Pictured here: farmers Cynthia Sandberg and Linda Butler, from Love Apple and Lindencroft Farms, respectively. (Linda is no relation to me.)
They partnered at Love Apple's farmstand this summer, and Linda is going to be selling her exquisite asparagus, among other things, at the Santa Cruz farmers markets in the upcoming season. Cynthia will continue to grow tomatoes and other produce for a restaurant over the hill.
I visited Lindencroft farm for the second time today—Linda's vegetables are as beautiful as anything imaginable, and they literally radiate happiness and health. I'll write about it tomorrow. She grows a wide variety of crops, and is especially crazy about peppers.
In the meantime, Cynthia very graciously wrote about biodynamic farming so we can understand more about it.
Pictured here: Linda Butler's glorious produce: carrots, fennel, peppers, and summer savory.
Cynthia writes:
Biodynamic is many things, pretty complex, but a part of it is living on the farm in symbiosis (my word) with the animals. They have to be animals that aren't just pets, but they benefit the farm as well. I guess you could say a cat could benefit the farm by catching mice or gophers, but the relationship really seeks to be a bit more than that. The ideal is to have the animals be fed from the crops on the land, they in turn give the farmer some sort of nutrition, such as milk, eggs, and/or meat, and also manure for composting. Biodynamic farmers seek to use only compost for improving soil health and fertilizing.
Many Biodynamic farmers also consider the farm itself to be a living organism—the concept that each farm is a mini–ecosystem where every plant and animal is interconnected. As the founder of biodynamics, Rudolph Steiner, described the idea: "A farm comes closest to its own essence when it can be conceived of as a kind of independent individuality, a self–contained entity." Furthermore, each individual piece of land should contain all of the ingredients to sustain itself. The more self–sufficient a farm, many biodynamic farmers say, the healthier the farm will be. And in order to be self-sufficient, diversity of both plant and animal life is vital.
With my restaurant relationship, it, too, becomes part of the loop. Although it's a bother for someone to bring the kitchen scraps back to the farm, I really like the idea that instead of going into the dumpster, the kitchen's copious vegetable waste is brought here for the animals to pick through. What they don't eat gets composted along with their manure. The finished compost goes into the garden to grow the vegetables for the restaurant.
I'd love to have a cow on the farm. Cows are the most important animal on a biodynamic farm. Their manure is essential to the health of this type of garden. Because of the ruminant nature of its digestion, cow manure is superior to horse manure. Also, a horned cow is much more desirable than a de-horned cow, because biodynamic proponents believe that the horns of a cow catch cosmic forces in the heavens (ok, now I know I've lost you). The "voo-doo" and most controversial part of biodynamic agriculture is the belief that the heavens (sun, moon, stars) have as much to do with plant health as do water and soil. Of course, no one would argue that the sun is a key part, but the harder part is to convince people that the moon and stars are important as well…then another jump to believe that a cow's horns act as some sort of antennae that receive these ephemeral forces and process them into super poop. Ah yes…an atheist conservative attorney believing that good ol' Bessy is channeling the Big Dipper's cosmic energy sufficient to help my tomatoes have better flavor. Makes those alien guys begging "Dah-Eerie" for her life-giving elixir seem completely reasonable.
Heh. No, you didn't lose me. The biodynamic farms and vineyards I've seen also radiate the kind of beautiful health that occurs when something has found its true nature. Or essence, as Rudolph Steiner calls it.
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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “The greatest delight the fields and woods minister is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me and I to them.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thanks for visiting. Coming up tomorrow, Lindencroft Farm.
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