Meir Schneider
School of Self Healing
May class at Fulcrum Farm, Nevada City
I would love to come teach at your farm again in May if we have enough enrollment and I’m not looking for a huge class, I can work with a small minimum of 8 people. I am sending a letter to everyone who put themselves on our email list. I made an enthusiastic message of the week in which spoke at length about our workshop in your wonderful farm, here is a link to it:
School for Self Healing
2218 48th Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94116
www.self-healing.org
(415) 665-9574 (phone)
(415) 665-1318 (fax)
Contact: Marney Blair
marneyjblair@icloud.com
Directions - GPS does not work right for this farm’s address !!!
From I 80 East
Take Hwy 49 exit in Auburn. Follow signs to Grass Valley. Travel thru Auburn past Nevada County line. Take left turn at Lime Kiln light. Follow this road for a long way. You will begin to see signs for Beyers on your left, Mower on right. Finally you will see an abandoned store on the street called Chukar on the left. Prepare to turn left after Chukar. Turn left onto Clear Creek Place. Drive 1 mile. The road opens into a valley. You will see compost piles and a silo. Park in compost yard.
From Hwy 20
Exit Pleasant Valley Road. Turn right and take an immediate right. At Indian Springs Road take a left. Continue until McCourtney. Take right on McCourtney. Pass Clear Creek School. After the school turn right at the first right onto Clear Creek Place. Farm is located 1 mile in. Park in compost yard.
From Grass Valley
Follow signs to Hwy 20 Marysville. Turn left onto Pleasant Valley Road. Take an immediate right. Then turn left onto Indian Springs Road. Follow directions from Hwy 20 at this point.
2017 Fellowship of Preparation Makers Conference in Ontario
March 2 - 5, 2017
The Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Society of Ontario
will host the 2017 Fellowship of Preparation Makers Conference
The theme will be “quality evaluation of Horn Manure preparation, BD#500”
Venue
Farm of Uli and Martha Hack
1017 Concession 7
Kincardine, Ontario Canada
Phone: 519-426-9021
The Fellowship of Preparation 2017 conference seeks to explore the practical use of BD#500, Horn Manure from experienced farmer’s perspectives. The wisdom and experience of farmers from differing regions of the continent will be presented regarding the use of BD#500 Horn Manure and the results on their farms. Similarly, we will explore the various methods of making the preparation from selection of sites and horns to differing quality of cow manure based on seasonal variations of collection, to thoughts on burial at different calendar influences – the stories behind the preparations. To develop organs of perception when experiencing the preparation BD#500, we will practice this skill in a facilitated exercise, and share insights into the feeling state of quality relative to the BD preparations.
This year we return to Canada and the community of Kincardine, home of the Hack family farm. We are grateful to our hosts in Canada for the opportunity to continue the development of our fellowship as preparation makers across the North American Continent.
OUR SPEAKERS
Hugh Courtney: In 1975, Hugh began an apprenticeship in the making of the biodynamic preparations under the tutelage of the premier preparation maker in the United States, Josephine Porter. Upon her death in 1984, Hugh took over her work in making and distributing the biodynamic preparations, founding in 1985 the Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamics, Inc. In 2012, Hugh retired from JPI and founded Earth Legacy Agriculture with his grandson Jeremiah Proctor.
Lloyd Nelson is a Biodynamic Preparation Maker, Consultant, Farmer, and Educator who has been practicing the art of Biodynamics for twenty years. He is co-founder of Biodynamic Source, a Demeter certified prep making and distribution non-profit and owns and operates a BD spray service, and assists in converting farms to Biodynamic management.
Rev. Jonah Evans grew up in Sacramento, California and attended the Sacramento Waldorf School. Later, he received a bachelor's degree in Psychology from California State University in Sacramento. He then attended the Seminary of The Christian Community in Chicago. It was there that he found his true calling. In 2008 he was consecrated as a priest. He has worked as a community priest in Johannesburg, South Africa, Spring Valley, NY and currently in Toronto. Jonah was also recently chosen by his colleagues to be a future director of The Christian Community Seminary in North America. He is married and has three lovely daughters.
Chris Boettcher and his family cultivate and nurture about 500 acres in mid-western Ontario. He started out as a conventional cash cropper. For the last 25 years, he has been practising Biodynamic Agriculture. Today he and his family grow over 20 plant species including 14 acres of vegetables. Their livestock portfolio comprises 200 milking goats and 350 breeding sheep.
