Field notes on biodynamic preparations, compost and the farm organism
Latest entry on the rack A stainless steel kitchen counter in daylight, with a crate of courgettes at one end, a colander of broad beans in the middle, and a handwritten preservation schedule taped to the wall above the sink.
Every note on this desk takes one question about biodynamic agriculture and answers it: what preparation 500 is and what an hour of stirring does to it, how humus is built in a soil rather than added to it, how a compost heap is assembled so that it heats and then matures, what it means to run a holding as one organism, how the sowing and planting dates fall through a year, and how silica is used on a leaf. A note is written from published research, growers' manuals and trial reports, then filed under one of four sections: the soil and its humus, the preparations, the holding, and the seasonal round. Nothing here is for sale.
An independent field reference on biodynamic agriculture: soil and humus, the preparations, compost, the holding kept as one organism, and the seasonal work that joins them.
RH-002The seasonal round
A community kitchen that cooks what a garden cannot sell needs a plan for gluts, and that plan decides what gets planted the following season.
The seasonal round · 1295 words · 1 source
recorded from canada.ca
RH-001The seasonal round
A fixed camera position and a fixed hour turn a year of frames into a record of slow change in a field, from soil colour to crop cover.
The seasonal round · 1095 words · 1 source
recorded from ign.fr
HO-002The holding
Coat colour tells a handler almost nothing about a Border Collie's working ability. The known colour genes, what merle and dilute change, and what to ask a
The holding · 1094 words · 1 source
recorded from akc.org
HO-001The holding
A holding with livestock needs a dog that moves animals calmly. Selection is a working decision, not a breed decision, and the first lessons matter most.
The holding · 1485 words · 1 source
recorded from akc.org
PR-001Preparations
The six compost preparations come from yarrow, chamomile, stinging nettle, oak bark, dandelion and valerian, and how each plant is gathered decides its work.
Preparations · 1204 words · 1 source
recorded from fao.org
SH-001Soil and humus
A soil test reports chemistry, not structure. Here is what a field assessment actually measures, what it leaves out, and how often to resample the same ground.
Soil and humus · 1310 words · 2 sources
recorded from nrcs.usda.gov, extension.psu.edu
An independent field reference on biodynamic agriculture: soil and humus, the preparations, compost, the holding kept as one organism, and the seasonal work that joins them.
A spade of dark silt loam resting on the grass beside a freshly dug soil pit in a New England hayfield, morning light from the left, roots visible in the exposed face, medium close framing.
Dark earth, structure, humus, the field and garden beds, and the compost that feeds them through the year.
A row of small glass jars on a dark cellar shelf, each holding dried yarrow flowers or powdered oak bark, lit from the side by a single shaft of daylight.
The horn manure and horn silica sprays, the compost preparations, their making, storage, stirring and the timing of their use.
A Border Collie standing in profile on a clipped pasture at low morning sun, its black and white coat and white blaze clearly lit, with a wooden crook resting against a gate post in the soft background.
The farm as one organism: fields, hedges, orchard, livestock, bees and the wild edges that carry it.
A stainless steel kitchen counter in daylight, with a crate of courgettes at one end, a colander of broad beans in the middle, and a handwritten preservation schedule taped to the wall above the sink.
Sowing, planting, cultivating and harvesting through the year, and the rhythms that decide when each job is done.
One question, one note, one photograph made for it and captioned as what it shows. The answer comes first, then the sections a reader can jump to, then the sources the desk actually read. A note is dated with the day it was last checked against those sources, and it is revised when a source changes or a reader sends a better one.
The desk does not sell preparations, composts, seed or tools, does not run courses, does not place apprentices and does not rank holdings. The domain cdarbiodynamic.org carried the C-Dar Biodynamic Society from about 2010 to 2012, and an unrelated WordPress in 2019; neither publishes this site and this desk is not their successor. Organisations and growers named in a note are described in the third person; none of them publishes this site.
Desks kept elsewhere that answer a question this one only touches on. Each was read before it was listed here, and each is named for what it holds.
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