; one whose fulfilment I see as being the gift of the cooks and the farmer in collaboration with nature. Perhaps this word ‘giving’ has a different meaning in German, however the intention is to focus our attitude in the actual activity of eating. This we need to do with deep gratitude and consciousness. Grill stresses the importance of setting time aside to be really united with the whole process: “A deep perception from the inner living world of existence bring harmony to the whole table”. This we give back, return the energy given to us by our food.

He speaks about the importance of the autonomic nervous system and how through this our thoughts and emotions are communicated into our digestive, metabolic processes. This is an important focus on how we eat , as much as ‘what we eat’.

He attributes great importance to the skills of the cook and maintains that even if it is difficult to access high quality biodynamic or organic food, the cook with his/her knowledge, love and expertise can do so much to ‘lift up’ and enhance the somewhat inferior foodstuffs. Likewise when we eat we bring consciousness and gratitude to the act and constantly potentise a collective endeavour.

There are several short chapters on meat eating (its pros and cons) the various grains which are central to this way of eating; seasonal vegetables, fruits and dairy products.

(He particularly advocates biodynamically produced milk and dairy products).

It is written in an accessible way, is concise and really emphasises the spiritual aspects of nutrition. I recommend this publication as helpful and enlightening to the thorny topic of nutrition!

From this well researched introduction he then attempts to survey, explain and summarise the spiritual scientific concepts which Steiner developed. The book is divided into eight chapters entitled respectively: ‘The Being of vi Man’; ‘The Development of Human Consciousness’; ‘EvoM lution from the Point of View of Spiritual Science’; ‘Relalu tionships between the Living and the Dead’; ‘The Forces of Published by Temple Lodge ti Evil’; ‘The Modern Path of Initiation’; ‘Life between Death Publishing, London. Nov 2001; E and 256pp; paperback an Rebirth’; ‘The Spiritual Hierarchies’; The Philosophical Approach to the Spirit’; ‘The Mission of Christ’. In each £9.95 (available from the BDAA)) A of these chapters the author explains the principal ideas in ISBN 9781902636283 a simple and understandable way drawing on his own many years Reviewed by Bernard Jarman ye of experience as a Steiner school teacher. For those wishing to go deeper and study Steiner’s original works, w he has included a very helpful reading list at the end of the When someone asks for a good introduction ction to Rudolf book. For each chapter one or two relevant books are listed.

Steiner’s work it is often difficult to know what to suggest.

There is of course a danger in having all the So much depends on the particular interest and inclinaconcepts beautifully presented in this way for it can lead to tion of the person concerned. The fundamental works the erroneous perception that anthroposophy is simply a of Rudolf Steiner such as ‘The Philosophy of Freedom’, ‘Occult Science’ and ‘Theosophy’ were written for a public body of knowledge that can be learnt and applied. Rudolf Steiner always emphasised the importance of pursuing one’s audience. They were carefully crafted to allow the reader own quest for truth and that no one should believe what he time to grasp each new concept as it is introduced. Nothing is taken for granted and every step of the way is clearly said or wrote without first verifying it inwardly for himself. Individual human freedom for Steiner was absolutely and accurately described. They are accessible but only to sacrosanct. In his “Philosophy of Freedom” he demolishes the those willing to put effort into understanding the content with an open mind. In addition to these basic books Steiner argument put forward by Immanuel Kant that duty shall gave thousands of lectures to audiences throughout Europe. be our stern master. Instead he replaces duty with freedom These covered an extraordinary range of subjects. Although and reverses Kant’s statement. “Freedom! Thou kindly and humane name, that contains all that is morally most lovable, all originally intended for a particular group of people at a that my humanity most values, and which makes me a servant of specific moment in time a large number of these lectures no one, creates no mere law but awaits what my moral love itself have been transcribed and translated into English and are now available in book form. These lectures tend to demand recognises as law - for in the face of every merely imposed law it even more from the reader that Steiner’s written works and feels itself unfree.”

So long as this deep respect for human freedom is will inevitably leave many unanswered and unanswerable present and the right of all individuals to pursue their own questions behind. This is of course no bad thing since the search unimpeded by religious, cultural or any other set of reader is encouraged to think and make up his or her own mind. For a newcomer meeting anthroposophy for the first external values is fully acknowledged, this book offers a remarkably clear and comprehensive introduction into a field time however it can be very bewildering. of study of great complexity.

