and you thought you were a farmer huh?

Ha! now i know what it means to farm. to live, walk and dream your daily routine, your future plans and fantasy's, and your worst living nightmares.
sorry its been so long, i think of you all often and wish i could tell you all of the things that have happened, good and bad in my life on this farm in the last month.
short of it:
workshop- 40 people for 3 days on the farm. feeding 40 people (plus all the livestock) and keeping everyone watered during the hottest weekend of the year, learning, lectures, great conversation, networking with bio-community of the northwest....... exciting until......
mad cow- 2yr old bitch of a heifer gored the woman i work for twice then trampled her, not 3 feet from my horrified and helpless eyes. and the workshop must go on, people arrive not even an hour latter. the bad cow at this point in isolation in an upper Field, she proceeds to jump 4 fences and walk very near to innocent workshops twice, and scare the shit out of me completely.
slaughter- killing some of my animals i had come to be good friends with
haying- crazy fun, then the allergy's hit and my head felt like a football for a week, and im still blowing massive amounts of snot out my nose 3 weeks latter.
Farm sitting- last week my bosses had to leave for 5 days. leaving the farm in my care and responsibility. the very morning they left i woke to cows screaming all over the property and knew something was wrong. our 2000lb bull had literally squished a brood cow and in his exhaustion and her injured state the yearling males proceeded to jump her, trample her and injure her badly. i couldn't get one of them off of her at one point, had to run and get help. i fenced her off to no avail, the yearling males would run straight through electric fencing, must be all those hormones in the air. then had to move the whole herd to another pasture. this past week i have learned how to keep a down cow alive. homemade bloat cures, hip shifting massaging and stretching her legs. hauling five gallon buckets of watter and lettuce to her twice a day.
i haven't thought of anything other than keeping that cow alive for days. the boss man has returned and i can let go a little. trying to stay sane amid the insanities of the natural world. the brutality and rawness of it all is a little too much for me in my exhausted state.
oh, i also got chased by hungry big pigs, smart animals. they knew where i was running to and even going through a building to escape out the other side to go and get help they were waiting for me at the other dore. i was trapped. thank god for telephones.
extensive rambling. sorry.
hope some of it makes since. im so tired i feel like i could just die. but happy.
i am proud that i have risen to the challenges physically and mentally of the highest standards i have ever encountered, set upon me by my boss. and as tired as i may be i still sit down at sunset (if im lucky)knowing i worked as hard as i could. knowing that i did the best job that i could. and think how great my life is and how lucky i am to be learning more than i ever thought possible in one of the most beautiful places i have ever lived.
love you all and hope to have time this weekend to work on the assessment and read all of the posted blogs i have missed.
peace and farming, its what makes the world go round.
keep fighting the good fight.
erin

Ode to the strimmer

I love strimmers aka brushcutters. I bought my first strimmer when I had my market garden in Germany - a demo model Husqvarna: until then I had always associated the brand Husqvarna with sewing machines but the dealer convinced me that it was one of the best brands and this one was special with anti vibration handle so you wouldn't get the numb fingers syndrome which in the end leads to loss of sense of temperature. I loved it, I strimmed many an acre on my market garden in Germany and used it as a weeding machine, harvester and composter all-in-one. My Husqvarna lasted 3 years: until I had some volunteers working on the farm who didn't know that a strimmer has a 2-stroke engine and needs a petrol-oil mixture. So they filled it with straight petrol and the engine seized up: end of my lovely Husqvarna. That was in Holland and I went off to the mechanics (Ramon came along) and we had a choice between a cheap yellow one and a more expensive red one. Ramon wanted the yellow one but I decided on the red one because that was a Honda 4-stroke machine which meant there couldn't ever be a mistake any more in not mixing the oil in because it uses straight petrol. Sadly I sold the business soon afterwards and the Honda strimmer with it. At Emerson I bought a Husqvarna second hand: stupid. Never ever buy a second hand strimmer! If a strimmer is good the owner will use it until it dies, if a strimmer is bad or starts to have problems you sell it on eBay. The Husqvarna had some service on and off but has been composting for the last couple of years in the lorry body. In Brasil we bought a second hand Stihl - and of course Cabaclo got the mixture wrong and off I went in our Volkswagen beatle (lovely but hugely inpractical without a boot - strimmer peeping out through the window while I was making my way to the nearest Stihl repair shop) to get a new cylinder. Back in the UK I thought I had a clever idea and I bought the cheapest strimmer they had in the Homebase and took out the 3 year extended warrenty: I thought that would give as a sort of monthly subscription on new strimmers whenever the thing would die. And so it went: that year we went three times to Homebase for a new strimmer, but unfortunately we were obviously not the only ones whose strimmer died whenever we tried to use it for more than 5 minutes so they were out of stock most of the time. We still have the last specimen lying composting in the lorrybody next to the Husqvarna...
So - but now... I bought a Stihl.... The Rolls Royce among the strimmers. Expensive, made in Germany by real underground blacksmithing dwarfs, put together by Swiss elves with the knowhow of ancient watch makers - a shining example of excellence. So today I took delivery of my new coveted toy and went on strimming all those annoying nettles around my transplants - harbouring the worst mistake God ever created. The strimmer is my new weapon against people's enemy number one: these slimy, grey-black horrible disgusting little buggers, these all-devouring snotty intestines, these rampant jellyfish bogeys: SLUGS
Sometimes I have dreams of strimming my way through a whole avenue of slugs, their entrails splashing and slushing all about and me as the iron-clad hero saving humanity from this worst plague of all eternity...hmmm I like that vision

Anyway - bottom line: buy a strimmer, and if you do: buy a Stihl.

I'm off to Dartmoor for a few days (strimmer in my rucksack) and I wish you all a happy weekend!

Arjen

Locaturkeyvore

If it's not chickens, it seems, it's turkeys. The lovely little bundles of tweeting feathers have, till now, been housed just inside the sheep barn next to the farm dining room. They showed a disappointing tendency to attempt to experience reincarnation in the early stages of their journey to Christmas dinner. It was discovered by Raf & Stein that the special (and therefore expensive), turkey starter food we were buying in was too big. The turkeys obviously hadn't read the bag. So each morning we milled turkey food pellets into turkey food powder.

Today was turkey field day. So, scissors in hand, Raf and I set to cutting wings and putting turkeys in crates ready for transportation. New crates. Apparently turkeys can catch some fairly nasty things from chickens so we bought shiny new boxes for the single journey. I guess its not so important when they make the return trip, although I'm sure we'll at least power wash the crates.

Very hot day, but turkeys seemed to like their new home, immediately fnding the (deliberate) hole in the hurriedly constructed holding pen. They stay in the turkey field but penned up in up netting until they are big enough to have outgrown crow food.

Plucking good time to be had by all.

chlorine gas

thanks for your email robin... problem with chlorine is that one takes in most breathing it in whilst bathing since it vapourises so easily. it's actually very simple to get rid of chlorine since it vapourises if left to stand in an open container overnight. i'm no expert on plumbing so i have no idea how difficult it might be to do something with a water tank to allow this to occur. below i include an exchange of emails between me, matt and gregg re water. i will write to nik from water research to ask about how to do filtering/dechlorination on a whole house scale. if anyone is willing to offer advice or otherwise get involved in lobbying for this etc . then do let me know, i suppose the more people are on it the more likely it is to happen. equally from experience it can take half an eternity just to get someone to do a simple information gathering exercise, as i learned with steering group so sometimes better to do this oneself.. i suppose this was my main source of frustration.

2008/7/21 Gregg Davis :

Dear Adam;
Through the vision process the commitment was taken to address the food issue primarily through development of the integrated college garden, fundraising soon to begin and adverts for garderners out in the world. This is obviously more a middle term - longer term solution though i think a good one. Short term there hasnt been a specific call for all organic nor do we have funds for this at present. STudent reaction was pretty mixed on willingness to pay more for it. So with regret that will have to wait.
This is first time i am hearing this level of detail on water projects. I certainly dont have any problem with filters going in. Do you have a cost estimate for all houses and what kind of filters - i am pretty conversant with these issues from health point of view.
Longer term i think there is obviusly a great deal that we can and should be doing with a water research center right on our property!

Gregg Davis

2008/7/21 Gregg Davis :

Adam, additionally, the college is becoming more and more subject to UK legislation around Health and safety issues, or lets say the enforcement level is picking up so we'll want to ensure that any remedies we develop are harmonizing with those regs. I dont see an issue there but is something the college ignores at its peril.

