Dear friends,

I created this blog so that I could invite a few friends to read it and to give me feed back. Please understand that I am still editing it. Especialy the last two chapters still need some work to become more intelligable.

Thanks,

Walter

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

UNDERSTANDING THE HORN MANURE AND HORN SILICA PREPARATIONS

As a farmer, horn manure and horn silica preparation are the two preps that I have worked with most. They are relatively easy to make and most years I could cover the whole farm two or three times with my spray rig.As I described earlier, the horn manure preparation is made by stuffing the manure of a cow into a cow horn and burying it for the winter. When you dig the horns up in the spring, the manure is completely transformed and loses its manure smell and consistency. Four hundred horns took up a lot of space, so I would use the bucket of my skid loader to dig a hole about two feet deep, eight feet long and six feet wide. Into this I would layer my horns, with earth between each layer. When the horns are dug up in the spring, the prep can be stored in clay pots that are then placed in a special box that is lined with peat moss. The peat moss stops the energy or forces from being dissipated into the surroundings. When you use the prep, you need about a handful per acre, or less if you are spraying a big area, and you stir this into the water for one hour. The stirring is important because it transfers the imprint or information of the prep into the water. If you are stirring by hand, say in a five-gallon bucket, you need a nice straight stick about eighteen inches long which you use to create a vortex in the water by stirring vigorously. When you have a hole in the water that nearly touches the bottom of the bucket, you stir the other way. This at first creates chaos but you keep stirring until you have achieved a new vortex. So you stir back and forth for an hour and then you can spray the desired area with a Wisk broom or backpack sprayer. As I had over five hundred acres to cover, I used a stirring machine, with an electric motor, that stirred about ninety gallons at a time. This I would then transfer to my spray machine which was attached to my tractor and I could cover about thirty acres. Usually we could do two loads an afternoon or about sixty acres. As much of my land was either in hay or pasture, I would try to spray these fields in the Spring and Fall and when possible after making hay. The cultivated ground, where we were going to plant annual crops such as corn and cereals, would be sprayed before planting.Of this prep Steiner says “By burying the horn with its filling of manure, we preserve in the horn the forces it was accustomed to exert within the cow itself, namely the property of raying back whatever is life giving and astral.…Thus, in the content of the horn we get a highly-concentrated, life-giving manuring force.”The cow is a ruminant with four stomachs that can hold over fifty gallons of digestive juices. The plants that she consumes are permeated with life forces to which she adds her own sentient forces so that the manure is a very lively substance. When you look at a cow, you can see that she is a very inward, dreamy being. In her digestion, she is reflecting the whole cosmos and this energy is retained by the manure. All living beings have energies that are steaming in and out, which keeps them connected to their environment. The horns and hoofs, which are made from layers of skin, ray all the cow’s forces of digestion back into her stomach. Thus when you watch a cow eating or chewing her cud, you experience this total absorption that she has in her digestion. Even after you take the horns from a dead cow, they retain their function of raying the cosmic forces into the manure that is stuffed into the horns. When you use this preparation on the bare ground before planting, or on hay fields and pasture, you stimulate the forces of germination, root development and growth.
Horn Silica PreparationThis prep also uses the cow horn but, instead of the manure, we use Silica which comes from quartz crystal. The crystals are finely ground; water is added to make a paste and then the paste stuffed into a horn. The horns are then placed into the ground for the summer and dug up in late fall. The Silica prep is sprayed early in the morning, preferably soon after sunrise. This made it difficult to use this prep as we started milking at five. Usually it meant giving up my mornings to sleep in but it wasn’t all bad. I could set everything up the evening before, such as filling the stirring tank with water. Then at five in the morning, I’d flip the switch to the stirring machine while I enjoyed a cup of tea and the beginnings of sunrise for an hour. Spraying is a relatively simple operation, so driving through the fields and watching the world wake up was enjoyable work. The Silica spray compliments the horn manure preparation. In the human being, silica is found in the skin and other sense organs such as the eyes. It is a carrier of the light and formative forces; it helps to make the plant sensitive to the forces that bring quality and form. Whereas the horn manure helps with reproduction and growth, the horn Silica prep enables the plant to attract the forces that make for good nutrition and high quality.How Does a Plant Feel in a Biodynamic Soil?A fertile soil that has been treated with the biodynamic preparations is imbued with life, is sentient and has a desire to become plant-like. A plant is so close to the earth that there is not a great distinction between the root and the surrounding soil. When the seed, which anchors the spiritual archetype within it, is placed into the soil and encounters moisture and this desire to become plant, the plant can than grow in a healthy way. The forces of growth and reproduction are available to it as well as the forces that produce good nutrition and excellent qualities of smell, color and good taste. When the Biodynamic compost is spread on the soil, the soil is enlivened and the plant is led to incarnate through the planets, starting from the periphery, Saturn, and working to Moon, in an orderly and balanced fashion. In more detail;the Valerian prep is connected to Saturn. This planet is the gateway to the constellations of the zodiac that bear the blueprint of the archetype of the species. Through this prep, the soil is waiting to become the plant type carried within the seed. As the plant starts to die, it also allows for a healthy development of the new seed for the next generation.The Dandelion prep is connected to Jupiter. Jupiter fills out the archetype or idea of the plant. It allows the plant to become sensitive and attracts to itself, out of the surrounding environment, what it needs for its growth. This prep strengthens the nutritive quality as can be experienced in good taste and aroma.The Stinging Nettle prep is connected to Mars. This prep further encourages growth into space and the forming of substance, again for good nutrition. It does this by making the soil sensitive, so that it makes available to the plant what it truly needs.The Yarrow prep is connected to Venus. This prep enlivens the soil so that the plant can absorb the incarnating forces coming from Saturn, Jupiter and Mars into physical substance. It does this by making the life or etheric body of the plant sensitive, so that it can accept the imprint from the planetary formative forces.The Chamomile prep is connected to Mercury. This prep brings everything into fluid movement so that the spiritual can adapt to the physical world. It also strengthens the life or etheric body of the plant so that it does not get overpowered by the spiritual.Oak Bark prep is connected to the moon. The moon influences growth and reproduction. If these forces become too strong then disease can occur. This prep helps with the further stabilizing and balancing of the etheric and astral bodies so that the plant can be healthy.The two field sprays, the horn manure and horn silica preparations help the plant to be balanced between growth and reproduction (coming from the moon) and good nutritive quality (coming from the sun).(Need end paragraph to finish)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

