Care for the Earth by caring for your earth
Climate change impacts are happening now, more rapidly and at lower global temperature increases than previously projected. Our Pacific neighbours, the Carteret Islanders, are already losing land to the ocean. In Oxfam’s new film, Sisters on the Planet, Ursula is working to relocate affected families, and points out that “climate change is not just about statistics, it’s about human rights.”
Steps to a safe-climate future
“We require only 10% of our productive, degraded lands to absorb the estimated 6.1 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions to make a carbon negative world possible in our lifetime” - www.amazingcarbon.com. Only farmers can achieve the outcomes on the scale required, effective immediately.
What can you do?
If you’re not a farmer or a corporate industrialist, you can still make changes that matter. Every little thing helps. If you haven’t already, try some of the following:
Recently, I had the pleasure of a field trip to Roseneath Organics in South Australia, as part of the Biodynamic Association of Australia’s annual conference.
Roseneath Organics’ founder, Adam Voysey, wasn’t always in the business of growing medicinal herbs; he was previously an engineer. When Adam’s stress-related health problems could not be effectively treated with conventional medicine, he took it upon himself to find a cure. He found it in the humble herb calendula, and his admiration for the power of herbs started a new career.
During our tour around his beautiful farm, Adam enthusiastically shared his knowledge of herbs. We learnt that some powerful healing herbs are common weeds such as petty spurge (Euphorbia pepulus). A traditional remedy for warts, CSIRO studies shows it acts against skin cancer. Another example Adam gave was the pepino plant, which is known for its fruit, but also holds an important medicine - the juice of its stem and flowers can be used to help treat drug addiction.
Roseneath Organics herb farm is NASAA certified organic and relies on biodynamic methods to maintain fertility in a stony hillside in Hahndorf, Adelade Hills, South Australia. On a small farm of four hectares, a huge variety of mostly perennial herbs are grown for use in healing and skincare products. The hillside has been terraced, and microclimates are created with shadecloth-covered areas and a greenhouse for subtropical species. A cohesive workforce has been created by moving the office to the growing and drying site, with the production facility at Mylor.
Herbal compost teas such as stinging nettle, yarrow, comfrey, and casuarina, are mixed with worm wee, biodynamic manure concentrate and 500. This mixture is stirred in a flowform for one hour, and then watered onto the compost heaps as they are built. The compost heaps are also enriched with basalt rock dust and zeolite to hold nutrition. The worm farm is constructed of large plastic pots so the matured worm compost can be carried directly to where it is needed. As the soil is poor, the terraced beds are dressed with well matured compost several inches thick before planting. Water is another limiting factor, and dam water is used judiciously to keep most plants alive during the very hot summer. The dam is covered to reduce evaporation.
When a customer requests a natural cure for a particular condition, Adam develops a new product for them, knowing there are other people searching for the same thing. Adam first thoroughly researches his library of traditional, Ayuvedic and Eastern herbalism, and then creates a remedy combining the best and safest herbs. Adam makes his products in small batches from scratch – no generic base creams are used. Roseneath’s by-line is “totally natural products that work”. This is achieved by using active ingredients in therapeutic doses, so results are quick and effective. For example, the head lice lotion is 96% effective, according to the results of trials at Flinders University.
Adam uses niche marketing rather than trying to compete with the big organic skin care manufacturers. He feels there is deception in many products marketed as natural, organic or herbal which contain very little of the promoted ingredient. The quality of Roseneath Organics products sells themselves, and sales are mainly through word of mouth.
You can purchase Roseneath Organics products at www.roseneathorganics.com.
I recently attended the annual Biodynamic Agriculture Australia Conference, which was held in the Adelaide Hills and attended by 140 enthusiastic biodynamic practitioners. And what a great conference it was! A highlight of the conference was Manfred Klett’s lecture series, Manuring From the Kingdom of Nature, in which he explained the need to provide nutrition to plants through well prepared compost. Manfred is a biodynamic farmer, former director of the Department of Agriculture School of Spiritual Science (Dornach, Switzerland) and author of Principles of Biodynamic Spray and Compost Preparations.
Manfred advised us to:
John Priestly
We are very pleased to bring you a podcast of Eileen Kaufman’s interview with John Priestly, an expert biodynamic citrus grower and consultant from the Hunter Valley in New South Wales. Recently, John was a guest speaker at the Parsifal College Applied Biodynamic Course, of which Eileen is one of the main tutors. To listen to the interview, click the play button.
John packs seven topics into this 13 minute interview, including:
- his philosophical background
- ecology of the soil - keeping it healthy
- foliar sprays and tonics
- recommendations to treat spray-contaminated soil
- alternative nitrogen sources (instead of animal manure) for home composting
- ecologically safe snail control methods
- deterring fruit eating birds.
John brings a wealth of information through a lifetime of experience in sustainable farming and land management. His past clients have even included an airport and a racecourse. John takes an ecological approach to solving pest problems, explaining “All pest and disease problems originate from the soil”. For example, weeds are dynamic accumulators - they accumulate particular minerals that are present in very low concentrations in the soil. Over time, weeds balance out nutrient deficiencies. By applying the deficient nutrient to the soil the weed gradually disappears. For instance, yellow dock accumulates iron, so iron chelate is used to treat the soil to reduce this problem weed.
John also explained his method for tree planting. He doesn’t put compost in the hole and this forces the tree to send out roots in search of nutrients. After a year, once the tree has established itself, compost is applied.
Eileen will be attending the National Biodynamic Agriculture Australia Conference this weekend so you can look forward to hearing more interviews from biodynamic experts. She has also promised to send a post from the conference (too much biodynamic wine and it could be a very interesting post! Just joking, Eileen is way too professional for that…).
Backyard Biodynamics is a place where you can learn, share and be engaged by biodynamic gardening in your own backyard. 