----- Original Message -----
From: A Ortaa
To: gdavis@###ne.org
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 3:32 PM
Subject: Water and food

Greetings Gregg,

I have posed to Matt the question of whether anything had moved on with the questions of water and food quality, which I feel are of great importance and should not be neglected any further, the water in particular. This article outlines the effects of chlorine in one's water fairly succinctly:

http://www.netstarter.com.au/Content_Common/pg-chlorine-effects-in-water.seo

Below is our conversation, I have not heard anything more since:

[quote message:]

2008/6/17 A Ortaa :
All hail Matt,

A bit confused about the water question since Nick said that there was enough money in the student initiatives fund for a water filter for the kitchen and tearoom and John Wilkes said that he would be prepared to design a flowform for the tearoom. I told all this to Dave from Foundation who was going to find out more about which filter and talk more with the water folks etc, then get back to Steering Group. I take it this hasn't happened? The chlorine in the water is damn horrible, and this should not be put off any more, since it was clear to me in March that getting one filter was feasible. The short term action should be to put in at least one filter ASAP, I thought we had agreed on that, long term is installing proper filters in the houses, for which of course fundraising will be required.

About the food well no surprise, what you don't know doesn't hurt you say some, but did nothing become of the questionnaire q. asking if people would be prepared to pay more for all organic food? I want to know about this because I need to let the college know if I'm going to take meals next year. Not really sure if I want to continue with SG, since I intend to engage in various extra curricular things. Anyway thanks for replying to my message, perhaps now you wish you hadn't... but it seems crazy to me that people can go on drinking that bad water. Seems people will cease to notice even quite extreme things once they become accustomed to them. It's really not hard, the money is (or at least was) on the table! Speak to Nick again to confirm this, and if you would let me know how things progress.

Best,

A.

2008/6/15 Matt :
Hi Adam,
Sorry for the no reply, we've made some slow progress on the water front - the idea is currently that we will do the fundraising ourselves rather than relying on the college to pay for it, so a small group has been working on checking out the options and we will start a long-term fundraising campaign next year.. As for the food, not much has been done in Steering Group, but there is a VSG plan to bring back the garden in a big way and through that, supply the kitchen with BD veggies etc. Also it's hoped that a BD Nutrition course will be starting in the next couple of years, so that will no doubt be coupled with a greater consciousness of the nutritional value of the food we get in the college.. We'll mention both of these issues to the Management group when we meet them in the next week or two..
Just so you're aware, we've been talking about some changes to the format of SG and we're planning on meeting in the orientation week before term starts to discuss and formalize some of those ideas and plan for the term ahead, so it would be good if you can make it for that..
hope you're well, looking forward to seeing you in September,
take care,
Matt

[/end quote message]


Since the Steering Group was apparently unable to do anything more with this matter in my absence I ask whether you have any plans for improving the situation.

Warm Regards,

Adam

*********

have not yet read that article, but is it not the case that in praising what speculators do for markets necessitates remaining in the paradigm that a globalised market is a good thing?

if you ever find yourself with 90min to spare (yeah right... fortunately it's divided into 10 min sections here's a lecture on codex alimentarius.

Risk and Reward

Attached is a recent article from the Economist that gives a short and not totally convincing argument in favour of market speculators. However, it does give some key points regarding their activities. It discusses oil but the ideas are appilicable to soft commodities. Primarily, their involvement and effect is usually over exaggerated and they make a convenient scapegoat (especially where there is policy failure). Secondly, the benefits they provide, namely market liquidity, are usually ignored. The risks taken by speculators ensures price transparency and depth of market for those with something to sell. Without them, markets would tend to be fragmented and illiquid with prices guarded by the dominant buyers and sellers (in our case large landowners or farmers and supermarkets). This would increase profitability for those that can really manipulate markets: governments and cartels.

codex alimentarius and other insignificant musings

hello to those reading (arjen, kristof, robin?)

my health is unfortunately rather poor at present, i am seriously considering whether spending another 6 months imbibing and bathing in forest row's heavily chlorinated water is the best thing for me.

nice to hear about your plant communications kristof, this had been my intention in persuing bd, however at the moment constant tiredness largely limits my attention to the required movements for the job i am being asked to perform, whilst in better periods i am able to becomeconscious of these movements and likewise remember breathing. this i think is the foundation of conscious work with plant energies. but it is perhaps the unconscious/passive element, which needs to be combined with conscious 'research', i.e. posing a question, or attuning oneself to a certain frequency. this is something that standard education has given us no tuition in; for we are trained to be passive absorbers of information. likewise nice to hear that you are doing something of that calls upon the use of inspiration. i fear that i cannot say the same about packing vegetables. quite often i feel like i'm working in a factory here; it takes great effort to prevent robotism. i suppose most people don't have this struggle so i should be grateful for the opportunity (gurdjieffian approach). or masochism?

remembering to do energetic diagnoses of plant energies with hands has also been forgotten in the rush of farm life (who'd have thought), though i did manage to do this over the prep barrel, however we have only sprayed about 4 times, apparently too busy to do more (i am quite disillusioned about this supposedly being a biodynamic farm - it seems that the demeter stamp is a requirement of the rent agreement. one worker was even complaining about being made to stir preps.) the times that i did stir i entered into an altered state through the process. regular energetic exercises seem necessary to be able to start to trust one's hands, in my case qi gong/chi gung. sadly my vision is not so great for whatever reason, and visual reading of plant forms is likewise quite important in communicating with them i would say. would be interested to know how you enter into communication kristof... don't be afraid to tell us will you now?

anyway, here some links to keep one going:

Sonic bloom

Flower clock

on the gm resistance front, if you are not familiar with the codex alimentarius, it is perhaps advisable to become so. linked to in the title of this post is an interview with a man named ian crane discussing this agenda, as well as some relevant videos and links. in the light of such things a btec seems rather frivolrous... methinks ensnaring us in a theoretical frame of mind, when it is action that is called for.

one more article about a leaked world bank report on gm and biofuels.

robin i believe you never replied to my request for elucidation of speculation in food after i posted the last batch of articles on this topic.

blessings,

a.

Cherry Grower

ORGANIC GARDENER WANTED

Cherry Orchards Camphill Community, a residential therapeutic community in Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, is looking for an Organic Gardener.

The vegetable garden at Cherry Orchards is part of a small farm, including livestock. The one acre garden provides nearly all of our own vegetables and fruit, grown to Soil Association organic standards. This feeds a community of around twenty adults year round.

We are seeking an Organic Gardener to help us in this work. An understanding of organic horticulture is necessary, along with enthusiasm and a willingness to carry on learning. This may suit an individual seeking to build on their existing knowledge and experience in such work, and offers the potential for future development of the position here.

The position is full time; 37.5 hours per week; starting salary £15,600 per annum.

For an informal chat and further information please contact Adam on 0781 7173233

For written details please write to: Adam Hesketh, Cherry Orchards Camphill Community, Canford Lane, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol BS9 3PE , or e-mail: cherryorchards@camphill.org.uk

Closing date for applications 31st August 2008; interviews September 2008.

Angelic Organics

Arjen and I both had a similar meeting today. Arjen has floweritis and is obviously affected so forgot to relive this encounter with you all. However, I know that Arjen had a guest weeder in his flower garden today. I know 'cos the guest weeder wandered down to the farm and helped me fix the topper and chase some sheep. Who was the mystery farm hand? Farmer John! THE farmer John, of real dirt fame. So we chewed the cud for a few hours as we yielded wrenches and hammers, discussing BD, IFOAM, anthroposophy, mintill, S&P500, toplinks etc. A most entertaining afternoon.

Course over

Soooo that was the week course - 11 folks from the UK, US, Argentina and Canada for a week course on etheric forces... Always nice but it takes me away from the flowers and I don't think I'll do it again next year. I like the flowers!! Flowers rule!! Give me more flowers!! A flower in the morning, a flower in the evening, all over this world - yeeeheeee

Jardineiro full on! (click here for Bernie Krause)

Dear Classmates,

As Planet influences are clearly experienced on the personal life, the educational garden is finally being planted after a lot of preparational soil work and planning.
At the moment I am planting hedges around, beds with kitchen herbs in hexagonical shapes (John Wilks would be proude!), Solonaceaes, Rootvegetables and medicinal herbs.
I will leave some beds to plant with the children of course!

I am reading a book ¨the magic of Findhorn¨for the second time and it gives me a very good view on working with elemental and natural kingdoms. I am more talking to plants then to people at the moment.

Besides that I would like to show you the work of this man Bernie Krause, who works with sound recordings and measurement on health of the natural habitat or ecosystem.
I will invest in a quality portable sound recorder and hope to do my own experiments soon.
I would especially recommend the article from 96 in the magazine, the wild duck!

And besides Robin E. isn´t there anyone doing someting interesting worth sharing???

Big Hug
Kristof

General Motors

I do have something else to do, honest....I heard this earlier:

Genetic engineering. Not really engineering is it? The engineering equivalent of what geneticists do would be to throw lumps of concrete and steel into a river and if someone manages to walk across, call it a bridge.