In this book Roy Wilkinson, a life-long anthroNote: The book can also be read online at: posopher and Steiner schoolteacher, seeks to explain some www.anthroposophy.org.uk/book/ of the key thoughts and ideas underlying Steiner’s work.

This is no mean task and he begins it with a far reaching and lucid introductory chapter entitled ‘The Herald of a New The Schilller File Age’ in which he explores why Steiner is so little known

by Paul Eugen Schiller and appreciated in the English speaking world. He quotes the American author Russell Davenport writing in his book ‘The Dignity of Man’: “That the academic world has managed Published by Henry Goulden to dismiss Steiner’s work as inconsequential and irrelevant is one Books, Delabole, Cornwall of the intellectual wonders of the twentieth century. Anyone who October 2007 198 pp; Spiral / Comb Bound is willing to study those vast works with an open mind will find himself faced with one of the greatest thinkers of all time, whose £25.00 ISBN 0904822168 grasp of the modern sciences is equalled only by his profound learning in the ancient ones.” The breadth of knowledge and Reviewed by Bernard Jarman skill demonstrated by Steiner in so many fields of life is indeed extraordinary. He inspired new forms of education, agriculture, medicine, social life as well as eurythmy speech Natural Science is the foundation of alll that we have come to and much else besides. “It is the usual thing in modern times” know and appreciate in our modern civilisation. It has however developed in a very materialistic direction. Natural science is of writes Roy Wilkinson “to defer to experts, but the expert’s course all about material things and so long as scientific investiknowledge is usually limited to his subject. That there could be gation is based on direct observation and experiment it is fairly someone who apparently had expertise in innumerable fields is accurate. The problem arises when theories are developed and beyond the power of most people to grasp”. then used to explain all kinds of phenomena without Rudolf Steiner An Introduction to his Spiritual World View, Anthroposophy

By Roy Wilkinson

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- new land school initiative in Stroud

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referring to direct observation. Rudolf Steiner was particular interested in the development of natural science and how it could evolve in a true way based on clear phenomenology and observational practices such as those developed by Goethe.

The Schiller Files are a collection of conversations and comments by Rudolf Steiner on a number of knotty scientific issues. They also include some fascinating suggestions concerning such questions as how to demonstrate the existence of the etheric in a laboratory experiment. In answer to a question about the inert or rare gases (Helium, Argon etc.) he described how “when light is solidified or hardened, the rare gases arise”. There are also fascinating comments about the nature of electricity, earth magnetism and heat. Another interesting comment concerns warmth and it perhaps provides a new angle to the current global warming debate: “If there arises in nature an effect such as heat, so this heat must be drawn from another part of the environment; cold occurs as a counter effect”.

What are perhaps of particular interest to readers are his comments on peat and the research they subsequently inspired. He indicated that peat has the particular property of being able to protect and shield against radiation. Biodynamic farmers and gardeners put this quality to good use in that peat is used to surround the preparations in storage. This is because biodynamic preparations have a radiating power and to ensure they remain effective in storage it is important that they retain and do not dissipate their radiating powers. Peat provides the ideal blanket barrier for this purpose.

The objective of the research described in the Schiller File was to produce a fibre, which could be used to make clothing. The various attempts made to produce a tough and workable fibre are briefly summarised along with comments and suggestions by Rudolf Steiner as to how they could be improved. At one point he commented that peat is a substance

in which the mediators of plant building forces - elemental beings - were bound in the peat for thousands of years. He then said that by refining peat fibre one would succeed: “In freeing the fettered elemental beings and that these, out of thankfulness to Man, would protect him from what stood before him in the not too distant future, namely: that the atmosphere would be pervaded with electricity, magnetic fields, aeroplanes and still much worse, and in such a way as to bring suffering to human life on earth. Clothes made from peat fibre however, could protect human beings from these influences.”

The experimental challenge was to strengthen the peat fibres and make them usable. A number of plant saps were used on Steiner’s recommendation but for a long time there was no success. Then Steiner came up with a recipe composed of 1% larch resin, 1% horse chestnut, 0.1% antimony and 10% convolvulus juice. This had to be stirred together until it emulsified. When the fibres were immersed in this mixture they showed a 70% increase in strength. This work with peat fibre has since been continued and peat based fabrics are now available.

The Schiller File contains other fascinating information on all kinds of research suggestions and experiments. It is backed by a very complete reference section for anyone wishing to pursue things further. What this book is not, is an easy read.

