SEPBDA FALL MEETING - 2024
The time has come again to renew our stores of the biodynamic preparations!
KIMBERTON MEETING
Join us Wednesday, September 18th at 2:30pm
at the CSA Barn 1731 French Creek Rd, Phoenixville, PA
PHILADELPHIA MEETING
Join us Friday, September 27th at 10am
at the Wyck Historic House and Gardens
6026 Germantown Ave, Philadelphia, PA
email biodanamic@gmail.com to RSVP
both events free and open to the public
We come together in the fall to make the compost preparations (502-506) and Horn Manure (500). The Earth longs for these remedies, but it has to rely on the goodwill of humans to gather the ingredients through the year and make it all come together each fall!
Burying these preparations in the living Earth is a big part of getting the forces into the substances. Although the Earth is a living being, it is in a dying process, and the preparations were conceived to help reinforce and strengthen the forces in nature that effect plant growth. It is up to us to make biodynamic preparations if they are to exist at all! Ideally we can work towards growing and gathering all of the substances from our own farm individuality…
Right around the Equinoxes we find a balance , a moment in the middle of the Earth’s year long breathing cycle. We are on the edge of the time when the life force energy of the Earth is coming back from the star lit summer skies and going through and down, deep into the Earth. The preparations will stay buried with this energy during winter, when the Earth is the most awake and alert, awaiting the crystalizing forces of the Earth to have their effect.
I love seeing the crystalized snow on the surface and imagining with heartfelt warmth that it is an indication of the crystallization going on in my preparation pit. Which has led me to ponder…Is Horn Manure crystalized cow poop?
The proper transformation of the preparations is most noticeable with the Horn Manure when dug up in spring. If all goes well, the manure comes out in the form of a horn! It is no longer green or manure smelling, but brown, soft, and smells like forest floor or finished compost. Quite incredible when you were a part of the stuffing end of the horn in the fall! It is important to build up a personal relationship with manure, and I can think of no better way than by helping a biodynamic farmer make Horn Manure.
The manure must be from a female cow that is making milk. We are trying to make a Calcium preparation, to not only strengthen the soil ecosystem with a proliferation of cow gut flora, but also a make a connection to the forces of the inner planets : the Moon, Mercury and Venus. This will help the crops we grow make their own seeds, and be able to reproduce more plants for us in the future; a blessing that is often overlooked but so important! Horn Manure also has a gravitational aspect, amplifying a pulling down effect on the plant’s roots to help them go deeper and make stronger plants that are more connected to the Earth.
We will take a handful of finished Horn Manure and stir that into a 5 gallon bucket of water for 1 hour, making deep vortexes, bringing in Oxygen and Nitrogen and ending up with an enlivened dynamized soil spray. I have been finding more advice from my elders about stirring closer to sunset, when the daily breathing cycle of the Earth is drawing in, and how the transiting of the sun across the horizon is a potent part in making transformational medicine.
***********************************************************
The Southeast Pennsylvania Biodynamic Association (SEPBDA) seeks to inspire social, environmental and spiritual renewal through the art and science of biodynamic Agriculture.
Through SEPBDA we have the opportunity to:
Gather an interchange of people who are practicing or interested in biodynamics
Share our collective knowledge, learn from each other and grow through study
Get reports from the national and global biodynamic farming community
Learn about the preparations by making them together
We have Seasonal quarterly meetings
(Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall)
*******************************************************