Jeff Poppen, also known as the Barefoot Farmer, is the owner and operator of one of the oldest and largest organic farms in Tennessee. For the past 15 years Poppen has appeared on Nashville PBS television program Volunteer Gardener, for over 20 years he has written a gardening column for the Macon County Chronicle, and he is the author of two books, The Best of the Barefoot Farmer Vol. 1 & Vol. 2. Poppen runs a 150-member Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program with the food he grows using about eight acres of his farmland and about 40 head of cattle.
Ulrich Hack’s parents converted their farm in Germany to biodynamics when he was seven years old. In 1982 the family moved to a farm in Kincardine, Ontario. In 1992 he took over the production of the preparations for the family farm and for the Ontario BD Society. He was a founding member of the Canadian Biodynamic Alliance, and later Demeter Canada, the holder of the Demeter trademark. In Partnership with his brother Martin, they operate a 900-acre Demeter certified farm.
Robert Karp is a writer, educator and social activist whose work is informed by the spiritual science of Rudolf Steiner. Currently Robert serves as co-director of the Biodynamic Association in North America.
Fellowship of Preparation makers Annual Conference
Frey Vineyards and Biodynamic Association of Northern California (BDANC) Hosted
February 18-21, 2016
Click to view the schedule of events
The Fellowship of Preparation Makers (FOPM) is an informal, vital, and growing group that has emerged in the cultural/spiritual sphere of biodynamic agriculture. The Fellowship began its work with a conference in Copake, New York in 2002, and has held annual conferences in various locations around North America since then. These conferences have focused on the intensive study and discussion of the biodynamic preparations and have strengthened the preparation making community.
The mission of FOPM is: To help ensure there are enough high quality biodynamic preparations available in North America into the future.
The theme of this year’s conference emerged from a growing interest in the questions:
- “What is quality?”
- “How is quality evaluated in the context of the Biodynamic Preparations?”
Invited Speakers:
Matias Baker, BD Consulant, Fair Oaks, CA
Deborah Beniacar Castro Herminio- BD Consulant Brazil
Bruno Follador, The Nature Institute, Ghent, NY
Barry Lia, PhD, Lia BD Consulting, Seattle, WA
Robert Karp, Co-Director Biodynamic Association USA
Jim Fullmer, Co-Director Demeter USA
Lloyd Nelson, BD Consultant, Paonia, CO
Utilizing BD#500- Biodynamic Cow Horn Manure as a basis for our study, conference participants, lead by a variety of speakers in the Biodynamic Community, will examine these questions in a series of lectures, hands on demonstrations, and collegial discussions. The event, hosted by Frey Vineyards and the Biodynamic Association of Northern California (BDANC), is co sponsored by Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Biodynamics, Inc. and the Biodynamic Association.
Over 40 individuals, experienced and interested in biodynamic preparation making, came together at Yokayo Roots Ranch in Ukiah CA last weekend to study and research a long-held question: "How can the quality of biodynamic preparations be evaluated?"
Thank You to all those that participated this year!
BDANC MEETING DATES FOR 2017
WINTER meeting:
Saturday and Sunday January 7 and 8, 2017.
Yokayo Roots Ranch | Ukiah
800 Hensley Creek Rd
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SPRING meeting:
Saturday and Sunday April 22 and 23 , 2017.
Fulcrum Farm | Grass Valley
14995 Clear Creek Pl.
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Summer meeting:
Saturday and Sunday June 24 and 25, 2017.
Frey Vineyard | Redwood Valley, Ukiah
http://www.freywine.com/
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Fall Meeting:
Saturday and Sunday September 23 and 24, 2017.
Openfield Farm | Petaluma
http://www.openfieldfarm.com/
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Can’t afford to go to these events? Apply for scholarships! Please contact, Carin Fortin, carinfortin@mac.com
Newsletter and Calendar Submissions
Help us help each other. If you have land available, equipment to sell, an event to announce, need apprentices, would like to farm or share your experience and knowledge in an article or photos, please send us your contribution for the quarterly print newsletter and the monthly e-newsletter.
Items need to be submitted electronically.
Deadlines for the quarterly print newsletter are:
- Spring : Feb 22nd
- Summer: May 9th
- Fall : August 8th (extended to September 12th)
- Winter : Nov 7th
Submission for the monthly e-newsletter are welcome anytime.
Please email our editor, Carin Fortin, carinfortin@mac.com
Upcoming Meetings →