WHAT ARE THE BIODYNAMIC PREPARATIONS?

For many people, the Biodynamic preparations are incomprehensible. When I first came across them, I did not question whether they worked, although I have now studied them in depth. For me, they were simply remedies to strengthen the life forces of the land. Maybe I felt so comfortable because I had gone to a Waldorf school for a few years and had had such a good experience there. Maybe it was because I was already comfortable with Steiner’s ideas. In any case, I want very much to explain their potency to others so that your farms and gardens will thrive.First, I will describe the six compost preparations and then the field sprays. The compost preps are made from plants, the energies of which are further enhanced by putting them in animal sheaths and then burying them. Virtually all these elements may sound very foreign to you but their effectiveness has been so well validated over the years that scientists consider them proven. The plants and sheaths are:· The flowers of the Yarrow plant stuffed into a stag’s bladder, which are then hung in the summer sun and buried for the winter· Chamomile flowers made into sausages from the intestines of the cow and buried in the ground for the winter· Stinging nettle is compacted into a bunch and placed in the ground for a whole year, starting in the fall.· Oak bark is ground to a fine consistency and placed where the brain used to be in the skull of a cow and then placed in a wet place like a stream for the winter.· Dandelion flowers are stuffed into the mesentery (stomach lining) of a cow and placed in the ground for the winter.· The Valerian flower is pressed for its juice, which is then diluted with water and stored until it is needed.The above preparations, except the Valerian juice, are placed in the compost pile in separate holes as the pile is completed. I like to put the Stinging Nettle in the middle, the Oak Bark and Chamomile opposite each other at one end and the Yarrow and Dandelion opposite each other at the other end. The holes go about three to four feet apart and only a teaspoon of each prep is needed. The valerian juice is diluted and stirred and sprayed on the pile with a watering can.There are two other preparations that are used as sprays for the fields. One is made from cow manure which is stuffed into a cow horn and buried for the winter. The other is made from quartz crystals that are ground very fine and then put into a cow horn and put in the ground for the summer. When used, both these preps are diluted with water, stirred for one hour and then sprayed on the ground.Over the years, my relationship to the preps has deepened but it is not a very intellectual connection. I think that most farmers who come across them for the first time just sort of accept them because they know from others that they work.

