Fundamentally, Rudolf Steiner, the creator of the biodynamic system, was the first to obviate the unhealthy and imbalanced practices of “modern” agriculture, and the first to inspire farmers to take up the practice of organic agronomy, husbandry and raising crops. He spoke many times of the “farm organism”, where all organs of the landscape are functioning together in a biological network of association. Nothing lives in isolation.
When visiting a biodynamic farm, we experience little difference to what we would see on what has become the “standard” organic farm: diverse cropping systems, composting, green manures and cover crops, care of the soil, elimination of chemicals, animals in balanced rotation.
But in biodynamics there is much more to it, even “hidden” procedures that belie something deeper. When all of the organs of the farm are synchronized into a thriving biological entity in its own right, we have an overwhelmingly sound and thriving ecosystem, filled with life. The nutritional stability of the farm is reflected in the health and well-being of the farmer, and the farmer’s customers.
The essence of Biodynamic practice is the nine “BD preps”, BD 500-509, that Steiner so sagaciously discussed in his agriculture lectures of 1923.
Use of a planting calendar, open pollinated seeds, building fertility, all of these are applicable to both biodynamic and permaculture modalities of working with the earth, plants, animals, and human beings. If we add in rotational grazing, polyculture, agroforestry, silvopasture, food forests, the list goes on, we have a complete system of practice, a complex blend of ideas that will only benefit the earth in its entirety, which means everyone and anyone.
After taking an all-inclusive assessment of a property (farm or garden), we make recommendations for a fully complete biodynamic program for the site. Some of the topical areas the we look at are:
- The living earth and the farm organism
- The working of cosmic energies in plant and soil
- Supporting and regulating natural processes
- Working practically with astronomical rhythms
- Outer and inner landscapes
- Food quality, nutrition and health
- The four elements
- Three active processes: sal, mercurius, sulfur (threefolding)
- Microcosm-macrocosm imaginative perception: the spheres, or planes
- Transmutation, destruction, and creation of matter
- Utilizing goethean science: goethean methodology and epistemology, the primal plant, or ur-plant
- Plant evolution and the metamorphosis of plants
- Practical aspects of gardening and farming
- Terrestrial factors: soil, the phenomenology of soil how is soil created, soil as a living organ of the earth organism
- Earthworms and other critters
- Nutrients and fertilizer: major elements involved in plant growth
- Cosmic influences: basic geocentric, astronomy, dimensions of time and space time and cosmic rhythms forms and shapes practical application
- Atmospheric factors: weather, working with the microclimate: practical aspects, light and warmth, frosts, air and wind, water, dry weather gardening, mulching and ground covers
- Composts and liquid manures: compost ingredients, when, where, and how to set up the compost, special composts and manures
- Liquid manures, the composting process, human wastes, humus
- companion planting, crop rotation, and weeds
- insects: beneficial insects practical application fungus, virus and bacteria
- Teas, BD preparations, biotic substances, ferments, other herbal preparations
- Cooking, nutrition, and food preparation, freshness, processing, cooking good food habits, seasoning, storage, fermentation, food preservation
- Seeds and seed saving, seed selection, seed storage, germination, seed viability hybrids, pollination, collecting seed from annuals, biennials, and perennials propagation
- Gardening tools
- Maintenance and management