Go On..... You Choose!

[wellie]

Okay. I have something rather exciting to report, although I think YOU'LL be the judge of that?!

Tomorrow morning, I am going to take part, where Rachael works, in 'stuffing the cow horn' and burying it in the ground near water....., with rather a lot of other like-minded people from near here.

Being a complete novice myself (watch my lips maytreefrannie) this, quite simply is something I know diddly sh!te about yet - which is why I'm attending - in order to learn.
So keeping things 'simple' for you gorgeous lot is not going to be a problem at all for Wellie!!! as I pass on what I learn from the very people wot are living/breathing/eating it.

Once I've filled Trousers's tummy with Spicy Seafood Jambalaya this evening, I shall be swotting up on tomorrow's activity. I'm pretty certain that it's stuffed with Silica (the horn, not the jambalaya..) but Rachael was struggling to put Big, Little, and Brown (Goats) to bed when I phoned, so kept cutting me off on her mobile, as ya do.

Last week, when I visited her, she showed me the difference between Silica that had be buried, and Silica that hadn't. I'm not yet confident enough, nor have I reached the relevant level of study to enthrall you with what it'll be used specifically FOR when it gets 'dug up' again next year.

Now there's probably plenty of you that want to do your own research here, and think that I'm maybe 'pratting about', but I hope you'll DO your own research, AND enter into the spirit of this thread, and not try and jump the gun, spoiling it for the rest of us that may want to learn slowly and methodically - would that be Okay?

Funny thing.... whilst I was in the bath tonight, I said to Trousers: "If there's a right day to sow, hoe and harvest certain vegetables, do you think there's a right day to cook them into something gorgeous for the freezer?" Who knows!........

[wellie]

Just how stupid do I feel now that I've 'flipped through the book' a bit further and found a chapter entitled: Biodynamics in the kitchen......See Wellie go DOH!!!!

SO! Back to the topic I was speaking of earlier, and personally, my life has largely revolved around Homeopathics, Acupuncture and Bach Remedies (although I have rather foolishly neglected myself, and those I love, in these directions for far too long now), so when I read this paragraph this evening, it took my fancy:

Homeopathy looks at a person as a whole unit, body and mind and spirit, and seeks to heal the whole person rather than a collection of symptoms. Biodynamics does the same when it steps back to gain a holistic view of all the forces working on a garden, from cosmic forces from above to the bacteria buried in the soil. Biodynamics uses the preparations homeopathically, treating like with like, but instead of using disease-inducing substances it uses substances that encourage growth, inoculating the soil with these positive forces.

And that paragraph therefore made huge, huge, sense to me.

When I read on..... it explained what's about to happen tomorrow with equal ease of understanding to me:

THE FIRST TWO BIODYNAMIC PREPARATIONS - "The Horn Preps":
The first two remedies form opposite ends of a polarity, like hot and cod, positive and negative. The reason they are sometimes called the 'horn preps' is that they are stuffed into a cow's horn before burial. According to Steiner, horns are natural receptacles for cosmic forces, focusing and concentrating these forces into the biodynamic preparations contained within them during their long burial period. Steiner also said that hooves work just as well, but most prep-makers use horns.

Horn Dung or Horn Manure, preparation 500, works on the earth, encouragaing expansion and levity, promoting germination, and assisting microorganism growth in the soil and root growth in the plant. Horn Manure will also regulate lime and nitrogen content and aid the release of trace elements. It is the FOUNDATION remedy, supporting all the work that will be done in the future.

Horn Quartz or Horn Silica, preparation 501, works in the atmosphere above the soil, assisting fruiting and flowering, maturation, and contraction. Horn Quartz is a GROWTH stimulant that will transmit the forces of light and warmth, sensitize the garden, and open it up to receive the forces streaming in from the cosmos. It enhances the plant's ability to metabolize light, stimulates photosynthesis and the formation of chlorophyll, and can also increase resistance to disease and insects. In addition, it is influential in improving the taste and nutritional value of what you grow as well as its longevity.

I promise you, I am not a 'natural student', and researching this for you this evening, I have bravely done so, with Trousers watching Strictly Come Dancing at a decibel level unacceptable to both me and my cat, but we got there in the end!

For those of you looking at this thread, and STILL scratching your head, please don't go away yet - there's plenty more fun to be had.
X

[Hazel at the Hill]

I promise you, I am not a 'natural student', and researching this for you this evening, I have bravely done so, with Trousers watching Strictly Come Dancing at a decibel level unacceptable to both me and my cat, but we got there in the end!

Well, yes, you are actually as you have a 'what if' gene in spades. All natural students have been hampered through the years by the equivelent of Strictly - it would have been 'come and throw tomatoes at the stocks' in years gone by, but same principle. The cat will suit herself whatever.

I'm guessing that the big Q here is 'if this is so fab, why aren't we all doing it?' to which the answer is well, maybe we should be - but as Wellie is doing all the r&d for us, we can look and learn and maybe ask q's for Rachael to answer if she will?

[wellie]

Ok. Wellie a GOOD Student then!
(Curtsey)

.... and she did indeedy go today and learn all about putting cow dung into cow horns and burying, and stirring 6 month old manure in a bucket of water for an hour and did lovingly slosh it on the land!

