LIGHTRAVELS

Brazilan Fruits

2008-02-20T11:03:00.003Z

The flowers in the picture are from a plant which flowers from its leaf an exquistite feather looking petaled expression of itself.

This happened recently and we were so pleased to be here when it did. The fruit are many in this sun filled land. Fruits drip from the trees and some clever people pick them and sell their pulp frozen across the cities. A fresh cool Asai, Acerola come from a packet but there are still fruits not frozen to drink from.

As is in such a land the women are totally wonderful, stunning sun worshipers full the streets and are bearly noticed by the not as attractive men. The men however it seems tend to mature well and in older age bear positive signs of character and depth. People are all generally very friendly and happy, the city is the city as cities are, but still one can feel the difference compared to London. Things pulse here they flow abit more organically and is more closer to an African city for some reasons.

The food is many and much and people do eat out regularly, there is always a Padaria (bakery) just around the corner. Theres is such a wonderous selection of food that its no onder people dont cook for themselves as much. Having someone to help in the house also seems to not encorage this as there is always someone else to do the cooking and so happily for those imployed there is no need. Last night we dived fully into the world of Sushi consumption and today we are sushied out totally. It was marvelous, thanks and praises to the fish.

Driving out the city the white cows are a great feature of the country side. They dot the fields like smarties on a cake. Their is much to learn here from the agricultural production. There are so many great products, so simple which we have not in SA and have all the same ingredients.

This place this BRazil has created a space for me i feel. this has been mostly atributed to the most warm andLoving welcome by Helenas family. they are trully wonderful.

Recyling leaves a lot to be desired in the mega city of SP. it looks as though there is no idea about the quantities involved when u see the size of the bins outside say a fuel station. This maybe partly due to the large amount of peopple who make their living from collecting the rubbish and getting some cash for it.

It has been GReat! Thank you BRazil for having me and i hope to return in not to Long.

Thanks for giving me the chance to learn a new language.

Preparation plants presentation Play

2008-01-07T08:20:00.000Z

Biodynamic Preparation Plants Play ------------
Act 1: Scene 1: Now and Then:
Music: Army march
Veggies and animals march in front of right stage. Stop off center. They are in rows, upright they are in a neutral state. The farmers come in behind with bottles and sprays of different kinds. They have masks, eye protection and gloves. We see the real disconnection with the farm stock even before they give the ‘medicine’. Farmer 1 administers fertilizer. Farmer 2 gives Pesticide and farmer 3 herbicide. From all angles the veggies are blasted. They freak a bit and look like they have had a strong coffee. They then put on there shoes and hats. Showing diconnection to the earth and the stars. The animals then eat from them and have same reaction. A farmer may inject some antibiotics into them.
Family comes in and takes a bit from each veggies and animals. They at first have expression of well done as the crop looks good. Then eating they make bad face and are in mad mood. Starts telling off the farmers.
Music: Slightly sad also has an army edge but more meloncolic.
The family, veggies and animals leave in this mood. The farmers stand looking at this and shake there heads. Look to each other for solutions.

Scene 2: Then!
Music: Change to more progressive , build slowly truth scence, climax at end .
Farmer 3 has an idea . He tells the others then they trek from right of stage across stage maybe even out of stage in search of Rudolf Steiner. They find him by a desk with loads of papers and books. They pretend to knock on a door. He does to listen and carrys on working. They take a rest outside to show passge of time. They knock again and he comes to them. They gesture a conversation about there problems and worries. Farmer1 has a bag of grain which is half full . He tells of how last year it was more. Farmer 2 does gesture of big to small for animals. Farmer 3 has pleading look and gestures for answers. Steiner concedes and gets them to sit. He pretends to talk for a while then he stops then pretends again. His hand actions show someone describing things in the stars and in the earth, inside the body and between each other. He finishes with a hand on the heart and one on the head. The farmers have been listening attentively during this time looking very confused and astranged . He then goes back to his table and gets three agriculture lecture books and produces them from his mouth for each . He gestures for them to know them and read them.

ACT 2: Scene 1: Feel:
Music: All instruments from up where it left off to low and slow in winter then back up at end of her movement in summer.
Steiner turns his arm and with open hand gestures the farmers to look at centre stage.
This is queue for Nature mother to enter. She moves in to centre stage . She is fabulous in summer radiating, arms up to the heavens in the v shape flicking out energy from her hands. She gesture the transition into Autumn by spinning, spiraling into autumn her arms are parallel with the earth and her hands are flicking into the earth now . Leaves falling is a good gesture to show this time instead of flicking they are flat thumbs move up and down. This is a transition into winter where her arms are down and a flicking is happening into the earth. Much slowler than in summer, much deeper and more rhythmical. The earth is alive in winter. A spiral would bring back spring and again the arms are parallel to the earth but the hands are now working up and opening flowers into the sun . Her hands are flowers which open up to the cosmos.
She moves back to summer and opens arms calling for Dandelion to come in.
Scene 2: Dandelion
Music: piano/xzylephone twinkling on entry with a drum base , something floaty, when she is low more drum base then as she lifts and absorbs the silica more piano.
Carried by the wind the Dandelion enters upon a seed umbrella. She floats down and lands centre stage. N.M. is behind gesturing the season of summer. S.+3F are to the left of stage watching. She drops the seed head as she lands germinating in the soil. Farmer 3 collects seed head and looks at in order to remove from stage. She is low to the earth and all we see are leaves. NM moves from summer to Autumn then Winter. In this time Dan. Leaves are just moving an d adjusting to the light. SPRing comes and she shoots into the sky hands and arms together she shoot up a stalk and opens her arms in embrace of the solar forces. She is receiving silicic acid from the cosmos and atmosphere. There is the hand gesture of receiving force from the air. This is brought down and lowered to the route. She can show this by lightly bending knees as drawing the force down happens. This is only for about five draws lets say then she is pauses in gesture opened to the universe arms wide open but not parallel to earth about 30 degrees. NM pauses also in the summer time in a similar gesture . S + 3 F come over to look at D. Farmer 1 takes a piece of leaf and tastes. S. takes a letter from behind the dandelion reads quickly while looking up at ‘heaven’ from time to time. He takes a quartz crystal from his bag and shows the farmers how this passes from the sky into the earth, he does this with D. as the back ground to his action.
He then takes his scissors and pretends to snip in the air. He removes her crown and puts it in her hands. This is queue for Cosmic Cow to enters right stage. She walks on steady and in peace. Nothing in this world or many others is going to rush her. She is at peace . Chewing her cud as she enters. All watch in appreciation as she moves in the space right of the D. Music is sighlent in this time to contrast the normal music. A time of silence in her entry gives the presence and peace which the cow brings. Music comes back. She takes off her long coat which is the mesentry and unhooks the intestines which are shown to be in a spiral . She hands the intestines to farmer 2 who is deeply thankful and bows slightly then puts it in her bag. She then hands the mesentry to F3 who is also thankful . She does a gesture with hand flat pointing inwards, to show the inwardness of the organs. She leaves again right of stage .
NM moves too Autumn and farmer 1 takes a shovel to dig by direction of S. F3 takes the mesentry and puts it around D. He leads her to the hole and they lay her in and cover. NM rays down forces now in winter the forces of the cosmos stream through her into the earth where the D. is in reception of the froces aided by the inner astral nature of the cows mesentery. S. contemplates in this time looking in to the universe. Farmers work on building a much heap. When a moment of two has passed and NM feels its time winter is over and spring is back. S+3F return to D to lift her from earth. She is transformed an d radiating. F3 takes her to back of stage to sit on a chair which is close to the much heap. She sits there with her crown flower head in hand and mesentry/coat still around.

Scene 2: Oak
Music: Either Sax or a base guitar is playing signifying the living calcium properties. The mood is nurturing. Deep.
Steiner gestures for farmers to look again. NM calls forth the Oak!
Back right of stage he enters. Solid strong tall in presence. Farmers gasp and marvel . He finds his place center stage and stands. He hold s the space for a moment in still ness, his space of time is a big part of relationship to us. When that moment of pause is at the end he raises his forearms with hands turned inwards we see the twigs of the winter time of the outer time he turns them towards each other. He moves the forearms in a vibrating shaking way away from each other, this is repeated a few times to show the movement of the calcium from the inner to the outer of the bark. He finishes with forearms parallel like a trunk in front of him.
NM is turning and turning in this time and after. She is in her own space of no space. Showing the long passage of time of this great being.
Farmer 3 goes to sit under the tree. Time comes in. Its summer. O turns his hands outwards which are green so we see the leaves. He looks over the farmer smiling and gives him an acorn which he eats. This takes us too Autumn. Steiner points to the stars towards Mars which is a red ball on the oaks chest (Totem). F3 comes out from under O.S. takes a tool and lifts a piece of bark off his belly.
At this time Autumn goes to winter and the cosmic cow returns with the skull. Again sh e comes with peace and silence gives inward gesture and takes her head off and gives it Farmer 1. He takes it and they put the bark inside. The Oak does not move and stays in winter formation. They take the skull and put it in the stream with rotting vegetation. NM comes over and streams the winter forces into the skull.
Spring comes and they lift the skull and take it back give it to Oak , steiner calls over one of the veggies from the beginning who has a cold and is sneezing she touches the skull and oak and feels better she exit’s the way she entred, he then is lead to sit next to Dandy.

Scene 3: Nettle
Music: electric guitar, triangle, metal banging, drums, piano. Full passion music. Start is silent, maybe a simple flute recorder there is a heart beat drum which increases in speed as they connect and the sun beams more on the male, then as the male flys across and collides with the female full electric guitar . As they rise from the earth together as a germinated seed more piano showing silica concentration in spring with the new leaves. Everything else follows there movements adlib for now.
NM stands back of centre stage in the summer . Left stage male Nettle stands moving in the wind like a pulsating packet of pollen his arms are turned inwards as a packet ball of pollen. To the right opposite the female Nettle is also waving in the wind her white shining star flowers are piercing the light. Her gesture is arms open and pointing towards the male. The tension builds for a bit as the music makes it then when NM comes a little closer with her sun the packet of pollen bursts open Mnettle flys across the stage spining and twirling and comes in to the arms of the female. They spin together then go to the earth. All is silent again ,, then we hear the heart beat and together they grow from the ground as one plant now in the Spring working their way to the surface . Their yellow legs are moving and they almost dance to the centre stage. There fingers are pointing outwards like little spikes moving showing the surface area they cover. When they are centre stage they pause, interlocked at the hips they make the hand gesture of a house above the head and to the side , like a pyramid.
This is the action time for the observers they come over to see. Both possibly have tool belts on showing there jack of all trades abilities. Steiner is very pleased to show this plant and is happy they see it. Farmer one trys to taste some of the leaf and gets his hand stung. This brings movement back into the nettles and they bend over across rooted by their feet with the hands make gestures around the hearts of the farmers. Then return to previous position. Spring moves to summer and this queues Steiner to gesture a cut of the nettles. They bend right over as if cut just above the root. Farmers pretend to collect nettle . As the famers are digging a hole the nettle rises back showing its re generation. They are then taken to the hole and buried for a whole year. Summer forces and Winter forces stream in. Farmers fix fences and build much heaps in this time. This happens till following summer then they lift them and take them to sit next to others .
Scene 4: Chamomille
Music: acoustic guitar , with up beat drumming. Something soothing and tranquil. Yet healing and therefore progressive. No stagnant but changing.
He enters with his white bandana on and white socks. With the mood of coming from a tennis game or Yoga session. Relaxed. The look of someone who enjoys there Job. He does a little dance like a cross between a ballaue dancer and a tai chi master. Every time he raises his arms a flower shoots from his hands in an open burst. He arrives centre stage and pauses in gesture of raised curved arms one higher than the other like a posture of a dancer but his hands are open to the sun. Farmer 3 comes over to look and Cam gracefully brings his flower hand down to the belly of the farmer and recieves the feeling of a Cam. Tea . He looks more relaxed and sleepy, he puts his head to rest on the shoulder of the Cham, For a moment. Cam returns to paused posture. Its summer and Steiner comes over and cuts some flowers from the plant . Farmer 2 wih her bag brings out the intestines which the cosmic cow gave earlier. She puts him into the long sleeping bag looking intestine and they lay him in a hole and cover him. This is all done in Autumn. The winter forces ray down in to the intestines. Intensify the cammomile processes. They raise him in Spring and take him to the now well asembley group . He is radiating.

Scene 5:YaRROW
Music : Sitar ideally possibly a flute or a violin? This is an instrument which is contrasting but works very well with a drum. This is the sulphur potassium relation ship playing itself out.
He moves in upright and steady, Zen ed out. He is focus. Almost floating though still very earthed. The rigidity it important and this strength of the stalk is characteristic . He is contained power. Concentrated light inwardly there is much light force. He reaches center stage and stands for a moment. Holding the audiences gaze attention, drawing it into that moment into him. At the time when it right for him he raises his arms in front of himself parallel to each other or in the shape of a bud then opens them to be parallel to the ground. Palms are faced upwards. This is his gesture and he holds it for a moment. Farmer 1 has a cut on his arm( tomatoe sauce) he goes over to the yarrow, He takes a leaf and wipes the blood clean or wraps it in the leaf then removes and it is clean after being healed.
Steiner gestures with his hand to feel the radiation of this plant. The y feel like feeling the heat of a fire while F2 takes out a pendulum and it spins wildly.
Summer changes to autumn and they cut some of the yarrow. During autumn winter time The STAG emerges. With no waist of time he makes his way across the stage . Alert and observant he is watching everything. In no time he has handed his bladder to F3 who honorably accepts it. He leaves swiftly. Winter is turning to Spring and they take the Yarrow and but him within the bladder full size, they string him up standing man to a rafter. This now gives NM a full surface in front of her to ray her Solar summer force into. Autumn come when she is ready for it and the farmers with Steiner go over and take him down. They lie him straight into a hole which they cover. The winter force makes its impact on the stag bladder Yarrow potion . They lift the prep that next spring. Take him from his bladder and lead him to the others.

Scene 6: Valerian.
Music: something similar to the sulphur of yarrow but different , Phosphoric acid needs to be described musically. /heat is the key with this plant.
She walks in during spring leapig over the river that fed the skull prep. With a massive warming smile she enters beaming light love and heat. She come straight over to the farmers and puts a blanket around them , rubbing them to warm them up she goes back to centre stage and stands in posture making a flame above her head with her arms.
The farmers come over to her. They put there hands on her head and press her to the floor. They then give her a hand to stand and take her to the others.
NM exsits.

ACT 3 : Putting in and Finale.
Music: Individual instruments for each prep. At the combination of all when they are all given the veg and animals then let the Jam begin.
The farmers go and do one prep at a time each. They go to the prep. Standing in front of the prep they give it a hand to stand. Then almost as a thanks the prep take off its totem and gives to farmer. Farmer put it in heap then leads prep to sit on cusion around heap. Prep sits crossed legs with palms facing heap.
When Valerian is taken to the heap she walks wi the farmer around the preps and they put blankets on them alland possibly the heap. She then goes to sit as well.

The farmers leave this scene for a bit to brew. The y thank Steiner veru greatfully. He walks off back to his desk. They work for a bit then the army march starts again dom dom dom dom dom. The veggies and animals march in . Hearded by the mother and children. They stand. Tyred and disconnected. The farmers take a fork full of the much and put it at the feet of the veggies. They start to move and sway they throw off there hats and take off there shoes this ripples as the animals eat of them the start doing the same. They take of f there shoes and smiling lift there arms towards the sky and touch the earth with love. They do not leave t here lines but are moving happily. The preps get up and make there way through the animals and vegg dancing between them like light. The farmers smile and shake each others hands for a good job!!

Introduction

2008-01-07T08:15:00.000Z

INTRODUCTION

Welcome. This compilation of information, observation and photographs has been created as my apprentice project and as a guide to understanding and to remember the Biodynamic Preparation plants.
Most of the information is taken from books and internet sites. I have weeded through much and taken out what I feel to be important.
All the photographs (bar one) are my own.
For most of the plants there is very scientific descriptions (as well as much more) of the chemical constituents. This is not to be used directly by myself but will serve as a means of communication with people in the field of such definitive science.
Having this compilation together will serve as a guide.
My wish is to return to Africa and work with traditional healers to find suitable alternatives to the BD plants indicated by Steiner.
“If they should be difficult to obtain in one district or another they can if need be, be replaced by certain other things.”
“ Only in one case a substitute can not be found, for it is so characteristic that the effect is scarcely likely to be found in the same way in any other plant”. That’s the nettle!
( Rudolf Steiner Agricultural Course 1924 )

Dandelion

2008-01-07T08:08:00.000Z

TARAXACUM OFFICINALIS
DANDELION
From the Agricultural Course:
‘ A clear and visible interaction between silicic acid and potassium not calcium’ In
‘The innocent little Dandelion’ Will
‘ Mediates between the silicic acid finely homeopathically distributed around the cosmos and that which is needed as silicic acid’ The
‘Messenger from Heaven’ Is
‘exposed to the influences of the earth, over winter’ One should,
‘Gather the little heads… let them fade a little… sew up in a bovine mesentery’ In
‘ Spring time you take the balls out… thoroughly saturated with cosmic influence’ This
‘Will give the soil the facility to attract just as much silicic acid from the atmosphere and from the cosmos as the plant needs, to make them really sentient to all that is at work in their environment.. For they themselves will then attract what they need’

‘THE PROCESS NOT THE SUBSTANCE IS IMPORTANT’

Welcome to a little exploration into the world of the Dandelion.
This delicious nutritious little plant soaks up the cosmic forces over winter while it lays amongst the soil. Surfacing in spring we can take a nibble of its fresh leaves. Its sun embodied flowers cascade over the meadows and we awe at their brilliance.
As if on reaching a saturation point of light they transform into globes of light.
The waves of wind carry the seeds through air to ground.

The Dandelion is not a demanding plant who’s latex root is dried and used as a coffee substitute.
The buds open facing the east when the dew has dried and the sun is beaming light and warmth.
They close in the afternoon facing Southwest.
The spherical miracle which occurs when the flower has past its expression is the globe of the dandelion. Fine siliceous cellular tissue is used to build agile parachutes which transport the seeds.
The seeds have tiny hooks on them which give them a farther range if they manage to catch onto a creature in transit

There is a long development for the plant before we recognize the flowers as earthly images of the sun. A germinating Dandelion needs a full summer to orientate itself with its surroundings before flowering. It will form buds in the winter close to the ground in the dense rosette of leaves. This is pulled into the ground and root over winter.
Like a coiled spring its physical form is ready to burst out when the light and warmth of spring returns.
The ever spreading leaves (5-25cm long) are very telling of the journey the plant takes in its development to flowering. In sequence we can see how the leaves grow in size then reduce to almost nothing over winter then return in full glory and size with their bundles of light entrapped in buds.
The tooth looking leaves tend to point inwards which gives me the feeling they are not an expression of defense. Rather that of silica.

