Ep. 341 Monty Waldin on Biodynamic Wine | Biodynamic Compost Part 2

Italian wine podcast. Chinchin with Italian wine people. Hello. Welcome to the Italian wine podcast. I'm your host, Monty Walden. In recent years, I've noticed increasing interest in ideas such as organic wines, so called natural wines, and Biodynamic wines. I'll read for you some excerpts from my book Biodynamic wine, and follow-up with some commentary on the topics covered for those interested in acquiring the full Biodynamic wine text. It's available from my publisher, infinite ideas, who right now is offering a discount fifteen percent through July thirty first twenty twenty to get the discount use the code, which is bio fifteen off at infiniteideas dot com. That's bio, which is a b I o one five o f f. As promised, this week, we'll discuss the remaining three bidonomic treatments that are repaired as compost. These include Oakbark, Dandelion, and Valerian. Oakbark five zero five. Oakbark is perhaps the most difficult biodynamic compost preparation to get one's head around. It's also the most difficult to make inserting the bark into its animal sense organ sheath is fiddly Closing the sheath, even more so since this preparation must be buried in a place involving the dynamic of running water. To complicate matters even further, Rudolphsteiner never fully explained why he stipulated this preparation's sheath must be an animal skull. The oak bark preparation cannot, however, be skipped over because it quotes provides what is necessary for plants to be upright and well formed, and it develops the farm's immune system, conferring disease resistance on crops is what he said. The Oak bark preparation role in making individual plants grow in the ideal way helps the entire farm organism or vineyard function properly as a whole. Steiner's contention was that soil with the right level of calcium force helped plants stay healthy and disease free. Oakbark's rich calcium content makes it ideal preparation material. Steiner said that adding the Oakbark preparation to compost, quotes, will truly provide the forces to prevent or arrest harm full plant diseases, those were his words. To summarize, plant material with a unique quality and concentration of calcium, the bark from a highly evolved plant, the oak, is being surrounded by mud the earth, and water, the moon, within a calcium rich animal part, the brain cavity of highly evolved animals such as cows to produce a preparation which will string them forces in the earth, which counteract tendencies in plants to become diseased. The oak tree specified by Rudolphsteiner was the peduncular or English oak, its other name in Latin is quercus Roubur. How however, as this only grows successfully in temperate climbs, substitutes can be used. For the North American continent, Aaron Fryfeiffer suggested the White Oak Quirkus Alba as being the most, like the English choke. Both the sessile and red oaks are also suitable. Only the outer bark should be collected. A void bark from the side of trees facing away from the quater, as they are likely to be covered with moss. The pithy material immediately beneath the bark, the cambian layer should not be used because this part of the tree is still alive. The oak bark is collected when its calcium content peaks from late summer through early autumn, and from living trees at least thirty years old with trunks at least thirty to fifty centimeters in diameter. The bark should be collected in the afternoon. Rudolphstein indicated that the skull of any domesticated, meaning farm, animals, such as bovines, sheep, goats, pigs, or horses would do for the sheath. Skull from animals killed on the farm or from neighboring biodynamic farms are ideal. Demita International's current production standard stipulates the skull be cleaned before it is filled with oak bark by being placed in a closed container filled with sawdust and left for a period of time during which it is cleaned of any fleshy remains by means of a process of microbial maceration. After the skull is removed, waste material is disposed of in accordance with current regulatory requirements. The oak bark should be chopped or ground to a crumb like consistency, perhaps by passing it through window screening or through an old cornmeal grinder in the case of small volumes or a grain grinder for larger ones. It can then be moistened. When the ground oak bark is damp, but not tripping, it can be packed into the cranial cavity via the foramen magnum, the opening at the rear base of the skull. Using a wooden dowel if necessary. The contents of a single skull should produce enough preparation to treat three hundred hectares of cropland. Steiner saw in the Dandeliner plant capable if prepared according to his biodynamic instructions of bringing a unique enabling quality to crops. Giving them the power to sense exactly what they need from both their local and the wider environment, and even in fact, to attract it. The upper part of the plant consists of bright yellow flowers, which follow the sun like a sun clock. After flowering, the silica in Dandelion is expressed when its