It’s not uncommon for people to believe that Biodynamic (BD) farming is somewhat ‘voodoo’ or, alternatively, a kind of mystical method that will magically produce food of the highest quality.
That is not what drew me to BD. Simply put, looking at plants, soil and animals from a BD perspective gave me the most complete, accurately detailed description of what I had already been noticing on the farm – and what I could do about it. What I had become aware of up to that point was reinforced in 2000 when I attended an Introduction to Biodynamics workshop given by Michael Schmidt at the Guelph Organic Conference.
The principles of Biodynamic Farming came out of a series of 8 lectures given by Rudolf Steiner in 1924 to a group of farmers who were concerned that the ‘scientific approach’ of chemical fertilizers (introduced by Justus von Liebig, the 19th century German chemist) was leading to a deterioration in the health of their farms. As such, Steiner and others such as Sir Albert Howard and Lady Balfour were early pioneers in articulating the tenets of organic agriculture. But Steiner went further. The farmers wanted to know how to apply Steiner’s core philosophy – Anthroposophy – to farming.
[photo: Hand with soil]
Anthroposophy means ‘wisdom of man.’ Steiner believed that this wisdom was the ability to perceive and work with the unseen energy forces which bombard us all the time – coming from objects we often dismiss as purely physical (plants, animals, soil) as well as sources as far distant as the Cosmos. Ahead of his time, Steiner understood the physics of matter: “There is no Spirit (by which he meant energy) without matter, no matter without Spirit. We intend to handle all matter in the light of the Spirit”.
[ photo: Titia in the garden]
Energy is important. It connects all things from atoms to ecosystems in predictable patterns of relationships. Energy governs both plant growth (from germination of a seed to development of roots, leaves, flowers and fruits) and the quality of the food produced. Ideally, food provides animal/human life not only proper nutrition, but also an ‘instruction manual’ on how to use the food and its energy. Food becomes medicine. This is how chamomile becomes good for calming an upset stomach, or yarrow useful for recovering from a cold. All food is medicine in that it stimulates our body processes, directly or indirectly, through our reaction to its energy.
Working with all things on the farm to safeguard and guide energy for the best possible outcome is the work of a BD farmer. Not only the farmer, but also animals, plants and even the soil need to be treated in ways that support their capacity to perceive, absorb, and utilize energy.
To begin with, Steiner reminded farmers of the powerful energy waves coming from the sun, moon, and stars, especially the constellations that make up the zodiac, that area of sky which the sun also travels. From ancient Greek cosmology, there are four elements: Earth, Water, Air/Light, and Warmth, and each constellation is ascribed one of these four in sequence.
[ photo: Titia compost file]
That sequence follows, in order, our four seasons: Spring (Water), Summer (Warmth), Fall (Earth), and Winter (Air). In plants, roots are most tuned to Earth, flowers to Air/Light, leaves to Water and seeds to Warmth. The phases of the Moon influence plants in the same sequence again: 1st Q: Water, or leaf enhancement, 2nd Q Warmth – flowers moving forward to seeds, 3rd Q Earth – root solidification and 4th Q Air – for flowers and also for ‘planning and ideas’. The characterization of the Moon’s influence finds echoes all over the world from North American indigenous understandings to farm practices in India.
With all this similarity, it’s easy to see how activities like planting, cultivation, watering and harvesting could be timed to coincide with a favourable stimulus from Moon, Stars and Sun. Hence the planting calendars (Thun, Stella Natura, Celestial).
If energy is important, then structure is also important. Energy travels through matter only if its structure has been properly formed. A radio with a bent and broken antenna can’t transmit the song to enrich your life. Neither can a plant that is ‘J-rooted’ when transplanted (root tip bent back upwards like the letter J) – its connection to the soil and capacity to pick up on energy there is hampered. Taking horns – which are energy sense organs – off animals means we’ve taken away their radio station. No more tunes, just a dull and boring life, with dull and boring milk and meat to follow. Would it be ok to take the antennae off a butterfly?
[ photo: Titia’s goats]
Developing soil structure to the extent that it can deliver energy properly has been a long journey for me on this farm, which is carved out of granite Canadian Shield. This effort has relied much more on the principles of ‘organic’ agriculture than BD—which is to say, the introduction of many and varied organic materials (wood chips, compost, crushed rock, hay mulch, etc.) which have brought the soil back to life again so that it is able to respond in a biodynamic way.