You can buy them but they are pricey so there are regional groups that make them. Michaelmas, which falls around the autumn equinox, is the time to make most of the preps. In East Troy, Dick and Ruth Zinnaker host such a gathering every year. They have the oldest working Biodynamic farm in the States, started in the forties and now run by the third generation. They have a lovely old stanchion barn that is set up to make the preps. Ruth gathers and prepares all the ingredients beforehand and everything is ready to go. Usually about thirty people turn up to help and it is a real special fall festival. For my farm, I needed about four hundred cow horns filled, so I would bring my own horns and cow manure. About twenty of us at a time could sit on straw bales and stuff horns with spoons. Conversation was good, as many of the people knew each other but only met once per year, so it was catch-up time. In another part of the barn, the flowers and sheaths would be waiting to be worked on. When working with the preps, they don’t seem weird or esoteric. The experience is closer to alchemy, working with plant and animal energies which are then given over to the earth to be further strengthened and transformed. It all seems quite normal and possible…..futuristic, rather than old fashioned. After the preps were buried, there would be a pot luck dinner, a bonfire and music, deeply enjoyed by everyone.Trying to make rational sense of the preps is difficult, so I have made my own relationship to them. I am not much of a chemist, so looking at them from that point of view has not been very interesting for me. Studying the planets and the energies that radiate from them has given me a door through which I can relate to the preps. Many of these ideas come from a series of lectures that Dr. Lievegoed gave to farmers in 1951 and, of course, Steiner’s
“Agriculture” lectures. I have had to accept certain statements and build on those. I will try to describe these as best I can but it will be more of a picture then a rational explanation.I have to say one more time, when working with the preparations, a whole new mind set is needed. Regular farm science thinks that for every pound of nutrient you take out of the soil, you have to find a way to replace it. In Biodynamics, we have to think as Alchemists, that transmutation of substance can take place and that by potansizing a substances there is an effect from the energy.Transmutation of substances, when one mineral turns into another, does take place in the living realm, in plants and animals. When the soil is living and working well, then substances can transmute. For instance, Potash, even lime, can transform into nitrogen.Potensizing works when you take one part of an extract and dilute it with nine parts water and shake it for one minute. You then take one part of this solution and add nine parts of water and shake it for one minute. This would be called D2 potency. In homeopathic medicine, the same medicine can have varying effects depending on the potency. Eugene Kolisko has done experiments showing that the number of times a substance is potencised has a rhythmical effect, even into the D sixties. Although science cannot detect the original substance, the energy or blueprint of that substance is still there.As I have said before, behind matter stands spirit, but for spirit to manifest materially it needs something to anchor it. The Preps work as that anchor. They work medicinally so that the plant can attract the substances that it needs for growth or when necessary, to balance the etheric and astral in the right way so that the plant can be healthy.YARROW PREPARATIONThe yarrow plant is very rich in Sulfur. In the agriculture lectures, Steiner states that “Sulfur is the element in protein that plays the role of mediator between the physical world and the omnipresent spirit with its formative power.” It is this Sulfur process or energy that is strengthened by placing it in a stag’s bladder to be hung in a sunny spot and then buried. Steiner says that by using this preparation “the manure once again becomes able to enliven the soil so that it can absorb the fine doses of silicic acid and lead and so on that comes towards the earth.” The Yarrow plant is closely related to the planet Venus which is the planet of copper. Copper was used in the telegraph wires that were strung across the continents to carry information. The old copper pennies and cents, that had more value in the past, were the main form of commerce and helped goods move around. A copper arm band can help blood circulation. In the Middle Ages. yarrow was also called Venus’s Eyebrows, which shows that there was an old wisdom about these things.The animal sheath for this preparation is made from the stag’s bladder. The stag is an animal that is closely connected to the cosmos. The antlers are made of bone which is usually only found inside the body, covered by flesh and skin. When observing a stag you can see how it is totally in tune with what is going on around it - its antlers are like antennas into the cosmos.This preparation reminds me of Botticelli’s painting of Venus rising out of the ocean. In the same way matter is able to rise out of spirit. By spreading compost that has been enlivened with this energy, plants are better able to attract elements from the cosmos for healthier nutrition.CHAMOMILE PREPARATIONSteiner states that by using this preparation “You will find that your manure not only has a more stable nitrogen content than other manures, but that it also has the ability to enliven the soil so