!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[greenstorm]

So, being sick enough to miss a day of work, I've finally got around to reading some of the Demeter/biodynamic standard. It's the most wonderful thing I've read in a long time. Some necessary points for biodynamic certification:

-boidiversity on the farm, including wilderness area and diverse crops and livestock types
-constant green cover, ground cannot be left bare
-self-sufficiency of materials: the farm generates its own soil fertility, seeds and plants, and livestock feed, etc, through planned and intelligent crop use and re-cycling (as in, manure or crop fodder circles back through the system, green manures, etc)
-lightweight machines or human labour to avoid soil compaction
-weed control through observation and timing of planting, crop rotation, minimal waste sunlight, and mulch

There's also a website, http://www.biodynamics.com, which lists job opportunities. Hmmm.

Please admire my restraint in not typing the points all in capitals. That stuff is so unbelievably exciting.

On a local note, Pasture to Plate both does deliveries and sells in places around town at Drive Organics, and Forstbauer Farm is at the farmer's market (as is pasture to plate, come to think of it) and do some delivery stuff too. I love Forstbauer because you see the different family members at the farmer's market and know they're all brothers, and I have a weak spot for a bunch of brothers strung in a row like that. (Juggler, go to the Forstbauer website, look under the 'pictures' tab for 'Elyas butting the goat')

Comments

[piratesparkles.livejournal.com]

Last summer, I stayed at a biodynamic farm for a little while (my friend was working there). I was quite intrigued by the practice of "dynamization" where they buried a cow horn in order to create a vortex for cosmic energy to flow into. I'd really love to understand more about it.

[spectral42.livejournal.com]

I think that kid is going to get p0wned. Um, I mean the child.