Time for bed.

Test Card

Topping and test match. Bliss.

All day in the tractor with wonderful views of rolling Sussex countryside creating beautiful patterns whilst listening to England play magnificently at Lords (rare) against the dear South Africans (of which we have a few on the farm). A proper summers day (rain included).

Manure or Monsanto

Yesterday was all about compost and preparations (in the pouring rain). Today was all about cow sh*t. Remember the 500 we made last September and dug up in March, and how wet it was? It is still wet, so today we took it out of the jar and put it on a board in the sheep barn to dry out (it still smells). We also cut nettles and buried them.

First thing after breakfast we took 2 wheel barrows all the way to the top of the farm, where the cows needed to be moved from, and collected as much cow sh*t as we could. This was then taken back down to (Blue) Peter's garden and deposited in a brick lined pit (here's one I made earlier). This was prepped with compost preps and Hey pre(p)sto, cow pat pit preparation. We covered with wood and will revisit every month or so to stir and add preps.

David instigated this as we do not have enough compost for all the fields. Which seems odd as the farm feels intensive from a livestock perspective so one would expect there to be enough compost. We don't produce all our own feed (buying in field beans [23t last May] and chicken feed). So a few imbalances to the farm organism .

Attached article from FT (click on title) is one of the better written giving the proGM argument. It is still blatantly corporate hype and all the sources are industry sponsored bodies. It gives no conclusive arguments and again, much of it is jam tomorrow (8-10yrs for GM wheat, thank goodness).

And what of herbicides? Check this out from The Observer for a great organic PR exercise by Dow Chemicals.

Another day, another chicken

Rain, cool, needed. Chickens, hmmmm.

We have too many chickens. How does that work? Surely there is a well thought out and designed system. Huge investment went into the field, houses and processing unit. Chicken is the in meat; four legs bad, two legs good (to completely misquote Orwell); red meat is 'bad' for you, white meat is 'good' for you; free range chicken is all over the press from J. Oliver to H. Fearnly -Whittingwhatever. And we have too many.

Well, we did. Since Max took over the chickens from Neil and we have recovered from the Feb break-in, the survival rate has shot up and so from 150ish we now have 200ish per week (as we should from a fortnightly 425 day olds delivery). However, Richard is out of here from friday (off to Devon with Melanie to work for a farm selling its meat online), Barry is on holiday until Monday and we just aren't getting the customer numbers in the shop (we still sell out of Sirloin and Fillet pretty quickly though).

Plaw Hatch is not really selling any meat at the moment, certainly none of Tablehursts, due to the lack of a shop manager (Alex has gone and a replacement has yet to be found).

So we had too many chickens. Fortunately, a call to a London butcher saw us lose 30 a week at the right price and, whilst rehanging their sign with the JCB, 12 were sold to The Chequers. Still, with the right marketing and a little more focus we should ideally be able to sell everything through the shop. Work in progress. Also of note, The Foresters now sells only organic food, including Tablehurst sausages. Trebles all round.

Tomoko

Dear students in BD agriculture training,



I am considering applying to Emerson Collage Biodynamic Agriculture Program for September 2008 and would very much like to hear current students’ voice on the program and a life in Emerson Collage. I understand that you are busy with your practicum now. If you can spare time with me talking over the phone, via email, or in person, it would be a great help for me in making this big (and expensive) decision. I am now in England and would like to visit Emerson Collage and a few other training centers in the third week of July between July 14th and 18th. If you are happy to provide me your honest feedback of the program, would you send me your contact information and best time to reach you if you do not mind me calling or visiting you?



My email address is:

tomokoku@hawaii.edu



Many thanks and enjoy your practicum,



Tomoko Kurokawa

Wheat from the chaff

Head of large agribusiness company, Syngenta, talks honestly about GM reality and prospects and it gets reported! That qualifies as a miracle in the current climate where US Agriculture secretary talks nonsense, UK Agriculture minister talks nonsense and most newspapers/media are reporting GM as a solution rather than giving a balanced analysis (click on title).

There are a few exceptions - the BBC science editor on Newsnight reported recently that Europe relaxing GM regulations will not infact help lower animal feedstock costs. In the year to May 08 the fastest rising price of animal feedstock was Argentine GM soya, +100%, which has full approval for import to EU.

Also, the Daily Mail (of all organs) published a more balanced view recently.

etc.

We have been bailing nonGM grass into silage. Good year for silage, not too much rain, dried quickly in bright sunshine and light breeze, bailed and wrapped in a couple of days. 800 bails so far. Barn dance friday so also unwrapping large round straw bails and making small bails (200) as the rats have chewed through the string of all the small bails made last year.

Barley is ok in some fields but well mown by rabbits, deer and geese in others. Preps are getting sprayed, fields are getting topped, animals have been vaccinated (Plaw Hatch chose not to interestingly). Generally going well. Had to worm the spring lambs and ewes saturday as 2 died from a worm picked up from deer. Clean grazing is tough when carrying the amount of animals we are at the moment and raises a question of intensity. More fencing is part of the solution.

A good spring and early summer so far, bit of rain would be nice especially for Stein's recently planted pear trees, they desperately need water.

Job at Glencraig

Camphill was established to teach, train and care for those with learning disability and continues to do this after 60 years. From the beginning the intention was to do work not as a “job” in the usual sense, but as a way of life.

The Camphill Community at Glencraig, near Holywood in County Down, was the first Camphill Centre in Northern Ireland. It opened in April 1954

Vacancy for Bio-Organic/Biodynamic Farmer

Camphill Community Glencraig urgently requires a trained Bio-Organic/Biodynamic Farmer with enthusiasm to join our community and develop our working farm.

We have a dairy and beef herd, pigs and crops, and willing hands to make farming a social endeavour. Glencraig has been farmed organically and biodynamically for over 50 years and is looking for new and dynamic ways of working into the future.

If you are interested please contact us and come for a visit – we would love to meet you. Families are very welcome. For further information please contact Anja in Co-worker Recruitment and Welfare Group:
Camphill Community Glencraig
4 Seahill road
Craigavad Email: office@glencraig.org.uk
Holywood Telephone: 02890423396
BT18 0DB Fax: 02890428199
Northern Ireland

Also Vacancy for a Young Farm Worker (Volunteer) Glencraig Farm warmly invites a young person looking for farm work. Little or no experience needed. For further information, please contact us using the details as above.

FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO www.glencraig.org.uk

Tablehurst 08 in pictures

Rather than send Arjen all my photos I have learnt how to publish them myself (click on title).

They came from outer space

So... I had never heard of this until now. China has been sending seeds into space and then growing them, resulting plants are considerably larger than their earthbound brothers and sisters, and in some cases say the Chinese state scientists, higher in nutritional quality. Not necessarily something to be freaking out about as some doubtless will. Perhaps this was how the ancient astronaut Zarathustra got agriculture rolling, together with the use of potentised preps. Can anyone offer a biodynamic explanation?

Links:

http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/sunday/2008/05/11/will-giant-vegetables-help-solve-world-food-shortage-98487-20413648/

http://www.mindfully.org/GE/Space-Seed-Disaster.htm#seed

P.S. Good to hear that the proposal has been approved. Erin, if you're reading this please send me an email: ormr(at)mail2eris.com

GM Watch

Send this article to anyone who is not reading though the lines of the current extensive press campaign by the biotech industry to use the commodity price rise as an argument for the greater use of GM crops (click on title).

Doug Gurian-Sherman, as well as being a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, was formerly the EPA's biotech specialist and an advisor on biotech to the FDA.

Couchgrass symphony

Ooo Couchgrass,
I have forked you out
for many days
from dawn till sunset
on my own on the field
As your roots break to easily
You make me dig like a pig

It is a mental exercise not to look
to you being outnumbered and I being alone
with only one fork to pick
Yet, as I find a rithm
of shoots of pain in my back
I smile in the burning sun and now that one day
I might be gone

(fragment of "poems for dying goats")

New pictures

I just uploaded new pictures from Robin at Tablehurst, Kristof in Brasil and from my flower garden. Please use the link on the right hand side of the page...

And yes, please do send me more pictures so we all get a flavour of your farm!

Arjen

All proposals approved

Dear biodynamic students!

Just to let you know that all proposals that the Vision and Strategy Group has been developing have been approved in the meeting on the 1st June. The highlights are:
- extension of the 'Centre for Foundation Studies'
- big campus renovation
- strengthening of the BD department: establishment of the Rachel Carson Centre which includes the fulltime biodynamics course, CPD and short courses in biodynamics, anthroposophical nutrition courses with Wendy cook and the establishment of a college garden with a fulltime employed gardener.