The buds are formed at the end of hollow sappy stems( 4-30cm) who seem to have an ability to grown to great heights if surrounded by anything which may obstruct their potential light advantage.
Each flower head has between one hundred and two hundred florets (individual flowers) which open themselves, working from the OUTSIDE in.
One can observe mid flowering a spiral effect as the flower opens to greet the sun. The Florets that is were seen to open in a spiral in some flowers.
If it is a dreary, rainy day with not much light the flowers stay shut. This clearly shows a sensitivity to light.
Butterflies, beetles, flies and bees will see whole areas come into color as I am sure the instinct for rich sun filled pollen propels them towards their nearest flower where the individual florets are easy picking.

When finally the inner most florets have shown themselves and shared their gifts they wither and are pushed out of the closed receptacle like bud through the top.

Now for several days the fruit ripens inside. Then it begins to open, pushing the base up the doors( bracts) bend towards the floor revealing through time a spear of multi fruit who shape shows an orientation to its complete surroundings.

It relates to the wind like a flower does to light.
The favorable fruit germinate in one too two weeks in suitably light situations.
There are usually 54 to 172 seeds produced per head, but a single plant can produce more than 2000 seeds a year. It has been estimated that more than 97 000 000 seeds/hectare could be produced every year by a dense stand of dandelions.
A fruit can form where no cross fertilization has taken place.
In early may an array of different leaves can be seen as the plant sends out new rosettes. If the smallest piece of root has been cut off it can germinate.
The Dandelion is complete in all respects. There is no area not covered.

The human through taste finds more connections. Bitter are the roots and the leaves at full growth. The young leaves are very palatable and make a good addition to spring salads, hard boiled eggs can be added. The roots are dried and ground, with boiling water they make a great warming drink and liver cleanse. The root is a diuretic. The flowers taste sweet and are a good to nibble while walking through a field. They can be used to make wine and jam. The fruit tastes nutty. The leaves are high in vitamin A, vitamin C and iron, carrying more iron and calcium than spinach. A decoction of them can be used to treat anemia and nervousness. The milky latex has been used as a mosquito repellent and wart remover.
Dandelion contains Luteolin, an antioxidant, and has demonstrated antioxidant properties without cytotoxicity.
Caffeic acid is a secondary plant metabolite which is produced in Dandelion and Yarrow.
Dandelions are used as food plants by the larvae of some species of Lepidoptera.
Away from their native regions, they have become established in the Americas, Australia and New Zealand as weeds. They are now common plants throughout all temperate regions.

Folk Lore and History :
Saint Bride or Brigid claimed dandelion exudes juice which is good for young lambs and calves.
‘Little notched plant of bride’
‘blow ball’, ‘priests crown’
‘clock’~ If all the seeds fly when blown by a child at play his mother did not want him but if a few remain then he should rush home.
In Germany it's known as a Pusteblume, translated as "blow flower." The number of blows required to completely rid the clock of its seeds is deemed to be the time of day. The name dandelion is derived from the Old French, dent-de-lion, which is literally "lion's tooth", referring to the sharply-lobed leaves of the plant. 1373 was the first written account of the word which we have.
In German, the dandelion is also called Löwenzahn, which is also translated as "lion's tooth." In modern French the plant is called pissenlit, which means "urinate in bed", apparently referring to its diuretic properties. Likewise, "pissabeds" is an English folk name for this plant, and "piscialletto" is one of its folk names in Italian (with "dente di leone", meaning "lion's tooth"). Similarly in Spanish, it is known as the "mea camas", but also commonly "diente de león".

Genetics: dandelions are genetically triploid. An odd number of chromosomes usually is associated with sterility, but dandelions with this karyotype can reproduce without fertilization, a process called apomixis. In these individuals flowers are useless vestigial structures, although they may still produce a small percentage of fertile pollen, keeping some genetic contact with sexual individuals. Diploid dandelions develop seeds after cross-pollination and are self-incompatible. In most zones of southern Europe and Asia, dandelion populations are sexual or mixed sexual-apomictic, while in northern countries only triploid and tetraploid apomicts are present, as is in the zones where it is not native. This seems to be linked to higher temperatures, survival of pre-glacial populations and human impact, but the subject is still being studied.

Personal experiences:
In the first year of the apprentiship being on the farm did not engage me as much with this little plant. When the blanket of yellow filled bee field ( Sturts Farm spring 2006) the sense of warmth did come over me. Soon though it does become come place and I found myself taking it for granted. Then like a reminder the balls of fun appeared. That I do clearly remember there being a stop and look experience. Just settling in this process of appreciation which the apprenticeship gives I was in Awe as I attempted to comprehend the processes at play in such a plant. These thought had the back drop of a plant block course with Margaret Colhoun.
Life moves swiftly on in a Camphill community and I do not remember noticing it again until saw some dried flowers being stuffed into the mesentery of a cow and sewn up. At this stage I did not really look twice as I was squishing fresh cow manure into a cow horn.
On one weekend or course a recall seeing an apprentice I think Boska picking a Dandelion flower and eating, I did as humans do and learn by example. Its sweetness was very appealing and I had another. I felt I had enough after that. From then I periodically have had a flower here or there and enjoyed the experience.
This year having decided on my project I have obviously focused quite attentively on the dandelion. Its ability to appear amongst Tar on a road did amuse me. I felt its power against that of mans ’development’.
Some very dense clusters I watched at Brookthorpe in the walled garden and saw how the fruiting stems rose up well above the still flowering ones.
At Hawkwood College I was introduced to the taste of the young leaves by Utah and did enjoy that a lot.
The removal of these little plants with big roots from the vegetable field was a good connection with what happens below the soil. An appreciation for their size as a whole was obtained.
Early in the summer I saw how some of the leaves would go a purple color.
As the flowers would open there was a clear spiral seen on a number of occasions.
We had a preparation day at Fern Verrow and after much searching the dandelion was found by Laurence. Later we opened the still intact mesentery to find the lovely Dandelion. Now with a squishy texture. On opening the mesentery the flowers were visible as flowers, as they were touched and molded they easily became a humus looking substance.
During spring I came down with a nasty cold whose only benefit was the time to sit and observe the seed head open into being, this was a stead yet extremely fast process for a plant in my understanding. It must have been about 20-30 min. The process which I observed was amazing yet it did not seem to have the same sense as does seeing one closed one day and opened the next. It was as if seeing it in frames broke down the process which I was not really observing anyway. All I saw was snap shot picture( and took snap shot pictures). Possibly I should have kept my eyes on it the whole time. Possibly I should have attempted to feel it.

The Dandelion governs the potassium in relation to silica.’ The Dandelion draws in the homeopathic silica a cosmic substance from the atmosphere and connects it with the earthly substance of potassium.
There is seen to be in any given area a similar amount of silica as to Potassium.
Potassium has 0.001% radioactivity in the earths crust.
Silica is not considered as being significant for plant growth yet it makes up a large part of the earths crust and through spiritual scientific research has been found to be integral in the formative processes of matter.

We are harnessing the germinating forces when we make the preparations.
The flowers are harvested early in the morning when there are still some unopened florets in the center.
This enables them to be dried without going to seed.
All of the forces are moving towards the ultimate expression of the Dandelion in the seed head. The flower is along that process and we take it then while the forces are rich and active and the potential is at its highest.

The mesentery of the cow or peritoneum is the vessel used for the dandelion flowers while they are over wintered in the soil. If a careful butcher opens the cow right where you can see the whole intestine flat. The mesentery is the canvas behind that it is attached to the intestine. What is seen is a beautiful spiral of intestines. The cows digestion is what allows it to be on such a high level in the world of Biodynamics. The deeply meditative processes of chewing and then re chewing have the end result of a

The Cow has a special attunement to the cosmic forces.
The purposes of a container are to contain and in this instance to reinforce and channel the earthly forces which have retreated into the earth of the winter time. The astral quality of the mesentery along with the almost astral quality of flowers can give some stability to the forces working into the preparations.
Many questions do arise with use of animal organs.
A vegetarian man was very shocked when understood the basics of BD and that the cow is at such a central place in the organism of a BD farm. He was astounded that such a deeply spiritual practice could be built on a cow. So if the cow is no more then the practice is no more.
The can not be the case in my reasoning, ‘ The process not the substance is important’. If there is a cows mesentery available for use then why not use it. It is a very deeply physical process which is needed to allow a spiritual action to take place. If there are not mesentery available at the time of making the preparations I believe one should be open to try different things working from the basis and deeper understanding of what is at work in the preparations and what is being attempted. So as to not create a different thing altogether but to follow the same ideas.
What matters is people coming together in community forming culture. All things connecting with this will radiate outwards.
Resources taken from: , From Wikipedia.com, The Biodynamic Preparations as Sense Organs Manfred Klett, Extraordinary Plant Qualities for Biodynamics Jochen Bockemuhl and Kari Jarvinen.

CULTIVATION: As only large, well-formed roots are worth collecting, some people prefer to grow Dandelions as a crop, as by this means large roots are insured and they are more easily dug, generally being ploughed up. About 4 lb. of seed to the acre should be allowed, sown in drills, 1 foot apart. The crops should be kept clean by hoeing, and all flower-heads should be picked off as soon as they appear, as otherwise the grower's own land and that of his neighbors will be smothered with the weed when the seeds ripen. The yield should be 4 or 5 tons of fresh roots to the acre in the second year. Dandelion roots shrink very much in drying, losing about 76 per cent of their weight, so that 100 parts of fresh roots yield only about 22 parts of dry material. Under favorable conditions, yields at the rate of 1,000 to 1,500 lb. of dry roots per acre have been obtained from second-year plants cultivated.
Dandelion root can only be economically collected when a meadow in which it is abundant is ploughed up. Under such circumstances the roots are necessarily of different ages and sizes, the seeds sowing themselves in successive years. The roots then collected after washing and drying, have to be sorted into different grades. The largest, from the size of a lead pencil upwards, are cut into straight pieces 2 to 3 inches long, the smaller side roots being removed, these are sold at a higher price as the finest roots. The smaller roots fetch a less price, and the trimmings are generally cut small, sold at a lower price and used for making Dandelion Coffee. Every part of the root is thus used. The root before being dried should have every trace of the leaf-bases removed as their presence lessens the value of the root.
---Chemical Constituents---The chief constituents of Dandelion root are Taraxacin, acrystalline, bitter substance, of which the yield varies in roots collected at different seasons, and Taraxacerin, an acrid resin, with Inulin (a sort of sugar which replaces starch in many of the Dandelion family, Compositae), gluten, gum and potash. The root contains no starch, but early in the year contains much uncrystallizable sugar and laevulin, which differs from Inulin in being soluble in cold water. This diminishes in quantity during the summer and becomes Inulin in the autumn. The root may contain as much as 24 per cent. In the fresh root, the Inulin is present in the cell-sap, but in the dry root it occurs as an amorphodus, transparent solid, which is only slightly soluble in cold water, but soluble in hot water.
There is a difference of opinion as to the best time for collecting the roots.

Nettle

2008-01-07T07:23:00.000Z

URTica dioica
Nettle
From the agriculture Course:

Truly it is the greatest benefactor of plant growth in general, you will scarcely find another plant to replace it. If unobtainable you must get it dried from elsewhere.
It is a ‘Jack-of-all-Trades’
It carries within it the element which incorporates the spiritual and assimilates it everywhere, namely sulphur. The stinging nettle carries potassium and calcium in its currents and radiations, in addition it has a kind of iron radiation.
These iron radiations of the nettle are almost as beneficial to the whole course nature as our own iron radiations in blood. It should really grow around mans heart. It is wonderfully similar to what the heart is in the human organism with its marvelous inner working and inner organization. If ever a soil was to be liberated from too much iron planting nettles where they would do no harm . They are so fond of iron and draw it to themselves. Though this might not undermine the iron as such it would certainly undermine the influence iron has on plants growth in general.
To improve manure still more, take any stinging nettles you can get, let them fade, press together slightly and use in a case without bladder or intestines.

Simply bury the stuff in the earth.
Add a slight layer of peat-moss or the like so as to protect it from direct contact with the soil.
IT must be buried for a whole year.
The effect on the manure will be such that the manure becomes inwardly sensitive - truly sensitive and sentient, we might also say intelligent. IT will not suffer an un due decomposition in it or improper loss of nitrogen.
You will give the manure the faculty to make the earth into which it is worked intelligent. The soil will individualize itself, in nice relationships with the plants which are grown.
IT is like a permeation of the soil with reason and intelligence.
Stinging nettles help to improve the nitrogen content of the manure.
Take the whole plant at a time including the flowers and excluding the roots.
To counteract smut a ring of stinging nettles should be planted around the field.

From what I have see: The magnificent nettle. The complete servant. To the whole being of nature nettle does offer service. My time with the nettle has as most started with a stinging experience. It was introduced to me in combination with Dock as a cure to my burning skin.
In early spring if you have an interest, as you will need one to see them come. The nettles rise up from the earth with definition and confidence.
Not the confidence which shouting its self out for everyone to see with radiating color. Subtly they rise, gradually they come. So gradually that if you are not watching them you may not notice them until they are quite large. Apart from being aware of there places of growth to avoid stinging experiences, the young fresh growth is highly nutritious, tasty and easily prepared.
Especially after a winter, animals and humans alike can benefit greatly from a regular intake of fresh nettles. When they grow to a good height ( over a meter) and there flowers have started to form they can be harvested for the BD preparation and dried for later use.
The complex root system which is said to be one of the most dense has a compelling yellow color. They too have many uses.
Last year I cut some nettles for the chickens at Sturts farm. This was my first active engagement with the plant.
This year I have enjoyed many cups of nettle tea, eaten delicious nutritious meals. Smoking it was tried, it burned well and had a strong taste.
Mixed with comfrey 50/50 we stuffed a couple of containers full added water and watched and smelled as over time they rotted down. The smell did change from barely anything to quite pleasant rich earthy smell and later to more of a rotten smell (ammonia and hydrogen sulphide) which permeated my skin on contact and was very difficult to wash out. We removed the majority of the plant fiber to slow the process. A white cream looking skin has formed on top of the liquid . The flies are attracted to it. We diluted this 10/1 and added it to the tomatoes and the peppers as a tonic.
The most useful thing will hopefully prove to be the nettles which we cut, bunched and left to dry in the barn. They will be a supplement to the cows in the winter who loose condition while eating hay.
We put a load of nettles into the earth for the year. This was done in the walled garden, meters from where they were cut from. The sense of aw did pervade as we gave the plant to the earth.. Compared to the other preps. Who require a process and are encased in something before being buried this plant lies alone in the earth. I have heard that this is due to its high astral potential or closeness to actuality, possibly this is seen by the silica tipped hairs which come off it, in the same way animals have skin and hair.

In the soil the rhizomes radiate horizontally in all directions, these are divided by nodes from which clumps of roots emerge and pairs of new plantlets grow upwards. The sulphur- yellow older roots bring about well structured and dried out soil. The bring order and fertility. The shoot and rhizomes look tinged with red and violet.
From the cotyledons, the spiky needles continue up the stem even on the flowers to the top of the plant. The leaves form cross wise and opposite. The flowers are possibly the most in conspicuous part of the plant. The nettle is dioeciously; the yellow- green pollen-bearing flowers are not on the same plant as the whitish-green fruit-forming flowers. The pollen flowers look like square packets tied up. The stamens on the corners bend away from the center during growth. On a sunny day they will explode and actively expel there pollen in clouds. This plant does not rely animals. Each tiny white flower is an egg shaped nut.
They grow in dense dark-green colonies, impermeable to other vegetation. The light does not reach the ground as their leaves spread and nit together forming a blanket of photosynthesis.
The stinging hairs are like minute needles, the siliceous tips break off when touched and under pressure release a fluid which causes intense stinging. The thin calcified shaft penetrates the skin and releases the stinging fluid sodium formate, choline and histidine.
The soil transformed by nettle has a pleasant smell which accompanied with the color of the roots gives the feeling of a flower under the soil.
Above the soil nettle has the ability to transform dead plant matter into life giving humus. Excess nitrogen and iron are withdrawn. A 24hr cold extract will remove all traces of aphids. A liquid left to mature diluted suitably will promote growth. For humans they purify the blood and help rheumatic conditions.
In the BD preparation the natural properties are developed further.
( Information in this paragraph being gathered from Jochen Bockemuhl and Karl Jarvinen’s book ‘Extraordinary plant Qualities for Biodynamics’ and ‘The Biodynamic Spray and compost preparations production methods’ booklet 1 form the Biodynamic agricultural association.)
From Wikipedia.com:
Recent research has revealed the cause of the sting to be from three chemicals – a histamine that irritates the skin, acetylcholine which causes a burning sensation and serotonin, that encourages the other two chemicals
Stinging nettle has many uses. It is used by many different cultures for a wide variety of purposes in herbal medicine and is known to have been used as far back as ancient Greece. Cooking, crushing or chopping disables the stinging hairs. Stinging nettle leaves are high in nutrients, and the leaves can be mixed with other ingredients to create a soup rich in calcium and iron. Nettle soup was a good source of nutrients for people who lacked meat or fruit in their diets, and still is. The young leaves are edible and make a very good pot-herb. The leaves are also dried and may be then be used to make a tisane, as can also be done with the nettle's flowers. Because stinging nettle usually grows at nitrogen-rich places, it often contains high concentrations of nitrate which can be converted in the digestive tract to carcinogenic nitrosamines and should therefore not be used for baby food
Nettle stems contain a baste fiber which has been traditionally used for the same purposes as linen, and is produced by a similar retting process.
In Great Britain the stinging nettle is the only common stinging plant, and has found a place in several figures of speech in the English language. To "nettle" someone is to annoy them. Shakespeare's Hot spur urges that "out of this nettle, danger, we grasp this flower, safety" (Henry IV, part 1, Act II Scene 3). The common figure of speech "to grasp the nettle" probably originated as a condensation of this quotation. It means to face up to or take on a problem that has been ignored or deferred. The metaphor refers to the fact that if a nettle leaf is grasped firmly rather than brushed against, it does not sting so readily, because the hairs are crushed down flat and do not penetrate the skin so easily. However the sting of nettles has been recommended to relieve the pain of rheumatism as the effects of the sting can last up to twelve hours.