that plant growth is extraordinarily stimulated. Above all, you will get healthier plants.”Chamomile has well-known healing properties. A tea will sooth a stomach ache and drinking chamomile tea before going to bed will make for a better sleep. If meat starts to go putrid, you can soak it in Chamomile tea and it will be good again. Chamomile likes to strengthen and bring forces into movement. It creates a proper balance between the etheric and astral forces.We use the intestines of a cow as the sheath because it is through the intestinal wall that the digestive juices are secreted into the substances moving through the digestive tract. It is where the astral forces of the cow (remember the cow has very strong astral forces) are given over to the manure.In traditional medicine, the intestines are often connected to the planet Mercury which has the same tendency of flowing and moving. In Roman times Mercury was the God of thieves and merchants which ensured that goods move from one person to the next.It is past the scope of this book to explain everything but Steiner states that the carrier of astrality is nitrogen. Therefore when we place this prep in the compost pile, we create an organ that has the ability to create stable nitrogen and also make a right balance between the etheric and astral forces so that the plants growing in a Biodynamic garden or farm are healthy.STINGING NETTLEYarrow, Chamomile and Stinging Nettle all have sulfur to a high degree and so help spiritual energies be incorporated and assimilated into the compost heap and then the soil and plant. Steiner says of this preparation that “the effect will be to make the manure inwardly sensitive and receptive, so that it acts as if it were intelligent and does not allow decomposition to take place in the wrong way or let nitrogen escape or anything like that. This addition not only makes the manure intelligent, it also makes the soil more intelligent, so that it individualizes itself and conforms to the particular plants that you grow in it.”This is possible because Stinging Nettle has lots of iron in it, which relates it to the planet of iron, Mars. Lievegoed says that the gesture of Mars is the Javelin thrower just as he is about to let go of the javelin. It is very directed and forceful. A person who is anemic lacks iron in their blood. It is the force that allows the spiritual archetype of the plant to incarnate into the world. When you use this prep, it allows the soil to become intelligent so that it knows what the plant needs. Again, this prep helps in the health of the plant.OAK BARKThis prep, made from the bark of an oak tree and put into the skull of the cow where the brain was, works under the influence of the Moon. It controls growth in the endless division of cells, and in reproduction it controls inheritance, which ensures the continuation of type. If these Moon forces become too strong, if the earth is over stimulated and growth becomes rampant as can happen during a wet warm spring then we start to have unhealthy plants that are prone to attacks from parasites and other harmful effects such as fungus. The calcium from the Oak Bark dampens down the too-strong life forces and balance is restored. Steiner says “It restores order when the etheric body is working too strongly, that is, when the astral cannot gain access to the organic entity…..Then we must use the calcium in the very structure in which we find it in the bark of the oak.” This prep allows the Moon forces of growth and reproduction to unfold in a healthy way.DANDELIONThe Dandelion plant is under the influence of Jupiter. Jupiter takes hold of the archetypes that Saturn has brought to the plant and moulds and fills out the form. It fills out the skeleton. The Dandelion also a high content of silica, which attracts substances that provide for good nutritive forces in plants. The flowers of the Dandelion are wrapped in the mesentery of a cow. The mesentery is a fine membrane that surrounds the organs of the stomach. It is the mesentery that is sensitive to pain and it becomes a kind of membrane of consciousness of what’s going on in the lower organs of the cow. When this prep is placed in the ground during the winter, it becomes saturated with the forces of silica. Steiner says of this preparation” it will give the soil the ability to attract just as much silicic acid from the atmosphere and the cosmos as is needed by the plants. In this way, the plants will become sensitive to everything at work in the environment and then be able to draw in whatever else they need.” In fact, they become so in tune with their surroundings that they know what is available in the surrounding fields and woods and attract it to themselves. VALERIANit is through the spiritual formative forces of Valerian that Saturn works. Saturn is the most distant planet and is the gateway to the spiritual world. It works like a spiritual sheath and encloses the workings of the cosmos. Further, Steiner says that this prep “will stimulate the manure to relate in the right way to the substance we call phosphorus.” In homeopathic medicine, phosphorus is used to strengthen the spiritual “I” of a person. For plants, it is the spiritual archetype that is strengthened by Valerian. This preparation needs no animal sheath, nor does it need to be buried in the ground. The juice from the flowers can be extracted and stored until needed. When the manure pile is made, then the Valerian is diluted and sprayed all over the pile to work as a protective covering.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

