“Every idea that does not become an ideal for you kills a force in your soul, but every idea that becomes an ideal for you creates forces of life within you.”
RULDOLF STEINER
What is BIODYNAMIC?
Biodynamics is a spiritual-ethical-ecological approach to agriculture, food production, and nutrition. We view the farm as a living organism that works as an integrated system, and these biodynamic principles bring both ecology and ethics together to prioritize a healthy planet and a thriving community.
CULTIVATING
LIVING SOIL
At the foundation of everything is the health of our soil. We give back to the soil in the form of Biodynamic compost enriched with homeopathic doses of specially prepared medicinal herbs. We encourage biodiversity of microorganisms by not using chemical inputs.
BIODIVERSITY
iS CELEBBRATED
Our fields are a rainbow of interplanted rows of many species and varieties, with a focus on preserving heirloom varieties of plants and animals that thrive in our regional conditions.
ANIMAL & PLANT
INTEGRATION
In nature, plants and animals work together to create a healthy and balanced ecosystem. On the farm, we mimic nature’s relationships to create balance, increase vitality and support the “soul” of the farm through working with our animals in harmony with their instincts.
CLOSED LOOP
SYSTEM
We create an abundance of waste on the farm, which we give back to nourish the system. Vegetable waste feeds the animals, and the animal waste becomes compost. We are working towards producing as many of our farming inputs as possible on the farm
SOCIAL
THREEFOLDING
Steiner’s principal of social threefolding allows us to transform the competitive relationship between producer and consumer into a collaborative and cooperative one that works with the true costs of production rather than externalizing costs to the environment or farmworkers.
WE FOLLOW
earth’s rHythm
The earth’s natural rhythms are intertwined with that of the moon, sun, stars, and planets. Our biodynamic cosmos based planting calendar enhances plant growth and development.
A BIT OF HISTORY
Inspired by the research and writings of philosopher and scientist, Dr. Rudolf Steiner, Biodynamics was started in 1924 by farmers and soil scientists who chose not to follow the world into the widely promoted “chemical future”.
Even in 1924, there was a noticeable degradation in the quality of soil, seeds, plants, and animals. According to Steiner, one has only to penetrate this material world to discover that it is indeed the spiritual world. The farmer, mediating between the realms of nature (mineral, plant, animal) and human, is creating a new agriculture that supports more developed forms of life. We are inspired by the belief that True Food nourishes the body and the human spirit.
LEARN MORE AT www.biodynamics.com
BIODYNAMIC = NUTRIENT DENSITY
At Three Springs Farm, we work to ensure that our produce is full of the nutrients and vitality our bodies need, and may currently be lacking due to eating industrially produced organic or conventional produce.
Why are we concerned with nutrient density? Justus von Liebig (1803-1873) established the “Law of the Minimum” which showed that plant growth and yield is limited by the scarcest necessary mineral nutrient available to the plant. Conventional farming focuses on these macronutrients necessary for plant growth (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium). While plants may grow and look fine with sufficient quantities of these macronutrients, the true nutritive value will not be optimum if any of the trace minerals plants use in their growth process are lacking.
Many nutrient elements have been depleted from soils worldwide due to weathering, leaching, and depletion from decades of continuous chemical agricultural production. It is not enough to simply conserve our soils through good farming practices. To grow truly nutritive food we must evaluate our particular soil and add minerals that may have been leached or are deficient within our particular geographical context.
To maintain optimum health and support the healing process, the mind and body need the life force energy that is present in foods that are filled with life and light. Filling your body with foods filled with light will feed your cells and raise your body's vibration.
DR. CHRISTOPHER
NUTRIENT DENSITY = LIFE ENERGY
Biodynamic practices infuse the soil and crops with healthy forces from the earth and cosmos. The shallow view of food, that if it looks good, it is good, is simply that—shallow. If we wish to grow healthy bodies and strong will forces, we need to ensure our farming practices yield crops full of both vital forces and substances.
The point is that it should be inwardly consistent with nutritive intensity. Yet, healthy food doesn’t only contain nutritive matter, it also contains vital life energy or forces (called Chi in traditional Chinese medicine). Sherry Wildfeur describes this well in her article, “What is Biodynamics” (Stella Natura, 1995): We gain our strength from the process of breaking down the food we eat. The more alive the food, the more it stimulates digestive activity, and the more that energy can be derived from it.
It is perhaps a strange thought for most people to consider that vegetables, grain, or fruit grown biodynamically may contain more life-forces than the same produce grown by conventional methods. Yet a method of testing has been developed through the work of biodynamic pioneer Ehrenfried Pfeiffer that can demonstrate this fact. Chromatography actually makes the life forces, which are otherwise rather ineffable, visible through the pictures formed when juices are dissolved in a solution of sodium hydroxide and allowed to rise up on simple filter paper that has been soaked in a solution of silver nitrate.
But in truth, we have a pretty reliable scientific laboratory within our own organism — if we will cultivate it — composed of our own senses of taste, smell, and sight. Are we not able to discern by now that when a tasteless, pale, and watery fruit is offered to us something is missing?
THE PRINCIPAL OF SOCIAL THREEFOLDING
By working out of Steiner’s Social Threefolding principles to organize our Farm, we have the opportunity to transform a competitive relationship between producer and consumer into a collaborative and cooperative one. A community farm is not a market relationship but a community of people working to meet each other’s needs. Our farm was named after the life-giving waters on our farm, and the “three wellsprings” within human society of freedom, equality, and interdependence -- Liberté, égalité, fraternité! For any collective endeavor to truly meet the needs of the community, it must provide all three at the right time and place.
