Last Saturday, we held a Biodynamic Workshop here. Charlotte and I decided to tag along to see
if there were any ideas we could take on and use at Fordhall.
The course was led by Biodynamic guru, Bernard Jarman of
Hawksford College. He certainly knew his
stuff and was fascinating to listen to.
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| Biodynamic Apparatus |
Biodynamic growing and farming is all about connecting the light with the dark, the earth with the cosmos and society with nature.
“Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), founder of biodynamics, was a highly
trained scientist and respected philosopher. Long before many of his
contemporaries, Steiner came to the conclusion that western civilization would
increasingly bring destruction to itself and the earth if it did not begin to
incorporate an objective understanding of the spiritual world and its
interrelationship with the physical world. Steiner's spiritual scientific
methods and insights have given birth to practical holistic innovations in many
fields including education, banking, medicine, psychology, the arts and, not
least, agriculture.” https://www.biodynamics.com/steiner.html
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| Bernard Jarman |
On our workshop, Bernard started the day by teaching us how
to create compost preparations using 6 key plants: Yarrow, Chamomile, Nettle,
Dandelion, Valerian and Oak. Each of
these plants has its own unique properties which are not only used medicinally,
but they also help to assist with various mineral processes under the soil.
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| Compost Preparations |
The Yarrow flowers, for example, are collected and dried over winter, then in the spring they are sewn inside the bladder of a stag. The bladder is then hung up over the summer,
then buried in the autumn and dug up in the spring ready to use in your
compost.
Yes, it does sound a little far-out, but the whole idea of
connecting the external with the internal is really quite powerful.
We all ventured outside, just as it started to rain and
Bernard showed us how to add the ready-made compost preparations to our compost
heap in the community garden. We also
added a liquid compost starter to the compost created from the Ridan Hot Composter
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| Adding to the compost heaps |
As it started to get
a bit too chilly outside, we made our way back in and enjoyed a delicious lunch
from Arthur’s Restaurant of vegetarian quiche, home-made bread and seasonal
salad.
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| Charlotte stirring the vortex |
After lunch, we learnt about the Horn Manure and Horn Silica
that is used on the land. We had to put
the Horn Manure into a bucket of water and stir it for an hour, but not just
stir it, we had to create a vortex in the water. We were shown how to stir the water in a
clockwise direction until there was a vortex down to the bottom of the bucket
and then stir the water in the opposite direction again creating a vortex.
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| Horn Manure |
This liquid was then sprinkled all over the field and
community garden, this will hopefully help with plant growth… watch this space!
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| Connie and Becca sprinkling the Horn Manure across the fields |
This workshop would definitely appeal to all gardeners and growers who are interested in organics and are open minded to new ideas!
We are holding our next Biodynamic Workshop with Bernard on Saturday 19th October.
Get in touch to book!
Becca
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