We will move back to the green Carson building and we are in the process of hiring a fulltime gardener. The idea is to provide as much biodynamic college-grown food to the kitchen, possibly including eggs and fruit.

I am working hard at the moment to get the timetable filled with competent guest teachers - there is no prospect for a fulltime permanent colleague for me at the moment but there is someone who could start in 2009. As soon as I have a draft timetable I will email it to you all.

I hope you're all enjoying your placement and please keep posting your blogs here!

All the best

Arjen

Strawberry Moon

Hello volks,

What to say... things are growing at an amazing rate (weeds included), we are harvesting lettuce (loads of it), parsley, chives, dill, kohlrabi, broccoli, and yesterday for the first time strawberries! How amazing to have them as the first fresh fruit of the year. Interestingly this coming full moon is known by Algonquin tribes as the strawberry moon (link). These last days we have had our first proper rain since Mayday, (all this time it has been hot and sunny, hot and sunny, hot and sunny...) nonetheless the irrigation remains in operation 24/7. Hayfever is quite a challenge, this next week I think will be the peak time for grass pollen, must remember to keep taking homeopathic tablets. Something will be going down here at Midsummer, not yet quite sure what, can hopefully infuse whatever happens with some pagan spirit, Anthro festivals can be so dull... anyway here are some photos, including our wicker man from the Beltane fire:


Over and out (in the cosmos),

A.

*********

“And now these peoples were pressed by urgent necessity to settle down in one place forever and to eat their bread from a tilled earth! Long they resisted. For it was one of their most fundamental beliefs that free, uncontrolled nature was more than man; and that it was sinful to impose great changes upon the earth. Yet large scale farming—plowing and sowing—was that not the greatest compulsion, the most dire control, men could exert over nature?…When the new nations tilled the soil, they did so with a bad conscience. The thousand customs that surrounded every act of plowing, sowing, harvesting, and baking were spells calculated to ward off the vengeance of the offended spirits of the earth.

“…the Germans considered the tempest the creator and changer of the world. They would have shaken their heads at the civilized, rationalistic explanation of Hippocrates (460-359 B.C.) : ‘Anemos rheuma kai scheuma aeros [wind is a flowing and pouring of air].’ The power that broke forest and rocks; the force that heaved the waves of the North Sea—this could not merely be ‘air’!

“It was necessary to pay close attention to the figures the wind stirred up in the waving fields of grain. The spirits of vegetation, foreseeing that their death was near, were bent on mischief.

“The yellow fields of waving grain—to modern man a symbol of peace—in those times concealed terrors. In the waving of the ears, in the low hissing of the tufts, dwelt offended spirits.…The northern peoples heard ‘riders hunting thru the corn’ or ‘a witch twisting.’ But above all animals seemed to be at home in the grainfield, animals with a cap of invisibility. The effect of their motion could always be felt.…When the wind descended a sharp curve, people said ‘the hares have run thru there.’ And when the ears, pack upon pack, with yellow hind quarters and flanks, pressed panting against the ground, it was said; ‘Now the wolves are running.’

“These grain fields had come from Asia and Africa. Only two or three hundred years before sacred forest had stood in this place, cool and richly watered. The murmur of the twigs had been familiar, not uncanny like this silence of the grain. The forest had always been been the friend of the Teutons; it had been hostile only for the Romans when the Germans slaughtered them in the Teutoburger Forest. The brightness of the noonday sun upon the fields was again the ’corn mother,’ going about her field and searing the Germans' hearts with her fiery breath.

“Shouting, he ran amid the grain, cutting and slaughtering the ears. He had no feeling of this as peaceful work; it was an act of war that he performed when the tufted stalks of rye sank before his blade. Thinner and thinner grew the ranks of his foe, and finally the entire strength of the field fled into the ‘last sheaf.’ The last sheaf was the subject of many rituals—rituals that were a compound of fear and triumph. Among some tribes it was not cut, but ‘taken prisoner,’ placed upon a wagon, dressed in clothes, and the women danced around it, mocking it. Among other tribes it was honored: it was brought to a barn, but not threshed like the others. A traveling stranger must be given it to take along—perhaps this wanderer was odin?—or the sheaf was untied and then strewn over the field to placate the earth.”

~ exerpted from Six Thousand Years of Bread; Its Holy and Unholy History by H.E. Jacob

The Soul of the Farm

Stein & Nor will get married on Saturday, at Brambletye, in the barn (concrete floor laid last week, chestnut panelling the week before). Stein's brother Tom is working at the orchard along with Thomas and Daniel (from Holland). Regine (german agriculture student) and Joanne (from South Africa) have just left after a 6 week stay. Max II (german schoolboy) has just joined us for his 6 week draught. Terry, Clive and Stuart have been enthusiastic mucker outters (which I for one am grateful) and are all currently at their respective homes, making mealtimes very quiet affairs. Peter is taking all three of them to France in September for a week. David has committed to the farm and is very excited that the new minimum tillage system he has been enthusing about, the farm now has on order. Max I has collected 3 swarms and is becoming quite the resident apiarist; lectures for 2nd year BD students perhaps? Richard has taken a job in Devon and so we are looking for a new butcher to work with Barry. Duncan left for Sturts Farm in March and so when Peter finishes the new rooms we should have space for another apprentice. Gaia is 18 next month and is hoping to be allowed back into all the pubs in the village from which she is currently barred. Jors has bought himself a new landrover and is as happy as his pigs in sh*t. It was Raf's birthday today (31) so Steffi put out flowers for breakfast and we broke with our muesli & toast routine to have celebratory croissants. Nor cooked lunch, she takes it turns with Sandia and Lucy. We have started to eat lunch in the garden. Charlotte has yet to get into full swing in the cafe but is making chicken pies and doing a BBQ outside the shop on Saturdays. Gaye stopped by for a couple of weeks in her camper van and will be back for the barn dance. Mark is progressing with the accommodation and vegetables, ably aided by Rainer and Tom. The children, Hannah, Noah, Jacob, Jors & Birik are all really enjoying the sunshine, each other and exploring the mucked out barns.

Last week I visited an arable/suckler herd 1,500 acre farm in Hampshire. £1.5m worth of machinery and 2 men (both divorced). They were very proud of their gross margins but the conversation was short and a bit dull in comparison.

If it aint' broken...

Greetings from DHF! I finally broke something last week... We had a weeding gang down from Birmingham, Polish and Indian workers. I spent two days driving the 'lazy' weeder with 9 people on the back... 200m an hour along the carrot beds. The damper ,or 'stay' ..the thing that holds the back window open was broken... so it was propped open with a stick. The stick was fine until I moved it to raise the window and rested it on the draught linkage...so when I raised the machine at the headland the window snapped off ... All was saved by the power cable to the wiper motor which amazingly took the full weight of the window and prevented a potentially nasty scene where the weeding team get showered with broken glass... so its a good story Goatman!
And in other news, I am about to move into a Duchy house nearby.. the student who was living there has left so David offered it to me.. The Firm have a number of properties for their staff
; i went to Freds house last week, an idyllic place up a quiet lane behind Highgrove...
Cottages in this area sell for half a million quid..... if you work for the Duchy it costs about £25 per month! This really got me thinking.....

Red Meat Only

Monday. Chickens. Nuff said.

Goliath fighting the little sister of David

Bon dia a todos,

This week one of the farming families announced they would stop producing. The two farmers worked with their wives and sons on 9 hectares of land. With tears in their eyes they came from the meeting, one angry and the other completely lost.
They did not manage the discipline of working independent, could not follow the contract, but loved their job. When I asked what they would do now they said `working on a tractor for conventional farms.`

Today I have been invited to a industrial pigfarm in the mountains 20 km from the farm I work.
Full of pride they showed me the extremely clean pigs not able to move, full of drugs and boredom. They put all rests of a nearby Nestle factory in their stomac and monitor every thing very closely on a especially made computer program. Caralho !!

This is not a farm, I told to Cristiane who is getting to know a lot about this ART of agriculture, this is a logistic magazine where you buy, put in a little bag and hope the bag takes as much volume as possible or squises out other little bags to stuff no matter what. To sell so you can buy full bags to put in animal bags again.

I remembered reading the lecture from Steiner on the Animal Soul (from the STeiner´s web archive) and felt like crying!

Then I come home and read my favorite website where RobinE posted the article on GM in world and especially Brasil and my stomac turns full size.

I am in the process of creating the educational garden at the sitio. Here we will teach children from which most of parents don´t care about organic or any form of sustainable agriculture how important it is to be connected to the soil and the joy of good produce. Knowing that their garden is all concrete and organic is only for the Rich!

I kind of loose my little sisters enthusiasm and look away full of fear from this money making being that I can not stop from growing...

