Considera

http://www.erdagardens.org/2012/12/30/b ... ice-spray/

It’s too early to be awake on a winter day.
In the summer, 5:00 am seems reasonable, rational even. In June, getting out into the field early to beat the high noon temperatures is the only way to function on the farm. But in December? The house is dark and cold. The house was also silent, until the alarm reminded us that today is special. It is the Winter Solstice and the second day of the Biodynamic “Sequential Sprays.”

In Biodynamics, we use different earth medicines that help restore and replenish the land. The sprays and preparations give the plants, animals and unseen forces on the farm renewed vitality and resilience. The sequential spray uses four of the most powerful preparations in sequence to alleviate conditions where “moisture is lacking.” As we are desert farming, we take advantage of every opportunity to help our farm organism to cope with drought.

We started the spray at sundown the night before, stirring the mix for an hour. At four o’clock the light started casting long, evening shadows, and the geese and cranes left their field foraging for the river’s edge. One flock flew over us so low we could hear the air scissoring in their wings. We finished just as darkness settled into the valley for the longest night of the year.

Now we were awake again, the following morning, to complete the spray. Because the preps an hour of stirring, we must rise an hour before the sun to be ready. I remind myself that some do ritual all night, that my friends down the road have already been up for an hour preparing the Temescal, or sweat, for their day’s ceremony. I remind myself why this work is important, that I have a sacred contract, that to do the work of healing is a privilege. So I better stop my whining.

When we arrive at the farm Jimmy, our Farmer and Mentor, has a small fire going. We bring the water, which had to be poured the night before, and kept indoors so it wouldn’t freeze. Moon, one of our farmers, is telling us funny stories about how “the end of the world” didn’t happen the night before, and the joke’s on those who thought they could get out that easy: “Sorry, folks! No first-class flights to Heaven here….” We have to create the “new world” in the work of opening our hearts to one other and evolving our cultural ego. Through this work we recreate a space that protects and nourishes us all. All people, all species and our earth. A new consciousness is a new world.

The hour passes too quickly as we take turns stirring the preps and chatting. The neighbors who share the farmland stroll over. One is barefoot, one squirming in his papa’s, lap unaware of his luck, still fitting into pajamas with feet. They all stir for a turn. It’s hypnotic. I would do it for longer if my arms didn’t get so tired. The vortex fills with bubbles and the barefoot neighbor exclaims quietly, “Cosmic mysteries revealed!” Just as the sky lightens, the ducks and geese and cranes return overhead, so close, so close. Cranes and sky and sun and other stirrers, we are so lucky.

We have a lot of ground to spray, six plots in all. We don’t know if we will be farming all of them, but it seems a good practice to spray those we have been tending and initiate the prospects. I spray Blake as they load the vehicles. April and I head to The Orchard and El Corto while Jimmy drives to Sanchez and Trujillo. We’ll reconvene at a new potential plot, Kelly.

As the sun joins us, the warm air compresses the cold air into the Valley, and though it is brighter, it is colder—like the days after the solstice. As the days get longer, the earth tilts us away from the sun. As the ice gels and freezes on the sides of my bucket and brush, I remind myself that Solstice is not the end of winter. I insist I relish the morning light, as it will be a while before I’m in the fields this early again.

A white hawk greets us at the Orchard. Tracks of cranes near the back of the field at El Corto. The farm is habitat. Sighting the hawk opened all my senses to the morning, and her wonder.

Back at Kelly, I am overwhelmed with gratitude, watching my friends and stewards apply the preparations. This is the world I am creating, holding this sacred day with ceremony and shared work. I am fulfilling my contract, helping to heal the land while, while feeding people. The geese bear witness. Together we are welcoming the sun back from it’s retreat.

Hugh J. Courtney

Sequential spraying was developed by myself, almost accidentally, in the early summer of 1988 when it appeared that we were about to face a third year of blistering drought. Frustrated by that possibility, I reasoned that surely there had to be something in biodynamic agriculture that could relieve or at least ameliorate the damage to our pastures, hayfields and gardens. After all, had not Steiner in the Agriculture Course (Lecture 5, especially p. 89) suggested that the preparations could help the plant attract to itself from the environment what was needed for its best growth? I thought surely, if one knew precisely what preparations to use, then relief should be available somehow—that is, if one assumes that biodynamics really is valid and truly works. In my case, however, I did not have the wisdom to know the precise preparations to use.

