Re: perfect orchard -The soil
Allan-- Do you mean compost tea made with fish and yucca used as microbial foods? For starters recall that I am quoting Elaine here from something she wrote last spring. I believe it's accurate, but My impression was that adding fish and yucca to your mix AFTER the tea is brewed will move up the process of breaking up hard pan. As we know, adding too much (if any) fish during the compost tea brewing can cause your tea to go anaerobic. For grapes in foliar feeding, I add a little fish after brewing to provide an extra N and calcium kick. For a soil drench, extra fish added after tea brewing should be even better. The calcium in the fish helps that aspect. It's my understanding that compost teas like this can be applied weekly through the winter season, as long as the ground is NOT frozen. Yes, this is my understanding as well. As I understand it, it is kosher to deep mulch the soil you are remdiating, so, regardless of the ambient temperatures, the microbes can work through the winter. Yes, that's a good point--that you can brew the compost tea and apply during winter so long as the mulch keeps the ground from freezing. I like to use barrel compost in my compost teas, also, so the effect of the compost preps is also felt in the soil. Yes, I just purchased some BC from JPI and will give it a try. Regarding the preps and their effectiveness, there are lots more knowledgable people on this list. I am just getting started. Dorothy __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com
Re: Perfect Orchard -soil test
Per, if you are going to start using the biodynamic remedies or compost teas it is my recommendation to not place too much emphasis on a soil test. The increase in biological activity will unlock bound nutrients and minerals. This will manifest in an increase in natural ground cover diversity; different native grasses and clovers will spring up and grow where none have been before. This is something I have observed time and again in vineyards, pastureland, turfgrass, and farms. The use of hardwood chips, [ramial chipped wood, put that in search engine] is a great promoter of highly fungal soils mimicking ancient forest soil that has a long term storage of nutrients for grapevines. Just start spraying teas and bd remedies, keep this up through the winter so long as it is not frozen, muddy or too nasty, you can't go wrong... sstorch
FW: [globalnews] Search for the New Isis, the Divine Sophia: TheQuest for the Isis-Sophia
Title: FW: [globalnews] Search for the New Isis, the Divine Sophia: The Quest for the Isis-Sophia Rudolf Steiner Archive Home Version 2.4.3 [Prev] [Next] [Top] [Search] [Index] [Home] [ Lecture: 24th December, 1920 | Dornach | GA0202 ] [ Make Corrections | Help ] Search for the New Isis, the Divine Sophia: The Quest for the Isis-Sophia A lecture by Rudolf Steiner Dornach, December 24, 1920 GA 202 The lecture presented here was given in Dornach on December 24, 1920, (Vol. 202 in the Bibliographic Survey, 1961). Translated from the German by James H. Hindes. Copyright 1988 This e.Text edition is provided with the cooperation of: The Anthroposophic Press Search for the New Isis, the Divine Sophia: The Quest for the Isis-Sophia IN THE FESTIVAL of Christmas something is given to Christendom that directs the thoughts of all circles of Christian people straight to the very deepest questions presented by the evolution of humankind upon earth. Regard the evolution of history from whatever point of view you will, take into consideration historical events in order to understand human evolution, to penetrate the meaning of human evolution on earth in all history you will find no thought as widely understandable or having as much power to lift the soul to this mystery of human evolution as the thought of the Mystery of Golgotha, as the thought that is contained in the festival of Christmas. When we look back upon the beginning of human evolution on earth, and follow it through the thousands of years that preceded the Mystery of Golgotha, we find that, although the achievements of the peoples in all the various nations were so great, nevertheless, in reality all these achievements constituted only a kind of preparation they were a preparatory step toward what took place for the sake of humankind at the Mystery of Golgotha. Furthermore, we find we can only understand what has happened since the Mystery of Golgotha when we remember that the Christ who went through the Mystery of Golgotha has played an active role in the evolution of humanity ever since. Many things in human evolution may at first appear incomprehensible. However, if we investigate them without narrow-minded superstition, for example the kind of superstition that believes that unknown gods should come to the aid of human beings without their active involvement, and that such aid should come just where human beings consider it necessary if we leave aside such views, we find that even the most painful events in the course of world history can show us the significance and meaning that the evolution of the earth has acquired through the fact that Christ went through the Mystery of Golgotha. It is appropriate for us to study this Mystery of Golgotha and the mystery of Christmas belongs to it from a point of view which can reveal, as it were, the meaning of all of earthly humanity. We know how intimate the connection is between what takes place in the moral-spiritual sphere of human evolution and what takes place in nature. And with a certain understanding of this link between nature and the world's moral order we can approach also another relationship with which we have been concerned for many years namely, the relationship of Christ Jesus to that being