Preparation is the Key

There are few better team-building activities than stuffing cow horns with fresh manure together — at least on a Biodynamic farm. Sometimes you wonder if it’s the process or preparation that is making such a difference on your farm. I believe it is the combination of both that enlivens biodynamics.

Intentionality is a vision that flows through the practice of biodynamics. This is the guiding concept in making the biodynamic preparations. We grow and harvest the plants that are raw materials for most of these preparations. We carefully plan our schedule for making and harvesting these preparations to follow the rhythm of the seasons and the Moon. Every aspect of their production and use is filled with intentionality. There are good reasons biodynamics is called a practice. It is as much a way of thinking as a farming strategy.

There are two groups of Biodynamic preparations — the field sprays, 500, 501, 508, and the compost preparations, 502 to 507. In this episode of Troon Talk, we are focused on the three field preparations and will follow up with a second episode on the compost preparations.

Biodynamic Preparation 500, or cow horn manure, is by far the most well-known of the preparations, as the cow horns are every journalist’s favorite photo opportunity. Their cameras have made BP 500 the very symbol of biodynamic farming. It is true, if you only use one of the preparations — 500 is the one. But 500 is only half of the dynamic duo that