The text is small and a lot of perseverance is needed in order to trawl through the mass of information available. It is also laid out as a notebook and so, without reading carefully across many pages, it is not easy to home in on particular topics.

This aside the book is a treasure trove of information, hints and suggestions for anyone interested in pursuing unconventional lines of research into the natural sciences and discovering what Rudolf Steiner had to say about them. ■

GENTLY PUSHING UP THE CORNER, noses barely above the rim, three little hands reach down for eggs. Gleefully they divide their bounty between our two homes before racing back to cuddle their feathered friends.The egg anticipation is palpable – all the more so because ‘the ladies’ like to have their breakfast and scratch about a bit before producing yet another wonder.The chickens are new arrivals but already they are thriving.

They are part of our lives, informing and becoming a part of our daily rhythm.The rhythms of nature provide stability and help us realize our place within the world.As seasons change, new promises are made and rewards discovered.

“Nature has always provided our best template for human maturation. By embracing nature and soul as our wisest and most trustworthy guides, we can raise children, support teenagers, and ripen ourselves in ways that enable us to grow whole and engender a sustainable human culture.”

Bill Plotkin The connection between land and learning is at the heart of a new initiative in Stroud. A group of parents have come together to form a land-based school. Our aim is to create a learning environment where the walls of the classroom have been expanded to include the fields and forest, the rivers and meadows. Eco-literacy will come into the heart of learning.

With the culturally rich principles of the Waldorf curriculum at the core, we aim to weave together the practical skills, artistic expression and clear thinking essential to meet a world that is rapidly changing. Contemporary research clearly demonstrates that cognitive learning is enhanced and deepened when the child can use their hands to craft, build and create. Finding the balance between movement and stillness, indoors and outdoors, practical and cognitive – this is our aim and objective.

We can only imagine how different our world will be when the youngsters gathering eggs today are leaving school in the next decades. The school, centered around the children and the land, is at the same time reaching out to include the local community. Through our initiative we hope to respond to the global issues of food, energy and the economy. We are growing a vision of social, economic and ecological cohesion.

A project of this nature requires a lot of support from many directions. We are currently in consultation with a potential site to serve the school in its inception whilst we seek a more permanent location. We are also looking for a Waldorf trained teacher to take on the first year. Contact us to learn more about this initiative or about ways in which you can support the school. ■

Star & Furrow Issue 109 Summer 2008

Contact: Odilia Jarman (20 Woodside, Stroud GL5 1PW, tel: 01453 766598, email: vitalsqueeze@googlemail.com) or Daniela Ubsdell at 01453 766931

New DVD on Biodynamics

by Liz Ellis ELYSIA,A COMPANY BASED near Worcester, was founded in 1994 to distribute the Dr Hauschka skincare products. Since then the company has found success in persuading increasingly large numbers of people to move over to this natural, anthroposophically rooted skin care range. Knowing that the success of Dr Hauschka and Elysia was built on the biodynamic plants from which the products are made, the owners of Elysia, Tabitha, Sophie and Sebastian Parsons, decided to make supporting the development of biodynamics a priority for the company.

Elysia is now based at Rush Farm, a two hundred acre, in-conversion, biodynamic mixed farm. Set on gently sloping, essentially clay based soil, with the Bow Brook running down the west side and a twenty acre wood nestling in the North East corner.

The development of this farm into a fully working biodynamic enterprise with training and educational facilities alongside is a long term project. However, in 2006 Elysia saw another opportunity to promote and inform people about biodynamics. This opportunity would be realised a lot more quickly and would put biodynamics directly in the public eye. Not more than forty minutes away from Rush Farm, at Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Garden Organic have their 22 acre public display gardens.

Originally responding to an appeal Garden Organic had launched for a small urban style plot, Elysia went along to Ryton and had a meeting. “It was one of those significant meetings, the sort that happens now and then - you go in thinking one thing and then everything changes...” was how Sebastian Parsons described it.

Elysia had agreed to fund the development of a biodynamic display garden to be located in a highly visible location and of a good size. Soon Liz Ellis was brought on board to join the development team. Liz had approached Elysia for sponsorship for the biodynamic display garden at Hampton Court Flower Show in 2004. Elysia were really impressed by the garden she had created, together with Annie and Paul Konig, Simon Charter and Andy Jones, and asked her to do the same, but bigger and better!

