Biodynamic Farming with Stewart Lundy
Stewart has been farming since 2010 with his partner and wife Natalie. Their diversified farm has a market garden, small orchard, cattle, sheep, hogs, and more. The farm sells beef, lamb, pork, attends farmers markets, and offers a small CSA. Stewart studied biodynamics with Hugh Courtney and is an independent researcher, amateur alchemist, and spiritual practitioner. A major focus for him is showing individuals and communities how to provide their own fertility needs from within their own resources for the sake of individual and collective health, freedom, and creative expression. He also travels and gives workshops and presentations as well as consults with growers across the world. At the Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamics (JPI), he seeks to provide practical biodynamic knowledge, grow the JPI farm organism, and aid the global legacy of quality biodynamic preparations.
In this episode Stewart explains to us the value of Biodynamic Farming as well as the “Preparations” and their purpose.
Here are the highlights:
Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf Schooling and Anthroposophy, was also the creator of Biodynamic Farming
His aim was to nutritionally feed human physicality and spirituality seeing them as both necessary
Beyond minerals and microbes, he saw that vital forces led to the terrain in which microbes could act as intermediates of plants and minerals
The heart of his farming system are the “preparations” that target the restoration of the these vitals forces and reconnect humans to the cosmos
The horn manure preparation is the foundational remedy and restores the primordial energy of the cosmos
Crystals are the progenitors of plants in a metaphysical sense. Based on this, the silica preparation is the next remedy and is made of quartz that
Horsetail is the closest plant to the mineral kingdom and the primary way biodynamic farmers control fungi in the soil
The Yarrow preparation takes the flower and stuffs it into cow bladder. It is hung in a tree to dry then planted in the ground. The essence of yarrow flower acts as a stimulate to the soil.
Another preparation is to stuff Chamomile into cow intestine like sausage links and add to a compost pile. This helps manage off gassing.
The next preparation is Nettle stuffed into a terracotta and buried for a year. This preparation provides a full spectrum multivitamin for the soil.
Biodynamic farmers also treat their compost as if it were human, giving it aromatic and medicinal herbs
For more info on Stewart Lundy go to https://substack.com/@brujodinamico
For more info on our upcoming Remineralize & Heal Your Gut Summit go here