Blog – Tagged "compost"– The Josephine Porter Institute

Jun 24, 2023

Cows Create Meadows

In Karl König's fascinating work Earth and Man he proposes that specific animals create landscapes like themselves. In particular, one that stands out for biodynamic practitioners is the cow, which, König suggests, creates meadows.

May 22, 2023

Fertility is a Marriage

Even Steiner says in the Agriculture Course that it is virtually "inconceivable" to consider farming these days -- in 1924 -- without a tractor. He was not recommending a return to draft power or doing away with technology but rather making sure that technology must serve LIFE.

May 19, 2023

Light Ether

The value of humus comes from light. As such, it's easy to see why cultures would venerate the Sun. The Sun shines on the righteous and wicked alike, sharing with impartiality to all. If we wish to make plants more receptive to the light streaming in from the cosmos, we must add some carefully decomposed byproducts of light (humus and biodynamic preparations) so the plants "remember" who they are.

May 17, 2023

What is Biodynamic Wine?

Biodynamic wine is an all-natural approach to viticulture that emphasizes the unique character of each individual farm's soil and climate. In the wine world, the distinctness of each different soil is called terroir (related to the Latin word terra, "earth"). Often wines are Demeter Certified, guaranteeing that they not only meet an organic standard of avoiding synthetic fertilizers and avoiding synthetic pesticides but also including specific regenerative and biodynamic elements.

May 1, 2023

Freedom & Farming

Imagine every farm being free in itself (freedom within the boundaries of the farm), of itself (free from dependence on outside inputs), and for itself (free to pursue its own creative expression within the farm). Moreover, imagine countries doing the same. People ask, "Is biodynamics scalable?" If it means freedom, then, yes, it's one of the only things worth scaling.

May 1, 2023

Gifts for the Soil

With biodynamics we are gifting to the soil a concentration of forces and a kind of "sweetness" that naturally wouldn't occur by chance in nature. And that is the secret of alchemy: taking things to their fulfillment when Nature, left to herself, could not do so.

Apr 26, 2023

Devils & Angels

In Steiner's terminology, there are two aspects to what is often described as a single being in conventional Christia...

Apr 26, 2023

Leavening Your Soil

The biodynamic preparations work a bit like specialized "yeasts" in compost and create a better final product. Are the biodynamic preparations absolutely necessary?

Apr 24, 2023

What are pest peppers?

The charred dandelion seed can only rot, but the charred seed can only rot in a dandelionish way. This means you're really creating a pathogen vector by rotting these seeds, specifically something that will corrupt the seed-forming process of that specific species.

Apr 17, 2023

Build Soil Rapidly

“In the early days we ran trials. Depleted soil was deep ripped. We sowed the right species and applied 500 and had the well known results. In six years we raised the organic matter levels from 0.9% in the top 4” to approximately 12% and, varyingly, to 2.4% at 40” depth. Ripping exactly the same way etc, but without 500, the soil biology developed to 20 cm depth, no further. In modern farming the right soil treatment and the Bio-Dynamic preparations must be applied together."

Apr 9, 2023

How to Convert a Vineyard to Biodynamics

Transitioning a vineyard to biodynamics can seem like a daunting task, not even considering Demeter certification standards. When plants are habituated to synthetic fertilizers, the soil itself tends to become sickly and needs to be revitalized.

Apr 5, 2023

Healthiness

If we wish to have healthy plants, we should consider using healthy inputs. But that means reaching beyond soluble fertilizers which, let's face it, are not alive enough to be "healthy." Now, a particular chemical may be healthy or unhealthy for a living organism, but if we wish to foster healthy plants, we need to add heathliness back to the soil.