SPIRITUAL BEINGS STAND BEHIND MATTER

In her book “The Field,” Lynne McTaggart summarizes much of quantum physics research and states that “the zero point field is an ocean of microscopic vibrations in the space between things” and “the very underpinning of our universe is a heaving sea of energy, one vast quantum field. If this is true, everything would be connected to everything else like some invisible web.”To better understand Biodynamic farming, I have to share some ideas based on my understanding of how the world works. The above paragraph might help make sense and give some credibility to my beliefs, although I go one step further into the metaphysical. Behind this quantum field, I believe there is a spiritual world that is beyond time and space and energy. This world is as diverse as there are stars in the universe. Just as our earth has consciousness and we can talk about the being of Gaia, so every planet and star in the universe is a being, and there are billions. As there are so many levels to the universe, it is difficult to generalize but through ages of time, I believe our world has condensed from the spiritual world. I believe that, behind all physical matter, there stand spiritual beings. For instance, there is a being that is the essence of nitrogen. Over eons of time, this essence condensed out of the spiritual into the substance of earthly nitrogen. Over time, the spirit withdrew out of matter so that now we only experience nitrogen as the mineralized matter, the end of a process. This is the level at which science works, but there are other levels of existence that I will describe later. However, within the mineral world there are still forces at work. Science tends to think purely in quantitative terms but all minerals have energetic qualitative values as well. For instance, there is a whole healing industry surrounding crystals. Different crystals have qualities, energies that can heal conditions of the soul. We receive different energies from the ground if we live in a place that sits on granite or limestone. Metals too have an influence on the world. For instance, iron has the quality of hardness that makes it suitable either for war or ploughshares. Iron is found in a very high concentration in the mighty oak and a Steiner meditation on iron reads:The knobly oak tree speaks,Servant of the iron Mars,O Man, be rooted in the deeps
And reach up to the heights,Be active and strong,Be fighter, knight, protector.We have all these forces and substances within us that make us citizens of this mineral world. As farmers, we work with all these substances and forces. Depending on how we farm, these qualities can be stronger or weaker. It makes a difference whether the iron we get from our vegetables comes from synthetically fertilized soil or from a living soil where the forces from the cosmos are active. In a deadened soil, it is possible that the mineral substances are no longer imbued with energy, than these energies are no longer available to us. The iron does not provide us with the ability to be fighter, knight and protector.These forces only work in the mineral realm. As soon as we enter the realm of the plants and animals, the living realm, all the rules change. For the farmer, there are three levels to the spiritual world that we can experience working within nature. First, there are life forces. Although the plant or animal anchors this life force, it is one step above the physical; life as such does not rise out of mineral and chemical interactions. Rather life is a mighty power that we can experience, for example at birth. When a calf is born and it lunges to rise off the ground for its first drink, the mother patiently stands and nudges the calf into position. Or a seed breaking through the crust of soil to reach the sun. These let us experience the power of life. Beethoven catches this life force most perfectly in the Ninth Symphony. In “Ode to Joy,” the choir singsAll creatures drink of joyAt nature’s breast.Just and unjustAlike taste of her gift;She gave us kisses and the fruit of the vine,A tried friend to the end.Even the worm can feel contentment,And the cherub stands before God.Life pervades the whole cosmos and it is a celebration and hymn to god. Some of the Biodynamic preparations work directly to strengthen or harmonize this energy level. Rudolf Steiner terms it the etheric field.
The next level we can experience is the organizing principle of the plants and animals. All life is organized, in that it has parts or organs that have different functions. Most plants have roots, stems, leaves and flowers but on the whole they are not sentient beings the way animals are. For plants, this organizing principle of life comes from the outside. It is not experienced internally. For example, a leaf that is damaged does not feel sore or if the soil is infertile it does not feel hungry. Animals on the other hand are sentient beings, meaning they have feelings. This life of feeling is internalized. They are unhappy if hungry or they feel pain if infected by disease. Steiner named this body the astral body and again the preps work to heal and balance these forces.We still have one more spiritual realm, and this shines in from the periphery, for both plants and animals. The archetypes of the species are held in the realm of the constellations of the zodiac. When a seed is placed in the ground, it grows into its own kind because it fills in the formative forces coming from the zodiac with matter. For humans it is a little different, as each individual person is like a whole species of the animal kingdom. That is why astrology works for us. All people born under a certain sign, say Sagittarius, will have similar characteristics that they inherit as they incarnate. Again, the preps can strengthen and balance how the species come to incarnate into the plant or animal. As the spiritual world is so varied, people with spiritual vision have different organs of perception developed and therefore will see and experience different aspects. For me, after all these years of meditation, I can now see the beginnings of the etheric body, a beautiful, transparent blue cloud-like shape surrounding a plant. Being a beginner with this vision, it takes time to see it. I look at the plants and bring up a meditation which can vary. The core meditation for me is to be grateful that the plant is so faithful to her task in life and that every day she makes it possible for the world to survive. Here in Ecuador, the capital of the flower world, we have a beautiful flower garden and one particular white rose gives off a wonderful perfume. I am able to steep my senses with the sounds of nature, the delicate smells from the garden and earth and to take in the breathtaking view over the valley and mountains.
How Does The Farm Work As An Ecosystem?With these thoughts in mind, I will continue describing the farm as an ecosystem. I described my farm in Wisconsin in some detail but wish to continue along the lines of the terrestrial aspects.

THE FARM AS A SOLAR COLLECTOR. A farm can be thought of as a huge solar collector. Plants are about one and a half percent efficient in collecting solar energy but this is probably good as otherwise the soil could burn out. Then you need the converters of all the energy that is stored in the vegetation. Humans can convert some of this directly into food with vegetables and grains but it is hard to keep up the fertility of the farm when we only produce food for humans because humans do not give much fertility back to the land. Cows do, because they are ruminants. They love grass and legumes and so they excel at both converting the stored energy in the grass into food and also at providing fertility. They produce meat and milk and tons of manure and urine which is one of the best sources of fertility. When we spread compost made with cow manure, it is amazing how this dressing improves both the fertility and organic matter of the soil. The hay or pasture is also a restorative crop and can easily be worked into a rotation.
By rotation I mean SSSS
With all this fertility, we can grow food for people, like vegetables, corn, beans and small grains. Now we start to have a farm that is self-sufficient in both fertility and in the food needed to feed the cows.
THE FARM AS AN ETHERIC ENTITY.
The next level of the farm is the etheric and here we enter into the celestial forces. Within the farm boundary which I talked about before, the life forces of the plant are recycled. When the crops grow (we shall follow grass), the grass is full of life energy which the cow digests, and in her ruminant stomach adds her own energies. The resultant manure is a life-filled product that can be composted. In the compost pile, we are not only transforming organic matter into humus but are retaining the life energy, which when spread back on the ground, enlivens the soil. In the world of nature, there are hosts of nature spirits that we cannot see as they have no physical body. To name just a few, there are earth, water, air and fire beings, tree beings, landscape beings, cloud beings and house beings. In the past, many people could see these and indigenous people still accept and honor them as part of their lives. These beings are still around us. They carry the consciousness of the farm and they work on the energetic level. For them, it is difficult if they have to work with energies that come from off the farm. Especially hurtful are forces from synthetic fertilizers and herbicides that they have to assimilate into the farm organism. Part of my practice as a farmer is to honor these beings and for many years Susan and I spent time each morning communicating what we would be doing that day, explaining our needs and celebrating with them. In this way, we felt we were able to co-create with them, even if it was at a beginners’ level. We often felt that we were heard and helped. (Need to finish next paragraph}

THE SENTIENT LIFE OF BIODYNAMIC SOIL.