The Nettle tribe, Urticaceae, is widely spread over the world and contains about 500 species, mainly tropical, though several, like our common Stinging Nettle, occur widely in temperate climates. Many of the species have stinging hairs on their stems and leaves. Two genera are represented in the British Isles, Urtica, the Stinging Nettles, and Parietaria, the Pellitory. Formerly botanists included in the order Urticaceae the Elm family, Ulmaceae; the Mulberry, Fig and Bread Fruit family, Moraceae; and that of the Hemp and Hop, Cannabinacece; but these are now generally regarded as separate groups.
The British species of Stinging Nettle, belonging to the genus Urtica (the name derived from the Latin, uro, to burn), are well known for the burning properties of the fluid contained in the stinging hairs with which the leaves are so well armed. Painful as are the consequences of touching one of our common Nettles, they are far exceeded by the effects of handling some of the East Indian species: a burning heat follows the sensation of pricking, just as if hot irons had been applied, the pain extending and continuing for many hours or even days, attended by symptoms similar to those which accompany lockjaw. A Java species, U. urentissima, produces effects wh
ich last for a whole year, and are even said to cause death. U. crenulato and U. heterophylla, both of India, are also most virulent. Another Indian species, U. tuberosa, on the other hand, has edible tubers, which are eaten either raw, boiled or roasted, and considered nutritious.
The male flower consists of a perianth of four greenish segments enclosing an equal number of stamens. They explode as mentioned above. The flowers are thus adapted for wind-fertilization. The perianth of the female flower is similar, but only contains a single, one-seeded carpel, bearing one style with a brush-like stigma. The male flowers are in loose sprays or racemes, the female flowers more densely clustered together.
'Nettle in, dock out.
Dock rub nettle out!'
The common name of the Nettle, or rather its Anglo-Saxon and also Dutch equivalent, Netel, is said to have been derived from Noedl (a needle), possibly from the sharp sting, or, as Dr. Prior suggests, in reference to the fact that it was this plant that supplied the thread used in former times by the Germanic and Scandinavian nations before the general introduction of flax, Net being the passive participle of ne, a verb common to most of the Indo-European languages in the sense of 'spin' and 'sew' (Latin nere, German na-hen, Sanskrit nah, bind). Nettle would seem, he considers, to have meant primarily that with which one sews.
After the Nettles had been cut, dried and steeped, the fiber was separated with instruments similar to those used in dressing flax or hemp, and then spun into yarn, used in manufacturing every sort of cloth, cordage, etc., usually made from flax or hemp. Green (Universal Herbal, 1832) says this yarn was particularly useful for making twine for fishing nets, the fiber of the Nettle being stronger than those of flax and not so harsh as those of hemps.
The greatest objection to its extensive employment is the necessity of growing it in rich, deep soil, for otherwise the fiber produced is short and coarse, and on land fitted for it flax can be grown at less cost compared to the value of the seed and fiber yielded.
Forty kilograms were calculated to provide enough stuff for one shirt
Nettle is described as the only efficient cotton substitute.
The length of the Nettle fiber varies from 3/4 inch to 2 1/2 inches: all above 1 3/8 inch is equal to the best Egyptian cotton.
when examined under the microscope, magnification showed that it had a glass-like surface, devoid of the serrations which endow wool as a fiber for textile production
In 1917 some 70,000 hectares of Nettles were cultivated, and it is thought possible to plant a million hectares of lowlands, giving a yield of Nettle fibers that would cover about 18 per cent of Germany's cotton requirements.
the Nettle not only supplying a substitute for cotton, but for such indispensable articles as sugar, starch, protein and ethyl alcohol.
The analysis of the fresh Nettle shows the presence of formic acid, mucilage, mineral salts, ammonia, carbonic acid and water. It is the formic acid in the Nettle, with the phosphates and a trace of iron, which constitute it such a valuable food.
Medicinally: Nettle is anti-asthmatic: the juice of the roots or leaves, mixed with honey or sugar, will relieve bronchial and asthmatic troubles and the dried leaves, burnt and inhaled, will have the same effect
The seeds have also been used in consumption, the infusion of herb or seeds being taken in wineglassful doses. The seeds and flowers used to be given in wine as a remedy for ague. The powdered seeds have been considered a cure for goiter and efficacious in reducing excessive corpulence.
For stimulating hair growth, the old herbalists recommended combing the hair daily with expressed Nettle juice. The homoeopathic tincture of Nettle is made of 2 OZ. of the herb to 1 pint of proof spirit.
The powder of the dried herb is administered in doses of 5 to 10 grains.
A quaint old superstition existed that a fever could be dispelled by plucking a Nettle up by the roots, reciting thereby the names of the sick man and also the names of his parents.
When dried, the proportion of albuminoid matter in Nettles is as high as in linseed cake and the fat content is also considerable. cows will relish them and give more milk than when fed on hay alone.
The Nettle is also of great use to the keeper of poultry. Dried and powdered finely and put into the food, it increases egg-production and is healthy and fattening. The seeds are also said to fatten fowls. Turkeys, as well as ordinary poultry, thrive on Nettles chopped small and mixed with their food, and pigs do well on boiled Nettles
Although in Britain upwards of thirty insects feed solely on the Nettle plant, flies have a distaste for the plant, and a fresh bunch of Stinging Nettles will keep a larder free from them.
The juice of the Nettle, or a decoction formed by boiling the green herb in a strong solution of salt, will curdle milk, providing the cheese-maker with a good substitute for rennet. The same juice, if rubbed liberally into small seams in leaky wooden tubs coagulates and will render them once more watertight.
A decoction of Nettle yields a beautiful and permanent dye.

Rain Tree Tropical plant Database:
Common names: Nettle, big string nettle, common nettle, stinging nettle, gerrais, isirgan, kazink, nabat al nar, ortiga, grande ortie, ortie, urtiga, chichicaste, brennessel, gross d’ortie, racine d’ortie
The species name dioica means 'two houses' because the plant usually contains either male or female flowers. In Brazilian herbal medicine the entire plant is used for excessive menstrual bleeding, diarrhea, diabetes, urinary disorders and respiratory problems including allergies. Externally, an infusion is used for skin problems. In Peru nettle is used against a variety of complaints such as muscular and arthritis pain, eczema, ulcers, asthma, diabetes, intestinal inflammation, nosebleeds and rheumatism
The stinging sensation of the leaf hairs is caused by several plant chemicals including formic acid, histamine, serotonin, and choline. In addition to these chemicals, nettle leaf is rich in minerals, chlorophyll, amino acids, lecithin, carotenoids, flavonoids, sterols, tannins and vitamins. The root of the plant has other chemicals such as scopoletin, sterols, fatty acids, polysaccharides and isolectins. Several of nettle's lectin chemicals have demonstrated marked antiviral actions (against HIV and several common upper respiratory viruses). Other chemicals (flavonoids in the leaves and a lectin in the root) have been documented with interesting immune stimulant actions in preliminary research which led researchers to suggest that the lectin might be useful in the treatment of systemic lupus.
Nettle's main plant chemicals include: acetophenone, acetylcholine, agglutinins, alkaloids, astragalin, butyric acid, caffeic acids, carbonic acid, chlorogenic acid, chlorophyll, choline, coumaric acid, folacin, formic acid, friedelins, histamine, kaempherols, koproporphyrin, lectins, lecithin, lignans, linoleic acid, linolenic acid, neoolivil, palmitic acid, pantothenic acid, quercetin, quinic acid, scopoletin, secoisolariciresinol, serotonin, sitosterols, stigmasterol, succinic acid, terpenes, violaxanthin, and xanthophylls.
Research:
While nettle's benefit for prostatitis is most probably related to its documented anti-inflammatory properties demonstrated in the arthritis and rhinitis research, it's effect on BPH is quite different - it works on a hormonal level.
In clinical research, nettle has demonstrated the ability to stop the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (by inhibiting an enzyme required for the conversion), as well as to directly bind to sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) itself - thereby preventing SHBG from binding to other hormones. Other research also reveals that nettles can prevent SHBG that has already bound to a hormone from attaching to the receptor sites on the prostate, as well as to decrease the production of estrogens (estradiol and estrone) by inhibiting an enzyme required for their production. Most all of the complex intercellular processes required to trigger the prostate to grow new cells and enlarge seems to be inhibited by nettle.
While no clinical studies have been conducted yet on the use of nettle in treating dihydrotestosterone
DHT-related hair loss and male pattern balding, research does indicate that nettle root can prevent the conversion of testosterone to DHT.
Consumers just need to remember that the root is much better for BPH and hair loss, while the leaf is better for inflammation (including prostatitis), allergies, and as a natural diuretic for people with hypertension.

Traditional Preparation: Both the root and the leaves are traditionally prepared as infusions. Dosages depend on what one is taking it for. In herbal medicine systems, as a healthy prevention to prostate difficulties or to maintain prostate health, one-half cup of a root infusion 2-3 times weekly is recommended (2-3 ml of a remedy for BPH is one-half cup of a root infusion 2-3 times daily for 30-90 days. (2-3 ml of a root tincture or 2-3 g in capsules or tablets 2-3 times daily can be substituted if desired.) For allergies, inflammation, and hypertension: one cup of a leaf infusion is taken twice daily in traditional medicine systems. This also can be substituted by taking 3-4 g of leaf tablets/capsules twice daily.

Discovering the Folk Lore of Plants: Nettle oil precedes paraffin. They drive frogs from bee hives. Stone fruits and tomatoes rapped in nettle leaves travel better, retain their freshness and store better.
Nettle aids nose bleeding, dog bites, kidney stones.
Baked with sugar it said to make the vital spirits fresh and lively. A lineament of nettles, salt and oil protect against cold especially if rubbed on spine, soles of feet and wrists, this sis said by Guernsey fishermen.
If they’d eat nettles in March
And Mugwort in May,
So many fine maidens,
Wouldn’t go to the clay.
Tyroleans threw nettle on the fire to avert thunderstorms and gathering nettles before sunrise to protect cattle against evil spirits. Nettles well beaten with sticks on the day of the first new moon in May will wither and not grow again was the Herefordshire view.
The plant was protective against evil and witchcraft and the well dried stems made very good whistles. It was also know as the ‘ Naughty mans play thing’ , ‘Devils apron’ - because Satan used its powers to protect himself.

OAK

2008-01-07T07:16:00.000Z

Oak Bark: Quercus Robur…………

Agricultural Lectures by Rudolf Steiner:
We must bring calcium into the soil by our manure. To have a healing effect the calcium must be in the living sphere. There is a plant containing plenty of calcium, 77% of the plant substance. The Oak is referred to here, notably the rind. The rind represents an intermediate product between plant -nature and the living earthly nature, in the way of kinship of the living earth with the bark.
Calcium as a state restores order where the etheric is working to strongly., that is when the astral cannot gain access to the organic entity. It kills or damps down the ether- body and there by makes free the influences of the astral body (that is with ‘dead‘ calcium). So it is with all limestone. If we take the living calcium from the Oak we have a beautiful regular shrinking back which draws off the rampant ethereal development. This does not give rise to shocks in the organic life.
We collect oak bark chop it up a little, till it has a crumble like consistency. Then we take the skull of any of our domestic animals. We put it in the skull and close it up with bony material and lower it into the earth, not to deep we cover it with peat moss and introduce some type of water flow, we should let as much rain water as possible flow into he place. Take a barrel where rain water is constantly flowing in and out and add some vegetable material so as to bring about the presence of vegetable slime. Let the skull lie in the slime in the water. It must pass over Autumn and winter in this way.
The result of this process is a substance which will lend the manure the forces prophylactic ally to combat or to arrest any harmful plant diseases.
The bark should come from a living tree.
An Oak planted in the proper Mars period will thrive differently to one that is planted in the earth thoughtlessly.

Personal connections:
The wise Oak, with its consistency and security. Upon the landscape like a watcher, some have a terrifying first look with there gnarled bent look. Others have a gently roundness which is immediately receiving. From further reading I have understood its most nurturing caring side which accommodates all beings animal insect bird man pig etc. this is a marvel of a tree. Like a wale of the land they are now dotted across the landscape in hedges along roads, in places where they watch over the movements of man and other beings. There is an amazing warmth even in the winter which the Oak does offer. That big trunk with its creased cracked skin. The oak has consistency.

The Biodynamic compost preparations, Manfred Klett:
The Oak bark is characteristic of the quantity of calcium distributed in it. It has passed through the life processes and been excreted in the bark. This signifies its special quality. It is a different to that which is below the earth.
The skull could be considered a sensory pole of the animal. Can we go further? The mesentery is a further step.
Why do we take the skull of a domesticated animal? Compared to a wild one. It is held back in a more embryonic state. It does not develop right into the wild. Their being is open to our guiding egos and there group soul. In former times people were able to keep an animal back in its evolutionary development. Thus to open its soul being to the group soul and to the guiding consciousness of man.
The interior of the skull is lined with a bony skin. A sensory membrane. IT encloses the brain and reflects and concentrates it all the forces of the inner and outer perception that constitutes the specific animal consciousness. We put this oak bark filled skull into the water. The abundance of disordered etheric forces which are released by this water decaying organic matter have an affinity to lime. They are absorbed by this well structured calcium skull , sensed by the bone skin and then reflected inwards to the unique plant born calcium structure of the Oak bark.
Moon forces are absorbed by atmospheric water and permeate the organic matter. This is transmitted to the Oak bark by the skin and skull bone.

Extraordinary Plant Qualities for Biodynamics, Jochen Bockemuhl & Karl Jarvinen:
Due to Oaks openness it allow other shrubs and trees like hornbeam to develop under it. Butterflies, gall forming insects, stag beetles, Jays, Wild boar deer all find nourishment and shelter with the Oak.
The Oak roots more firmly in the ground each year. The Acorns germinate underground. The thick Cotyledons provide all the food the young plant needs.
The Oak only flowers and fruits when it has reached its complete form.
Its round lobed leaves develop late in Spring.
It encloses a space which is permeable to light and water.
The branches are rigid and brittle, they do not have elasticity. The tree drives a tap root deep into the ground. /then starting at the top lateral main roots grow down wards at a slant. At a later stage the roots grow horizontally in all directions and send down sinker roots below the sub soil below any other tree looking for water.
The aging process is particularly interesting in the bark. It moves from a shinny olive brown to green to whitish-gray reflective bark. Grey-brown to blackish then the tears form and it is transformed into thick deep creviced bark. This is a cumulative mineral process.
In fruit formation it is in the reverse the minerals are deposited inwardly.
Death and rebirth is very characteristic of the Oak. Of the broad leaved trees it lives the longest.

The BD spray and compost Preps production methods: Tannic acid had insecticidal properties while calcium protects against. fungal growth. The preparation protects against excessive growth which may lead to fungal infections.

The Common, or British Oak, for many centuries the chief forest tree of England, is intimately bound up with the history of these islands from Druid time
There are two principal varieties of Q. robur, often regarded as separate species: Q. pedunculata, the Common Oak, which is distinguished by having acorns in ones and twos attached to the twigs by long stems, the leaves having scarcely any stalk at all; and Q. sessiliflora, the Durmast Oak, often included with the former, but distinct, the leaves being borne on long stalks, while the acorns 'sit' on the bough. This variety of oak is more generally found in the lower parts of Britain and in North Wales. It is not so long-lived as the Common Oak, and the wood, which has a straighter fiber and a finer grain, is generally thought less tough and less resisting.
After the Oak has passed its century, it increases by less than an inch a year, but the wood matured in this leisurely fashion is practically indestructible. Edward the Confessor's shrine in Westminster Abbey is of oak that has outlasted the changes of 800 years. Logs have been dug from peat bogs, in good preservation and fit for rough building purposes, that were submerged a thousand years ago. In the Severn, breakwaters are still used as casual landing-places, where piles of oak are said to have been driven by the Romans.
The bark is universally used to tan leather, and for this purpose strips easily in April and May. An infusion of it, with a small quantity of copperas, yields a dye which was formerly used in the country to dye woolen of a purplish color, which, though not very bright, was said to be durable. The Scotch Highlanders used it to dye their yarn. Oak sawdust used also to be the principal indigenous vegetable used in dyeing fustian, and may also be used for tanning, but is much inferior to the bark for that purpose.
In Brittany, tan compressed into cakes is used as fuel. Oak-bark is employed for dyeing black, in conjunction with salts of iron. With alum, oak-bark yields a brown dye; with a salt of tin, a yellow color; with a salt of zinc, Isabella yellow. Q. tinctoria, a North American species, yields Quercitron Bark, employed for dyeing yellow; the American Indians are said to dye their skins red with the bark of Q. prinus. After the oak bark has been used for leather-tanning, it is still serviceable to gardeners for the-warmth it generates and is largely used by them under the name of Tan; it sometimes, however, favors the growth of certain fungi, which are harmful to plants. Refuse tan is also employed in the adulteration of chicory and coffee.
The analysis of the Acorn given by the Lancet is: water, 6.3 per cent; protein, 5.2 per cent; fat, 43 per cent; carbohydrates, 45 per cent.
---Medicinal Action and Uses---The astringent effects of the Oak were well known to the Ancients, by whom different parts of the tree were used, but it is the bark which is now employed in medicine. Its action is slightly tonic, strongly astringent and antiseptic. It has a strong astringent bitter taste, and its qualities are extracted both by water and spirit. The odor is slightly aromatic.
Like other astringents, it has been recommended in agues and hemorrhages, and is a good substitute for Quinine in intermittent fever, especially when given with Chamomile flowers.
It is useful in chronic diarrhea and dysentery, either alone or in conjunction with aromatics. A decoction is made from 1 OZ. of bark in a quart of water, boiled down to a pint and taken in wineglassful doses. Externally, this decoction has been advantageously employed as a gargle in chronic sore throat with relaxed uvula, and also as a fomentation. It is also serviceable as an injection for leucorrhoea, and applied locally to bleeding gums and piles.

Dr. Peter Gasson - Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Specific gravity -- a good indicator of the density and strength of wood -- ranges from 0.67 to 0.72.The acidic nature of the wood will corrode metal nails, so non-ferrous or galvanized nails must be used.
The three-dimensional reconstruction shown below is in the transverse plane (i.e., a cross-section). It shows the outer nine annual rings of wood (secondary xylem), with the bark (periderm - corky layers on the left, phloem on the right adjacent to the wood) on the outside (i.e., left). Little detail can be seen in the bark, but the growth rings are clearly visible in the wood and range from 6 to 11 mm in width. This variation is related to differences in climate from one growing season to the next, and ring patterns are used as the basis of dendrochronology. At the beginning of each growth ring are very wide vessels up to about 400 microns in diameter, which appear as black holes. These early wood vessels are clearly visible and are much more efficient conductors of water up the tree than the narrower latewood vessels.

