Winter Gathering at Ridgewood Ranch in Willits
Jan
10
to Jan 11

Winter Gathering at Ridgewood Ranch in Willits

You are warmly invited to our annual Winter Gathering where we’ll connect with community and engage in research aimed to support the coming 2026 growing season and the future of Biodynamic agriculture in Northern California. We are delighted to return to Ridgewood Ranch, home of Golden Rule Community Gardens.

  • When: Saturday January 10 and Sunday January 11, 2026

  • Where:  Ridgewood Ranch, 16200 N Hwy 101, Willits, CA 95490

See below the schedule for written directions.

Event Registration
Purchase Meals by Jan. 6

Winter BDANC Gathering

Cultivating Ground for a New Agriculture / January 10 &11, 2026

Schedule Saturday

7:30 Breakfast 

8:30 Welcome & Introductions 

Why Biodynamic Agriculture? – Through the eyes of a farmer’s biography

9:15 Listening to the Whole: Tone Eurythmy Activity

10:15 Break

10:30 Ground for a New Agriculture: Presentation, Inner Work 

12:00 Farm Tour of Golden Rule Gardens  

1:00  Potluck 

2:30 The Farmer and The Farm Organism: Conversation, Q&A

4:00 Coffee & Tea Break

4:30  Word Seed, Farming the Logos: Artistic Speech Activity

6:00 Dinner

7:30 Eurythmy Performance 

Schedule Sunday

8:00 Breakfast

9-10:30 Lending a hand to the Farm

10:30-11:15 Biodynamics in Biography -Conversation

11:15-12:30 Closing Circle

We have a limited number of Stella Natura Planting Calendars still available for purchase and pick up at the meeting!

Purchase A Planting Calendar

DRIVING DIRECTIONS:

Heading north on Highway 101, pass through Willits and Calpella. North of Calpella, West Road crosses Hwy 101. Your turn will be a little more than 7 miles after West Road. As the highway climbs steeply, watch for  a left turn sign, (and  a business sign set back from the road and up hill on the left that advertises an RV park.) Get into the left lane immediately, and then the left turning lane to turn into a winding road, heading downhill. Cross your first cattle guard. At the first fork turn right. Cross another cattle guard and up a little hill to the  main building of Ridgewood Ranch. Park in the large parking lot in front of the building. Here is a Maps Pin Drop for exact building and parking lot: https://maps.app.goo.gl/1metEJBX6VtXSHRc6?g_st=ipc

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Summer Meeting at Summerfield Waldorf School
Jun
21
to Jun 22

Summer Meeting at Summerfield Waldorf School

  • Summerfield Waldorf School & Farm (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Let us gather and return again to Summerfield School and Farm for the BDANC Summer Solstice Meeting! As the Sun reaches its  zenith in the sky, we will come together to share and celebrate another year of Biodynamic Agriculture. Come join us as we look closely at the Valerian plant through Geothean observation with Dr. Daciana Iancu, and in pastel drawing with Denise Sacks.  

Through social exercises with Luke Frey, and Eurythmy with Lilith and Sebastien Dupuis, we will explore the qualities of warmth, both in the plant world and with each other. Together we will be making the valerian and stinging nettle preparations. Farmers and interns will lead us as we talk together about our deepest farming questions. This gathering is appropriate for parents, teachers, farmers, doctors, interns and anyone interested in exploration of the healing properties of Biodynamic Agriculture.

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Spring Gathering 2025 “Light Into Darkness” at Heartwood Farms
Apr
26
to Apr 27

Spring Gathering 2025 “Light Into Darkness” at Heartwood Farms

  • Biodynamic Association of Northern California (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Join us for this year's Spring 2025 BDANC gathering exploring Light: What is light? What is the relationship of light to darkness? How do we work with the phenomena of light in our agricultural practice?  How does light transform into fruit? Ehrenfreid Pfeiffer, bearer of Biodynamics to North America, recounts that the word “biodynamic”  was chosen by the initial group of experimenting farmers 100 years ago as meaning, “a working with the energies which maintain life.”  He goes on to point out that the biological aspect began to reveal itself in science in the first half of the 20th century, yet,  “Despite recognition of the importance of the biological conditions of ecological relationships…all of this still gives no answer to the question of energy, to its source…the dynamic side still waits understanding to which Rudolph Steiner pointed the way.”

This weekend offers sense perception and experience based inquiry into the role of light in human capacities and Biodynamic farming practices. Particular attention will be brought to the use of the Horn Silica and Horn Manure preparations, their polarities and how they complement one another. Practical work will include making Horn Silica and applying it to the land. Horn Manure and other winter buried preparations will be dug up and observed. The weekend's work together will be participatory and accessible to all levels of experience. 

We are excited to return for the second year to Heartwood Farms' cherry and walnut orchards for the Spring Meeting 2025. Program Lead by Franz Eilers, Emma Wade, Sebastian Dupuis, Lilith Dupuis, and Harald Hoven.

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