Why I farm biodynamically - Jeremy Miller

I grew up living (but not working) in the countryside, experiencing the yearly cycle of farming all around me. The local church was nearly completely surrounded by hop gardens. The farm opposite our house still used horses. The threshing machine created a dust cloud with people clamouring around it. The local stream ran through the valley, teaming with life (frogs and tiddlers abounded). The woods echoed with the sound of pheasants. The cows attending to their calves - all this ringing in my ears and touching all my senses. Everything felt so alive, but this was my youth speaking.

I decided at the end of my schooling that I really felt I wanted to get much more farming, maybe to become a farm manager. So I went to agricultural college for an 'education in farming'. Here I accepted everything that I was taught, how to use artificial fertilisers, when to use what chemical spray for which pest. I took all this at face value with no questions asked. I finished my three-year agriculture course and was ready to take steps into farm management. For a while all seemed well.

As times moved on, I had a slow ever-increasing realisation that some things did not seem so well. More and more questions arose in me that I felt needed answering. Then finally my physical body said to me that this cannot go on any longer. I felt ill - probably caused initially by the organo-phosphorous sheep dip. I had to leave the farming situation. For the next few years my life seemed in turmoil.

I eventually applied for a job interview on an organic farm. This was a small holding growing vegetables. I was extremely interested and the interview went well until the owner stated "we grow these vegetables organically because the vegetables fetch more money and we don't use chemical sprays, we use natural ones". An uneasy feeling came over me. This was not what I was seeking.

Green issues arose in me before I had heard of them being reported. I also had a strong sense of wholeness, at one with nature. I awoke to spirituality. "The Earth is connected to all the other planets - the animals, insects, the plants, the rocks, the elements (Earth, Air, Water, Fire) and MAN (human being) - all are interweaving and creating a Universal Cosmic whole, encouraged by different realms of Spiritual activity". I needed to go to university to learn about the universality of everything; to learn about Life itself. I suddenly felt that I actually knew nothing and had everything to learn.

I attended a conference at Emerson College and discovered the Rural Development Project. I was so impressed with the care and attention given to the compost heap. I was introduced to some preparations (spray and compost). With my interest awoken I joined a study group on the local biodynamic farm (Plaw Hatch). This fascination grew in me, but I realised that one really needed to do biodynamic work and get experience. So I became a gardener who is practising biodynamics.

I find I am now in a continuous process of learning and experience so many things. For example I try to get a feeling for how the planetary spheres influence things on Earth (Maria Thun - Working with the Stars); I try to get to know; intimately the soil in the garden; the plants from seed to plant, to flower and back to seed. (sometimes I even get biodynamic seed from Stormy Hall); the landscape around one, e.g. the weeds, the insects, animals, even rocks, the weather and of course the other biodynamic gardeners and farmers. I try to get to know some of this and be grateful; to help make the preparations with others, to use them to their best advantage; to find a reverence towards the sacred Earth.

Grace before Meals

The plant-seeds are quickened in the Night on the earth

The green herbs are sprouting through the might of the air

And all fruits are ripened by the power of the Sun.

So quickens the soul in the shrine of the Heart

 So blossoms Spirit-power in the light of the World

So ripens Man's strength in the glory of God

Rudolf Steiner

Jeremy Miller is a gardener at Nutley Hall in Sussex. He is a founder member of IBIG (International Biodynamic Initiative Group) and is a member of the BDAA Council.