Cell divisions take place in the cambium to produce secondary xylem (wood) towards the inside of the stem (i.e., right), and secondary phloem (the tissue that transports sugars from the leaves to all other parts of the plant) towards the outside (i.e., left).

Folk Lore Of Plants, Margaret Baker:
The tree of Jupiter (and Mars), Zeus, Thunor and Thor. All Gods high in the Pantheon venerated by Greeks, Romans, Druids, Celts, Anglo Saxons, Germans and Norsemen, One of the seven Noble trees of Irish Tradition, is ‘Jove ‘s tree’. Often struck and his by lightning it is also warn to protect people from thunderstorms.
Many sacred have existed in ancient societies. All Oak is lightning revering but that with mistletoe is doubly useful.
Even ship builders linked Oak with protection from lightning strikes at sea.
Many sacred fires used Oak wood. German mountain folk would put a block of Oak in the fire at mid summer so that it burned for the whole year, at the end the ash is mixed with seed corn. At a time in(29th May) England people needed to wear oak leaves or have them above there door ways, if they did not they were threatened with nettle.
Children would sing:
It’s the 29th May,
Oak Apple Day!
If you don’t give us a holiday,
We’ll run away!

If the oaks before the ash,
We shall only get a splash,
If the ash precedes the oak,
We shall surely get a soak!

Many Oaks in England are linked to death and haunting. Due to them being used to hang people. An Oak stood in Windsor Herne’s Oak was where an Elizabethan Forester who dabbled in witchcraft hung himself in remorse. He is believed to haunt the tree.

Tampering with these great trees was not deemed a good idea. A Lord in 1824 had the famous mile Oak felled . A Local balladeer expressed the publics consternation:
To break a branch was deemed a sin,
A bad luck Job for neighbors,
For fire, sickness or the like,
Would mar their honest labors!
When the Oak of Kenmore blew down none dare use the wood save a tanner who made shoes from the leather. He was stricken with Leprosy.
An Acorn in the bridegrooms pocket gave him long life and the necessary energy to take up his new responsibilities.
Couples would get married under the Oak and when they were not allowed they would come out the church and run for the Oak tree and dance around it, place an x on it, drink acorn beverage .
People used to gather during cross day and go around beating the boundaries, they would gather under Oaks and read Gospels to each other and blessings to the crops.

Interesting stuff:
Work by Laurence Edwards showed leaf buds expanding slightly at each moon mars alignment ( conjunctions and oppositions alike).
This shows a connection to Mars which the Oak has.
The leaves feed the tree and are therefore a part of the process by which the bark is built.
The cherry tree contracts its buds at new and full moon.
Geranium is opposite in Oak in that its buds contract.
The oaks contractive principal is manifest in its Tannic acid.

Plants have been seen to Pre-empt Astronomical aspects or Interstellar Rhythms. A reaction in the first year to an alignment will happen a day earlier in the second year and two days earlier in second year, this continues to the seventh then it reverts to being on the same day and so on.

Yarrow

2008-01-07T07:05:00.000Z

YARROW:

Achillea millefolium stands out in Nature as though some creator of the plant world had it before him as a model , to show him how to bring the sulphur into the right relation to the remaining substances of the plant . It contains that within which the spirit always moistens its fingers there within. Yarrow is indeed a miraculous creation .
“In no other plant do the nature-spirits attain such perfection in the use of sulphur as they do in yarrow.” In the animal and human organism it can make good all that is due to weakness of the astral body( provided it is rightly carried into the biological sphere)- then you will trace it further in its yarrow-nature, through the entire processes of plant growth. It should on no account be weeded out when on the edge of field crops.
In a district where it is plentiful works beneficially by its presence.
The umbrella-shaped inflorescence (flower) is taken and dried only for a short time.
If fresh is unobtainable then take the dried and press or decoct a liquid from the leaves to put on the inflorescence.
We always remain in the living sphere . Take the yarrow-stuff and press into balls, sew tight in the stags bladder. Have a fairly compact mass of yarrow in the stags bladder. Hang it up over the summer and expose it to as far possible to sunshine.
When Autumn comes take it down and bury not to deep over winter. IT makes no difference if the flower is already tending towards fruit. It is exposed to those influences which it is susceptible . You will find it assumes a peculiar consistency during winter.
Add the substance you take out of the bladder to a pile of manure. You need not do much to distribute it : the radiation itself will do the work. I will influence the whole mass of manure, liquid manure or compost.
Yarrow has an effect so quickening and so refreshing that we now use the manure thus treated in the normal way, we should make good again that much that would otherwise become a ruthless exploitation of the earth. We re-endow the manure with the power , so to quicken the earth that the more distant cosmic substances- silicic acid, lead, etc., which come to the earth in finest homeopathic quantities are caught up and received.
Its sulphur content combined in a truly model way with Potash , not only works with the plant itself but enables the yarrow to ray out its influences to a greater distance through large masses. The bladder of the stag is connected with the forces of the cosmos. It almost an image of the cosmos. We give the yarrow the power to enhance the powers it already possesses, to combine the sulphur with the other substances.
We never go out of the living realm. In yarrow we are mainly dealing with potassium influences. Yarrow mainly develops its sulphur-force in the potash formative process. Hence it has sulphur in the precise proportions to assimilate potash.
Yarrow, chamomile and nettle transmute potash for example into nitrogen. They can transform limestone in to nitrogen.
If you use wild yarrow a very small quantity will suffice.

The long awaited yarrow arrives in full splendour. Scattering road sides and filling lawns I see it every where now. It is subtle in size next to many of its contemporys like cows parsley. Yet the feeling I get is of a richness a concentrated energy in this plant. Its flowers have a slightly peppery flavour and the leaves too. Not very deeply rooted I question its connection with valerian as it too seems mildly rooted. Potentially due to the fact that they only come up for such a short time in a year. The beautiful white and pink flowers can pack them selves very tightly together yet are not conforming in there formation like valerian. The inner part of the flower seems to expand as the plant gets older.
Extraordinary plant qualities for biodynamic:
The yarrow has thousands of leaves( mille folium). The individual finely structured leaflets of the first order bend so that their upper sides face the tip of the leaves. Light and Air can pass through the plant unhindered. Thus there is no enclosed space below a yarrow rosette.
Yarrow stays on the ground as a rosette in the first yr after germination. Towards winter smaller and smaller leaves appear. Spring growth begins very slowly. End of May the flower shoot grows up.
Flowering starts in July and continues into late autumn. From the centre of the rosette the angular flower stem carries aloft a scaly bud covered with fine silver hairs. The stem divides into flower heads at the top and forms an inflorescence with intricate, branching flower stalks. The growth of the secondary stalks does not overtake that of the main stem. All stalks with floret heads extend to uniform level. They seem almost suspended from above. It does not form rays as a super ordinate composite flower. It branches freely. It only coheres in a plane with the heads of the florets. The Centaurea compound flowers without pointed tips form a so called umbel, dense inflorescence - a totality of a higher order. Each flower comprises a tubiform, disc florets and ligulae, ray florets grouped so as to appear as a whole like a five rayed flower.
The florets stretch up wards out of the bud and extend sideways, night and day they stay there. If the flower is injured then a sharp scent emerges. Yarrow tastes aromatic, permeated with a slight bitterness.
Seed formation happens in the upper bracts. They open a little and a small single seeded fruit (achene) emerges it does not easily fall out. It does not totally spend itself on fruit formation. The tough flower stem does die but tough runners do form rosettes close to the ground. If yarrow is repeatedly mowed it can grow into a whole lawn without flowering.
There is a finely branched rhizo sphere which exists below the surface, they branch and explore the immediate soil, fine filaments penetrate the deeper subsoil.

Plants for the future: Extended use of this plant medicinally or in diet can cause allergic skin rashes or lead to photosensitivity.
Flowers are hermaphrodite. It is noted for attracting wildlife. The leaves can be added to a salad. They are used as a hop substitute for flavouring and as a preservative for beer etc. An aromatic tea is made from leaves and flowers. Essential oils come from the flowers. Yarrow is particularly good for treating wounds. Stopping the flow of blood, colds ,fevers, kidney diseases, menstrual pain. The whole plant is used. The herb is antiseptic, antispasmodic, mildly aromatic, astringent, carminative, cholagogue, diaphoretic, digestive, emmenagogue, odontalgic, stimulant, bitter tonic, vasodilator and vulnerary. It also contains the anti-inflammatory agent azulene, though the content of this varies even between plants in the same habitat. A fresh leaf can relive tooth ache. You can make liquid manure with it. Essential part of ‘quick return’ herbal compost activator. Dyes are obtained from the flowers. Good ground cover.
Leaves of the pink variety are especially aromatic.
Quite invasive because of spreading root system. A very hardy plant which tolerates -25 degrees. IT is a good companion plant and boosts oils in other plants. IT is a good nectar source. The herb of Achilles.

Wikipedia : Yarrow can be planted in areas of drought to combat erosion. It contains isovaleric acid, salicylic acid, asparagin, sterols, flavonoids, bitters, tannins, and coumarins.The genus name Achillea is derived from mythical Greek character, Achilles, who reportedly carried it with his army to treat battle wounds.
The stalks are dried and used in the I ching divination. In the middle ages yarrow was part of the mixture gruit used to flavour beer before hops.
Old folk names for Yarrow include arrowroot, bad man's plaything, carpenter's weed, death flower, devil's nettle, eerie, field hops, gearwe, hundred leaved grass, knight's milefoil, knyghten, milefolium, milfoil, millefoil, noble yarrow, nosebleed, old man's mustard, old man's pepper, sanguinary, seven year's love, snake's grass, soldier, soldier's woundwort, stanch weed, thousand seal, woundwort, yarroway, yerw.
Yarrow is sweet with slight bitter taste. The flowers, rich in chemicals are converted by steam into anti-allergenic compounds. The flowers are used for various allergic mucus problems, including hay fever. Harvest during summer and autumn. Drink the infused flower for upper respiratory phlegm or use externally as a wash for eczema. Inhale for hay fever and mild asthma, use fresh in boiling water. The dark blue essential oil, extracted by steam distillation of the flowers, is generally used as an anti-inflammatory or in chest rubs for colds and influenza. Yarrow intensifies the medicinal action of other herbs taken with it, and helps eliminate toxins from the body.

It is reported to be associated with the treatment of the following ailments:
Amenorrhea, anti-inflammatory, bowels, bleeding, blood clots, blood pressure (lowers), blood purifier, blood vessels (tones), Catarrh (acute, repertory), colds, chicken pox, circulation, contraceptive (unproven), cystitis, diabetes treatment, digestion (stimulates), dyspepsia, eczema, fevers, flu's, gastritis, glandular system, gum ailments, Heartbeat (slow), influenza, insect repellant, internal bleeding, liver (stimulates and regulates), lungs (hemorrhage), measles, menses (suppressed), menorrhagia, Menstruation (regulates, relieves pain), Nipples (soreness), nosebleeds, piles (bleeding), smallpox, stomach sickness, toothache, thrombosis, ulcers, urinary antiseptic, Uterus (tighten and contract), varicose veins, vision.
Yarrow tea is also said to be able to clear up a cold within 24 hours.
Folk lore worldwide:
The most authentic way to cast the I Ching uses dried yarrow stalks. The stems are said to be good for divining the future. ~In China, it is said that it grows around the grave of Confucius. ~Chinese proverbs claim that yarrow brightens the eyes and promotes intelligence. ~In the 1500s, the British herbalist John Gerard recommended it for relieving "swelling of those secret parts."~ Some people believed that you could determine the devotion of a lover by poking a yarrow leaf up your nostril and twitching the leaf while saying, "Yarroway, Yarroway, bear a white blow: if my love loves me, my nose will bleed now." (Yarrow is a nasal irritant, and generally causes the nose to bleed if inserted). ~Homer tells us that the centaur Chiron, who conveyed herbal secrets to his human pupils, taught Achilles to use yarrow on the battle grounds of Troy.[2] Achilles is said to have used it to stop the bleeding wounds of his soldiers. For centuries it has been carried in battle because of its magical as well as medicinal properties. ~Yarrow grows native in the orient. Oriental tradition assured mountain wanderers that where the yarrow grew neither tigers nor wolves nor poisonous plants would be found.~ Nursery rhymes say if you put a yarrow sachet under your pillow, you will dream of your own true love. If you dream of cabbages (the leaves do have a similar scent), then death or other serious misfortune will strike.~ Yarrow was one of the herbs put in Saxon amulets. These amulets were for protection from everything from blindness, to barking dogs. ~In the Middle Ages, witches were said to use yarrow to make incantations. This may be the source for the common names devil's nettle, devils plaything, and bad man's plaything. ~Western European tradition connects yarrow with a goddess and a demon. ~Yarrow was a witching herb, used to summon the devil or drive him away. But it was also a loving herb in the domain of Aphrodite. Hang a bunch of dried yarrow or yarrow that had been used in wedding decorations over the bed, to ensure a lasting love for at least seven years.~ Shakers used yarrow for complaints from haemorrhages to flatulence ~Navajo Indians consider it to be a "life medicine", and chewed it for toothaches, and poured an infusion into ears for earaches.~ Several tribes of the Plains region of the United States used common yarrow. ~The Pawnee used the stalk for pain relief. ~The Chippewa used the leaves for headaches by inhaling it in a steam. They also chewed the roots and applied the saliva to their appendages as a stimulant. ~The Cherokee drank a tea of common yarrow to reduce fever and aid in restful sleep.~ During the excavation of a 40,000-60,000 year old neanderthal tomb, pollen from yarrow (among other herbs) was found. ~It has been used as a Quinine substitute

: Milfoil tea is held in much repute in the Orkneys for dispelling melancholy.---Constituents---A dark green, volatile oil, a peculiar principle, achillein, and achilleic acid, which is said to be identical with aconitic acid, also resin, tannin, gum and earthy ash, consisting of nitrates, phosphates and chlorides of potash and lime.
'Thou pretty herb of Venus' tree,
Thy true name it is Yarrow;
Now who my bosom friend must be,
Pray tell thou me to-morrow.'
---(Halliwell's Popular Rhymes, etc.)

The Folk Lore of plants :
In the Western isles it was believed that leaves held over the eyes would give the gift of second sight.

The Biodynamic Compost Preparations as Sense Organs: Dr Manfred Klett:
The yarrow is able to work with potassium together with sulphur in a very unique way. It is able to potentize the potassium, by its living process.
It handles the sulphur and potassium process with regard to the formation of the archetypal creation of protein. Sulphur is the mediator of the spiritual with the spiritual.
It appears in open plains where sun and earth meet directly. We find it in more dry than wet areas. More in loamy than sandy soil and more in sunny than shady places. It germinates in spring and forms a rosette. Normally it flowers when the earth-cosmos relationship is at its utmost June-Aug.
The after image is of a sturdy plant as its dry stems are left after autumn.
The manifold pinnation ending up in points and spears very much relates to the sulphur activity. They have almost a succulent shape, this points to a potassium activity.
The yarrow leaves are very sharp and bitter at the base and become more aromatic the higher you go towards the blossom.
The blossom is white, sometimes pink and not very shiny, as if it were holding back some of its powerful force. It nature reveals a great differentiation ( sulphur ) and a great concentration ( potassium).
Yarrow roots are magnificent there long threads go down very deeply in to the earth.
What we perceive is not reality, it is an image. The forces that build this image are real, but imperceptible.
Steiner speaks about the wonderful quantitative relationship between potassium and sulphur with regard to protein formation. Potassium is found all over the world in mica, feldspar and therefore in granite, it is also widely distributed as salt.
The more potassium in a given area the more silica. It is an earthly element. It is 0.001% radioactive, it underlies a decay. This signifies that it is a physical substance at the border of the sub-natural world, the sub-sensory world. A deficiency can be seen on a hot day where the leaves tend to hang down. Evaporation is increased because the stomata do not close properly. The turgor pressure, the pressure of the juice in the cells is a function of potassium in the living context.
As potassium moves up the stem it becomes under guidance of sulphur. It is step by step potentized towards the blossom. The further up the plant we look we see the potassium becomes a carrier of living cosmic forces.
It has been lifted to the border of the super sensory world by sulphur. This is the mystery that takes place in all plants.
Surplus germinal forces vanish from the flower in to the etheric world and become the substance for a future macrocosm. How to give permanence to these forces. We can not find the answer in the plant kingdom so must go higher to the animal kingdom where the plant passes a threshold and enters the astral effectiveness which is present in the animal kingdom.

The healing forces that take place via the yarrow in the human body are all related to the renal system.
We take the dried yarrow flowers and stuff them in to a Stags bladder. This is step one of inversion for the yarrow. It was in contact with distant cosmos, now it is within the sphere of the stags bladder. The bladder is an organ of concentration.
It endows the yarrow with astral forces, preserves and gives it permanence.
The bladder is hung up over summer. Air warmth and light reach the yarrow in this time. In the autumn it comes down and is buried. This is in the water and earth elements. The yarrow has been raised beyond its natural limitation and ability to become the carrier of the will forces.
Space works vertically with the elements.
Time works horizontally with the seasons.
An aim of the preparations is to enliven physical substances they are endowed with inwardness.

Yarrow camomile and nettle are grouped together as preps who are to generate a new quality of nitrogen in the soil
Together they are able to transform the representation of real earthly substances, calcium, potassium and related elements step by step into something similar to nitrogen and then finally into real nitrogen.
The new type of nitrogen produced carries an inwardness of an astrality that works from the future in to the present.
The three preps mentioned are involved in organizing the soil process as if it were governed by a higher organism. They vitalize the earthly realm itself.

Supernatural world……………………………….......................................................
Valerian light, warmth and air
Dandelion silica and potassium
Oak Bark calcium in living
N A T U R E - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Nettle calcium potassium iron
Camomile calcium and potassium
Yarrow potassium
Sub-natural world……………………………….........................................................

Valerian

2008-01-07T07:00:00.000Z

Valeriana Officinalis

The agricultural course by Rudolf Steiner:
Now you have one more river to cross. Before making use of the manure thus prepared, press out the flowers of the valerian. Dilute the extract very highly. (you can do it at any time and keep it, especially if you use warm water in dilution.) Add this diluted juice of valerian flower to the manure in a very fine proportions. Then you will stimulate it to behave in the right way in relation to what we call the ‘phosphoric’ substance.
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Phosphorus like sulphur has to do with light working into matter.

