Biodynamic Banana Farming

This event will consist of three parts and will focus on different aspects of Biodynamic Banana Production. Tadeu Caldas will present and explain the biodynamic farm organism on banana plantations. Due to the current events in the banana sector, he will also discuss management strategies for disease control in banana plantations.

Event Type: 
pre-conference workshop
Date: 
Jueves
Location: 
Nirvana

Fair Trade and Social Standards

In this workshop, we want to give examples of fair-trade practices and we want to collect and discuss ideas and aspects leading to agreements in the Demeter community on fair trade and social standards.

This workshop is part of Demeter International's Biodynamic Banana Conference.

Event Type: 
pre-conference workshop
Date: 
Jueves
Location: 
Nirvana

Soil to Cellar: Biodynamic Wine and Cider Intensive

This full-day intensive will delve into practical and philosophical dimensions of growing biodynamic fruit and transforming it into wine and cider. Integrating wisdom from both the East and the West coasts, we will explore how to cultivate healthy vines and trees within a whole farm organism, innovative uses of the biodynamic preparations, and bringing biodynamic principles and processes into the cellar to create a living product that carries the integrity and vitality of the fruit. New and experienced growers and makers welcome.

Event Type: 
pre-conference workshop
Date: 
Jueves
Location: 
Diamond Island

Biodynamic Composting for Entrepreneurs

We can see how the natural world interacts within the compost cosmos through different impulses that can be input with our intentions and understanding of the nature of compost itself. To explore the individual possibilities, since a windrow it's a being in itself, separate and different from the rest which held all this alchemical life processes.

Event Type: 
pre-conference workshop
Date: 
Jueves
Location: 
Wapanak

God Save the Queen: Honeybee Breeding and Reproduction

The problem of artificial queen rearing was brought to light by Rudolf Steiner 96 years ago in his lectures entitled "Bees," and yet it is still the greatest kept secret behind the decline of honeybee health in the world of beekeeping to this day. This workshop will delve into the details of the breeding and reproduction of queens and their colonies sharing biodynamic beekeeping practices that are based on enhancing the wisdom inherent in the bees natural instincts. These methods re-establish the true royalty of the queen and restore health and harmony to the hive organism.

Event Type: 
pre-conference workshop
Date: 
Jueves
Location: 
Wapanak

The Spiritual-Scientific Foundations of Biodynamic Agriculture

Rudolf Seiner intended to inaugurate a method of agriculture that was rational and scientific as well as spiritual. In the first four lectures of his Agriculture Course, he outlined the spiritual-scientific foundations for the biodynamic preparations that are at the heart of this new method. An understanding of these preparations, however, presupposes an understanding of their spiritual-scientific foundations. We will trace the systematic principles contained in these highly condensed and often confusing initial lectures.

Event Type: 
pre-conference workshop
Date: 
Jueves
Location: 
Triuna

Spirit and Matter, Form and Substance: Four Stages of Becoming and the Four Kingdoms of Nature

One of the fundamental principles of biodynamic agriculture rests upon the understanding of how SPIRIT and MATTER are essentially one: the activity of conscious spirit has become “condensed" into the fixed forms of matter. This dynamic has come into being though the process of cosmic and earthly evolution, and four sequential stages of “condensation” manifest in the four elements, the four ethers, the four-fold constitution of the human being, the four kingdoms of nature and their corresponding four levels of conciousness, the four seasons, and more.

Event Type: 
pre-conference workshop
Date: 
Jueves
Location: 
Dollar West

Regenerating Community Apothecaries

We believe that herbal apothecaries are needed within all communities and that farmers/gardeners play an important role with access to growing and preparing medicinal herbs. This presentation will include detailed information on cultivating, harvesting, processing, and preparing herbs such as solomon's seal, black cohosh, schisandra, and Siberian ginseng--herbs which are not readily available in the U.S. and are in high demand in communities — as well as more commonly grown herbs such as yarrow, calendula, dandelion, and holy basil.

Event Type: 
pre-conference workshop
Date: 
Jueves
Location: 
Abenia

Introduction to the Agriculture Section

The Agriculture Section is a group that fosters a living connection between biodynamics and its spiritual scientific foundations. This workshop will present a picture of the Agriculture Section's work and how it fits into the work of the larger biodynamic movement, how to participate, examples of the work that has come through the section, and share inspiring experiences of participants of why it is meaningful to them. There will be space for conversation and questions.

This is a free session.

Event Type: 
pre-conference workshop
Date: 
Miércoles
Location: 
Evelley