So if you have some good news, please bring it on!!!!

Topsoil vs Biofuel

Good article on the question of where does the humus come from if we burn all the green manure (click on title)? Unsurprisingly it involves Monsanto & BP, and a lot of short sightedness.

Monty Don

Hayfever. Sprayed 5 fields with 501 this morning, cried and sneezed all the way; like driving through a sandstorm of grass pollen. What a drag. I'm definitely more of a 500 man; have lunch, coffee, stir for an hour, lesiurely drive round the farm spraying in the late afternoon sun, after the grass has been grazed & topped.

501; get up at 5am, stir whilst half asleep, rush to filter and fill tank, fix pump, drive like crazy through waist-high flowering grass to ensure sprayed before sun gets too high and burns the silica into the leaf. And, inhale huge quantities of grass pollen allowing face to blow up like a balloon. No, 500 for me.

The Field magazine ran a good article on Biodynamics this month. Based around Heritage Prime but with photos of Nigella Lawason, Elizabeth Hurley (?) and Jody Scheckter.

The new president of the Soil Association is Monty Don. He has a soft spot for BD, having worked a BD garden with a group of recovering drug addicts (see link for book).

Crop observation and review sheets

Dear students,

Thanks for your emails and blog posts - it's great to hear from you and how you are doing. I went to see Jefferson at Perry Court Farm a few weeks ago and he seemed to be doing fine as well.

I received the first farmer review sheet back from Alix, full of praise - which reminded me of the fact that you should all try to get your first review session with your farmer, and get the sheet filled in and sent back to me.

The other thing I wanted to remind you of is the crop observation assessment - I hope you'll all have chosen your crops by now that you want to follow through the season, and ideally made some first observations on paper.

This week I am teaching the Foundation Year about biodynamics - a combination of lectures and practical sessions in the garden. We did some weeding, planting, sowing and putting support netting up - the garden starts to look really great. Friday some peonies, snapdragons and sweet peas will go to the flower shop in the village, which has recently changed hands and is now owned by a lady who has a larger flower shop in Lewes. She is very keen on locally grown, organic flowers - so that is great. I reckon most flowers will go to her this year.

The coming weekend is the big meeting with the Trustees where the proposals of the Vision and Strategy Group will be approved (hopefully). That means start of the Rachel Carson Centre with integrated college garden, teaching kitchen, BD training etc. Keep your fingers crossed!

Keep your heads up - and keep posting to the blog!

Arjen

Job in Tuscany

Farmer or "Farm Couple" for Genuine Carbon-Neutral, sustainable, Biodynamic resort in Tuscany.

We are looking for a Farmer or Farming Couple who are versed in biodynamic and sustainable agriculture method to join us on this unique project in Italy. We are renovating 8,000 square metres of buildings and rehabilitating 1,200 acres of field and forest. The project aims to be genuinely carbon neutral and sustainable when it opens in 2011. We have engaged a consultant in Biodynamic method. He is currently salvaging our vines and olives. He will work with our new Farmer[s] to completely redevelop the property to provide the resort's food, biomass and biofuel requirements by 2011. We have 3 hectares of wine, 3,000 olives and circa 100 acres of farmland - the remainder is in forest. We expect to develop food production ranging from wild boar to goat's cheese and from pasta to honey.

The Farmer[s] will become part of the management team developing the whole project. We envision a package that will include accommodation, salary and profit sharing. We are very flexible on this and will tailor the package to the successful candidate[s]. English is essential, knowledge of Italian would be excellent but we will provide appropriate courses as necessary. We are looking for a dedicated individual or couple who will relish the chance to apply sustainable and sympathetic agricultural method within a project which hopes to become a pattern for future living in Europe.

To discuss the position, please e-mail contact details to mike.payne2@gmail.com

Hay and much more...

Yesterday we got or second lot of hay in! Was kind of raining but gladly stoped after some minutes...
We were working from 2 to half past 9 in the evenings... nearly everybody was helping.
I'm glad we got it all in yeaterday so we have off today ;-)
Part of the afternoon I was aible to go on the field on my own for ridging the potatoes...
First time that nobody was walking behind me to make the settings... fas fun and I also got to hitch the plough for driving home... Even if I don't have I needed driverlisence (had to pace the road) I was driving this enormous thing home (hope some pictures will follow, its really amaising and everyother day we change implements on the plough...)

Can you all belive that we are allready more than nine weks on our farms? nearly have the time... it went soooo fast (too fast!)


Last week I got to drill a hole field of carrots!
And we spent a lot of time to take docks out of the fields

wish you all a suny sunday and a good time!

harder than expected

my fellow intern quit last week. she was going to possibly take over the farm in the future, and because of that, way too many responsibilities and pressures were put upon her and she'd had it. im feeling a little lonely and scared. how am i to do all of the things it took all of my energy plus hers to do, every day?
its only so bad because we got along so famously, worked so well together, had the same strong work ethic, spent every waking moment together and i could really see myself farming with her long term in the future. maby i will some day.
other than that, and multiple other massive issues like communication, definitions of community, gender, cultural and age gaps (that feel somehow like un-crossable chasms), lack of appreciation and a total disregard for respecting humans....... im alright.
really, i love this island and the csa project im working on half the time is so gratifying and challenging. i feel like im really doing it!(market gardening) making real decisions, im really a part of something i can call my own there. its my happy place, and the people im working with on the csa keep me sane. i can talk to them and they to me, we are a support system for each other.
i will keep you posted. send me love and encouragement. i see the situation as a massive life lesson in bridging gaps and intensive communication skills.
hope your spring has sprung, cold and rainy here today, but last week hot and sunny. still waiting for the weather to really shift, and still waiting for fields to dry out enough to till and plant veggies.
love
erin

Full Moon

Bitten by pig. Squatting in farrowing pen to repair half eaten drinker. Unaware of disquiet causing very pregnant sow. She decides to let me know. Bites my back, I lunge forward in pain, hitting head firmly on wood. Knee connects too rapidly with concrete. Generally painful experience. Topping, now that's fun, nothing to bite you and a very pretty field when you have finished.

Vision and Strategy

Dear Students,

We have just finished our last retreat of the Vision and Strategy Group before the final meeting with the trustees on 31st May (in two weeks time). There has been a process of first tuning into the needs of the society at large, and the anthroposophical movement more specifically; and after that we have been trying to focus on the most urgent and current issues that we feel Emerson College can link to and try to address. One of the proposals appearing is the Rachel Carson Centre: the green bd-building transformed into a centre where the 2-year biodynamic training will be housed, as well as courses in the area of anthroposophical nutrition and cooking. Outside the Carson building it is proposed to (re)establish a biodynamic garden that supplies the college with fresh seasonal biodynamic food (vegetables, fruit, eggs) and where a fulltime employed gardener guides students from all kind of courses in weekly gardening sessions. It is also thought that that garden could feature in the afternoon work rota for the students on the biodynamic training, and that one or two bd-students could do their second-year placement on the college garden. Robin and myself are going to do a fundraise action in order to get money for a real glasshouse which can be attached to the Carson building in permaculture style - providing heat for the building in winter and fresh veg in winter for the kitchen.

There are several other proposals, but this is the one most obviously related to the biodynamic training and in the next two weeks Robin and myself are going to work out the financial side of this proposal and on the 31st May the trustees will decide if they want to go ahead with this proposal. Please send some positive energy to us and if you have any suggestions or ideas please let us know!

Arjen

Hot and Horse

As the debate on food prices and energy continious around the globe all of us seem to get to the roots of the brew.
As I am covering my head with old sheats and shirts to prevent excess of the healing sun, I stumble behind the horse that pulls the wooden ridge tool over the field. The mountains around give me the feeling I am going back to the nest of production. The farmer on the other side of the hill shouts with his tractor as I clearly prefer to look at the ass of the working stalion. While I am trying to keep my balance and the ridge steady I wonder if this is something I did before.
The absence of the engine taking over almost all senses feels like old glory. Maybe the BD farmer in the Black Forest was ahead of his time when he declared a farm without tractor.
The other two families only work with the machine and when I talked to the Dutch organiser of this Sitio he doubted if this horse-team would be able to keep going.
The next day the horses are lost between the high grasses and there is no tractor to quickly prepare that field.
If we are going to learn how to work with animals again, we need to become specialists and realists. I am not sure yet how to bring these two together.

I have to say that I love the work and my drive to farm only seems to grow!!!
Wish you all very well!!
I got contact with Jefferson and he does not have acces to the internet but has a very good time in Kent on the farm. He gives you all his regards!

