"Just as our body has to have nutritive substances circulating through the organism, the soul needs fairy tale substance flowing through its spiritual veins." - Rudolf Steiner
Ehrenfried Pfeiffer's Round Filter Chromatography offers a fresh and engaging possibility for farmers and gardeners to learn more about the biological processes taking place in their compost piles and fields. In this workshop we'll explore how Goethean science and Pfeiffer's chromatography offer a new perspective and approach for qualitative research in agriculture. We'll observe in an interactive and practical way different original chromatograms of soils and compost. We'll also consider the following questions: What are the potential uses for this method?
In the face of ever more toxic and pervasive threats to the health of the planet we need to draw on diverse sources of wisdom to create an effective spiritual practice that will support the continuity of biological life on Earth. Drawing on both European and American wisdom streams this workshop will share spiritual pathways that any farmer or gardener can draw on to bring a spiritual dimension to their work. Our ideas about the environment have expanded greatly over the last century, but they need to expand even more into the deeper formative dimensions of the natural world.
Since the seven-sided Chestahedron was discovered in the year 2000, a new understanding of the geometry that underlies the Earth’s form and the human heart is accessible to us. The heart’s activity of re-oxygenating “used up” blood is a picture of the re-enlivening we seek to create for all of nature as biodynamic farmers. Frank Chester will share his scientific-artistic approach to spiritual research and practical applications of geometric discoveries that allow light and sound to transform the water we use for irrigation and for preparations.
More and more people of all ages and backgrounds want to learn about biodynamic agriculture. As we endeavor to teach the principles and practices of this holistic and ecological form of agriculture, how can we develop educational opportunities that reflect the holism of the human being and the ecology of our social relationships?
Community is as essential to the success of a CSA farm as healthy soil and skilled farmers. But to fulfill their role with CSA successfully, communities must have their intelligence awakened and they must step willingly into action. Through exploration and application of associative economic concepts, CSA is incubating a quintessence of social, economic, and environmental intelligence. What has been incubated so far is wholesome and has potential to seed a wealth of blessings.
The way farmers organize work and relationships on their farms is changing—traditional hierarchical and family-based models are giving way to more dynamic, holistic, and inclusive approaches. As forward-looking farms and organizations experiment with these innovative new social structures and technologies, we need to share and discuss both successes and failures.
There is a strong gesture toward building regional biodynamic communities that are capable of creating and maintaining a bioregionally defined foodshed, unique and diverse farm organisms, and regional preparation making. This gesture has been supported recently by the development of Demeter LOCAL certification, the purpose of which is consumer, farmer, and preparation-making education at a regional level, and implementing the Demeter farm standards through development of curriculum unique to each region.
Sally Fox has been breeding and growing organic cotton since 1982, and her farm recently became Demeter Certified Biodynamic®. Through classical plant breeding, she has developed varieties of cottons whose lint grows in shades of brown and green that can be machine spun. Her brown cotton varieties are as flame resistant as wool. In this workshop she will share practical insights into how to breed and grow colored cotton varieties and turn them into finished fabrics.
In his Agriculture Lectures of 1924, Rudolf Steiner made recurring references to designing the farm as a closed-loop, individual farm entity. He suggested that, in order for a farm to be truly self-sustaining, it should have the proper mix of trees and shrubs, bushes, and vines. The pastures should be meadows with an abundant mix of aromatic herbs flowers and fungi. Join lifelong biodynamic grower, agroforester, and permaculture teacher Mark Shepard to explore the common threads that weave together biodynamic agriculture and permaculture.
