Date

Friday, November 18, 2016 to Sunday, November 20, 2016

Location

Santa Fe Convention Center

Event Description

Would you like to meet with other biodynamic urban gardeners, preparation makers, medicinal herb growers, or educators at the conference? 

How about talking about farmland succession or the future of seed saving work?

Meetups and discussions will create space for conference participants to self-organize informal conversations where they can share questions, ideas, and experiences with one another during the following meals at the conference:

  • Friday dinner
  • Saturday breakfast
  • Saturday lunch
  • Saturday dinner
  • Sunday breakfast
  • Sunday lunch

Anyone is welcome to host a meetup or discussion, and you can sign up to host in advance or on site at the conference.

Each meetup will be assigned a table in the ballroom and topics, times, and locations will be posted on this page and on signage at the conference center.
 

Time Title Organizer  Meetup Description

Friday

  dinner  

 6-7pm

Crafting Anthroposophical Medicine from your farm

  Ylara Khalsa

Are you already crafting remedies from your plant material?
Are you interested in connecting with other farmers doing the same?  

Let's create a group of interested farmers crafting medicine to support one another and present our products to the public, anthroposophical nurses and doctors. Also, a group where we may share our findings and continue research. Let's create strategies that help our efforts thrive on all levels.

Friday 

dinner

6-7pm

Individuality of the Farm Online Course Gathering

Cory Eichman

 For participants who took the Individuality of theFarm online course last fall or who are currently enrolled. After going through 22 sessions together, it's time to socialize in person! And for those of you just beginning the course, this will be a chance to get to know one another and build community around the course, as you continue your learning. 

Friday 

dinner

6-7pm

Biodynamics Bridging the Americas Sarah Weber This meetup is for anyone interested in
creating more connections, communication and mutual support among biodynamic
practitioners and groups throughout the Americas - Central, South, North,
Caribbean. It follows from the pre-conference workshop of the same theme.

Saturday

breakfast

7am-8am

Indigenous pathways into the Land

Stephen Clarke

All cultures have pathways, doorways leading into relationship with the beings that constitute the spiritual identity of the Land. If you have experience with this and wish to share it or to find out more about your own ancestral links . . . let's share. This could be preliminary to my own presentation Saturday night, but I am most interested in what others can bring to the discussion.

Saturday & Sunday

lunch

1pm-2pm

North American Biodynamic Apprentice Program Info
Session/Orientation for interested and existing apprentices
Anthony Mecca, NABDAP Coordinator

Are you an aspiring agriculturalist looking to develop the skills and knowledge you need to develop a successful biodynamic farm?  

The North American Biodynamic Apprenticeship Program (NABDAP) may be for you! A program of the BDA, NABDAP combines 24 months on farm training with classroom study, farm visits, and an independent project. A carefully crafted curriculum and skills checklist help guide your learning
experience.

This meetup will give an overview of the program elements and provide a space for questions and conversation from both new and interested apprentices as well as those working through the program. Current and graduated apprentices are certainly welcome!

Friday lunch

 

New Mexico Biodynamic Group

Melinda Bateman,

Stephen Clarke,

Sam Hitt,

Steven McFadden

George Wright, 

The New Mexico Biodynamic Group formed earlier this year. We are an assembly
of farmers, gardeners and supporters with a shared interest in biodynamic
ways of caring for the land and bringing forth it’s bounty. We respectfully
invite interested residents of New Mexico to join with us to seed biodynamic
farming and gardening knowledge, techniques and tools more widely. At our
meetup after Friday lunch during the conference we will have a chance to
introduce ourselves to each other, and to consider how we might further
associate. Here's the link for our New Mexico Biodynamic Group's Facebook
page:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/NMBiodynamics/
All are welcome.

Saturday 

lunch

1pm-2pm

Farm-Based Educators

(FBEIBA)

 Nicki Robb Join us if you are interested in exploring ways to connect schools with farms and gardens; share your work with children in Nature; if you are interested in connecting with other educators working in this field. We will look at the next steps for FBEIBA, what is being asked of us as farm-based educators and where we go from here to help meet our children today.

Saturday

lunch

1pm-2pm

 #FarmLife: Building Relationships Through Social Media Rebecca Briggs How can social media help farms, organizations, businesses, etc, build community relationships? Are there particular challenges or opportunities related to talking about biodynamics in this realm? Please join us if you would like to share the lessons you've learned or ask questions of others working with these networks.

Saturday

lunch

1pm-2pm

Biodynamic Educators

Cory Eichman

A couple of years ago the BDA initiated
and hosted several events and meetings for a network called the Biodynamic
Educator's Collaborative.  This meetup is to see if we want to build on that
work to develop the network further, or go in a completely different
direction.  If you are interested in Biodynamic education and would like to
share experiences with others, please join us.

Saturday

lunch

1pm-2pm

Taking Back Public health for the People

Steven Johnson D.O.

 

You are invited to a conversation about re-defining public health and an initiative to form and independent outreach to pursue this goal.  Research and experience supports the philosophy that factors of early childhood development, lifestyle, sustainable sources of nutrition, ecology and an integrative model of health and medicine is the best way to support quality of life.  Together these three pillars presented by Rudolf Steiner in the 1920's as Waldorf Education, Biodynamics and Anthroposophic Medicine and Therapy contained a model for the future of healing and health that would be validated. The time to join with others who support the need to pursue our freedoms to realize this goal for the "good" of all us has come and we are forming a foundation to engage this goal.  All are welcome who are interested.   

Saturday

lunch

1pm-2pm

Fellowship of Preparation Makers

Wali Via

This meetup will introduce those interested in learning about the Fellowship of Preparation Makers.  The Fellowship puts on an annual conference in different regions of North America to share and develop our understanding of the biodynamic compost and spray preparations.  You will learn about this year’s conference and the other activities of the Fellowship.  This is a great opportunity to connect with folks that make the preparations and to learn how you can become involved. There will be biodynamic preparations on display as well.

Saturday

lunch

1pm-2pm

                                      Walking the Mystical Path with Practical Feet

Barbara M.V Scott

Learn to grow nutrient dense food, build ecologically friendly dwellings, recent findings and research on the light yam (Dioscorea batatas) and its application for healing the earth via techniques of sacred agriculture. 

The School for the Practical and the Sacred will provide the experience and the knowledge of ecological construction (cob, wood and bamboo), growing nutrient dense food, land stewardship, heirloom seed cultivation and research into the etheric realm. 

See brochure.

Saturday

&

Sunday 

lunch 

1pm-2pm

Agritoursim

& Africa Safari

Julius Sonko Have you ever thought of visiting Africa and enjoying unforgettable sites and weather? Well, here comes a chance!!! Eatbeta International Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose vision is
to transform agriculture in Africa by training rural smallholder farmers. Eatbeta relies on volunteer experienced farmers, from world over, to provide hands-on training to rural African farmers in quality crop farming, animal farming, using farm equipment, etc. These short-term training programs are
designed to last for 7 to 14 days during summer and fall seasons. After the training program, volunteers are treated to a 4-day safari excursion to some of Africa’s unforgettable and breathtaking sites.

Saturday dinner

6-7pm

Agriculture Section of the Anthroposophical Society Sherry Wildfeuer Join our meetup if you have any questions or want to learn more about the Agriculture Section of the Anthroposophical Society. 

 

Photo courtesy Blaire Ladd