The earth of a biodynamic soil has a sentient life as well. It has the ability to strengthen within the plant the organizing principle that I talked about before. The astral principle is balanced, not over-powering the life forces and allowing the spirit formative forces to incarnate.We have now created a fertile soil that is imbued with life forces that want to become plant. Into this soil, we place a seed and the formative forces from the constellations of the zodiac that hold the archetypes ray into the seed and tell the seed what to grow into

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
STANDING BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH
The Biodynamic farm stands between heaven and earth. It is influenced by both earthly and cosmic influences and the farmer works with both, when looking after his land. The terrestrial or earthly forces are the most familiar to us, so it is these influences that we farmers are most used to working with. Rudolf Steiner showed us how we can work with the celestial forces through the use of the Biodynamic preparations and by being aware of the position of the planets and constellations of the zodiac in relationship to each other and the sun and moon. When we think of the terrestrial forces, we have in mind the physical properties of the farm, mainly the soil. The smell and feel of soil tells so much, is it rich and earthy with little bits of organic matter still visible? Does it feel full of life? Does it crumble between the fingers? Is the soil deep? Are there lots of earth worms? Can the soil hold moisture? These are all good signs of a fertile soil with lots of organic matter. Other considerations might be….. Where did it come from? Is it clay or sand? What is the vegetation? Are there trees and hedgerows? Is the terrain steep or flat? These are all terrestrial forces that a farmer works with on a daily basis. Although we can’t do much to change some of these things, such as the original parent material of the soil or the slope of the land, over the years we can modify and improve the fertility.
In the past, peasant farmers felt the holiness of the earth but now with our large-scale farming and economic pressures, it is hard to maintain the feeling of reverence. It is interesting that in the Agricultural course that Rudolf Steiner gave, he spends the first page and a half thanking the hosts of the conference. This sets the mood for farming. Reverence used to be a basic mood of soul when working with nature. Growth and decay, birth and death, the wonder of a newly planted field greening up, brings me a feeling of wonder and thankfulness. One naturally starts to see the world in a flow of time and movement. This does lead the farmer through a path of initiation which can make it possible to hear intuitively what is needed on the farm. But this natural path of initiation is not necessarily available to a modern farmer. Sitting in an air-conditioned tractor cab listening to the radio in order to keep awake for hours on end…. this is not conducive to a spiritual path. It now needs a conscious inner spiritual effort by a farmer to have this same intuitive connection to his farm. By cultivating his inner soul life and caring for his land and animals, a farmer can develop an intuitive connection to his farm. He is like a mother who is closely connected to her small child and knows when she is in danger. Even in my thirties when I was most involved in building up my farm and most involved with physical work, I would try to put aside thirty minutes after breakfast for meditation.
Over against the terrestrial forces, there are cosmic or celestial forces that affect the growth of plants and the health of the animals. The sun is the driving force of our planet and allows the great variety of plants and animals ranging from the poles to the equator. The moon affects mainly the watery aspect of our world. This can be seen in the rise and fall of the tides and in the growing habits of plants. Before the full moon, seeds germinate and grow faster than at the new moon. It is easier to make and dry hay at the new moon when there is not so much moisture in the stems and leaves. We know of these influences but are not so aware of the more subtle affects. When the sun stands in front of one of the twelve constellations, the energy that reaches the earth is different for each one. The growth and nutritive value of the plants is dependent on this dance of the heavenly bodies. Rudolf Steiner gave us the gift of being able to work with the cosmic forces through the use of the Biodynamic preparations. With the use of the preparations we can enliven the earth so that our food can have the nutritional forces that we need. When Rudolf Steiner was asked about our food he answered, “Nutrition as it stands today does not supply the strength necessary for manifesting the spirit in physical life. A bridge can no longer be built from thinking to will and action. Food plants no longer contain the forces people need for this.”
One of the main concepts of Biodynamic farming is that we try to create a self- sustaining farm organism. This idea is wonderful to me as it lifts the farm out of the economic realm into a cultural artistic realm. It creates boundaries within which to work. We have a picture frame within which to balance all the terrestrial and celestial forces at work within this planet. Up above, we have the sun and stars and planets influencing the land. On the earth, we create a vessel which contains the soil, the plants, the animals and the farmer who creates the vision and orchestrates all the parts. All living entities have a skin that embraces the organism whether it is unicellular or a complicated plant or animal. A farm is part of the earth, a living system, and it is part of a farmer’s task to create a landscape where the right balance of plants and animals exists so that a vibrant whole is created that is self-sustaining. A modern conventional farm has no boundaries, only economic considerations. Its very concept is unhealthy, as there are no natural boundaries to stop growth and therefore growth becomes cancerous.
On my last farm in Wisconsin, I tried to create this diversified landscape. It was a beautiful farm, with areas of woods reminiscent of the original oak savannas of the plains. There were marsh areas with small streams that the wildlife loved. There were hedge rows between pastures and Susan always said that our farm was a bird sanctuary. Within one area of woods, we had a fine hill on the top of which we cleared the grasses for our gatherings. Kindred Spirits would gather there when I talked about the spirituality of the earth, so we called it the Sacred Hill. Many ceremonies were held there for our friends and for the community and Susan will never forget the circle of women who helped her celebrate there the morning of our marriage. On our farm, we felt the animals, plants, people and spiritual world were one.

