My horn manure has arrived! I ordered two of the biodynamic preparations from the Josephine Porter Institute in Pennsylvania. I got 500, which is composted, well-formed cow manure (the kind that results from a grass diet) stuffed into the horn of a mature cow who has given birth several times over her lifetime, which is buried in the ground over winter; and I also purchased 501, which is ground quartz stuffed into a cow horn and buried in the ground over summer. Biodynamic agriculture is pretty esoteric, and if you can believe it, some of the other preparations (there are a total of 9) are way stranger and more gross. Check it out for yourself at www.biodynamics.com (well, not much info there, try wikipedia I guess).

I first became interested in biodynamics when I read the book “Secrets of the Soil” by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. The authors describe a “spiritual science” developed by Austrian clairvoyant Rudolf Steiner in 1924 in response to requests from European farmers for a solution to their farming woes and worries about the future of European agriculture. Biodynamics are (to me) essentially an improvement upon organic agriculture by adding a spiritual element to more fully connect the farmer to her crops, land, and self. I have serious problems with some of the things Rudolf Steiner believed and talked about, including some things that were ridiculously racist and offensive (check out www.waldorfwatch.com for specific examples) but I believe in the power of his preparations to help heal the earth and produce quality foods.

Six of the biodynamic preparations are meant to be added to compost in order to make it more nutritious. As this is my first season as an independent farmer and I've only lived in Minnesota for a little over 2 months, I don't have any compost, so I'm skipping that part this year. The last preparation, 508, is a tea made of horsetail (Equisetum arvense) that is used to prevent fungal infection and help plants cope better with wet conditions. I didn't purchase that one because horsetail grows all over the place up here and I can harvest it for free. 500, the horn manure, is stirred into water alternating clockwise and counterclockwise for one hour and then applied in the spring to freshly plowed land. It encourages the growth of beneficial microorganisms and earthworms, and helps make elemental nutrients more available for use by plants. In the summer I will apply 501 to the plants when they are growing big and strong. 501 is stirred into water in the same way that 500 is and then applied as a foliar feed that is intended to increase the plants' capacity to absorb light.

Now you know that I believe in some pretty wacky stuff. Honestly, this is just the tip of the iceberg. But what you can take away from this is that I really care about producing healthy food and soil, and that my heart is fully in this.