I know you won't believe me, but I have truly had the most AMAZING day doing all of that, and I can't remember last when I actually learned that much in one day since I went to college AND had that much fun doing it!

AND I did took a few informative photos, which I'll ask Trousers to kindly post up here tomorrow.

Importantly, for me at least, right now, I went there for a reason.
I knew what the days' agenda was, and was focussed (selfishly maybe) on what I wanted from the experience in amongst everything else occurring, but I came away with much much more than that, which I couldn't possibly put into words for you, and that for me is incredibly special.

Everyone there 'wanted' to be there, and that alone made it Wow!

Hazel's hit on a perfectly relevant point..... if it IS so fantastic, why AREN'T we all doing it then?

Perhaps I should leave you, for now, with sensible words from Christopher.

He said to me today:
"And of course, some of the very best wines in the world are produced from Biodynamic Vineyards in France, are they not?!"

I'm pleased this thread has got you thinking.
X
Catch you tomorrow then....

[wellie]

Wellie's Biodynamic Sunday

In the style of Tommy Cooper:
Bucket Horn, Horn Bucket - Ahahaha!

So, we started off with a bucket of 3-day old cow dung, which Miguel expertly scooped the crusty top off with his fingers, putting it aside, to reveal the grassy dung underneath, and with our Pooh Sticks (!) we started to fill the cow horns with the dung, tapping the dung down gently to get it right in to the tip. The horns should be from Cows, not Bulls, and we could see from the 'rings' down the outside length of them, how many calves they'd had!

Taking the filled horns to the chosen sight for burial up in the vegetable garden, Miguel dug a hole about a foot/foot and a half deep. It's important to choose a sight that is well drained, as the horns will not be dug up until early to mid-Spring next year. You place the horns into the ground, similar to how the horns grow from the cow, covering them over and firming the soil on top. And sticking a cane or stick in where you've buried them, so you can find them again when it's time to dig 'em up!!!

The next stage of our task involved placing a small amount of dung (now pure humus) taken from a horn from last autumn's burial, dissolving it in a bucketful of stream water, and stirring it with our 'Pooh Stick' (or your hand, if you feel the need to) for an hour.

Yes, I did say 'an hour' ....! Stirring it one way, creating a vortex in the middle, and after 15 seconds or so, changing direction of stirring to create 'chaos' in the bucket. This exposes the maximum surface area of water to absorb energy from the cosmos, I think I'm right in saying (shoot me if I'm not). What with asking Miguel SO many questions, and him telling me SO much (greedy Wellie) and having a larf and joke with the others, when the hour was up, I asked Miguel if we could all stir for another hour.
It did make everyone laugh, and no-one took me too seriously, thankfully.

Now came the fun bit!
Rachael brought us a variety of buckets, tupperwares and brushes.
Having expertly divided the resulting 500 Horn Preparation Liquid, our task was to dip the brushes in and 'flick' the liquid onto the soil, around the boundaries, under trees - anywhere and everywhere. And this was giving back to the soil, encouraging expansion and levity, promoting germination, and assisting microorganism growth in the soil and root growth in the plants.

This was the foundation remedy, supporting all the work that will be done in the future.

Miguel was telling me that a few days earlier, over at their other Biodynamic site, they'd buried near on a thousand dung-filled cow horns.
I've been invited to go to that site in the next week or two, so I hope that I shall be able to supply you with more photos from that visit too.

Has any of this 'blown your frock up' yet?
I do hope so!

Any questions? Feel free....
X

[di]

For anyone that's interested,I caught a repeat of a programme at lunchtime on channel 4(Chateau Monty),unfortunately I think the series is coming to it's end~Thursday 8:30 is part5/6,but there's another repeat tomorrow at 1pm.Anyway,it's following a chap that's
establishing a vineyard(also has a veg patch),but he's doing it following the bio-dynamic approach.Today he visited a huge vineyard in Germany that follows the same principles.
BTW~Wellie My Love!!Please tell me you're aiming your splatters at the ground & not that poor passer by!!x

[smallblueplanet]

Beeb2 tonight - What to eat now - bloke growing biodynamic beetroot!

[SueA]

Thanks for the info & the pics. Wellie, it's fascinating but a bit beyond me & no way could I sit stirring a bucket of diluted poo for an hour! I can see it was probably a lot of fun with you there to add a bit of 'levity' to the proceedings!

[wellie]

hey di!
...and I meant to watch the bio vineyard programme, and I ruddy well missed it!

Still, I'm really enjoying myself learning about it here in Gloucestershire.

Funny you should mention the 'passer by' in the last photo underneath my bio sprinkles - he was only a foot tall earlier in the day.....!

SBP, i too saw that fantastic programme last night, and enjoyed it immensely, especially the beetroot bit. Trousers has been to The Newent Onion Fayre a few years back, and loved it, but didn't take part in the raw onion eating championships.

SueA, you're welcome!

Rachael phoned today, and we've tentatively arranged for me to visit The Grange (other Biodynamic site) next week, so I've got a lot of interesting reading to do before then, and I'm learning 'bucket-loads'.