She brought Andy Jones in to design and manage the building of the garden at Garden Organic. The design was ambitious, dramatic and beautiful. However, Liz and Sebastian realised that there was a tremendous opportunity

to broaden out the communication possibilities beyond even the visitors coming to Ryton. Liz, as well as being a Trustee of the BDAA, is a television producer, and this seemed like too good an opportunity to be missed. It was decided that the creation of the garden would be filmed.

The Garden Organic gardening team had agreed that they needed to learn about biodynamics if they were going to have a biodynamic display garden. And so it was that Katie Tippens (Head Gardener), Bill Warrell (Deputy Head Gardener) and Nicole Weber (Apprentice Biodynamic Gardener) became the stars of the film. Their training by Lynette West of the Biodynamic Education Centre was filmed alongside the film being made of the new garden.

By watching the film you can learn, along with the gardeners, how to create the vortex to chaos stirring rhythm for the various preparations, how to build a compost heap and use the compost, use the sowing and planting calendars, make manure concentrate, how to fill cow horns with fresh cow manure and bury them to make horn manure (BD500), stir and use horn silica (BD501) as well as other biodynamic techniques. All these methods are clearly shown and explained.

The film crew went international as well. In France, we spoke to Nicolas Joly, renowned biodynamic wine grower and a very passionate enthusiast of biodynamics. Back in the UK Alan Brockman, long time biodynamic farmer and supporter of the BDAA and biodynamics is also interviewed and Wendy Cook, the author of ‘The Biodynamic Food and Cookbook’ explains the nutritional benefits of biodynamics.

As Liz says, “What has been lacking for so long is a really simple way of getting started. This DVD demonstrates and demystifies the techniques needed to be a biodynamic gardener.

We hope it will help gardeners work with the rhythms of the moon, sun and planets and with the biodynamic preparations, so that their garden will produce beautiful flowers and delicious, nutritious fruit and vegetables.”

Sebastian and Liz are Trustees of the BDAA and so it is no surprise that they are both committed to supporting the BDAA through this DVD. A contribution will be made to the BDAA from all copies that are sold.

The DVD will be launched on the 9th October 2008 during Biodynamic Food Fortnight and will, of course, be available from the BDAA. ■

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Fiona Mackie an Appreciation EARLIER THIS YEAR FIONA MACKIE RETIRED as the administrator of the BDAA/Demeter Certification Scheme after more than 20 years service.

Here JIMMY ANDERSON writes an appreciation of her and also looks back to when they first met.

I perhaps first became aware of Fiona Mackie, long term secretary and coordinator for the BDAA/Demeter Symbol and Certification Scheme in the UK, through her warm smile radiating from the inner recesses of a rather dull ‘Business Services Office’ in Central Edinburgh. At that time, and in that office she had already proved particularly helpful in typing, copying and transferring farm reports of all kinds connected with the increasing administrative needs of the BDAA Certification Scheme in the world as a whole and establishing reliable and often entirely new Standards for production.

Then came the opportunity! Fiona disclosed that she would like to become self employed. So after conferring with the Committee, Pauline and I, as Secretary and Fieldsman/Inspector, visited her to become our much needed Demeter Administrator/Co-ordinator, based on her home in Edinburgh close to the Royal Botanical Gardens (an appropriate site!). She accepted and virtually started a new career from that moment, and solved our problem ahead for around 15 years.

Fiona disclosed a friendly, confident and relaxed manner, ideal for our small but significant scheme. She made good ongoing direct connections with our farmers, gardeners and processors nationwide, and on occasions elsewhere in the world – supported by a ready sense of humour.

We had virtually to design a completely new officially worded structure based on the new EC Organic Regulations and may I say strongly helped and supported by our official contacts in Whitehall, London. (This involved complete rewording of the EC Organic regulations). In a sense we surprised ourselves by later including the successful inspection and certification of unique biodynamic tea production in West Bengal, India.

As administration became more and more demanding, Fiona’s abilities became stretched to capacity, but somehow she has always managed to keep up, for which we will be eternally grateful to her. Very warm good wishes and thoughts for Fiona’s new life and career with the family and Chris. ■ Footnote: Since Fiona’s departure Demeter has employed a new administrator for the scheme, Moira Ross. She can be contacted at demeter@biodynamic.org.uk or telephone: 0131 552 6565

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Star & Furrow Issue 109 Summer 2008

Sebastian Parsons new BDAA Chairman RECENTLY THE BDAA COUNCIL appointed a new Chairman for the Association, Sebastian Parsons. Below he writes a little about his background and his interest in biodynamics.

