Welcome to Harvest Week 18
Farmer John Writes about Building Compost, a Service to the Earth

As you have been reading over the past many weeks in Farm News, we take our compost building to heart at Angelic Organics. We will make about 1000 tons of compost for our fields this year through consultation and assistance from Bruno Follador, who has been working in Biodynamic composting methods for several years with farmers across Latin America, Europe, and the United States.

As a Biodynamic farm, we at Angelic Organics believe there is much offered to humanity and to the planet through Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course, a series of lectures delivered to farmers in June of 1924 in Koberwitz (then Germany, now Poland.) This course became the basis for Biodynamic Agriculture. The food you receive from Angelic Organics is imbued with forces achieved through our Biodynamic practices, which facilitate better nutrition and contribute considerably to ones capacities of thinking, feeling and willing. Check out the photos elsewhere in this issue of these nutritious crops grown on our enriched soil. (For those of you who received Farmer John’s Cookbook while it was still in print, you can access in that book much about nutrition from the standpoint of Biodynamics. People also tell me that the book makes them laugh on occasion. I suppose laughing is nutritional, also.)

A three-day Biodynamic Workshop with Bruno Follador at Michael Fields Agriculture Institute, in collaboration with the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association

More Humus, More Humanity: Insights and Practices out of Biodynamic Agriculture: November 1-3, 2013, East Troy, WI

Presented by Bruno Follador and facilitated by Thea Carlson, Director of Programs at the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association, this program is assured to help attendees deepen their relationship to the earth and its forces, a much-needed development for our time.

Biodynamic agriculture offers a path to building a living relationship with our soils, plants, animals and the farm as a whole. In this three-day workshop, through presentations, group discussions and hands-on activities, we will:

• Introduce and deepen our understanding of core concepts and practices of Biodynamics, especially those related to soil fertility, composting and the ideal that the farm is a living individuality

• Explore Goethean science and how it can help us understand current ecological crises such as drought, floods and erosion, as well as their intrinsic relationship to social conflicts.

• Strive for the awakening that Ehrenfried Pfieffer, the man who brought Biodynamic Agriculture to North America, called for: to awaken a feeling for the forces of growth, for the eternally creative forces of Nature…and to awaken…a sense of responsibility towards these forces of growth, towards the health of the soil, of plants, of animals and of men…

• Strengthen our capacity as farmers and citizens to move forward with hope and insight

Recently, from Bruno:
Hello John,

Thank you for helping getting the word out about the November workshop.

My hope with this workshop is in one way to give a historical context of the coming into being of the Spiritual impulse given by Rudolf Steiner for the renewal of Agri-Culture at the same time striving to give a current context for this work so that its insights and imaginations can come into a practical perspective.

The other aspect I hope to dwell on is: how looking at Agriculture and Biodynamics through Goethean Science – Art and Science – can contribute to a greater understanding of our current ecological and social crisis but most importantly how it can help in developing a greater sensitivity towards the nuances and subtleties of our agricultural landscape, farm individuality, Nature and the movements of our Earth.

In a way, a deep underlining focus will be the questions: “How can I develop an inner organ of discernment  as I work and co-create with Nature? Also how could I not only begin to become aware of the creative forces of growth in Nature, but also how could I begin to take responsibility towards these forces of growth?”

So within this context, I’m hoping that this workshop would be able to serve not only lay people and farmers but also anyone interested and concerned with the present and future of our dear Earth and its people.

Thank you again for you help and support,

Bruno

Bruno says, “making compost is first and foremost a gift to the planet. When we build compost, we are serving the earth.”
Bruno elevates the process of building compost into a poem of understanding and feeling, while grounding it in the earthly endeavor of mixing, layering, and mounding.

This is Important, Friends. This is our Planet.
Even if you don’t farm, I believe this workshop will enrich your relationship to your food, your planet and yourself.

Please return your Vegetable Boxes and Mesh Bags to your Delivery Site. This helps the farm out a lot.

Last Call for Extended Season Vegetable Shares

Receive 3/4-bushel boxes of organic Biodynamic vegetables from your farm in November. The shares typically contain winter squash, cooking greens, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, onions, garlic, cauliflower, potatoes, carrots, celeriac, rutabagas and beets.

4-week Extended Season Vegetable Share ($120.00)

TWO 4-week Extended Season Vegetable Shares ($220.00)

Half Share Extended Season Vegetable Share (2-week) every other week ($60.00)

If you are interested in preparing your Thanksgiving meal with November deliveries of Angelic Organics vegetables, simply send a check, noting Extended Season in the memo, to Angelic Organics, 1547 Rockton Rd, Caledonia, IL 61011 by Monday, October 14.

If you have questions, call Shelly weekday mornings at 815-389-2746 or email her at email hidden; JavaScript is required

The Weather This Past Week

It started raining on Thursday early morning, and kept raining on and off through Friday…lots of mud. Fortunately, we saw the rain coming, and harvested the remaining carrots, parsnips, and potatoes early in the week.

The Crops

We’ll end the season with boxes filled to the brim. Frosts have been holding off. Lots of luscious greens are still in the fields. Lots of squash and root crops are in storage.

The Crew

Upcoming at the Angelic Organics Learning Center

Spend a fall Sunday at the farm! We have two exciting events coming up on Sunday, October 27.

Sustainable Building Tour of Angelic Organics – Sunday, October 27, 10am-1pm 

Interested in sustainable buildings?  Join a tour of Angelic Organics farm and Learning Center for an introduction to the various techniques demonstrated on-site.  Learn about whole tree architecture, living roofs, passive solar, straw bale, cob, and composting toilets, as well as the use of recycled materials for structure and aesthetics.  Includes discussion of the history and development of buildings on the farm, and the role of farms and barns in the social fabric of a community. Register on the Learning Center’s website: www.learngrowconnect.org

Live Culture in the Kitchen – Sunday, October 27, 2pm-4:30pm

Did you know that the healthy bacteria in yogurt can be used to help preserve and enhance vegetables?  Come learn how to make yogurt, sauerkraut, and other traditional foods with chef instructor Michael Staver of Kendall College and Brightflower Nursery. Take a jar of sauerkraut, yogurt and more home with you. Register on the Learning Center’s website: www.learngrowconnect.org

Please Note: this summary is written before you receive your box—please be aware that some guesswork is involved. As always, be sure to thoroughly wash all of your vegetables.

Salad Greens – Lettuce

Fruiting Crops – Butternut Squash

Apiums – possibly Celeriac

Root Crops – Potatoes, Parsnips, Radishes, maybe Beets

Cooking Greens – Kale, Chard, Baby Kale

Brassicas – Kohlrabi, Cabbage, maybe Broccoli