whose outer reflection appears in the sun. The followers and representatives of the Christian impulse were not always so hostile toward the recognition of this connection between the mystery of the sun and the mystery of Christ as the decadent present-day representatives of Christianity so often are. Dionysius the Areopagite, whom we have often mentioned, calls the sun God's monument, and in Augustine we continually find such allusions. Even in Scholasticism we find such references to the fact that the outwardly visible stars and their movements are images of the divine-spiritual existence of the world. However, we must understand the mystery of Christmas in a far wider context, if we wish to understand what should concern us most of all in view of the important tasks of the present age. I would like to remind you of something which I have repeatedly brought forward in various ways in the course of many years. I have told you: We look back into the first post-Atlantean age, which was filled with the deeds and experiences of the ancient Indian people; we look back into the ancient Persian epoch of post-Atlantean humanity, into the Egypto-Chaldean, and into the Greco-Latin. We come then to the fifth epoch of the post-Atlantean humanity, our own. Our epoch will be followed by the sixth and by the seventh. And I have drawn your attention to the fact that the Greco-Latin, the fourth epoch of post-AtIantean humanity, stands, as it were, in the middle, and that there are certain connections (you can read of this in my little book The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and Humanity) between the third and the fifth epochs, that is, between the Egypto-Chaldean epoch and our own. Furthermore there is
BIOPHARMING QUESTIONED AS GM PIG VACCINE TAINTS CROPS
http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,865030,00.html Alarm as GM pig vaccine taints US crops Strict new guidelines planned after contamination Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington Tuesday December 24, 2002 The Guardian US authorities, shaken by a case in which food crops were contaminated with an experimental pig vaccine, are preparing to impose stringent guidelines on a new generation of experimental GM crops. The department of agriculture and the environmental protection agency are encountering growing disquiet from a coalition of farmers and food manufacturers about the potential dangers of the next phase of GM products - biopharming, or the implanting of genes in food crops to grow drugs and industrial chemicals. The idea of tightening regulations on GM products represents something of a revolution in thinking in the US, where about 70% of the processed food on supermarket shelves contains genetically engineered ingredients. But concerns have arisen after a small biotech firm in Texas was fined $3m (£2m) for tainting half a million bushels of soya bean with a trial vaccine used to prevent stomach upsets in piglets. Under a settlement reached this month, the first of its kind against any biotech company in the US, a firm called Prodigene agreed to pay a fine of $250,000 and to repay the government for the cost of incinerating the soya bean that had been contaminated with genetically altered corn. US authorities said the corn did not reach food crops or animal feed. But the episode has drawn unwelcome attention to an as yet experimental area of GM farming. The premise behind biopharming, or pharming for short, is that genetic tinkering can turn an ordinary-looking corn or barley field into a potential drug factory, producing insulin, chemotherapy drugs, and other products for much less than it would cost to set up an industrial plant. At present, two dozen trials of the experimental GM drugs are under way across the US. The biotech firms argue that the new technique can revolutionise health care, especially in the developing world where hospitals short on syringes can dispense edible drugs. But in the wake of the Texas case, questions are being asked. The latest incident was the worst violation so far of regulations intended to keep biopharming out of the food supply. It was also seen as the most serious setback to date to the next generation of GM farming. Until now, genetic engineering has been used mainly to make crops such as corn and soya bean resistant to insects and disease, and the US food industry has been solidly on side. The Texas alarm has begun to change that. The incident overall just reaffirms our concerns that something could go wrong, Stephanie Childs of the Grocery Manufacturers of America, which represents food companies such as Kellogg and General Mills, told the Los Angeles Times. Analysts in Washington said yesterday that they expected the department of agriculture to impose more stringent guidelines next year. Published reports said yesterday that guidelines under consideration by the authorities include moving experimental farms away from America's grain belt in the mid-west, or requiring growers to dye the leaves of the altered crops. The agriculture department's disciplinary measures against the small Texas firm have crystallised concerns among farmers, environmentalists and industry about the risks of experimental vaccine crops getting into the food supply. The department of agriculture wanted to send a signal that the companies need to take the obligation to protect the food supply very seriously, Michael Rodemeyer, the director of Washington's Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, said yesterday. The whole issue of growing pharmaceuticals in food crops has certainly raised concern within the food industry, as well as among environmentalists and others, about genes from these crops getting into the food supply.