At this point in my work, I was convinced that it would be fairly difficult to cause harm with the preparations, even if one used them in a situation that did not necessarily seem appropriate. The worst thing in such a case would be that their effects could be reduced or made negligible. So, I chose to use all nine of them. The six compost preparations were applied in the form of the Barrel Compost (Thun recipe) along with BD 500, 501, and 508. I reasoned that I should commence in the evening with Barrel Compost, since the generally accepted biodynamic practice is to begin with the compost preparations. I followed the next morning with BD 508 and, since I had been very much impressed with the work of Lilly Kolisko and already had some on hand, I chose to use the fermented version of 508 as detailed in her work, Agriculture of Tomorrow. In the evening of the second day, I applied BD 500. On the morning of the third day, I sprayed the BD 501(c), which is a crystal silica material found in a matrix of rectorite, a clay-like substance. I had been experimenting with this form of 501 and had been very pleased with the results, so it was an obvious choice for me.

Since I was treating hayfields, and was very interested in the water element anyway, I chose to apply the sequence in a leaf period, which turned out to be just before the full moon on June 26, 27, and 28 in 1988. Sometime within the following night, we received a nice, lengthy soaking rain that totaled around .9 inch.

My first reaction was one of total awe at the result. I next had a sense of thankfulness that my trust, belief, or faith in the preparations was confirmed. Then the logical mind took over and began to label the results simply as coincidence that would not necessarily be duplicated were one to try the sequence again.

Later on that summer, the drought tendency gave signs of returning. I repeated the sequence on hayfields during a leaf period in July, and experienced a similar result. The sense of awe, that a person could change a weather pattern, was followed this time by an awareness that this technique required a very responsible attitude and was not an activity to be engaged in thoughtlessly.

Later that fall, after a rainless month of October (and the threat of forest fires), the sequence was applied once again. This time I enlisted the services of John Carlson, who had come to help me with the preparations for a time. The spraying was done on hayfields. Again it was applied principally during a leaf period, and again it was followed by rain of the most beneficial kind. Because of my poor record keeping, I can not give exact dates or actual precipitation results, but I at least had a witness this time.

In March 1989, John Carlson and I were in Kimberton, Pennsylvania, in conjunction with the visit of Maria Thun to this country. We decided that the newly acquired BD headquarters property could benefit from a treatment of the preparations. With the consent of Rod Shouldice (BDA’s executive director at that time), we proceeded to treat the property with the sequential spraying technique. Since we were there for only a short time, it seemed a good idea to apply all the preparations. We did not record exact times and dates of application but we have calculated that it took place on March 10 to 12 (during fruit, flower, and root periods successively). It was completed less than a week after an eclipse of the Sun, two weeks prior to Easter and 10 days prior to Full Moon, or 8 days prior to the Spring Equinox.

We were aware that the previous growing season in Kimberton had been a dry one, at least from the complaints expressed by the CSA vegetable gardeners. However, the 1989 growing season in Kimberton was among the wettest in recent memory, and Kerry Sullivan told me not to use the sequence in the Kimberton area when I visited.

That same year in Woolwine, we had less than 1.25 inches from May 7 to May 31. So from June 1 to 3, we repeated the sequence. Then on the morning of June 4, we added the milk and honey spray as a kind of finishing touch to the sequence, even though we had received a nice .2 inches of rain during the night of June 3 to 4. The rainfall amounts subsequently were as follows: June 4–trace; June 5–.5 inch; June 6–1.25 inch; June 7– .9 inch; June 8–1.3 inch; June 9–1.55 inch; June 10–trace. This period was followed by a couple of dry days. Then, for the remainder of the month, we alternated between modest precipitation for 2 to 3 days, interspersed with one or two dry days. The most remarkable result was that almost all of the rain occurred during the night, and was of the gentle, steady type, rather than a cloudburst, leaving the day sunny and bright, with gardens and fields still able to be worked.

This sequence at the beginning of June was applied during fruit and root periods, with the bulk of it, including the milk and honey part, taking place during the root (earth element) period. It may also be noted that it took place just prior to and during the new moon. For the rest of the growing year, we experienced considerable precipitation, and were more concerned about reversing the rain impulse. (An interesting aspect in the following years during lengthy dry spells has been that the plants in our gardens showed only minimal stress from lack of moisture even though gardens elsewhere in the area were totally burned out. This has been without consistent sequential spraying.)...