‘I am Sebastian Parsons, born in Canada in 1969 but of British parents. I have lived in the UK since I was two years old. Educated in Manchester and London I gravitated towards the world of business in my late teens. The education system released its grip on me before its work was complete so I am proud to be a graduate of the University of Life. For nearly 20 years I have lived in Worcestershire and now live in Hartlebury near Kidderminster with my wife Janine, who is a pianist, and our two boys, one aged 11 and the other aged 1 year.

I am one of the founders of Elysia, the distributor of the Dr.Hauschka natural skin care brand and the Liv natural textiles brand. I am also the Chief Executive of the company.

My particular interest in business is how to put the human being at the centre of all we do whilst making profit in a sustainable way. Anthroposophy has always been present in my life although I wasn’t educated at a Steiner school. In particular I have found The Philosophy of Freedom by Rudolf Steiner and his writing on social and economic issues an important inspiration.

As well as my role with the BDAA I also work directly with biodynamics at home in my garden and at Elysia’s Rush Farm, a 200 acre mixed farm in North Worcestershire where our office is located. In 2007 Elysia funded the creation of the biodynamic display garden at Garden Organic in Rytonon-Dunsmore. This beautiful garden sits proudly amongst the organic display gardens, at once, provoking and enticing.

Aside from work and biodynamics I also work with Maren Stott, Shaina Stoehr and Alan Stott as the Chair of the West Midlands Eurythmy Association, and I am the Chairman of the English Symphony Orchestra, based in Worcester - Engage and Lift the Spirit is our motto!

My aim as the Chairman of the BDAA Council will be to support the organisation in achieving its purpose (Ed: see Aims and Objectives on inside cover). I sense a strong connection between the organisation’s purpose and my own view of biodynamics as essential for the Earth and for supporting humanity in its evolution towards freedom.’ ■ Sebastian Parsons

RAW MILK CAMPAIGN In Canada the long running battle for the right to drink raw unpasteurised milk is reaching a climax with a high profile court case. A full write up of the extraordinary resistance demonstrated by biodynamic farmer Michael Schmidt and his faithful and commited customers is given in the spring 2008 issue of “Stir” the Canadian Biodynamic Association magazine.

MILK PROTEIN DISCOVERY Another milk story is described in the New Zealand journal “Harvests”. A book is reviewed called “Devil in the Milk” byKeith Woodford in which the link between a milk protein (A1 beta-casein) and a range of serious illnesses is made.

This protein is found in the milk of many Western herds but not in that of traditional Asian or African breeds where (A2 beta-casein) is present. This A2 milk as it is being called is now being marketed for its health benefits in New Zealand.

TEA TOUR Demeter licensee Robert Wilson (of Robert Wilson’s Ceylon Teas) is organising a tea tour in Sri Lanka in February 2009.

The tour lasts for 17 days and will take in the biodynamic/ organic tea factory and estate at Idulgashinna as well as other tea estates. There will also be opportunities on the trip to climb Adam’s Peak and visit sacred temples and shrines.

The cost of the tour is just over £2000, but it certainly looks like a ‘journey of a lifetime’. For more details contact Robert Wilson on 01460 77508 or email: info@wilstea.com.

DEMETER COFFEE The first Demeter certified roasted coffee will be available in the UK this autumn. Shipments are coming from both Brazil and India and will be roasted in the UK. Some of the Brazilian coffee comes from farms in Bahia. More about this can be found on: www.cafe-ita.co.uk/. The Indian coffee is from the Balmaadi estate, see: www.balmaadi.com/.

BIODYNAMIC PREPARATIONS For the Health of Farm and Garden The Biodynamic Preparations form a unique and integral part of the biodynamic approach to farming and gardening.

Their use helps to increase soil vitality, regulate imbalances, improve plant health and bring the garden or farm into harmony with its surroundings.

The Preparations can be purchased readymade as DEALING WITH SLUGS well as the materials you need to make your own from the In the German Biodynamic magazine “Lebendige Erde” BDAA Office, Painswick Inn Project, Gloucester Street, there is a short report about some preliminary research into Stroud, Glos GL5 1QG Tel: 01453 759 the the use of pine kernel extract to deter slugs. Originally We stock: ■ Horn Manure ( 500) & Horn Silica (501) ■ suggested by Rudolf Steiner, it appears to demonstrate some Compost Preps ( 502-507) ■ Equisetum ( 508) ■ Mausdorf positive effects when applied at weekly intervals.

