Developing Creativity, Care, and Community for Healthy Farms and Gardens
Practical Course for All Experience Levels with Anthony Mecca
Dates: Wednesdays — Dec 10, 17; January 7, 14, 21, 28
Time: Afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 pm ET, with a 30-minute break midway
This course offers a rich, dynamic overview of biodynamic methods for farmers, gardeners, and land stewards. We will work through the foundational what, how, and why of biodynamics. The aim is to help transform the practice of agriculture from technical, industrial, and extractive to full of interconnected, life-filled relationships within a whole organism. We will tread a path towards health and resilience for the land and caretaker to meet the challenges of nutrition and fertility, pests, weeds, and diseases, as well as economic and social issues.
Areas covered:
Biodynamics in Context
- Why biodynamics?
- Historical context of biodynamic agriculture from inception to current, worldwide
- Relationship between Rudolf Steiner, anthroposophy, and biodynamics
- Relationship between natural science, holistic/Goethean science, and spiritual science
The Farm as an Organism
- Foundations of an ecological approach
- The constitution and relationships of soils, plants, animals, and human beings
- Integrating biodiversity and wild spaces
- Life rhythms of sun, moon, planetary, and zodiac
Biodynamic Soil Care
- Composting
- Biodynamic preparations, biotic substances, and other fertility supports
- Cover crops and green manures
- Crop rotations
- Soil preparation and tillage
Plant Health and Cultivation
- Qualities of a healthy plant
- Stages of development and care
- Judging and supporting maturity and ripeness
- Seed quality and sourcing
- Disease, pests, insects, fungus, bacteria and viruses
Biodynamic Animal Husbandry
- Animals and the health of the soil, plants, and farm organism
- Different animals’ roles and capacities
- Feeding and watering/nutrition
- Movement, light, and animal social life
Healthy Social Life and Nutrition
- Threefold understanding of social life
- Associative economics
- Land, labor, and capital
- Organizational health
- Biodynamic quality
- A new view on nutrition