The Future's So Bright

A point to note, our governments do not so much allow private individuals to speculate on food and energy, rather they do not prevent the speculation. A fundamental difference and a liberty to which I for one am much attached. After all, it was the freedom to speculate that predominantly gave rise to the discoveries and inventions that then allowed so much energy and food to be produced and consumed. It becomes a circular argument. Not to say the modern day financial system is without its faults (another time) and speculation causes ripples and can puff bubbles, however, very rarely without an underlying momentum that is firmly embedded in the physical market place. This is particularly true with such deep markets as exist in food and energy. Generally, in my experience, it is expediency, petty politics and incompetence that give rise to such distortionary, devastating circumstances.

I would agree with 'Voland' that it is 'irresponsible laissez-faire and lack of planning' that are the real issues. Disjointed, reactionary government rather than malicious conspiracy. As Tim Lang has often responded when asked what the UK government's stance is; 'food policy?, sadly, we leave it to Tesco'. We have all been speculating and reaping the benefits of 3 decades of soft commodity price deflation (food prices have actually been going down for over 100yrs), the result of many factors. It was inevitable that at some point those deflationary pressures would reverse, particularly given the growth in population and GDP in China and India. What's amazing is that it hasn't happened earlier (oil bottomed in 1998 at $8bbl vs $125 now). Ultimately the brokers speculating are simply an extreme microcosm of the society (race?) in which we all share and, to a greater or lesser extent, are all complicit, that promotes consumption over compassion, more over less but also gives us the freedom to decide where we stand, as individuals, on all these issues.

The sun is out, the seed is drilled and finally the cows are in the field. Friday was a long day, we weighed all the calves, tagged all the cows who were missing a tag (quite a job, tagging a horned Sussex who doesn't want to be in a crush and definitely doesn't want her ear pierced). The grass has come on, we lack clean fields (and fences) so there's a fair amount of daily animal herding but all the barns are empty and mucking out will start next week.

It has been wonderful to watch the farm bloom in the short time I have been here; from the snow blanket of April 6th, to the humid heat just a month later. Lambs, calves, piglets full of joy and boundless energy. A multitude of birds from chickens, geese, phesants (shooting season is closed), guinea fowl (got some cheap day olds), turkeys (soon) to sparrow hawks, herons, cuckoos and cormorants. Deers, badgers, foxes, moles all contribute to the daily cycle and, of course, the bees are now very active. Max got a hive for his birthday and 2 days later he got his first swarm from the bush outside Stein's house. When I am able to stop for a moment, feel comfortable in my exhaustion, to look at the beauty surrounding me and gaze toward the unfurling landscape beyond, I am struck by the magic of it all.

Speculations

Hello all, no new post here, pourquoi? Explosions of growth and life force here, much planting, now hoeing every day. Very hot, I thought I came to Sweden so that it owouldn't be so. Going to swim in the river now, but just before here's your fix of doom and gloom. Blessings, A.

Food prices, we have discussed, likewise the contibution of biofuels to the increase of, however is there more to it than that? My attention returned to these matters after reading an article about overpopulation on the Guardian's website, and the comments below it.

Guardian article

Global research

Truthout

Here, a blog commentary (from Manuscripts Don't Burn)

Check out the last one for lots of good links.

Irrelevant diversions as the price of food rockets...

The average UK family is facing a £1700-a-year utility and food bill increase over the past 12 months - that on a £20K gross salary. For most of the population, regardless of what the government says, actual experienced inflation is running at 10-15%.

It's inevitable, we are told. Poor harvests. Overpopulation. Global warming. "The era of cheap food is over." "We all have to tighten our belts and pull together - it'll be like the war again. It's the New Austerity."

Bullshit.

The elephant in the room is that we have food riots all around the world and looming shortages / starvation because a bunch of brokers are being allowed by supine governments to create a bubble in commodities (ie FOOD) to try and claw back some of the money they lost in the subprime fiasco (after they'd been "allowed" to flog off the backup foodstores we'd set aside to prevent this sort of thing happening).

It's not global warming, it's not overpopulation. Our governments are allowing private individuals to speculate with the global staple food and energy supply. Irresponsible laissez-faire and lack of planning is the crime, that and the fact that the media are not shouting the truth from the rooftops.

But, hey, this is corporate feudalism - it's cool if people die, as long as the brokers keep making their millions. We can always blame it on global warming and overpopulation! The poor saps will never cotton on till it's too late - then they'll be too hungry to do anything about it.

Buy coffee! Buy rice! Buy wheat! The price is gonna rocket once the people start dropping!

Sumer Is Icumen In

Summer has come in,
Loudly sing, Cuckoo!
The seed grows and the meadow blooms
And the wood springs anew,
Sing, Cuckoo!

The ewe bleats after the lamb,
The cow lows after the calf.
The bullock stirs, the buck-goat turns,
Merrily sing, Cuckoo!

Cuckoo, cuckoo, well you sing, cuckoo;
Don't you ever stop now,
Sing cuckoo now. Sing, Cuckoo.
Sing Cuckoo. Sing cuckoo now!

So, tomorrow is Beltaine (Celts reckoned days from sundown to sundown), the traditional beginning of summer. Here we'll be having a big bonfire... may the earth be renewed!

transition tramp

I finally get paid tomorrow! This will end a period of poverty that has pissed me off a lot .I have been living on about £3.50 a day for the last month . Ok , so I can have free carrots ,potatoes ,kale and milk but would you be content on that diet ? I also had to stop using my car as I couldn't afford road tax for it,so have had no alternative but to walk to ***** supermarket for supplies. This has raised an ethical dilemma; is it better to drive 10 miles to Stroud ,which is full of shops for greenies , or walk to a supermarket?
Rising fuel prices have got me thinking about the Transition movement and how to respond to this issue in farming. This farm has about 10 tractors most of which are in daily use . I reckon these machines alone are using 3-500 litres a week.... if we were spraying preps as well ,fuel consumption would be even higher. It seems this paradigm of 'industrial' bd/organic is not sustainable.Can a shift to horse and people powered farming be achieved without some kind of crisis that forces the change?
On a lighter note,I recently met one of the humblest residents at DHF, an elderly Irish tramp who lives in a barn up the road.Last time the 'Boss' was here ,he went up to look at the barn as it has recently been renovated.He was apparently concerned for the welfare of this guy and asked one of the staff to give him some bedding... its good to know there is room for a tramp on this farm.

arm.

Plastic Passion

That was very touching Katharina, thank you.

Here is an excellent article on the dilemma of plastic packaging:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/823eebc6-1007-11dd-8871-0000779fd2ac.html

foot and mouth 7 years ago

hi everybody,
firstly, it's great to hear from you and how things are going, keep on sharing.
secondly, things are busy but well here, but something i really wanted to share with you already occured two weeks ago (talk about busy).

we have a gathering every sunday, and week before lasts was in memory of all the animals that got "culled", meaning needlessly and cruelly slaughtered, during the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001.
For this farm here, as for so many others, it was a massively traumatic event in every respect, and basically things have only just more or less caught up again with what there was before that - can't find the right word - that unspeakable thing.
imagine from one day to the next having an empty and deserted farm, where all that is left are a few chickens that only remind you of what the place actually should be like, and all your good breeding stock, completely healthy thriving creatures that weren't any harm to anybody, the animals you've loved and cared for, killed and burnt and wasted.

what we did in memory of them, very fittingly as i found, was that we got together, at least twenty or thirty of us in the afternoon, and stirred and sprayed 500, treating it as a reinforcement and a remembrance of the cycles that are sustained by the land that we sprayed. because in the circle between the soil, the grass, the cows and the manure, all those dead animals are still present in this place, and even after we have lost them needlessly, we are still benefitting from their gifts, and we can use the new animals' manure (and after that sunday, i really looked at the "new" animals with a lot more reverence, thinking what an amazing privilege it is to have them) to express our gratefulness and love to the land off of which we live.

sorry this is such a preachy and soppy post, but that day really meant a lot to me and also deepened my understanding of what we do when we spray 500, or any preparations.
when you look at your animals tomorrow morning, or whenever, think for a second about how lucky you are to work with them.

katharina

Hey everybody.
what a month it has been. i feel settled so happy and truly content, but also exhausted and a little nervous about the state of the world. We had snow on 4 different occasions last week, and on april 19 , I woke up to 3 inches on the ground outside my tent. Baby lambs were born that day and the day before, all the cows escaped the fencing due to faulty batteries and a heifer with an attitude problem was running wild on the opposite end of the property. My fellow intern and i spent our weekend freezing in the snow and running after stray cattle, constantly checking on lambs (who are really tough stuff, by the way!). The c.s.a garden has been watter logged and impossible to cultivate. we think we may need to set back the dates for shares. We hope to till by sunday and get the ball really rolling. But in the mean time we have been single digging (hand tilling) which is tiresome but feels good and gives the ladies of the farm a chance to bond over shovels full of heavy dirt and bluegrass music.
Crazy weather and stress aside, i have been most productive! making cheeses, butter, yogurt, creamy things, like ice cream (we are getting 2 gallons of milk per/day from one cow) and other tasty treats as well as bread, dinner for 9 twice a week and some beautiful compost piles that would make Ann Marie proud. Also doing tests on starts with 500 and 501 in the green house, taking notes and doing as much research into BD preps as possible, getting ready for the workshop on BD held here at the end of June, where i will be teaching 12-20 people about BD preps; making and the application of...... EEEKKKKSSSS! im not sure how that will happen, i can hardly talk to 2 people with out blushing, but we will see how it goes, i guess i have to start teaching somewhere.
i feel like i have so much more to tell, but it will have to wait, ive rambled enough already.