I had some areas of good fertile soil but most of the farm was poor rolling land, good for pasture and hay and dairy cows but not suitable for intensive crop farming. I farmed about five hundred acres and I knew that I needed to have about four acres of pasture, hay and crops for every cow. Therefore everything was designed for one hundred and twenty cows. Through experience, a farmer knows how much feed a cow needs per year to attain a reasonable level of milk production. How many tons of hay or silage are needed? How many pounds of concentrates such as beans and corn? This then has to be converted to acres to be planted for each crop so that there are enough to feed the cows through the long winters. This then has to be balanced against the tons of cow manure produced. Will there be enough compost for the necessary acres of corn? This can never be an exact science, as things change yearly with the weather. It depends so much on when the rain falls. For instance, if it is a wet warm spring, it could be that the corn gets planted late and can’t be cultivated in order to kill the weeds. Yet all this rain is excellent for pasture and hay. If, at hay-making time, it stops raining for a couple of weeks, then a bumper crop can be harvested. One summer was terrible because it never rained and I was buying hay by October. That year I was certainly far from my dream of the farm being self-sufficient.
The rotation that worked best for me was forty acres of corn, forty of soy beans, forty of small grains (mainly oats but it could be rye or wheat) under sown with hay that lasted three or four years before the cycle started again. This utilized about two hundred and eighty acres and I had another two hundred acres in permanent pasture. In addition, my farm provided manure for a neighboring community-supported garden that grew enough vegetables for one hundred and twenty families and other sources. I also sold wheat to a kosher bakery and sometimes I was able to sell the beans for human consumption.
The farm organism does not stop at the farm gate. It extends into the community via the consumers. I sold my milk to Organic Valley, one of the biggest certified organic distributors in the country, so I lost the direct connection to the consumer. However it is still interesting to see how much food we could produce on my farm with just three workers, so I capturing that below.
Milk
Being a dairy farm, I produced mainly milk. Each cow produced 40 lbs of milk per day or 1,500 gallons per year. An average family consumes about three gallons of milk and milk products (cheese, butter, yogurt and ice cream) per week or 150 gallons per year. This means one cow supported 100 families and as I milked 120 cows we supported about 1200 families.
MeatA byproduct of milking cows is that you have bull calves that are usually sold to another farmer and cull cows that you sell to companies that have that specialty. We sold about 20,000 lbs of meat per year and, according to statistics, beef consumption per person is about 65 lbs per year. If a family of four eats two hundred lbs per year, then we supported about 100 families.
WheatI grew about twenty acres of wheat per year with a yield of 40 bushels per acre. This averages 48,000 lbs or enough for 24,000 2 lb loaves per year. If a family eats two loaves per week, we grew enough wheat for 240 families.
Vegetablesalthough we did not grow vegetables beyond Susan’s garden, the cows did supply much of the fertility through their manure and our vegetables were grown on the farm property. The twenty acres of vegetables which were sold through a CSA, farmers markets and wholesale channels were enough to feed 300 families.From this description it can be seen that a farm with the sun and rain and the help from the farmers can produce a truly remarkable amount of food. For Nokomis Farm alone, this totaled:Milk – 1,200 familiesMeat - 100 familiesVegetables – 300 familiesWheat (bread) – 240 families

CHAPTER TWELVE

MY LIFE’S WORK

As part of my book I want to describe what Biodynamic farming means to me. Every Biodynamic farmer would probably bring out different aspects, but the following is what is important to me. I have tried to describe the farm ecosystem and how I attempted to create this on my last farm built. Especially hard is trying to write about the different levels of the spiritual world and how they manifest in nature without using Anthroposophical terms and assuming the reader is in the least bit familiar with Rudolf Steiner’s writings. As Biodynamic farming can be a lifelong study, and I still enjoy visiting farms and picking up new ideas I have decided to add these chapters at the end, rather than interspersing the ideas throughout the book.

