This evening as I sat in the field watching the Novenmber Sun sink below the
horizen I felt Winter coming on. It is like the air feels when you have been
warned of a hurricane. I gathered the corn to feed the bovines, Cosmos the
bull, his mate Ruby; cow, and Ginger the hieffer. As I pulled up next to the
feeding station Ruby and Cosmos looked anxiously at me. The cold weather has
thickened their coats and I would have to guess it is going to be a real
Winter. Last year at this time you could wear shorts. I drop the armloads
of corn stalks and ears over the wire fence for them to eat. Joyous heavy
breathing, smacking of lips and chewing all occurring simulatneously.
I look at them, they are glorious animals; Scottish Highlanders. I keep them
just for the manure. When the English marched into Scotland they slaughtered
as many as they could so they could graze sheep, typical. I look at Ruby,
she is freshened with a calf that is due in April. She is gorgeous in her
cowness. A miniature replica of the earth, she exudes life. In observing
her roundness I remember the Fall preparations work at Threshold Farm in the
Hudson Valley of New York. Hugh Williams put up his cow Deedee.
She happened to be with calf, looked like about five months, this was
discovered after the slaughter. After the sheath material was harvested and
the meat was being processed the many participants were hard at work stuffing
dandelion in mesentary, chamomile in intestine, the skull was cleaned for
oakbark. I went over and looked at the dead fetus floating in the amniotic
sac of the womb. It had little hooves already formed and a beautiful little
head. It reminded me of something so very primordial I cannot explain. A
perfectly formed creature in this sac waiting to be born, never arriving. It
found life in the compost pile. I stirred some of my universal remedy and
soaked down the pile, as all the remnants of the animal went into it.
As I am thinking all of this I am reminding myself why it is I work with the
biodynamic remedies. To bring this new impulse into the world honors my
existence. I do it for a hopeful future, for the children and healthy wombs
for them to come from. What other type of endeavour lets you so consciously
mold the future and create a microcosmic being within the macro of the earth
and expanding further to the far reaches of the heavens? You won't find that
in a stock portfolio. The ability to create the farm individuality from
within the human ego is a new impulse. Old peasant farms wore out. New
conventional chemical farms can sustain their worn out fertility through
hydroponic inputs and propping plants up chemically, the result is food that
nourishes neither the mind nor the body. It is through the impulse of
biodynamics and other similar methods that humanity will be carried into the
future. It is through a new impulse to build community and economy through a
conscious association of energies and wills for human developement...SStorch