*thanks for the link to the bees, we are in a dire situation, and i am afraid my friends, we will be the ones taking agriculture trough the troughs of a massive shift in the enviroment as well as in the concioussness of human kind. Lets show them the way! i encourage all of you to keep up the good hard work, you are appreciated and loved all around the world by the massive flux of young people doing just what we all are right now. Working to understand the earth, her power and gifts, so as to sustain and feed this world. As well as saving the beauty of it for our children.

-how do i post pictures on this thing?
- does anyone have Phils email? im only 2 stops on the ferry away from his island and would love to contact him and take a feild trip to another bd farm


"its all about the love"- henning ( my boss talking about bd preps and loving compost piles and the spaces they are in)

erin

Serious stuff

Thank you for these hilarious and enthusiastic stories!  

Time to give you more from Brasil.

I am on the farm A BOA TERRA for two weeks now.  The main task that I have to do here is to create a 4000m educational garden where schoolchildren will come weekly to grow there veg, herbs and fruit.  It is a big thing here at the sitio and I am very excited to do this.  The first week I had to bring  2 hectares of bush, forest and creeks into a exact map.  Now we are planning the whole idea based on books (eco litteracy, Fritjof Capra), experiences ( they already had 14000 children coming on educational sessions on nature and agriculture) and wishes.

So as I am jalous about you guys and girls getting on with the real dirt I feel happy that I can take this important task on me.  I could also arrange with the "farmer"more the organiser that I start next week in the veg production.  The problem is that they work with 3 teams (families) and they are independent.  They rent the land and sell the veg to the farm.  So where do I fit in? 

The language starts to make sense so I hope it will all get along.  The house we are about to live in is painted in our free hours and we still hope to get the bats and birds out without using poison.  Our herb garden florishes and I feel it all starts to roll...

And every moring I have to stop somewhere to look at the incredible beauty of nature here!

On the 100 hectares sitio they have 135 types of birds, lots of little rivers and swamps and all the flowers and fruits you wished for.

I saw they use some horses to cultivate so I hope to get going with this one day.

The cows here are used in a reforesting program.  They eat the elephant grass short so trees can grow.  The trick seems to be to keep the cows in just before they start eating the trees!

Cristiane is enjoying herself with setting up a new education program based on the theory of "the private eye".  You might have heard about it.  

And honestly, I would love to come and visit every one of you to have a good chat!!!

Ciao

Monsanto

A detailed article on Monsanto, its history and practices with a particular look at its impact on soya and seeds.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805?currentPage=1

The Housemartins

While Gaia has been singing 'I've got a brand new combine harvester' (The Wurzels, 1976), courtesy of an afternoon in the shop with Barry's music selection, I have had that well known Housemartins track, 'Sheep', running round my head. The lambs are now out in the fields, by Kidbrooke, eating the Bluebells (which are poisonous) and they are wonderful to watch. Everyone who comes into the barn and holds the sweet little things in their hands or bottle feeds one (only 6 left to lamb) asks tentatively, 'so, how old are they when you.., y'know, when they go off for..., y'know'. At least they are there, asking the question. Not enough clean grass or fencing for the autumn lambs or replacement ewes so they are now in the barn. Another exercise in escaping sheep. David has created a timetable of tasks (probably a first for Tablehurst) which is efficient and means we all know where we should be if we aren't doing emergency fence repairs, sheep collecting (from A22, Forest Row, Emerson etc), essential deliveries (eg. straw to circus) or leaning on pitchforks deep in the finer points of Nietzsche and Mill with Terry and Stewart. Pigs...huh, in the same way that man has to try and stop sheep killing themselves, so he must save piglets from tyrannical (or careless) mothers. Either the sow rolls over and sleeps on them, suffocating or squashing the poor things or she eats the neighbouring sow's. One benefit of having the pigs run in with the cows (deliberate) and sheep (a fencing deficiency) is that they eat all the afterbirth, which saves me a job (clearing up, not eating). One of the stirring sticks broke yesterday, extra chaotic vigour by Jors. I am proud of my replacement, coppiced by the chicken sheds and hung early afternoon. Now if it will just stop raining so we can do some spraying.... Generally, its great fun and I am really enjoying it, although its extremely hard work. I love reading everyone's comments, keep it up. And, yes, Robin, you should go into politics, although I was under the impression you already had.

Hi ...apologies to anyone confused by my last fictional entry.I could ramble on at length about the many different tasks I have been given since I arrived here but I think that would be as enthralling as watching a dead toad dry out on a hot day. Today I walked to Ruskin Mill , which is about 8 miles away. DHF has Ruskin students here to work once a week, the managers eldest son is one of the group that comes over.It was a form of pilgrimage to walk to the nearest BD farm.The route took me through vast fields of industrial-chemical "agriculture" and it was a relief to arrive at Gables Farm and find horse-drawn equipment in recent action. Last week I was able to use the flame weeder, brush weeder and best of all; The Vacuum Seeder!
Some of you may remember this machine from a video Arjen showed us... I have always liked farm machinery and this one is the business! I drilled my first ever field-scale carrots and hope to do much more of this..... There is a Dutch grower here called Fred who studied at Warmoderhof . We get on well and he has given me excellent tuition when setting up the machines . He also obtained an Earthways seeder for me so I have sown some stuff with that as well. There we are... Isaid I wouldnt ramble on but I have! Perhaps I should be in politics

Planet Vortex

The day is trying to tell me that it's over... however something I read on the BD Now list I thought I should share:

Dear friends,

I received some information this morning in my meditation.



This in regards of the Monsanto corporation.

The plant life collective of this planet, their deva caretakers and
many others have been watching this outfit and consider that they
will no longer allow the perversion of nature by this entity. I'm not
sure what's up with this yet, but there is a collective action
ongoing by the nature spirits to work with the plants as that is
their sphere. They are offering protection of the plant species.

It's ours to misdirect and redirect the Monsanto entity.

If you should so choose, please picture The Monsanto corporation ---
upside down and inside out --- in disarray and destruction. It is
happening from the inside out. Something big is coming. This is in
motion from inside the organization and will not be stopped. To be
revealed soon.



I don't know any more than that.


Bonnie York

Make of that what you will, for me at least it brings some hope.

More bad news about bees I'm afraid:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004341374_bee11m.html

Erin you know anything about this

If you never got round to reading them then here is a sort of summary of Dr. S's lectures on bees.

Been stirring 500 in big barrels last 2 days, bumble bees are out on dandelion flowers, things coming alive now (Sweden at least a month behind S. England), I should sleep. Thank you Robin for brightening my day.

Kristof informs me that the email list was property of Phil, who removed it. If anyone has Phil's email then please send to me (ormrATmail2eris.com). Danke...

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." Dr. Seuss

Greetings from Duchy Home Farm! Life here is never dull as you can imagine. The other day one of the rare -breed pigs , a Peruvian Dreadlock sow started to devour her 3 day-old piglets.
I rushed over and tried to stick a fence post between her teeth to stop her munching her tiny offspring. As I wrestled with the beast , a visitor wandered over to watch. I glanced up to see a tall figure in a barbour jacket observing me.....The Prince ! I wasted no time in asking for his help." Your Highness " I gasped ,still wrestling with the huge Sow " could you answer the question everyone wants to ask?" He looked at me wearily..." well, I suppose er.. ask away."
" Sir, is it true that your favourite pop artist is the hysterical dwarf from Minneapolis who shares your title , Prince?" His royal eyes lit up. "You know Iwas a big fan until he produced a movie , Purple Rain, and this ,I thought, was a poorly produced load of bunk. " I pulled a half eaten piglet out of the sows jaws and smiled at him." Nice looking pigs these, no mothering instinct unfortunately....."

hi everybody!