Personal experience:
The valerian seemed to come and go before I could get a good hold on it. The delicate radiant little flowers seem cute on close inspection.. There looks to be an order in the structure of the clumps of flowers which come from the steam, like a bunch of flowers they are ordered yet have a natural quality.
The pink colour of the flowers is very attractive and alluring. The process of color movement is interesting as the flower is a pink bud type thing then blooms as this white expression.. Personally this makes me aware that it is moving to a higher expression. From a darker colour to a lighter one. Through this line of thought I feel that the colour red can not be too far away.
The smell of the juiced valerian is one which I have always liked.
We had a preparation weekend where we tasted the different plants. Valerian root was lifted. What a potent smell and taste it has. We cooked it for a while then drunk the tea that was very calming and relaxing, like a warm blanket was just put around you. The dried root was there too and had a concentrated taste, I nibbled just a bit too much and had a little sore head for a while.
I find it mysterious as so little is spoken of it in the Agriculture course. It is clearly this warm sheath which contains the other preparation plants and allows the alchemy between them to happen in a sealed space.

Extraordinary plant qualities for Biodynamics:
The plants ability to give off this refined sweet musty scent depends on the year before. After germination the plant has very rounded irregular blades these become longer and pointed. It forms a rosette then dies back in that first year. The small tap root it has formed dies away. The shoot which was in the rosette forms a rhizome. Out of that grow round adventitious roots of equal thickness from the top down, they penetrate the ground in an arch formation.
Towards winter the roots show how they enclose a spherical space. The concentrated musty, aromatic smelling sap with camphor like invigorating taste is similar to that of the flowers, albeit not so sweet more musty.
IT is a smell which is related to the ripening of many fruits.
The rhizomes sometimes send out runners above the ground. In the second year the rosette comes out again but the juicy green leaves have a different shape.
There is a greater number of leaflets per leaf, they are longer and narrower with less dentate. Before midsummer the long, forked, hollow stem shoots upwards. The leaves are well separated and decrease in size and become more pointed and compact as they move up the stem.. The flower come in an undefined bud initially which then shows itself as a umber-like panicle. The individual flowers before opened are pink to reddish tightly packed by three small leaflets. The opened flower reveals five white to bright pink colored sepals joined at the base.
The vegetative organs lack the characteristic scent we see it emerge here again refined at the opposite pole to the root. All the flowers do not open at the same time . The plants forked from the stem sending out further bunches of flowers. This can gradually give rise to thousands of individual flowers.
As the flowers fade the fruit is revealed. The sepals have formed airy light pinnate hairs which will carry the fruit around the area on the wind. The structure of the whole head of flowers becomes a site of drying seeds and emerging parachutes. As the plant rots and wilts the smell returns.
The plant has a strong tendency to rampant growth. When the rosette is preparing for autumn there is a stronger concentration of scent in the roots.
The smell rouses the instinct of cats they become intoxicated..
The transition between rampant growth and dying reveals the scent most strongly. The smell that is given off by the fading valerian is similar to ripening fruit. This is interesting as most of the familiar aromas of fruit strawberries bananas are esters of valeric or isovaleric acid. Valerian stimulates ripening processes in the soil.

The biodynamic compost preparations as sense organs: Manfred Klett:
The function of valerian is to be a mediator of mainly warmth suspended in the air and the etheric forces beyond. It is active between the borderline between nature and supernature. Valerian is not like nettle which envelops itself but is enveloped by the cosmic circumference. It forms a sheath of warmth whenever it is sprayed, compost heap, crown of a tree. It may be regarded as the continuation beyond the working of dandelion..

It was afterwards found to be useful in certain kinds of epilepsy. The plant was in such esteem in mediaeval times as a remedy, that it received the name of All Heal, which is still given it in some parts of the country.
Valerian is cultivated for the sake of the drug in England (in Derbyshire), but to a much greater extent in Prussia, Saxony (in the neighbourhood of Colleda, north of Weimar), in Holland and in the United States (Vermont, New Hampshire and New York). English roots have always commanded about four times the price of the imported. In Derbyshire, the cultivation of Valerian takes place in many villages near Chesterfield, the wild plants occurring in the neighbourhood not being sufficient to supply the demand. Derbyshire Valerian plants are of two varieties: V. Milkanii (Syme), on limestone, and V. sambucifolia (Mikan) on the coal measures. The former yields most of the cultivated Derbyshire rhizome.
Professor Henslow quotes a curious recipe of that period, a translation of which runs as follows: 'Men who begin to fight and when you wish to stop them, give to them the juice of Amantilla id est Valeriana and peace will be made immediately.'
---Cultivation---Valerian does well in all ordinary soils, but prefers rich, heavy loam, well supplied with moisture.
In Derbyshire, cultivation is from wild plants collected in local woods and transplanted to the prepared land. Preference is given in collecting to root offsets - daughter plants and young flowering plants, which develop towards the close of summer, at the end of slender runners given off by the perennial rhizomes of old plants. These should be set 1 foot apart in rows, 2 or 3 feet apart. The soil should first be treated with farmyard manure, and after planting it is well to give liquid manure from time to time, as well as plenty of water. The soil must be well manured to secure a good crop. Weeding requires considerable attention.
Propagation may also be by seed, either sown when ripe in cold frames, or in March in gentle heat, or in the open in April. In the first two cases, transplant in May to permanent quarters. But to ensure the best alkaloidal percentage, it is best to transplant and cultivate the daughter plants of the wild Valerian.
---Chemical Constituents---The chief constituent of Valerian is a yellowish-green to brownish-yellow oil, which is present in the dried root to the extent of 0.5 to 2 per cent though an average yield rarely exceeds 0.8 per cent. This variation in quantity is partly explained by the influence of locality, a dry, stony soil, yielding a root richer in oil than one that is moist and fertile.
Lindley's Treasury of Botany states: 'What is known to chemists as volatile oil of Valerian seems not to exist naturally in the plant, but to be developed by the agency of water.'
The oil is contained in the sub-epidermal layer of cells in the root, not in isolated cells or glands. It is of complex composition, containing valerianic, formic and acetic acids, the alcohol known as borneol, and pinene. The valerianic acid present in the oil is not the normal acid, but isovalerianic acid, an oily liquid to which the characteristically unpleasant odour of Valerian is due. It is gradually liberated during the process of drying, being yielded by the decomposition of the chief constituent, bornyl-isovalerianate, by the ferment present. It is strongly acid, burning to the palate and with the odour of the plant. The oil is soluble in 30 parts of water and readily in alcohol and ether. It is found in nature in the oil of several plants, also in small proportion in train oil and the oil of Cetacea (whales, porpoises, etc.), which owe their smell to it. It is also one of the products of oxidation of animal matters and of fat oils, and is secreted in certain portions of animal bodies. Its salts are soluble and have a sweetish taste and fatty aspect.
The root also contains two alkaloids - Chatarine and Valerianine - which are still under investigation and concerning which little is known, except that they form crystalline salts. There are also a glucoside, alkaloid and resin all physiologically active, discovered in the fresh rhizome by Chevalier as recently as 1907. He claims that the fresh root is of greater medicinal value than the dry on this account.
On incineration, the drug, if free from adherent earthy matter, yields about 8 or 9 per cent of ash.
The chief preparation of the British Pharmacopoeia is the Tinctura Valerianae Ammoniata, containing Valerian, oil of Nutmeg, oil of Lemon and Ammonia: it is an extremely nauseous and offensive preparation. An etherial tincture and the volatile oil are official in some of the Continental Pharmacopceias, and a distilled water and syrup in the French Codex.
Valerianate of oxide of ethyl, or valerianic ether is a fragrant compound occurring in some vegetable products. The valerianic acid in use is not prepared from the root, but synthetically from amyl alcohol. Valerianic acid combines with various bases (the oxides of metals) to form salts called Valeriana. Valerianate of zinc, prepared by double decomposition, is used as an antispasmodic and is official in the British Pharmacopoeia.
Oil of Valerian is employed to a considerable extent on the Continent as a popular remedy for cholera, in the form of cholera drops, and also to a certain extent in soap perfumery.
Ettmuller writes of its virtues in strengthening the eyesight, especially when this is weakened by want of energy in the optic nerve.
The juice of the fresh root, under the name of Energetene of Valerian, has of late been recommended as more certain in its effects, and of value as a narcotic in insomnia, and as an anti-convulsant in epilepsy. Having also some slight influence upon the circulation, slowing the heart and increasing its force, it has been used in the treatment of cardiac palpitations.
Valerian was first brought to notice as a specific for epilepsy by Fabius Calumna in 1592, he having cured himself of the disease with it.
Culpepper (1649) joins with many old writers to recommend the use both of herb and root, and praises the herb for its longevity and many comforting virtues, reminding us that it is 'under the influence of Mercury, and therefore hath a warming faculty.'

Constituents: 1% volatile oil (including valerianic acid, isovalerianic acid, valerenone, valerenal, hydroxyvaleric acid, citronellyl isovalerate, borneol, pinene, camphene, methyl-2-pyrrole ketone and assorted sesquiterpenes), epoxy iridoid esters (valepotriates, including valtrate and didovaltrate, which are rapidly lost during storage), glycoside (valerosidatum), volatile pyridine alkaloids (valerine, valerianine, actinidine, chatinine), choline, flavonoids, sterols, phenolic acids, sugars, fixed oil, resin, gum

Research:
Valeriana officinalis extrtactAn extract isolated from the root of the plant Valeriana officinalis. Valeriana officinalis extract inhibits the metabolic enzyme gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) transaminase and stimulates the synaptic release of GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter, resulting in sedation.

Our understanding of how valerian might function remains similarly incomplete. Several studies suggest that valerian affects GABA, a naturally occurring amino acid that appears to be related to the experience of anxiety. Conventional tranquilizers in the Valium family are known to bind to GABA receptors in the brain, and valerian may work similarly. However, there are some significant flaws in these hypotheses, and the reality is that we don't really know how valerian works (or if, indeed, it really does).
The best positive study of valerian for insomnia followed 121 people for 28 days. In this double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, half of the participants took 600 mg of an alcohol-based valerian extract 1 hour before bedtime, while the other half took placebo. Valerian didn't work right away. For the first couple of weeks, valerian and placebo were running neck and neck. However, by day 28, valerian pulled far ahead. Effectiveness was rated as good or very good by participant evaluation in 66% of the valerian group and in 61% by doctor evaluation, whereas in the placebo group, only 29% were so rated by participants and doctors.
Although positive, these results are a bit confusing. In another large study, valerian was immediately more effective than placebo, which is what most practitioners believe to be typical. This trial followed 128 subjects who had no sleeping problems. On nine nonconsecutive nights, each participant took one of three treatments: valerian, a combination of valerian and the herb hops, or placebo. The results showed that on the nights they took valerian alone, participants fell asleep faster than when they were taking placebo, or the combination. In contradiction to this, other studies have failed to find any immediate mental depressant effects with valerian; most substances that rapidly induce sleep also sedate the mind.A 6-week, double-blind study of 202 people with insomnia compared valerian extract (600 mg at bedtime) with the standard drug oxazepam (10 mg at bedtime) and found equal efficacy.

The foke Lore of plants: Margaret Baker:
It botanical name comes from Latin valere “to be strong”.
It is said to be a witch deterrent, to provoke Love and a telling aphrodisiac. In the West of England a girl who wore a sprig would never lack lovers.. Rats like it so was used by rat catchers. Cats will dig up the root, hence the alternative name “ cats valerian”. Some have allocated Pied Pipers charms to valerian in his pockets than music.

2008-01-07T06:52:00.000Z

German Chamomile(Matricaria recutita, Chamomilla recutita)

The Agricultural Lectures by Rudolf Steiner:
If we also wish to get hold of calcium we need another plant. It also contains sulphur in homeopathic quantity and distribution. It will attract through sulphur all the substances the plant needs and draw them into an organic process.
It is not enough to say chamomile is distinguished by its strong potash and calcium components. Yarrow develops its sulphur force in the potash formative process. Hence it has sulphur in the precise proportions to assimilate the potash. Chamomile however assimilates calcium in addition. There with it assimilates that which can chiefly help to exclude from the plant those harmful effects fructification, thus keeping the plant in a healthy condition.
Chamomile has a certain amount of sulphur in it but it has to assimilate calcium as well so is in different proportions. ( to yarrow). Trace the path the chamomile undergoes in human and animal organism when taken as a food or medicine. The substance of the intestinal walls is important. Pick the beautiful delicate little yellow heads dry them in the same way as yarrow then stuff them into the bovine intestines. You will not need very much. Take the precious little sausages and expose them to the forces of winter. Bury them not to deep in soil as rich in humus as possible.
You will thus contrive to let the cosmic astral influences work down into the soil. Dig them out in the spring. Add them to your manure and you will get a manure will a more stable nitrogen content, with the added virtue of kindling the life in the earth, so that the earth itself will have a wonderful stimulating effect on the plant growth. Above all you will create more healthy plants- really more healthy- if you manure in this way than if you did not.
Yarrow, chamomile and Nettle are linked with helping improve the nitrogen content of the soil. There is a hidden alchemy in the organic process. The alchemy transmutes the potash for example into nitrogen provided the potash is working properly in the organic process. It eventually transforms the limestone into nitrogen if it is working properly.

Personal connections:
The dancer I have of late found this plant to be. In such a relaxed and calming way the chamomile has taken my hand and led me to the world or dreams. It has calmed my belly in times of unrest. It is truly a peace warrior. Working to bring peace to that which it touches. The flowers are very pretty and little. They seem to be suspended at individual heights on the plant. There stems and leaves leave me feeling that they are just physical. That that they have no real need for light. They seem to be almost light them selves.
They contrast the Dandelions leaves which seem to soak up the sun. It roots are similar to the leaves in that they seem to be just coming into physicality.
Extraordinary Plant Qualities for Biodynamics:
It appears around the verges of farmland and within it. It needs crusted derelict soil to flower. The first leaves of the chamomile sprout in pairs, further along they form one at a time. The leaves have a succulent look and feel. They extend like antlers into space. After germination in the Autumn the seedling sends down a vertical root into the depths. In spring they shoot several finer secondary roots equal in size, the upper part of the main root thickens like a tuber.
Leaves start to grow in Spring. The root remains active right up until flowering begins. The florets of the flowers continue to grow during development, towards evening they bend downwards and at day break they lift. This happens over several days. While it is flowering the center with its densely packed tubiform florets bends upwards into a cone. This gives rise to an inner hollow space which is characteristic of the Chamomile flower. When all the tubiform floret have opened then the flowers ligulae florets stay down until fading occurs. Countless tiny seeds fall like ash.
The flowering process seems to be progressively usurping in height . Chamomiles inversion into flowering and fruiting is paralleled with the taste and aroma changes.
Initially Camomile tastes mild, like greens. During the development of its greenery it acquires a sharp taste then during flowering it changes to the typical aromatic scent. The flowers continue to flower sent and seed as the base dies away.
Chamomile is the shortest living of the preparation plants.
The biodynamic compost preparations: Manfred Klett:
The chamomile is able to potentize the potassium and the calcium.
The yarrow, Nettle and Chamomile are responsible for generating in nature a type of nitrogen yet unknown. It is in a completely new quality in the soil. Nitrogen is seen as having an Astral quality. It is involved with the forces of inwardness. That nitrogen which exists normally in the atmosphere(79%) is evolutionary complete, its dead. It derives from the past and exists in the present. What is being spoken of here is a new type of nitrogen which comes from the Future into the present!
The chamomile overcomes the physical state of potassium and calcium. Calcium is not a big constituent of the earths depths, much limestone exists in the crust. Calcium has a lot to do with the sucking in the forces of the inner planets. Calcium therefore has a m much closer relationship to that which is immediately below the surface of the earth.
The intestines where the flowers are put are a place where food is taken in and actively broken down. The flowers come into contact with this very lively mucus intestinal wall.
The rhythmic middle layer of the soil senses from outside to inside in the winter and therefore pushes forces in the inner of the sausages and so the chamomile are permeated and preserved.

The biodynamic Spray and compost preparations, BDAA:
Chamomile needs light to germinate. The roots brake up compacted soil giving structure. When a tea is taken it brings the dissolving and healing process to the mucus membranes in particular. The finished preparation vitalizes and makes them resistant to malformation.
The specific species is recognized by its hollow conical receptacle. We dry them and put them into the small intestine.

From Wikipedia:
Camomile, is an annual plant of the sunflower family Asteraceae
The flowers are borne in paniculate capitula. The white ray florets are furnished with a ligule, while the disc florets are yellow. The hollow receptacle is swollen and lacks scales. This property distinguished German Chamomile from Corn Chamomile (Anthemis arvensis), which has a receptacle with scales.
German Chamomile is used medicinally against sore stomach, irritable bowel syndrome, and as a gentle sleep aid.
The primary active ingredient of the essential oil from German Chamomile is bisabolol. The active ingredients are essential oils, notably chamazulene, flavonoids and coumarin.
Chamomile is sometimes known as "the plant doctor", thought to be useful to suppress fungal growth, for example misting it over seedlings may prevent damping off.

Plants for the Future:
The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils, requires well-drained soil and can grow in nutritionally poor soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils and can grow in saline soil. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires dry or moist soil. The whole plant is insect repellent. Yellow to gold dyes are obtained from the flowers.

Earth and Man, Karl Konig:
Camomile is a flower which is trying to fly away from the earth. We take it with this quality of flying away forces and put it into the most earthly destructive surrounding, the wall of the intestines.
In the sausages the calcium forces are centralized, we use the exhalation forces of Camomile and give them to the compost. We catch the desire of calcium and surround it by that which contains our earthly nutrition stream and destroys it.
This you expose during winter to the cosmic summer forces under the soil.

The folk Lore of Plants, Margaret Baker:
A chamomile bed
A Chamomile bed
The more it is trodden
The more it will spread.
Wreaths of chamomile were hung in Prussian houses on St Johns eve against thunderstorms. Chamomile flowers were deemed in Europe to be soldiers cursed for wrong doings. It would seem there were many delinquents.
‘To comfort the brain smell to Chamomile’ was an old Scots saying.

conclusion

2008-01-07T06:34:00.000Z

Conclusion
This journey of exploration through the world of the Biodynamic preparation plants has been an adventure. The project subject was chosen out of necessity yet after completion I am more than thankful for the experience. With all plants if you look further they will show you more. These plants and the processes they engage combined with our will and the animal sheaths allow the farm organism the individuality, vitality and sentience which is characteristic of Biodynamic farms.