Compost Starter ■ Barrel Preparation ■ Three Kings Preparation ■ Plus: materials for preparation making.

DEMETER MARKET PLACE This page has been held over for this issue whilst we evaluate For a current info & price sheet please contact the BD Office or download it from our website at: www.biodynamic.org.uk. its content and purpose. A new web based listing will be made available later in the summer with the relaunch of our PEAGREEN PR TO SUPPORT DAMHEAD redesigned website.

ORGANIC FARM & SHOP Peagreen PR is to work with Damhead Organic Farm & Shop, Since 2001 Mary at www.warmwell.com Scotland’s leading organic food specialist. Peagreen PR, an has been producing her excellent website dealethical PR company based in Peebles, will help Damhead raise its profile and communicate more effectively with existing and ing with all matters land-use, most notably potential customers in the Lothian and Borders area. animal health issues such as Foot and Mouth Damhead, based on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Disease and Bluetongue, but also notably Peak was established by James and Sue Gerard in 1989, when Oil, Community Supported Farms, GM Crops, organic food production was in its infancy. The decision to the plight of bees and political policy that seems venture into organic farming was the result of their interest to run counter to our understood needs. For in good food and a growing concern at the obvious problems caused by intensive farming. From the outset their aim was some years Mary, despite multiple plaudits, has to grow, source and supply the very best organic foods for received little support in her role, which I have their customers, and Damhead still remains very much a experienced as being crucial to our collective family business with a high personal level of service. missions (have a look at it).

For further information on Damhead log on to In the near future I hope to be able to www.damhead.co.uk report that we have established a ‘Friends BIODYNAMIC FOOD FORTNIGHT – of Warmwell’ to create an infrastructure to London Launch event – October 3rd and 4th 2008 support her, but for now I am only asking that To be held at Borough Market. Meet the farmers, growers, people look at the website, give Mary feedback wholesalers and producers to learn more with tutorials/ films over the two day London event.A biodynamic menu and contribute useful data where appropriate. and wine pairing at Roast Restaurant. More details will be Thank you. Chris Stockdale posted on the BDAA website: www.biodynamic.org.uk BIODYNAMIC TRAINING FARM IN CHINA A new project has recently started on a 16 acre holding not far from Beijing. It was inspired by the work of Peter Proctor and the Biodynamic Association of India.The aim is to demonstrate biodynamic methods and how they can compliment traditional Chinese agriculture. A short report is given in the spring 2008 issue of “Stir”.

Star & Furrow Issue 109 Summer 2008

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Star & Furrow Issue 109 Summer 2008

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THINKING ABOUT MAKING A WILL? Along with support for your family and close friends, how about helping to save the planet for future generation?

Leaving a legacy to the BDAA will help to ensure that biodynamic agriculture continues to grow and develop For more information about the Associationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work and how to leave a legacy please contact the office Tel. 01453 759501 or visit www.biodynamic.org.uk

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The Grange Kirkcaldy Fund (now administered by the Biodynamic Agricultural Association) was established some years ago in memory of Grange Kirkcaldy, an early biodynamic enthusiast living in Scotland. A modest amount has been built up over the years and invested in Charibonds. The annual income received has been used to support biodynamic research, training, publishing and new biodynamic initiatives with preference being given to smaller projects with little chance of finding alternative funding.

Biodynamic agriculture is not only one of the most sustainable approaches to farming, it also offers a means for revitalising the soil, enhancing health and improving food quality. Making a donation or leaving money to the Grange Kirkcaldy Fund is a very positive way of supporting key biodynamic initiatives and investing in the future. The Biodynamic Association is keen to see the capital base of this fund grow so that even more work can be supported.

If you have any spare funds, please consider investing at least some of them in the Grange Kirkcaldy Fund. All donors will receive an annual report on how income from the fund has been spent. For more information on the fund and how to contribute please write to: Biodynamic Agricultural Association, Painswick Inn Project, Gloucester Street, Stroud GL51QG Tel. 01453 759501 E. office@ biodynamic.org.uk

Star & Furrow Issue 109 Summer 2008

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