Posted on Oct 25, 2016
By H ilary Higginbotham
Just outside of Nashville, Tennessee, 8,000 beautiful acres of rich bottomland cradled by the Cumberland River make up an area called Bells Bend. A few years ago, community members saved this rural, agricultural land from a huge development. Bells Bend is a place where community members of all ages welcome Nashville friends and enjoy weekly potlucks, square dances, harvest festivals, and farm harvest days. Most everyone you meet in Nashville smiles broadly when you mention the farm community in Bells Bend. It’s known for sharing, dancing, amazing food, creative partnerships, and rich community history intermingling with energized young folks drawn to traditional ways and food you can feel great about.
When Jeff Poppen , the biodynamic farming “father figure” here in the Southeast, helped get several new...
Posted on Oct 18, 2016
By Beth Corymb , Meadowlark Hearth Biodynamic Seed Initiative , Scottsbluff, NE
7th installment in the Tierra Viva series, the theme of the 2016 Biodynamic Conference in Santa Fe, NM, November 16-20.
It is another beautiful day on the high plains of Nebraska. The air is clear and the surrounding hills white. Their sandstone shines out to us as we harvest our vegetables and vegetable seed crops. Out here on the Nebraska plateau we are picking seed from our biennial crops of carrot, beet, and onion seed, then letting them dry until they crackle under our threshing feet. 13-pea-seed-stomp-rs-4.jpgPea seed stomp
The horned cows of our micro raw milk dairy come running when I call them. They know that yodel means rotten cantaloupe, their favorite snack. We humans get the best...
Posted on Oct 5, 2016
By Courtney White
The (boring) Carbon Cycle Carbon is the most important element on Earth and the best way to begin explaining its significance is with the terribly important carbon cycle. The trouble is whenever I see the word ‘cycle’ my eyes start to glaze over. It doesn’t matter if it is the water, mineral, energy, nutrient, or some other cycle critical to our existence, for some reason my attention begins to wander the instant I see the word. I remember attending a conference years ago where a speaker displayed an image of the nitrogen cycle on a farm he was studying. It had something like sixty-four separate arrows flowing in every possible direction, including in circles. I took one look at the image and immediately put my pen down. No amount of notetaking was going to make sense of this cycle when I tried to explain it later....
Posted on Sep 27, 2016
By Patricia Frazier
Reprinted from the Fall/Winter 2016 issue of Applied Biodynamics , the periodical of the Josephine Porter Institute (JPI). Visit their site to see free sample issues, subscribe, or purchase single issues.
Fifth installment in the Tierra Viva series, the theme of the 2016 Biodynamic Conference in Santa Fe, NM, November 16-20.
My neighbor state, New Mexico, has always had a tender spot in my heart. Having lived and farmed in Colorado most of my adult life, New Mexico represents a refuge of beauty, spiritual renewal, and warmth in the depths of winter, found in her warmer climate south of here. Her red rock canyons, abundant hot springs, clear starry skies, and beautiful mountains are food for the soul and full of indigenous wisdom from her...Posted on Sep 13, 2016
By Michael Joshin Thiele
Reprinted from the Biodynamic Association of Northern California (BDANC) September Newsletter
Of late, I have found myself fascinated by Goethe’s phenomenological approach and dynamic way of thinking and seeing. It seems to invoke simultaneously both curiosity and bewilderment. In my search for resources on the topic, I came across the wonderful book Taking Appearance Seriously , by Henri Bortoft.
He describes phenomenology as “taking the ground away from under our feet, whilst at the same time giving us a sense of being where we always have been — only now recognizing it for the first time”. He continues to explain that “the phenomenological approach makes us shift from what we experience into the experiencing of what is experienced”. Intrigued by the complexity and subtleness of this approach, it made me...
Posted on Aug 9, 2016
Excerpt from Light Root Community Farm 's Summer Newsletter (Boulder, CO)
We are in the midst of the hazy summer dream time here on the farm — long hot days abuzz with activity. The days seem to run into one another, waking early and working late into the evenings on the farm. Our summertime schedule is a solid rhythm of early morning milking and farm chores, mid-day lunch break and siesta time to escape the heat of the day, and when the heat breaks we emerge back out for an evening session of farm chores and other various projects as the sun sets behind the foothills. Farming is not your typical 9-5 occupation. Our work day is directed by the seasonal rhythms, the needs of the animals, and of the overall needs of the farm. These rhythms are balanced with the needs of our family life, and they are very much...
Posted on Aug 4, 2016
By Steven McFadden
Reprinted from Chiron Communications
As we are rocked by repeated waves of climate change, and sharp shifts in politics, economics, and society, something durable is called for — something strong, wise, rooted in the land, waiting at last to find a home in our souls. The core native knowings that have been part of culture and agriculture on this land for 10,000 years or more can enhance our capacity to respond adroitly to the dissolving and shattering forces aroused in our era. For the sake of integrity and resilience, it’s time finally to consciously graft the variety of cultures that have come to roost on North America with the rootstock.
succulent-garden-new-mexico.jpgThe rainbow array of cultural and agricultural ways that have entered onto the continent from Europe, Africa, Asia, and southern latitudes have never...