Nutrition is also part of creating proper structure in living things so they can absorb, transform and transmit energy patterns. If a hungry child has trouble absorbing information in learning and processing it, the first right answer is to get that child some food. One cannot expect the BD level of food vitality out of plants that are not well fed; of particular importance is the BD compost pile. Firstly, it must include informed material from all the life forms (especially the manure from animals). Then it should be structured properly, and not disturbed too often as it transforms into humus.
Steiner describes the elements O, N, C, S, H, Ca and Si (Lectures 1,3), as well as clay and humus, as having energies that are lifelike and also purposeful. These passages are difficult to absorb and comprehend; other agricultural texts (e.g. Wm. Albrecht) which corroborate Steiner’s insights are helpful. This has particular significance in the compost pile. Borrowing from herbal medicines, we can see the elements working in a live form in plants, and even further, we can see similar energy impulses within animal organs.
[ photo: Titia’s hens]
I can use Ca to claim N down in the compost, or a specific homeopathic ‘preparation’ of chamomile. If Ca wants to be used for strengthening something, there is an entirely different preparation based on oak bark for that. Silica has been especially interesting on my farm—we have lots in the form of sand, but Steiner is more interested in silica as an active player in plant growth, giving us three very different preparations for differing effects: a dandelion preparation for nutrition within the compost, a horsetail tea for strengthening plants against disease, and a quartz solution which, when sprayed up into the air in a fine mist creates a series of rainbows over the crop, separating out the light so the plants can choose exactly the right light frequency for best growth.
Space prevents this article from covering all aspects of BD. Yet one more principle is important enough to touch on briefly: the development of the farm as one unified ‘organism’ in which all the parts (plants, animals, buildings, etc.) cycle harmoniously to build an individuality uniquely suited to the farm’s innate characteristics and terroir. For me this is perhaps the most important aspect of BD, and it starts with a deep, detailed study of each plant and animal, as well as an appreciation that the spatial structuring of the farm has a profound effect on the movement of energy.
[ photo: Titia’s pigs]
I didn’t set out to become a pig farmer; it was the farm that needed pigs. Why? Firstly, they bring iron back into a bio-available form; this soil had immobilized iron. Further, their manure is a good starter manure (lots of K) for sandy soils. It balances out the more airy horse manure and more self-contained goat manure. Pigs also feed chickens through the semi-digested grain in their manure. Another example: Jerusalem artichokes have contributed much semi-resistant organic matter to the benefit of our soil stability and tilth in the garden, allowing us to broaden the range of microbes/fungi working there.
Neither pigs nor artichokes are real money-makers on the farm; they are here for their services as living workers, helping to develop the farm’s unique personality. My job as farmer is to orchestrate which players (and how many) are living here. When I bought this desertified farm in 1981, my first action was to tell the farmer who was renting the land as pasture that his cows had to leave. They had overgrazed and were destroying the structure of the fragile soil. Now, after 40 years, I finally need a few cows here again—one of my recent plans.
My sense of BD thinking is that it involves both the left and right sides of the brain unified into one perceptive sense from which we determine what to do and how to do it on the farm. One cannot do this from following rules or methods; one must understand the principles of life and growth as they relate to the elements, in order to know how to address the constantly changing issues on the farm.
[ photo: Titia with large pig]
It feels more accurate to speak of developing a BD approach rather than a BD farm. Each time a living being, or even an inanimate object like a building, is handled in a way which considers (in a deep, meaningful way) the energy we make available to it, or how the energy moves through it, or where the energy should go, we are practising BD. Our goal is to respect deeply the sources of life-affirming energies and to provide food of such vitality that human beings can think clearly enough to live in proper relationship with their Universe.
Titia Posthuma
Ravensfield Farm
Maberly ON
Titia can provide additional information for applying Biodynamic principles on your farm or garden. Her farm, Ravensfield, is a mixed farm with both livestock and a 3/4-acre market garden, run following principles of both biodynamics and ‘deep’ organic philosophies.
Sources of pictures in the article:
Titia in garden: The Farm that Titia Built – Foodsmiths
Pictures of pigs, goats and chickens Ravensfield Farm – Famer – Titia Posthuma |
Producers | Pasture Valley Marketplace
Pictures Compost pile with a group and Hand with soil Field Trips and Labs (2016) |