One can only marvel at the exact nature of the indications relating to the plants given by Steiner. The specific processes which each plant goes through clearly shows that
“The process not the substance is important”.
Each one of these plants brings a certain quality which is physical and spiritual, these qualities are amplified and solidified. It is as though the inner nature of the plant is brought out to be a physical substance in itself as the preparation.

Biodynamic farming is an agricultural system which works towards community whilst acknowledging ,respecting and nurturing the interconnected nature who houses it.
In Southern Africa like most of the world the deep cultural roots which make up the individuality of a society are being cut off from the people by people in their attractions for a modern style of life.
Biodynamic farming can almost be seen as a modern technology of working with nature in the correct way in order to bring about the highest achievement of balance and progression. I wish to work with the traditional healers and University graduates to find suitable alternatives to the B.D. plants. This will be done collectively via scientific routes and spiritual ones. The growing interest in Indigenous plants has spelled much research into their properties. Local knowledge has always been there and the connection to the spiritual world is well maintained. Domestication of many of the wild plants is a task to be taken , Biodynamics is the only way to go in the transition from bush to field and I hope to be a part of that process.

The principles and their interrelationships is something I have only just started to grasp after eight months or so of studying them, this is a life time exploration.
I definitely would have it no other way.

2007-11-14T04:47:00.000Z

Hmm just realised i cant put me written proect up here yet untilll i can convert from Works to word... AHH.. Nice pic in walled garden on Kolisko Farm.

BRAZIL

2007-11-14T03:45:00.000Z

Back on line!!
This last friday sunrise i was above brazil flying into Sao Paolo(?) .. Helena and her sister were at the other terminal and we ended up waiting for 2yrs for each other.. Luckily i had some phone numbers and money and we managed to find each other. Swimming through a a sea of traffic smog and crazy bus drivers we made our way to the extrmelly cute, oroginal and stylish villa madalena the area where Helenas family live. The first 3 days wer fulled with evenings of meetings and consumptions of large amounts of food and alcohol,, very embarised i was to be sick on the first night after a day of drinking then an evening of drinking and eating sushi. I do love sushi so much so it was not easy to let go but after i did i fealt much better.
This is such an established city its amazing. Coconut water hmmm,, fresh fruit and juices on the streets,, lots of beer.. In hte area where we live it is a place which has really come up and there are streets apon streets of lovely little very stylish individual shops, The syndrome of England of having the same shops everywhere does not seems to excist here..
I have only seen such a small spot but i like what i have seen.. For those who know Moza the feeling in the air is like that but its a city of 22 mill people,, pretty nutty heyy... Oh the graffitti is extra ordinary..
Pictures will follow as well as on Me Pics link to Flikr account..
Peace be the Journey
I Like IT.

There is a place

2007-04-21T11:36:00.000+01:00

Where homes out of earth in hills meet fertile farming land. the young potter smiles as the goat bleets.
Young people sit with wise men after a day of beating metal and tilling the soil.
Fruits ripen on trees and seeds full farmers whos eyes look in the future of the plant.
Beaut in nature radiates peoples hearts and a sense of spirit harmony is maintained.
Individual aspirations and paths are nurtured through open communication and guidence.
Contrasting consciousness is collectivelly understood and a processes of engadgement are met
to find suitable sustainable solutions.

to be continued.....

Almost there..

2007-03-14T10:26:00.000Z

With the caravans finish on the horizon off for a weekend on The World Task Of AgriCulture..

Good course,, from inspiring videos of ' How to Save the World' by Peter Proctor to American farmers with wicked rotations, anthroposofical nutrition of night and day death and life. Micro and Macro cosom every morning and soil and culture and Trips out to see a magic well and Gunmill and and and the Grange Garden with its transformation by tony and the team into something incredible.

Bernard gave a good lecture which inspired discussion. The man who begun Ruskin Mill spoke and shared his process that was good! Got notes.

We shall be moving this weekend so shall be off line after that for a while or even indefinately, hopefully set something up otherwise it shall be the library.

We dug today the walled garden..

Oh shit ITS SPRING!!!

woohhooo

havent totally realized it yet, with all the Joint ed dis Jointed mixmatching of conditions of weather its actually here , The bees are out the flowers were there before, the grass it thinking about growing, buds are spiralling out, The cows are at the stage of tatty ness which says please can we get out soon!

Just had study Group, the thing which seems to be emerging stronger and stronger to me is the fact of this filling out with matter, like the plant or being which grows draws matter to it and transforms it into its self. It is such a radical process. We went into Chaos and i now understand what it is ,, its not all of everything all mixed together its actually nothing and everything i suppose on a re thought .... nothing in the physical and everything in the unknown world of the etheric.

The Time is coming for Block course, the last for me and Many,, a poster to prepare,, Soil Formation... If any insights into that finds anyone please share...

Mum will come and stay,, woohooo

All things are ticking on...

OH Shit!! Great News ,, We have been Asked to be God parents for Giovanna(Gica) ,such an honour i feel,, so great her baptisim will be next weekend in the south,, so a trip to Sturts will be..

PRaise and blessings to all ,, Love and connections on the most high.

All eyes on the Caravan(mobile home)

2007-03-08T01:30:00.000Z

Hello there, all of you the greatest minds in the world, hehee.

the internet has been on the bleep adn the soon transfer to the caravan means we may be off line for some time,,, but lets not count chickens or not count for that matter before the hatching or nesting takes place.

We put the wrap on the Polly tunnel... see at Me movies and Pics.. It was cool lots of plastic!

The caravan as i said is a serious focus at the mo.

Almost there,, not looking like it there but will share a resent one soon..

Peace and Love and Forward ness to all... Hey it looks like SPRING had SPrunG.. cant actually believe it ,, Winter maybe over!!

Wow

Moms in Town!

2007-02-22T06:22:00.000Z

What a splendid weekend was had with me Ma. picked her up in Oxford then made a journey to London to Robs. There was a fantastic meal prepared but the Rob and Nathan his house mate. We dined a traditional English style meal. Many a bottle of wine was found to be empty on the next morning. Very special to see mama after 2 ears almost!
We saw Maya and little Dorian, wow has he grown!
Saw Kanya on the way home.

Work on the caravan(mobile home) is underway. We are regenerating it so as we have a 'free' rent.

A littler of 11piglets came into the world this last Sat. night. 2 did not make it so there are 9 little runts running around there mum.

The other mum(soar) is almost there.

I heard the young Bantam Cock make an attempted Crow today. Phew i was so scared it sounded like a child screaming,, Phew!

Laurence and i did a course on Pruning the other day, it was very insightful. Dave the instructor, a tall positive man is an excellent tutor.

They have some 100 yr + apple trees in their one orchard,, there quite something.

Today we pruned our trees in the Walled garden, they have not been pruned properly for about _+5yrs,, so Theres a lots which need to come off, lots of big branches were taken off at the end on the most huge tree. (will post pictures on me flickr(me pics))

The feeling was very intense removing these big branches off this developed tree, we will see how the re growth takes. ( if anyone in the world has an idea of what to do with the lovely -+2m shoots which are available, please let me know as there is many of them)

The bark of an Oak tree is receptive to water flowing along it. The valleys in which the water flows is made up of outwardly dark but inwardly Red colour. Associations of Mars are understood.

Good Weekend!

2007-02-12T07:01:00.000Z

Having lunch with long lost family in bristol followed by a great night( my first 12yr old wiskey turned nicely into a water bottle) with Friends at the Grange. The next day Pal tried flying his plane again and the tree found it. This inspired a much over due tree climbing experiance for me.
Quite impressed at the branch strength.
The garden at the grange is looking Amazing compared to the last time i saw it.. The soil has truley transformed from these bigg clumpy clay dark red to a more brown crumbly substance..
we were very inspired to see their Caravan and are now going to fix the one on the farm to live in..

Today, i did fencing it was good, learnt how to make a strut. The weather has shifted. the wind is up and the chill in.

(Some nice videos and pics on me links,,)

And then SNOw ,,, oooohhhh

2007-02-09T05:45:00.000Z

Second day we are in Snow!!!!

Definately makes for light work.

FRoZen,,, Praise Jack Frost!!

2007-02-07T07:30:00.000Z

This picture is actually from yesterday but it still illustrates the point.

Today we reached -6.5 when i got to work and it had gotten down to -6.9 in the night. Thats pretty good considering Gobal warming and all!

The frost was still hanging about in the shadows the whole day, the warming sun with no clouds only managed to melt the frost around 1200 ..

Tomorrow or this evening SNOW has been forcast.. Exciting!!

I observed a drob of water on a leaf mealting from a frozen cryastal to a semi fluid ball,, it was beautiful.

Thoughts on raising money to get The traditional Healer Pres over to see BD in Action was fruiting again.

We dugg today,, and dug and dugg.. We turned the soil in the walled Gardenfork by fork.. as the warmth came and especially after lunch the ground was more sticky!!

in The midst!

2007-02-04T10:02:00.000Z

A rest fulled weekend with much rest.

And yet everytime i went outside i had the feeling something is not totally right.

Possibly the inconvienent Truth has done a good job of creating real awareness mutated into parania in my imaginative brain. But this weird silver mist seems to be every where.

The sun is actually warming to the feel,, one can actually feel its warmth...... Are we on the same axis as we were,, is the atmosphere still the same..

Yet all is well an =d what can you do in such time other than make the most of it and go out for a HUNT! well yes i did see a right lot trotting down the road with dogs on hoof and all ..

I say it was a sight.. And they were happy and joyous..

Later in Stroud sitting on a bench in the warming sun a voilinist played in the shadow, we sat listening, i gave 55 pence the 50 was a 2006 edition which had a man carrying another out of a battle ..

What time is it that we are living in???????????????????????????????????????????????????

Well Lets see,, hmm A Polly tunnel! Almost

2007-02-01T08:14:00.000Z

Evangelic i so do become in order to maintain hope. Crumbling ego i feel. The weather, yes the weather ,, well hey its warm and it winter,, who's complaining?? Well nature for one

i suppose. Farmers and Gardeners too.. weeds are flowering,, everything is flowering!!! Fuck!! Nature is doped on Co2 and she is having a little hot flush. Shes making us wake up just a bit that for sure. Everyone who is not in a place with no soil can see clearly that in this area Nature believes it to be spring.

What then when a good frost comes and kills all the buds? Do we get fruit?

And then what,, how far shall we go down this road of change ,, is it in waves or is this The Wave!

Many things exist to distract one in life. We tend to create distractions in order to occupy our selves and avoid reality in some way or another.. some may call it Drama addicts some may say Soap addicts. Some are into SciFi i suppose..,,,

This is a weird wacky world who is being bent and beaten daily,, there is growth in some areas beyond imagination and in others total mas acre. I live each day with a deeper burning need to be somewhere else yet i am bound to my Ego and a need to finish what i have started. To attain a complete training however useful. I see myself often with red and green strips spiraling out from the ten points on my chest, painted they cover my body. Radical yes yet this urge to do more in a moment than is probably physically possible for my human body exists.

What does that mean , what does it really mean?

All this will yet i can not seem to navigate the correct route through the preliminary phases of a process which will involve the rest of my life. Maybe that's why.

India has called and a possible journey to understand and learn Yoga as well as see Bio dynamics at play there,, a few months just,, clear the mind ready the body, for a journey down,, by hook or by crook and a landing on southern African.....

Peace is on its way,, its almost here,,, Its coming wrapped in the Present!

Into darkness light is found, strength is reborn.

2007-01-27T05:05:00.000Z

Depth of heart reaching towards the centre. The narrowing effects of the repeat as well as the deepening which winter brings.

Seeds create hope as onion, lettuce and broad bean shed life into my soul.

The African beat ever calling.

At peace now my mind rests with the knowing of nows exciting creations.

There is magic in the air, spells of time being woven to take back what was learnt to be inspired whilst remembering.

Streams of thought and help start to come in. Friends arrive. The room is clear.

SpIRIT oF PLace

2007-01-17T00:50:00.000Z

This last weekend i was blessed with my 25th birthday on the Friday while being on a course called spirit of place which was held at Ruskin Mill. As You can see from the photo they are training us apprentices to do amasing things like fly behind a horse who is dragging a log up the hill. I also learnt how to do Dry stone walling and how to make charcoal as well as coppice woodland. They experience was great, deeply practical yet extremely enlightening. I came away with skills and a bottle of harmonised dynamised and many other ises water which i intend to spread about the farm where i now work, it shall bring clarity and form love and togetherness, people and harmony. It will resonate outwards and influence the surroundings. All vibrations will flow in Love and peace with all that is NAture and anything that is not.

Flora of Zimbabwe: Location details: individual images: Odzani River Bridge image5

2007-01-07T18:17:00.000Z

Flora of Zimbabwe: Location details: individual images: Odzani River Bridge image5
Wow!! Almost a tear of emotion fell from my tyred face.
Seeing this image of a place where i grew up is such a blessing even though it hurts and makes me miss being there..
All things in time as the man said to the frog who wa on the lilly waiting for supper!!

House tidy!! Extreamo, made a lttle shelf as a clutter catcher.
Working on something to present next weekend and seem to be raising the past in search of memories to help describe the environment where i grew.

Peace and Prosperity

Chrispy Christmas and Beyond unto the Newyears Eve

2006-12-31T04:10:00.000Z

So Christmas it was in family we were with, the home of our Granny and Aunt Linda with Uncle Jacinto and Brother Robbie. Short and sweet would be a good description ..

Picked up Rob in London and spent a night on the floor then back to drop Rob in London, Dropping him at Gatwick was lucky as he may have missed his flight otherwise. Gatwick ment a Brighton Detour and a final Joy in finding boots for HElena.. Yahh!! So many shops so many boots i feel like well the other boot of the one who sits alone on shelves..ya know what i mean..

Pretty hard days of work for three days, pretty exhasted and starting to look forward to weekends. Learnt about fencing!!!

My heart is still burning to be doing good work and Africa calls ever strongly, my time feels worthless at times yet i know its working itself out. The safe lure of the materialisims comforting stroke has no needle of ease on my heart and my need for doing whats right.

Developments are under way as an illustrator has taken the project to create a booklet,, we just need information to trance fer into images. A navigator has come on board, none other than the jet himself.

The organisations constitution is being magnitised towards our present reality headed by the name,,, just outer reach..

The New year beckons with a silent swing of time. A short travel and a realitively brief merger will be the proposed endever. Some serious boogying will be the transfering activity inbetween years, with a pop of a bottle of bubbleeeeee..

Greatest Start to all for this New year,, new beginings underway!! Trajectory has the potential for realighnment or just Maintained.

DAy light slipping darkness

2006-12-10T05:40:00.000Z

So yes, just as a chicken does, i'm slipping my production due to the decrease in light. Shit!

I was waking at 5:15am last winter milking and eating breaky at 7:15 on the weekend .. Now i struggle or feel it anyway at 7:oo... somethings a foot??

Must be my will,, under foot,, squashed!! Looking at it anyways.. Theres isnt this need to be up early, i do enjoy that, but sleep world is very seductive,, especially dreams,, much better on the brain screen!!

I'll work it out.

Let go of my cafe' job for the prospective cleaning placement at the local Waldorf School!! Much more regular.. Closer nitting~~

Hope you like the chicken hes from Botton village in Yorkshire..

Seed working

2006-12-04T07:48:00.000Z

This last Thur till Sun i was blessed to be appart of the severn valley bidynamic apprentice course in Botton Village Yorkshire. The focus of the time was seeds.
What an education and what an eye opener.
The commercial plant species( an animal) as we know them are under serious threat.
The corporations who are pulling the strings are encoraging the supermarkets to encorage the scientists to be inspired to design the plants of the future.
No slow steady plant selection exsists anymore on that market, no open pollination exsists.
Laboratory work is where plants evloution is at hand. An work with no vision outside of money.
Old breeds of plant and animal are now becoming exstinct as the new Hybrids, GM and non GM have the only place. One can not keep ones seed as much does not have seed as well much is sterile.

This is a very dark tunnel which i have only just looked down, the organic movement in the Uk as great as it is has not seemed to take up the task of growing for seed therefore they buy from these companies those seeds which are organic but only first or second generation,, This is unstable as well as supportive of the wrong industry.
The biodynmamic seed group is attempting to pool there seeds and work with the farmers to maintain plant varieties and soon look at breeding there own plants( not in a lab and no interbreeding but open poolinated careful selection) The carrot variety from Botton is 15 yr as a biodynamic plant..

Any who!! The time was good and i learnt alot ablout the way to select and develop a crop over time. It was a very useful weekend and i had fun.

Botton is a very special place and i would recommend it to anyone to visit when in the Yorkshire area. It is an excellent example of community living.

Today

2006-11-23T09:44:00.000Z

started building a roof on the old caravan... very good as needed to be resorceful with few materials. Finished fixing the wooded posts where the cows eat through.
Phoned Dell support as Stella the laptop had a sevear error, ended up loosing all info on her and starting from skratch,, not too much lost really and she feels fresh out the box now.
Saw a rainbow today!!!!!! touching into the field. The wind was so strong and these bouts of rain just kept coming then it would clear then again.
Amazed by the independence of the Hereford calf, hes so young but is so independent, its quite something. I have not seen him feeding yet. He just munches away on the grass.

Car Cleo

2006-11-15T07:42:00.000Z

Preparing the barn today for cows to come in we were cutting big trees to fit inbetween big post so as to facilitate a wall for the much as it builds up over the winter.
My first day on Brookthorpe really. Great to feel the land and be with the cows a bit as i moved them from the one field to the next. The elemental beings are excited in this space enjoying the developments.
The biggest of the bantums we brought has gone missing ?? thought of putting up notices did not cross my mind. Feeling his/her? presence might have tried to contend with the other 4 birds which are residence and 2-3 times the bantums size. Thoughts of an under cover chicken homicide did cross my mind! 4 birds many claws, no one around??? hmmm..
Well i hope the blacky bantum is okey and just lost his bearings and will return soon~~~

We bought a car!!! A little Renault Cleo,, sadly Petrol but a good deal and from a friedly mechanic who is just close to where we live.. Neccessary for Helena if she wants to get a resonable work as most require own transport and public is pretty poor and dear at the same time????? If u know what i mean...

Getting a slight overview today of whats going on was really useful and i feel more in the picture and know i can get on with what needs to be done.
Working alone at the end of today showed me part of my future reality, minor adjustments to my personal being is being subconsciously attuned.

Relax regulate, percieve all fresh and new. The elemantals like things neat and tidy, the like to be appreciated and recognised. Respect the Gnomes they are at work in the North.