The Great Artist of the Landscape

The spirituality of the earth has always been important to me. As I mentioned before, when I was nine, walking home through the bush, I experienced losing my oneness with nature. By farming my whole life, I could at least be out in nature and enjoy myself. Trying to make a living from nature has been hard but I have always had my spiritual beliefs that kept me going. When most people think of nature they think about a secluded spot or time spent in a national park. For me, nature is all around me when I farm. I like to think of a farmer as the great artist of the landscape. Every decision we make changes the look of the land. Mankind most impinges on nature where we grow our food and on the whole we have done a terrible job. Just think of the corn and bean farms of the Midwest, where people are literally not welcome. Not only are they dangerous places to visit because of known chemical hazards, but there is no place for humans. The farmer could show you his farm but it would be in a pickup truck in a cloud of dust along endless rows of corn or beans. Even worse are the chicken houses, the beef lots and huge dairy farms.
A Biodynamic farm is diversified, it is interesting and it is beautiful. It is a place that people like to visit and where they feel welcome. Not only does it grow food that nourishes, but people feel connected and safe.
I was lucky in that I could farm the land and grow good food. My late wife Joan, with the help of our two children, had the social ability to welcome people into our house and farm. Later Susan and I married and she had this same social ability. In particular, she guides people to find destiny paths….. and what better place to search than on visits to a Biodynamic farm? Thus on our farm in Wisconsin, we invited her friends to visit for the weekend, as part of our “Kindred Spirits” network. I would take them walking through the pastures and in one, I would invite them to sit in a circle as gradually the curious cows would gather around. There I would talk about the spirituality of the earth and Biodynamic farming.
As I wrote earlier, my turning point in life was when I was going through some very hard times in my marriage and the most incredible being of light and love suddenly visited me. I experienced the greatest wonder and appreciation of everything that I had done in my life and felt understood, accepted, honored and loved. Many years later, I had a similar experience of love, only not quite so intense. As background, let me explain that, for me, cows are part of the earth. The cow, in her being of loyalty to the land and the cosmos, belongs to the landscape. One late August afternoon, I was getting the cows ready for milking and they were being stubborn. It was hot and muggy and I was irritated, as I had more hay to make. As I walked past one of the cows, I happened to look into her eyes and we began a deep conversation. For my part, I said “I am sorry, please forgive my irritability, but I’ve got problems. “ In reply, she communicated back to me incredible forgiveness and love. I experienced the earth welling up through this cow. The earth, as a being of light and love, came shining through the eyes of this cow. I was startled yet deeply moved that, in my frustration; I was allowed to experience this union with the earth. Thinking about it later, I realized that it was the same love I had experienced when I was thirty-three and the Being I think of as Christ visited me. I then understood that the being of Gaia is now permeated with light and love, and that this light and love are being extended to all mankind now in an unlimited fashion.
Out of this stems my growing love of nature and the Being of the earth imbued with love. My life’s path has not been scholarly but more a life of doing. My main inspiration has always come from Anthroposophy but often there was no energy left in the evenings to study. One of the nice things about being a dairy farmer is that you are forgiven if you fall asleep at meetings. Now that I am not farming and can be more awake, I want to share how my experiences allowed me to see the spirituality of the earth and how Biodynamic farming led me to my world view.
My experience of the earth being imbued with light and love is further confirmed by meditation. When I look deep into the earth in my imagination, I move through matter, and experience the earth as hollow, surrounded at the periphery by light-filled crystal, dissolving into darkness. The hollow earth itself emanates light and love. The first time this happened I was surprised, as I expected density, weight, matter and gravity.
In my reading from Anthroposophy, mainly Sergei Prokofieff and Jesaiah Ben Aharon, these imaginations are confirmed. To me, they are most attuned to the changing earth. Also, in a course on Geomancy with Marko Pogacnik, I started to actually experience the spiritual landscape that underlies the physical.
The being of light and love that I experience is personal and present but also historical and cosmic. For me, this being is the Christ Spirit, the being of light and love, the beloved one, who has accompanied the earth and humankind from the beginning of time. This is the god that ruled from the sun realms, so all peoples have venerated this being in one form or another. For instance, the Egyptians called him the mighty sun God Ra and the Greeks called him Apollo. Slowly, during our descent onto the earth, he drew closer to the earth too and incarnated into the being of Jesus, and then united his being with mankind and with the earth. By this act, he made his new home on the earth for all time to come. This was a gift from the spiritual world, as we had lost our connection to spirit. In the past, our way of being was spirit-imbued. We still beheld and experienced spirit in matter. Now when we think about nature, we experience an abyss. ….we cannot cross the bridge between matter and spirit in our thinking. When we see a tree, we only see the physical tree. We do not see the spiritual tree, imbued with life force, or the spiritual beings that surround the tree. People with spiritual vision do see them. Now we are starting a new era, when our spiritual organs of perception are reawakening so that more and more people can again see the spirit in matter. We are starting to see the etheric world with new spiritual sense organs. At a later time, we will be able to understand this realm and then to co-create with it. Even now there are forerunners. The Findhorn community in Scotland has been creating an oasis where none could be expected to be. By taking direction from the nature spirits, they have miraculously created a lush garden out of sand dunes.
As time goes on, over the next several thousand years, people will experience and live into this realm Anthroposophist call “the etheric.” Already some people live without food by tapping into spiritual energies. The physical will less and less be able to support us. My favorite grace expresses this so well:
The bread is not our food What feeds us in the bread Is God’s eternal word Is spirit, and is life.
It is the spiritual forces in the food that sustain and nourish us. This is why Biodynamics is so important to me. By looking into the spiritual world, Rudolf Steiner has given us a way to grow food with the spiritual forces that are necessary to enrich humanity.

PART TWO
BIODYNAMIC FARMING