Fwd: Solid Cow Manure
Kia ora all This morning I went into the cowshed and was somewhat amazed by the = sudden difference in the consistency of the manure. Having had a = difficult 9 months with the cows healthwise it just seemed that this = morning their manure was like it should be rather than the green = rainbows that they have been expelling most of the time. This really has me wondering if there has been any cause for this as it = was such a sudden change and with them all. =20 Maybe it was because Fonterra (NZ's giant dairy co-operative) have just = been and signed me up today to be processing our organic milk = separately. We are # 14 in a country of 14,000 dairy farms. =20 Have a wonderful 2003 everyone and may your dreams come true like mine = have today Kia kaha Diana
Re: Perfect Orchard ?? Brookside Lab
Dear Per, Here are some address details for the Brookside Laboritories:- e-mail address for the brookside lab director Mark Flock is [EMAIL PROTECTED] . snail-mail P.O. Box 456 New Knoxville, OH 45871 fax (419) 753 2949. I hope this information will help you along the way. Peter. - Original Message - From: COYOTEHILLFARM [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, December 25, 2002 10:40 AM Subject: Re: Perfect Orchard ?? Brookside Lab Brookside Lab, can you please provide contact address/email Thanks Per Garp/ NH ( sorry i'm running 500+ email late) - Original Message - From: Peter Michael Bacchus pbaBrookside [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, December 15, 2002 04:49 AM Subject: Re: Perfect Orchard ?? Dear Per Now that you have given your location and soil description it is easier to make a suggestion. Have your soil chemistry analyzed by Brookside Lab. or similar then work on balancing your cation exchange to suit grape vines. Drain as mentioned and form up windrows to plant on. grape roots like to be warm. I would be a bit cautious about sheep and goat manure as they tend to make the ground harder, or at least that is my experience. Horse manure has the most soil loosening effect, followed by cow. This is of course to be composted and prepped. Then be generous with the Horn manure and barrel compost. You need to get the soil life going which means you may need to drain to avoid waterlogging at any time. If you really do need to loosen the subsoil mechanically I suggest that you look at gelignite, I have seen it used to good effect under trees that were stunted by hard pan. In this way the topsoil would remain on top. Go and have a look at what Steven Storch is doing and perhaps get some advice from him. Best of luck, Peter. - Original Message - From: COYOTEHILLFARM [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, December 15, 2002 1:36 PM Subject: Re: Perfect Orchard ?? I appreciate this comments, We are here permanently, Hardpan is very common in the Eastern US, in NH winery's are Uncommon. Gypsum has been suggested in the past but only a hand full of it in for each grape planting. Hardpan in the NH is a sand like product with a bunch of stones large to small, it act much like quicksand when water soaked, water have a hard time penetrate it and that's way I need to drain my fields as grapes do not like wet feet's. We do not have any clay, as far as what I have seen. On top of the Hard pan we have 1 to 2 feet's of good top soil Some time more some time less pending on location and past cow manure deposit. We have consider ripping the hardpan whit a 2-3 foot Hardpan buster type of equipment but have fund that it is harder to do a good job of that type of equipment, a 3x3 dug ditch seems more functional. ( But more costly) and then the gypsum can do it's job !? I plan to cover the rows with wood chips, (and add goat and sheep manure)as a soil help and to prevent grass and competition. (I like to see chickens and Guinea fouls in the fields) Please describe the full BD cycle. Thanks Per Garp/NH
More solid cow manure
Kia ora all This morning I went into the cowshed and was somewhat amazed by the sudden difference in the consistency of the manure. Having had a difficult9 months with the cows healthwise it just seemed that this morning their manure was like it should be rather than the green rainbows that they have beenexpelling most of the time. This really has me wondering if there has been any cause for this as it was such a sudden change and with them all. Maybe it was because Fonterra (NZ's giant dairy co-operative) have just been and signed me up today to be processing our organicmilk separately. We are # 14 in a country of 14,000 dairy farms. Have a wonderful 2003 everyone and may your dreams come true like mine have today Kia kaha Diana