Brookthorpe!

2006-11-11T22:59:00.000Z

lastdays 002 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Second Night!
Were Here! The transfer was blessed and the statistic of moving being one of the most stressfull things after divorce was well navigated away from.
The space where we are is so peaceful , we are on a small road off the mainroad which runs and drives between Glouster and Stroud. The Birch Cottage where we stay is a result of two semi detched houses coming together again into one home. We live in a pretty self contained room with kitchen and wash sink in house. we share a door and bathing room with a young man from Germany and a lovely 86 yr old lady.
The garden where i will be working is a step over a low fence in just outside the house. How WOnderous!!
The land is looking good. They have just much spread the fields. The garden is mostly under green manure and there are pigs in the furthest left of the garden field. The are due to farrow in Feb. Met some of the cows today, very nice. Oh, across the road from where we live is a dairy farmer and this morning we wokr to the moos mooing .. Was good.. The farm life and animals is so strong in me. We be interesting to feel the merger with the plant world. How not to let go and to take on at the same time?

STURTS FARM PROFILE

2006-11-05T15:05:00.000Z

Profile
Depending on ones location, it’s relatively easy to find Sturts farm.
In the top half of the planet Earth there is a small land mass know as the United Kingdom…In the south of the United kingdom one finds an area know as Dorset, much of its coastal area was once covered by sea. Now it thrives with much farm land and sporadic cities along the coast. As is the case with much of what I have seen in England the country side it dotted with village after village of old style buildings and new style towns emerging. I believe the village we live by is more of a newer development. The village of West Moors just turned 50years. It is close to an even bigger city called Ringwood which is an old market town.
You are also able to visit via the Internet: www.sturtsfarm.com… or via the biodynamic association www.biodynamic.org.uk or through the Camphill community network. (All things we will go into later)
The full experience of Sturts farm is best found in a view of the whole picture. Arriving around 5.30am would be best suited for this purpose. You will find us along the West Moors road B 3072, the road sign is bright and colorful which shows the same within.
As you turn in you will see another sign, earthier and rich, calved out of wood, (Sturts Farm, Camphill community) this means we are a community based farm where there are people who live on the farm who need help here and there.
So you’re driving in at 5.30 am. It’s still dark in the winter and the sun is radiating in the summer, you will have a hedge on each side of you. On the other side of the left hedge is Bee field, this year we will close the field up for silage, its known as bee field for there are bees living in the one corner, they are cared for by the Dorset association, too your right is Twin Oaks. Twin oaks has just been ploughed and soon shall have fodder carrots planted inside for the cows, there are also potatoes, cabbages and some seed work is done in this field. It is in the front rotation. Theses carrots will begin to be harvested around November. I know this as we just finished (March) harvesting the ones from last year. Quite an extended job I may say. Quite a rhythm was set up of every Mon; we would trek out to the West side of Sunny acres (another field in the North of the Farm). With garden fork, wheel barrow and gloves. If you remembered them? Carrots were dug then the tops twisted off. We moved from a highly organized system of taking them out in rows and other people twisting and so on. To a point in the last few weeks where they were just put in a pile and we all sat around and twisted. Much more social, but a greater propensity for a slower pace, They would then be lifted and thrown into the nearby trailer, which would be later taken to the wash bay. When there was a suitable day, the carrots would be taken out and washed in a big bath. They are then stored for later use, ideally raised as the cold concrete if not ventilated helps to create severe rot. The washing creates a much more friendly carrot for our cows as they do not enjoy soil, as much as say our pigs.
So anyway, the road is not long and soon you find parking to your left. There is two gates one too Bee field and the other too Saint John Field. The house next to this field is Saint Johns, hence the name. Continue along the road by foot, you will be walking in a Northerly direction. To your right you will see a building which is built mainly of straw bales as well as a road which branches to the right in front of it.
Along that road you may make out two other houses, Saint Francis and then St. Martins. Not to worry about these just yet, keep to the left and maintain your northerly direction. Not forgetting that it may also be dark and making out more than the delicately dotted lights along the road may be hard for some.
So you’ve continued on, passing Saints Johns entrance to your left, the farm House, after that on the left.
The Meteor building will address you lightly to the right. It is a home as well as office and Kitchen.
A couple more steps and you find yourself in the briefing, meeting zone of Sturts. Where, Farmer, Gardener, forester, Homemaker alike intersects on their way to their various activities. You see to the left is the way to the barn extension where the gardeners are based. It is also the way to the shop, where all the food comes through for our houses. Straight in front is the farmer’s base.
To the right an almost unnoticeable door will take you into a room where the foresters keep the wood for the house fires. This is not their station though. To find that you should continue straight, on reaching the pig sty’s turn right and continue straight for a way, passing the mill room and grain store to your right, The big machine shed to your left, the club house to your right with outside toilet if you need. Straight on through Meteor field, with saint Martins and the creamery to your right and the chicken’s areas to the left, you enter the forest through a gate and to your right the forester’s wood shed is.
But we’re not there yet, and it is early and you have just seen the farmer coming out of the boot room which is in the old machine shed.
He may go to open the gate, which is locked over night. He then goes about his morning duties to enliven the farm before the other farmers arrive and the day is begun. He moves his milking cows out of their pens (or brings them in from the field in the summer) which are in a big open barn to the left as you move through the gate, across the road which is concrete, they slumber from a semi sleep semi prepared state to the yard which is too the right of the gate. The Bull Homer is let out to great them and check who is on heat so that they may be served accordingly. One is also able to tell by a quite clear smelling and attempts to get on top by the other cows. This can vary, so the best result is always with the bull. If a cow is on heat and she put in to Homer’s pen for the day or over night.
Well the cows are moseying around and waking up, eating some silage (rolled grass left to ferment in a plastic sealed wrapper) from the central feeder in the yard. The silage is made on the farm and the hay on field which are rented off the farm.
The farmer continues his jobs of feeding the Heifers (smaller female cows who have not a calf yet) and steers (males with no equipment).In the mornings while inside they get a little extra, on top of their silage or hay, a pen of 4/5 may share a bucket of rolled oats (some grown on the farm) We buy in wheat, barley and triticale from Joe Bradley, it works out about £200 a tone with transport.
The oats this year was grown in Windy acres, a field to the North of the farm, now the field will have wheat sown at a protective crop for the under sown grasses . We harvested the winter sown oats of 2005 in the summer of 2006; we then dried it and baled the straw for bedding. We do need to by in about 1000 small and 120 big bales of straw a year. It is local but not organic. Its about £50 a tone delivered. The wheat straw comes from Blanford.
During the winter the cows were in the field after is had been harvested, eating the grass that was left, spreading a lot of manure around and later eating silage which was brought into the field, the field was then spread with more much which had been sitting for some months and had a number of preparations come through it( later more on the preparations), the field would then be ploughed then disked then rolled to create a fine seed bed for usually barley or tritokal, this year we shall try wheat. The cereal will protect the grass lay which is under sown. In the summer the cereal is cut as silage.
They will also receive a bucket of fodder carrots which I spoke of earlier or lately the gardeners have thrown us some parsnips which seemed to overwhelm them.
There are cows in the barn where the milkers were and also if you carry on down past the hay barn also on the left there is another open covered area where three large pens are.
On the other side of the yard there is Homers pen to the left, three similar sized pens, the second two have 2 and 3 calves in respectively, then there are another two more internal pens with front walls, they have 3 and 2 calves and finally theres another two open ones each with 2 calves in, the first two are still small and take milk from a bucket, the others have been weaned and now eat a little oats but mostly hay. In the summer a confident suckling mother, would be able to take her calf and others and be in the field with the grassers. Some are not so confident and are put in during milking time to feed their and others calves.
He will then return to the dairy which is just to the right before you go through the gate (heading north still). He e will put together the milking machines in preparation. Around 5:45am it is expected that two more farmers or so may arrive. There will be a momentary greeting, any urgent information will be passed on and each will get on with his duties. The milk may need to go up to the bigger creamery for processing later in the day, it may be from 3- 6 churns which need to go up depending on how much milk is available and how much is required. We have a new vat now so can take a lot more milk. The smaller vat will be emptied and the churns taken up. Some days they will be just put in and others the machines there will be turned on. There is a room where the Yogurt is processed; this is needed to be at a certain temperature when the processor comes in
The smaller vat is cleaned ideally every 2-3 days. This is done by first cold water; this is how all milk is treated. Then boiling water and Ecover soap does the Job.
In the winter one team will be bedding up and feeding outside and one milking inside. This can be one person in each or two or even three farmers in each area in the winter. The summer is much less jobs so more concentration is on tidying up and smaller things on the morning routine. Some one is expected to go and check all the live stock at least once a day. In lambing time the sheep can be checked 3 times in a day.
The rolled oats is shared out and the cows brought in, the milking parlor is designed with a two door system, an in and an out, there is a trough which runs down the front all the stands which makes easier cleaning, they are slightly raised and the cows are chained around the neck, except Sally who also has a bottom chain as she feels more secure with it and is less likely to kick any farmers. The room is rectangular in shape and can take 7 cows at a time.
One by one the cows are cleaned and stripped- just a quick hand milk to check there milk is okay and nothing too obvious is wrong, we use blue paper roll to clean the teats.
The compressor machine is switched on and the environment changes to a noisy space of a compressor over head, one gets used to it quick as there too much else to focus on. The machines are brought in, basically three metal buckets, two of which have special tops with an inlet for the suction pipe of the compressor as well as the clusters( things which suck onto teats and draw milk) . The milk is filled into the bucket and then when the cow is done its swapped with the other bucket, weighed and poured through a filter into a larger churn, the filter is later checked then the milk goes in the vat.
As there are two buckets with clusters its important to set up a rhythm quick then the milking goes smoothly.
During the winter they also were giving carrots as apart of their feed and later parsnips. There are Soya pellets which are added to the grain for extra protein they come from High Peak organic feeds and costs 300-£400 per tonne.
The cows are milked twice a day 6:00am- 7:15am and 4:30- 5:45pm. This is a strong rhythm which the cows enjoy being in. when the daylight saving time changes it does disrupt their pattern.
We have 16 milking cows, 5 are which are only for feeding their and others calves. There are 13 calves still drinking milk. 4 who are weaned off?
The milk is not homogenized, we drink it raw, it is cooled by the vat but that’s it. None of it is sold. A community of 50 use the milk.
Milking done, cow’s teats are dipped with iodine then they are let out. They can then go off to a field for the day or night in the summer. This allows another farmer to start his job of spraying the parlor out with water and another farmer to wash the machines which were used. This water drains down into a big tank which is used to spray the muck heaps and water fields if needed, it is mixed in with all the water from muck and urine as well.
Pigs need feeding. They get ideally barley, sometimes oats or triticaly. There are 3 soars (females) and one boar in the forest at the moment. They are very happy ripping up the brambles and clearing the forest. The larger pigs get about one quarter bucket each per morning. The smaller pigs, the porkers can share a third of a bucket between three twice a day. They also receive whey from the creamery in the morning. Normally a bucket per sty, and vegetables in the evening from the garden.
The pig’s sties are cleaned out once a week normally a Thursday.
When a soar is ready to give birth she will be brought back into the sty to have her litter in the safer environment.
The last job for the morning Farmers team is just too let the chickens out. Eggs are then collected around 12:30 and they are put in in the evening before dark. They have four plots which they rotate on in Meteor field. We have not had chickens for meat this season but will have again in the next season.
The garden begins around six as well.
Their main focus is the summer is the weeding, harvesting and sowing jobs, they are endless. This year they have produced some lovely apple juice. When they have the time they use any excess fruit or veg.
What vegetables are not up to standard find there way to the pigs stys.
In the winter they focus a lot on our ditches so that they maintain a healthy flow. They also work on clearing the ponds which filter the human liquid waste as well as gray water from the houses. This water filters through three ponds of reeds which need cutting.

There are three hectares of land under the garden. As well as a third of a field which is in the farm rotation.
Divided into ten rough plots. The order goes :
1: Potatoes ( heavy feeder).
2:Onions & Garlic ( medium).
3: Fruit; pumpkins, sweet corn (heavy).
4: Roots; celeriac, beet, parsnips (light).
5: Green manure ( giver)
6: Cabbages; bracikas (heavy).
7: Leeks (light ).
8: Legumes; beans, peas ( givers) lettuce ( light).
9: Carrots (light).
10: Green manure (giver).

The forest team works to the East of the farm. Their 3 hectare space has been divided into 20 plots which can be rotated, following a winters felling and replanting. There is also almost a hectare at the very north of the farm which is our buffer zone from the power substation as well as promoting wildlife and environmental conservation. In between Gullivers field and Newmans lane there is a strip of nearly half a hectare of very old forest. This is also left for nature.
The fire wood is used in the houses over the winter. They collect brush wood and store leaves for leaf mold. They do much of the tools repair.
In the summer the forest team does seed work; they cultivated and select plants which latter go to seed. This is apart of the biodynamic seed group. All seeds are shared and move through Stormy Hall at Botton village in Yorkshire.
All jobs are aimed to be finished on time for breakfast. 7:30- 7:45. Morning Prayer is at 8:45 for everyone then work begins again at 9:00.

Waste and Recycling:
There is all sorts of waste on a farm and in a community.
We work with our local authority to collect our house hold rubbish. They collect every Wednesday morning.
We recycle : Metal goes in the skip we have on the farm which is collected, there is glass, paper, plastic bottles. These are taken by Michael to the recycle centre in West Moors. We are trying to find a way to re use card board for compost. It can too be re cycled locally.
Majority of other waste which comes off the farm or garden goes into the skip. This is collected.
Large amounts of fat and bone from our pigs and bone from cows and sheep has to be taken away and incinerated.
Our human liquid waste moves through the ponds and the solids are stored in a tank and pumped out when full.
The farm also has a large tank under the muck heaps which stores all the liquids off the yard this is re used on the much heaps or in the garden.
There is no quick solution with waste. We humans seem to have an ability to amount it continually.
A community can only perceveir to be responsible for its excess in an environmental and spiritual way.
Food Processing:
We have a creamery and a butchery on the farm. The butcher is an employee and sorts all of our meat. He has help from other food processors. They also make our cheeses and yogurt.
When they have the time they make lemon curd, smoked beef, jams and any other delicious treats.
They produce for our community as well as the Shieling school and Lantern center down the road.
Shop and Market:
We have a small organic farm shop which sell our local vegetables. We also do a market once a week at the Lantern center and once a month in West Moors. The profits of the shop go to the Ringwood Waldorf school and help in their developments.
The ladies who work in the shop are volunteers. They have children at the school.
It serves the community very well to have all its food needs on site.
Fields and Rotations:
In the farm we work with two rotational systems.
The front rotation which focuses on those fields to the South and the Back rotation which works with fields in the North.
The Back rotation comprises Foxes close ( 3.324 hectares), Middle Field ( 2.806 h), Windy acres ( 2.451h), Holly Bush (3.222h), Furzey Copse (2.230h).
Each field experiences 3 years in grass where the soil is being given back, some of the grasses we plant are timothy, cotsfoot and chicory.
We harvest silage from these field and the cows and sheep use them for grassing.
At the end of the 3rd year the field is ploughed in and winter oats is sown for the 4th year. This is a taker from the soil as well as food for the cows once rolled by our rolling mill. Or it can be ground by the hammer mill for the pigs. It is harvested in the summer by Jeff a friendly local who small ancient combine harvester is ideal. We clean it and store it. Once harvested we bale the straw up for the winter.
The field is then left over the winter. This allows an excellent place for the milking cows to go in the day, so as to not destroy the other fields in the wet conditions.
In the spring of the 5th year the field is spread with much and ploughed in. There is a arable silage crop sown with grass under sown. In the summer this grows up and protects the grasses from the hot dry conditions we have on Sturts. After the harvest of arable silage the grasses can establish more over the summer and deep into the winter.
The Front rotation is a 7 year rotation. The fileds are : Sunny acres ( 2.485h) which has 3 plots in it, Saint Johns ( 1.584h) which has 2 plots, Bee Field ( 1.188h) and Twin Oaks ( 0.836h).
1: Potatoes for garden( heavy)
2: Fodder carrots ( light)
3: Barley/oats/wheat/ tritokale under sown with grass ( taker)
4, 5, 6, 7: Grass Lay.

Winter: Time of deep inner work and outer strength.

Hedges:
Along with spreading much on the fields annually this is one of the long term farming practices being maintained on Sturts.
A truly honorable gesture to the future.
Planting samplings before the spring. The sap has not risen, when well healed in they sit in the earth awaiting planting. Hedge rows are agreed upon, measured up and planting begins.
Some of the trees I planted this lats year are holly, haw thorn, hazel. Equal spacing between the trees is important.
They are firmly pressed into the soil after a small hole is dug, their trunks pointing straight up.
Hedges rows are a haven for wildlife. It is believed that many of the elemental beings ( nature forces) can also use these spaces for sanctuary.
Due to the farm being located next to a substation which has pylons coming out of it there is potentially loose energy which is about. Many of the trees which we plant have the ability to absorb this energy.
The art of laying a hedge is old. The trees are allowed to grow quite tall, then they are almost cut and layed down. Interwoven they form a hedge. In the spring new life bursts forth all over the wood and rises to the sun forming a denser hedge. They may be layed again to develop a thicker hedge.