Finally! i figured out how to work this thing!
Where to begin? since missing my flight home and amazingly getting the very next one standby, the universe and my world have been sending me constant messages of support and inspiration. I know now more than ever that i am doing the rite thing for myself and the world.
The farm is amazing, S&S homestead farm, i was welcomed with open arms into the family and my nervousness about living here for 6 months disappeared. My fellow intern is wonderful, as is everyone else on the farm. the milking cow "Loveday" just gave birth and hand milking is everything i expected, wonderful. i just moved into my tent on the property and its freezing, it snowed 5 inches at sea level last week, but its all part of the homesteading experience and now is the time for these rich experiences that make us stronger and who we are.
Friday: chased baby and mama cow for 45 min. through a mudd bog of a field trying to get them into a stall, also chased 8 seriously pregnant sheep back into pen after considerable damage to the csa garden, got shocked by a 9 volt fence 4 times (throughout the day) set up my 16x12 pole tent. fun and always full days on the farm. i hurt so bad all over, but it feels so good.
back on the land again!
good luck and love to you all,
hoping it warms up soon!
erin

Good Time!

Hallo!!!!!!!!!!

Had really good two weeeks till now on the farm! I'm glad to be here...
Most of the first time we were grating and packing carotts and potatoes. Since monday we went outside on to the fields planting potatoes.Is greate fun six people on a caroussellplanter (?)!!!

So now it's weekend and I'm expecting a friend I haven't seen for years...
so have fun everybody, want to hear more from you!
Michaela

Traveling without study books?

Some of us or already exhausted by farming forces on daily bases but...

If you are traveling without good study books I would like to remind you the tip Arjen gave us about 'the soil and health library' on the internet.

It is easy to download very good books on BD and sustainable agriculture as other topics.

Fantastic stuff!!!

unexplained powers of animals...

Rupert Sheldrake and his new science

Apprentices

Hello boppers,
So - just finished the Soils week for the apprentices. It's always a great week - all they do for 2 years is working on farms having fairly little theoretical input, and they're always very eager to come for an intensive week of lectures, art and soil experiments. I was thinking, perhaps I will experiment with offering them to come and do the 2nd year of our training as a follow-up after their apprenticeship. It will depend a bit on which farm they were if they have enough knowledge and experience equivalent to what you did in the first year of the FT training, but I think we'll give it a go. It will also help to boost the numbers somewhat in the second year and it will be nice to have some new people in the group... I welcome your thoughts on this!

Phew! Day off today, of sorts. Vision&Strategy meeting (in Carson). Long day, lots of talk, but some strong support for BD. I sympathise Katharina, my officeboy/student hands are raw and bloody after 2 weeks feeding&bedding pigs, cows, chickens and sheep (and boy do I sleep well). Having spent Tuesday (killing n gutting) & Wednesday (moving n bedding) 'doing chickens' I am considering becoming an exclusive red meat carnivore (with eggs). The whole chicken thing feels a bit too much. Sheep are great, especially if you want to know where the hole in your fence is. So far at least 20 man hours have been taken up finding, herding and reallocating escaped sheep. The lambs are cute. I have strung up a hammock in the barn and it is a joy to watch little groups of lambs building up team bravado, running up and down the middle walkway as one, only to chaotically disperse as they encounter a silage bail and a milky teat calls. You'll be unsurprised to know it has been raining. The pigs can't go out, the cows can't go out, so they fight. No preps can be sprayed and no ploughing can be done. Roll on spring. I cant wait for the apple trees to blossom.

And dont forget to use your imagination when shopping, Tesco now has better coverage than Vodafone, go somewhere else.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/mar/28/tesco.supermarkets

camp, camp, camphill!

hi all,
just some quick news, as i'm deadly tired, like every evening. having a nice time here, everybody very welcoming and lovely. still struggling to remember some peoples names, so i haven't started on the cow's yet. work is quite nice, strange semi-masochistic pleasure in blistering my overly tender student hands. all the people i have worked with so far (a lot, teams here are massive) are lovely, but sometimes the concentrated craziness and intensity can be quite exhausting, which is the main reason for my tiredness, i haven't really been working all that hard yet. easter was nice, very contemplative and actually quite a nice change from ignoring it to having gatherings every day. right, feel greeted from snowy scotland,
kat
(p.s. i've just been told very earnestly not to publish anything about the community, so that's why i'm not mentioning any names of people or places here.)

Don't forget the bees!!!!

Hello volks,

Feeling a bit less cynical today. Been chopping wood (with chopping machine), sorting rotting veg, cutting raspberries.

Here are some links for your reading, concerning what I see as perhaps the most siginificant activities of our species at the present time...

The lady who swallowed a fly (GM)

10 Reasons Why Organic Can Feed the World  and 10 reasons GM won't

The Doomsday Seed Vault

Bee colony collapse and GM

Bees and GM II

Bats dying

Angels don't play this HAARP

Also, could someone please post or send me (ormrATmail2eris.com) the list of emails that was up in the classsroom? When I went to write them down it was gone. Keep posting

Adam

Edit 29.3: Added a couple more links... discuss in comments if you wish.
Haven't been sent the email list yet.

I am here somewhere!

Dear fellow students, 

I am very curious to all your stories and happy to have read some of them.  I can only encourage you to write often so I can get a feel of each of your experiences.

I arrived a few days ago in Belo Horizonte, Brasil.  Not really knowing where or what or how I find myself in a safe dominio where the parents of Cristiane live.  My portuguese is far from usable still but we did visit some interesting places related to food produce and the poor cheese quality in this country.  So we bought gear to make our own cheese and I hope I can do better here.  One goat spotted a long the road and that made my day, alright!!!

Soon we are going south to visit my farm 'A boa terra' but till then I am watching farming programs with my father in law on early mornings.  Get the picture?!!

I will not mention the hot weather or the beauty of nature in this part of the world.  I will talk about red soil later.  

Goatman stof wishes you all well

Just in case you forgot

It's that time of year again...

Warning: Crucifixion is bad for health

For further investigation of Judaeo-Christian pathology, I suggest viewing Alexandro Jorodowsky's masterpiece 'Holy Mountain'.

You should all check out the BDNow! discussion list. Even I find the people on there crazy...

So two coach rides two ferries and a car journey later I am finally in Sweden. No work yet just some walk and moongazing. Happy equinox all... will write more later.

A.

HELLO

Hello, now it is my first turn to wright something on the blog....
my english gets worse and this after less than a week... how shall it be in september????

So, I didn't start my placement jet, but I m so excited, WE HAVE SNOW!!!!!!!
it started snowing yesterday but nothing was left and now again since this afternoon and you can' t see the grass in our garden anymore!

So have fun and good work! I m enjoying the brake ;-)
Michaela

Flowers...

Sowing sowing sowing - knocking in a few posts for the sweet peas, transplanting the yarrow (did you know that's a cut flower too?), sowing the dahlias... The land is still too wet to rotavate some more beds but fortunately I had prepared a few in advance.

The excursion to Alanus Hochschule was very interesting: from a college very remeniscent of Emerson College with 160 students just 8 years ago they have changed into a fully accredited art university where you can (but don't have to) include anthrposophy as part of your training. So 3/4 of the students don't do anything anthroposophically and 1/4 does... Now they have 450 students, all between 18 and 25 years old, and they are set to grow to 800 in the next couple of years. What an example for the future!

First Day

Knackered....6 months in a classroom doesn't really prepare you to bed cows, feed chickens, bed pigs, feed pigs, move pigs to Spring Hill, pick up pigs from Kidbrooke, drop off pigs at Tablehurst. Go lambing. Where did I leave the tractor? I'm sure there were 8 calves in there before lunch. Is that ewe about to lamb or is she sitting on it? And nothing compares to an escaped pig for entertainment, adrenalin, frustration, anger and sympathy all at once! Retire exhausted.

Thank you Arjen

As I sit here pondering which essay I should delight in starting this evening, as the prospect of 6 months of beautiful early mornings and a month of bedding down with the sheep lays ahead I reflect upon the last 6 months. There is one person who looms large in my thoughts. Arjen.

Thank you Arjen for all the time, organisation, negotiation and effort that went into putting together a most rewarding period of study. It had its highs and, therefore, its lows but most of all it was great fun. The diversity of people you brought in was refreshing and inspiring. Your own enthusiasm and willingness to listen never waned and I personally found very motivating.

I start work on a farm tomorrow, not confident in my skill set as a farmer, but confident that after 6 months of classroom I have a basic understanding of the farm organism and enough foundation knowledge that I can be an asset rather than a liability. Most of the time.

Good luck to everyone and I look forward to hearing from all of you.

Thanks Arjen for helping me on this journey.

Interesting documentary's to watch!!

Origin of Aids, Influence of Freud on 20th century thinking, Peak oil, ZEITGEIST, English being bored in Spain, NGO?, CIA plans and history, ...

Have Fun, dear students on placement

and don't forget Goatman!