Much Heaps
As the animals are inside there is a lot of much (manure) builds up. There are weekly ‘muchings out’ of the pigs pens and every three months or so a clearing of the cows pens.
The much is built up onto heaps. This is done In a very exact manner, fork by fork.
There is initially a rectangular shape constructed. Roughly 3 paces by 12 paces. Walls are built up on the sides by stacking each fork load on top and next to the other. The trick is to maintain your walls as being straight and not let them come in to much.
Once the walls get high enough a tractor may come and assist the process by grabbing a load of much and dumping it on the heap. Farmers on top will stack it and sort it out.
As the walls are built one also walks on them to compact the much more. Once they reach a height where the tractor is unable to put more on top then that’s about it. One heap can take a half a day to build or a week, depending on the will and machinery available.
They reduce size very quickly and reduce to about half the size of their origin. This may seem to have rooted right down but actually its merely a compaction. After 9 months one may find that there is an outer shell of lovely dark brown sticky wet compost but one foot more in and its still mostly straw based. Ideally one turns them and moves the much again, rebuilding somewhere else or having a fancy machine which does it. This really encourages the processes of breaking down to accelerate. We managed it this year with the help of the grab on the front of the tractor, a lot of shaking of the hydraulic stick to separate the much out and some digging between each heap to create drainage space and paths to walk when we spray the preparations on them.
The gardeners receive 2 much heaps from us which we turn and they leave for about 2 years to become fine compost.
During the season special preparations are added to the much in a special formation. The ingredients are Yarrow and stags bladder, chamomile and small intestine, nettles, oak bark and skull, dandelion flower and mesentery, valerian, time, love and the cosmic and earthly forces. This work is done by the gardeners.
In the spring the fields are spread with the much by a ’much spreader’ after they are harrowed or before they are ploughed. The organisms in the much as well as indescribable forces work into the soil to enrich it. This is a long term process and enables a soil to find a harmony which best serves the needs of the soil, farmer and cosmos.
The Biodynamic preparations
Such an integral part of the farm organism a profile could not be complete without a basic on them.
‘Don’t worry its all natural’
The Compost preparations as spoken of above have a little more detail which enriches the farm life.
Yarrow ( Achillea mille folium, composite family) Preparation 502.
Stag bladder ( red deer, Cervus elaphus).
The ‘weed’ has sulfur, potassium and carbon noticeably in it.
‘Sulfur , vehicle for the spiritual principle’ That was said by the catalyst of the Biodynamic movement, Rudolf Steiner, he was a great mystic and philosopher who touched many areas of society.
He presented a series of lectures which initialized the movement.
The cosmic forces are believed to radiate through the stags senses into its bladder. Kidney and bladder eliminate salts dissolved in urine, above all nitrogen and potassium.
The bladder is stuffed with yarrow flowers and hung over the summer. In the winter it is buried.

Chamomile ( Matricaria chamomillia compositae family)and small intestine(jejunum and ileum). Preparation 503
Sulphur and Calcium is present in this plant.
The flowers are stuffed into a cow’s small intestine then buried over the winter.
The preparation vitalizes plants and makes them resistant to malformation.
Nettle (Urtica dioica, Urticaceae family) preparation 504
The leaves have fine hairs with siliceous heads. The hairs can sting this contains sodium formate, choline and histidine.
Nettles are beneficial to soil, plants, animals and humans.
On the farm was use nettle in the preparations, in a tea in the garden for the plants to help against aphids, fresh for the bull, dried leaves are crushed for the chickens, the same dried leaves could be used for the cows in the winter. It is also suspected that a strong tea will dissuade flys form the cows in the summer.
Nettles are gathered at first flowering stage, cut at the base and left to wilt. They are buried surrounded by at least a 5cm peat layer.
Oak Bark ( Quercus robur, Fagaceae family) Domesticated animal skull. Preparation 505.
This powerful tree has powerful bark. Its constituents show contrasts. There is a high level of calcium ( 75% of ash is CaO) which protects against fungal growth and Tannin whos acid has insecticide properties.
The powdered bark moistened and pushed through the occipital foramen of the skull which has already been cleared of brain matter and dried. The skull is sealed and buried in an area which has occasional water passing through it.
This stays in over the winter
Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale, Compositae family)Bovine mesentery or caul fat( great omentum)Preparation 506
The flowers open in the morning in the East and close in the South West in the afternoon. When the flowering time is over it closes and then reopens as a sphere of parachutes( pappus)holding seeds.
Latex is in the tap root and stems of this plant.
The seeds bear fine silicious cellular tissues.
The Dandelion almost fully opened flowers which have been gathered in the morning are wrapped in the lean part of the mesentery and left buried throughout winter.
Valerian( Valerian officinalis, Valerianaceae family) Preparation 507
The root has well known sedative properties. Nectaries secrete a sweet sticky liquid with characteristic sent which attracts many insects.
It is a perennial herb. The plant is connected to warmth. It stimulates phosphorous processes and may help with protect fruits and flowers from frost.
Newly opened clusted are collected on a flower morning. Grind finely and express the juice. Place in bottles and store for lactic fermentation. Only seal after 6 weeks. The coffee colored aromatic smelling liquid is sprayed on the much heaps and creates a protective enveloping warmth and is also beneficial to earth worms.
Horsetail (Equisetum arvense, Equisetaceae family) Preparation 508
This is not a compost Prep. 502-507
Like ferns and moss it is spore bearing plant.
High silica content.
It helps to prevent excessive fungal growth.
Collect on sunny day the whole green part and leave to dry in airy shade. Simmer 200-300g dry in 10-20litres of water for an hour.
1-1.5kg fresh to same water. Dilute 5-10 times by volume and use as a spray through the year. 100l - 1 hectare(2.5 acres) on soil and plants.
Horn Silica: Quartz crystal (rock crystal. Quartzite) or amorphous form (agate, flint) or potash feldspar (orthoclase) and cow horns Preparation 501
The mineral should contain more than 98% silica and is ground and filled into cow horns. These are buried over the summer.
After it’s lifted in the autumn we a pinch is added to water and stirred for an hour in both direction at different times. The light energy promotes and organizes plant metabolism.
We spray this in the mornings on leaf days when the sun is rising.
Horn Manure Preparation 500:
Forces are retained in the horns and hooves of cows. The cows have a tremendous digestive capacity. When food is digested the energy and substances as well as forces which are released are not all used by the cow, many are released.
Fresh manure is collected and filled into the cow horns they are buried over winter. The forces radiate from the horns into the manure, in winter everything retreats back to the soil and the life is there, these forces enrich the matter further.
In the spring they are lifted and a semi compost is removed. ( we keep ours for a year underground) A small handful is added to water and stirred for an hr. creating the vortices and charging the substance further.
It is sprayed on young plants to vitalize them and we use it on the farm on root days to encourage root growth and strength.
Cosmic Influences and Calendar:
On a biodynamic farm there are certain rhythms which are taken into account and worked with. The movements of the stars and our synchronization with them. All of this awareness aligns us and the beings with which we work to achieve a higher vibration. The moons influence especially on plants but on all water based beings is definite.
The suns influence and the planets which align with it are all of great significance.
We follow the moon calendar as presented by Maria Tunn, a biodynamic researcher for over 50 years.
As above so below. The world follows certain patterns:
Leaf, Flower, Fruit and Seed (Root). These stages are integral and are felt to be reflected throughout the cosmos.
We associated certain planetary constellations to each of these stages. Three constellations each and as they find align with us we recognize that as a root day or a flower day.
In one perspective it is a very deeply esoteric science, in another it’s just the physical fact that constellations which we have recognized for thousands of years has some even if subtle to us impact on our planet.

Community:
The community is known as a Camphill, this is due to some of the members having difficulties with learning. These people are known as companions there are other members who are known as Co-workers, they help where needed. All co-workers are volunteers. There are short term and long term co-workers.
Short term co-workers are usually here for up to a year. Long term ones are here from two and more.
The short term co workers generally take care of the day too day work with the companions.
The long term co-workers are apart of the carrying group which carry the community, they make decisions on consensus; they are the eyes which are looking forward over the community. Their responsibilities are mixed.
The are also apprentices who are co-workers and volunteers but come to the community to learn biodynamic in the garden and or farm. They to work and live with companions.
The set up is so that there are houses:
St Martins ( John Pickes, John Sturgess, Ian Clarke, Jessica Gray, Belinda Rose, Guy Uta Oliver Sonja Dawson, + a male and female co-worker),
St Johns( Debbie Holt, Daniel Crader, Robert Booth, Neil Wallace, Owen flarety, Nina Gulbis, Sandra Henning William Yohanna Ruben Koester, and two coworkers) ,
St Francis( Roberto Meda, Samuel Ballard, Jane wyler, Alex Southorn, Richard Webb, Greg Cox, Mira & Soline Woitaschek Guillaume Patat and three co workers),
Pinehurst house (Penny Cook, Simon Burger, Daisy Hodlin, Eden Cormack, Claudia Weis, and a co worker),
Meteor( Ulf and Matthias Nilsson), Farm house( Joan and Michael Phillips), friars cottage( Markus Kate Amy Jennifer Brendan Konig ).
These are the homes of the community members. At first we will focus on the first four as they have a mix of companions and co-workers.
The structure is such that each house has ‘House Parents’ they are there to be long term support for the members of the house. They may or may not have children. The children are known as co-workers as well. Such a family environment can be beneficial for companions and co-workers.
There is two or three short term co-workers which live in the house. They are an important social outlet for companions.
All co-workers do much motivational work, the farm life can be demanding.
Apprentices may live in a house as well or a caravan in the summer. They can be extra support in the house but are mostly involved in the work outside. The apprentices can bring passion and energy too the work which can be beneficial for companions and coworkers.
Farm house is home to a retired couple, they are a great spiritual base for the community. The ex gardener, now financier and his son live in Meteor. In Friars cottage lives the farmer and his family. They are waiting to go into the new farm Gullivers which is an extension too Sturts and is where the future is looking too expand into.
So that’s almost all the members except the Summer helpers who are normally young people still in school coming for a few months to help in the garden as there is much too do. They do not have to be responsible for companions.
The other groups of people who come into the community are the employed people: Two maintenance men, two cooks, a butcher, a cheese maker, an accountant and a book keeper. Every three months a chiropodist comes as well.
Due to us having a shop there are the volunteers who work there as well as customers who come and go.
There is a waldorf school called Aquilla which is on the farm. The parents, teachers and pupils are also around the community.
The rhythm and ritual on the farm is strong and works deep.
After the morning work we come in for breakfast.
In Saint Johns we eat at 7:45am, a candle is lit and the meal blessed.
The meal lasts half and hour and then we say thank you and the candle is off. We wash up then have some 15 min before Morning Prayer.
The first communal bell goes at 8:45 and most of the community gather in the club house in a circle.
When the last person is in, the door is shut and the candle lit.
A different verse is read each week from the New Testament of the Bible.
After this we all say blessing together.
Then we sing a song for the day. Normally one which mirrors the season.
The candle then is put out by he who lit it.
Then the work leaders can share with everyone what work the different teams ( farm forest garden) will do in the day.
What is on in the evening and any other matters are shared.
Then we start the day!
Work can vary in the each day for each team. There is a morning tea break for those on the land in the tea room which is above the machine shed. Across from the club house. There are stairs next to the gate into
Meteor field.
People who are working in the houses have their tea there.
Tea break is a very communal time of coming together and having a breather for 15 mins before the second half of the mornings work continues.
Before and after tea break is 1 ¾ hours.
Then its lunch time. We all come in, change and aim to start by 1:00pm.
As with breakfast we have a candle and bless.
We are blessed to have organic if not biodynamic food on the table almost every day.
With washing up we hope to finish by 2:00 for rest hour.
This is a great time of the day. We normally sleep in this hour, digest our food and are ready for the afternoon work from 3:00.
We work till 4:15 then have our afternoon tea break. From 4:30 till 5:45 is the last quarter of the days out door work. Normally.
Afternoon milking is done in this quarter.
A year in the community is inspired by the festivals. Many of the Christian festivals are celebrated and they provide spiritual nourishment as well as a change to the normal day by day rhythm. They are celebrated with thought and love.
Bible suppers and festive suppers can be the most spiritual time of the community experience. These are usually opened by a time (15min) of silence, which a house sits in around a lit candle. Everyone in fine attire. Then the light is transferred into the dinning area where it finds another candle or more. Some words are read and everyone sits. We share anything we like or what has been happening in the week or what to look forward to. Juice is poured, bread broken and we eat. There is normally a pudding which makes things even more special for those of us who find nourishment in treats. We clear up and read the verse which has been read in the morning gathering over the week. We are able to go into more detail in talk on the verses if anyone wishes.
There are talks, movies, plays, parties and prayers.
There are meetings; many meetings are an integral part of the such a community’s life. As decisions are on consensus people need to meet to discuss and find understanding.
There are days off and holiday time which provide great breathing space and recharging of energy.
Matter:
The community’s ability to sustain its self is based on time and money.
Through time the fixed assets have amounted as the needs arose.
The ability to accumulate 25 years of matter on top of the land is based on understandings and agreements. These are possible because the companions are supported financially by the government. The government also recognizes the work which is done on the farm and the community benefits through that. The companions receive a supported living fund which helps with living costs.
We are apart of the Sheling Trust who pay the farm a fee each year for the produce: beef, lamb, pork, cheese, yogurt and vegetables which we produce for them.
In the community none of the co workers receive a salary.
The agreements are such that a long term co-worker is able to have there needs met. They volunteer their time with the awareness of the community they communication with the caring group and reach consensus if a need is questionable.
The short term co-workers receive a co-worker car, their post paid for, £35 a week, food, accommodation, an English course once a week if they need, and a foundation course once a week if they choose. They may study an instrument and are aided on an individual basis for any extra needs.
Apprentices receive training on the farm and experience weekend courses as well as bi annual block courses which last 5 days.
Only until recently due to changes in government support for people with disabilities has Camphill communities been able to rest easier on the financial side of things.
As I understand and have experienced, now that there is capital available it needs management direction and purpose.
The inevitable fact is that more waste does occur and there is less of a need for saving. Although the community does still maintain a will to be as materialistically independent as possible and the drive for harmonious sustainability runs strong.
The community members are the biggest asset. The people you meet as you come into this space are the core. Such beautiful individuals all doing there best to live in community.
In my time here I can say I have grown on many levels.
Physically through the work my body has developed. In this I have found mental stability in that I am rooted to the earth and know how to root myself. Less sensitive in subtle worlds I am more sensitive in physical ones.
I feel apart of the environment, apart of the earth.
Through observation, experience and training I have developed mentally with skills which I hope to develop further.
Emotionally I feel my ego body is strong. Through the motivational day by day work I can feel skin of strength about my being.
My visions on community have shape and form of which I could never have imagined.
Camphill life and its strong rhythm have shown me all sides of living in community. There are things which I have found to be challenging but mostly have found things that are integral to any holistic community picture.
So definitely go for a visit. Stay a night if you can. It’s easy to find and when your there someone will always show you the way.
I hope you enjoy yourself and have the time of your life!

All things

2006-10-27T21:21:00.000+01:00

So then. We were all going into the club house on a pretty mild( english style,, warmish really!)Having a most interesting talk on a type of Zen buddist Anthroposophical meditation. Pretty cool. Clearing the mind 20 min, some walking in a circle , also clearing i believe,, Inner outer macro micro as above so below realisational assistance. Then sitting again and breathing properly . something,, In and out then inbetween the next breathe a focus on the third eye and the realisation of I AM is meditated on in that moment ... then another in out, then IT SPEAKS in the throat chakra, then another breath then SHE FEELS in the heart and inout then HE WILLS in the next one down ,it is said too push the he wills attention down too the lower two ,,,, Soooo, then thats it,,, Well im sure i didn t get it exactly right as we only went over the theory ( the prac was the next day, i was working)) The man was Seedish and not the best english but some interesting stuff about the chakra association of old Rudy Steiner i would say...

So then we walk out side and she greets us... winters First hello... No actual frost is aggreed apon amongst farmers but still it was a nice hello...
Things warmed up today though but we are due to see this trend stick!!!

Write right

2006-10-23T23:14:00.000+01:00

Some times u just need to write, who knows

why of for what reason. Or wether its an hour past the sensible time to sleep. The compelling urge to stay awake and blab on about who knows what is of greater consequence than to slip peacefully into the dream world.

Well the things are telescopical i suppose on the lines of stretching someing out. I mean if one is holding a sea mans telescope the wrong way around and one finds the smaller end is at the other side and that you can look right through this thing and objects are far away that are close and if u flip it then those that are far become close .. So which way is it ?.... WHich way do we hold our perceptions to the world.

What coloured glass to we house in windows?

Its tough because nothing is wrong, well many things are wrong in Life but too some one else it is completely justified.. How do i justifuy my actions to make myself feel better about the way i am and or the descisions i take .

The Rain has come. For some time now it falls . On the soft grass.Soak soak it takes it in, down to the root the water feeds. through the soil, she does breathe. Back up in growth the grass does bring new life, not only in spring. echos of last thoughts do hang about, i could name a few, How about you? Are we so different ? How far are we from our brothers and sisters of the natural world? Is our emancipation so far detached? YES! In many ways we are its true, from a distance we do see the parallels and can relate. And do. But when we take the responsibilty to take a life out of compassion. What does that say. And what is compassion??? ( not retorical) The chicken cant walk, its leggs don't work properly . ~~This is the voice of my conscience~ I must be in peace with Death as with Life....

2006-10-23T13:58:00.000+01:00

sO nOT THIS LAST weekend but the one before, we saw a massive rising up of the fruits of Fungus. Mezzzmorizzed i walked the forests in search of the Boar who had gotten out. Entranced by the beautiful Fly Garics which we more than plentiful.
Knowing well their psycodelic potential i could not help but gazz and be in Awww. I think even without that awareness they are still beautiful and entrancing.
The board was not found, i had some strong suspisions that he encountered one of these very welcoming fruits and took to it. He was back the next morning for breakfast. We brought him in the following day.
A couple of evenings or so after this experience i was fascinated to know who or what was eating these mushies as many had been munched.As with this one in the pic. One of the culmrits as i am sure there are many is the slugg,,, yes the cosmic slugg has been caught in the act of consuming an entire mushy. Notably it was not the type of red and white but those were found near by with sluggy holes in them.
Makes you wonder~~~~#####~~~~

The begining

2006-10-22T22:04:00.000+01:00

since this has been created on this evening of a Sun day, i had better make an entry to avoid any whirl pool of reality sucking this potentially positive blogg down the infinite hole of nothing, whereas i dont ever put anything in again.#
My intentions here are to ignite this Blogg with my profile from Sturts farm and then have some way of showing all the photos i have been taking this year( possibly not possible) .
Following that to log in on my next year of Biodynamic discovery in the garden..

My first yar has been supendous,,, i am most glad for my transformations and re formations.. Blessings be too Camphills rigidity or rythmn it has served me very well. Blessings too all the Beautiful people on Sturts Farm who i have lived with this past year. Deep respect for the animal beings whom i have cared and whom have cared for me. Beholding the prospect of Biodynamics in rural Africa is where i am gawking.

Not too be a quota or anything ,, not quite sure what that means but Something old Rudy Steiner said was heard by me on my first block course on the Plant.

Seek the truly practical, material life But seek it in such a way that It does not numb you to the spirit that works within it.Seek the Spirit, But not out of spiritual lust or spiritual egoism.Seek it rather that you wish to become selflessIn the practical life of the material world.Turn to the ancient principle:Spirit never without matter, matter never without spirit.And say to yourself: We will do everything material within the light of the spiritAnd will seek the light of the spiritIn such a way that enkindles warmth in usFor our practical deeds.
Rudolf Steiner