seed bearing papae are born on the wind. We blow these spindly lighters of feather parachutes into each other's faces as children. A little knowing their translucent appearance results from an abundance of fine, salacious cellular tissues, according to von Wistinghausen and All, who add that the silica coming to expression in the Dandy Lion makes this plant a special sense organ for the light silica supports sensory functions in human and animal skin and sense organs, above all in the eyes, in the plant, and above all in the dandelion, This type of sensory function arises from interaction between silica and potassium. Making the Dandelion five zero six compost preparation. Peter Procter suggests the Dandelion flowers are picked in spring, early in the morning before the sun is too high, and before the center of each flower has opened too fully. Dry the freshly picked flowers by leaving the filled picking containers outside in the sun. So the flowers wilt before being moved into airy shade and being spread in a single layer on a drying frame or on paper. Or they can be moved indoors directly and be turned in the early drying stage until quite dry. The animal organ used to contain the dandelion flowers is the bovine mesentery or caul fats or the great momentum. The dandelion flowers are wrapped in the lean middle part of the mesentery. The dandelion filled pouches or pillows are usually buried in autumn In handwritten notes for his nineteen twenty four agriculture course, Steiner suggested that the Dandelion compost preparation would benefit from spending six months hanging in a tree before being buried in the ground. In a similar way to the stag's bladder for the Yarrow five zero two preparation and the Cowin testin for the chamomile five zero three preparation. Steiner indicated that the Dandelion preparation should be dug up at Spring Equinox. At the same time as you would dig up the Horn manure five hundred preparation. Although, you may wait another six weeks or so, he said. Using the Dandy Line five zero six compost preparation. Whenever I make a hole in the side of the compost pile into which the Dandy Lion preparation is to be added, I feel like a plumber reaching into a dark recess in which a blockage needs attending to. This ultimately is Dandelion's role, regulating, balancing, and harmonizing, helping crops to draw their nourishment from their broader environment and overcome obstructions to the flows of forces in the farm's surroundings. A thirty centimeter by thirty centimeter Dandelion filled perituranium or mesentery pillow should produce enough of this compost preparation to treat a hundred hectares of cropland. Filarian five zero seven. There's nothing more satisfying at the end of an autumn day's composting than dipping your cold hands in a container of warm water and stirring in a few drops of extract of valerian flowers backwards and forwards. The resulting pale amber liquid is then sprayed over the finished compost pile, like icing on a cake. The Valarian seals in the beneficial forces carried by the other five compost preparations so that when the compost is spread, these forces can be released to the soil. Making the Valerian five zero seven compost preparation. Valerian, its botanical name is Valeria officinalis, is a perennial herb native to Eurasia, which flowers in early summer. It's tiny white flowers are intensely perfumed appearing clusters and open individually over a period of time. About two weeks after the first flowers have opened The first few petals drop off indicating that seed formation has begun. And flower picking should also begin. At this stage, about half of the blossoms on any given flower head should have opened. Biodynamic literature generally suggests picking the flowers in the early morning. Common practice is for the flowers to be chopped or finely ground using a pestle and mortar. Perhaps by placing the pulp in the toe end of a nylon stocking, twisting it up tightly, and squeezing the package in a vice to extract green or coffee colored juice. Or if flowers are in short supply, they can be wetted with a little rainwater or snow melt rather than well water, meaning water previously exposed to the sun and left in a glass jar on a sunny window sill for up to a week before the mixture is pressed or strained through muslin into sterilized twenty to fifty milliliter bottles. Delete argues that making the valerian extract in either of these ways, results in a poor yield and a preparation whose concentration is unknown. His alternative method is to process the flowers the same evening that they are picked. Snipping off all stem parts but leaving the green calyx in place. Using a funnel and stick, these are stuffed into glass bottles, which can be sealed with a cork Once the flowers are inserted, add distilled water until the bottle is full, but leave an air space below the cork. Tire the cork down with twine to prevent it from popping out. Then hang the bottle that same evening in a sunny position in a tree and leave it there for three days. After three days in the tree, the bottle's contents are drained into a fresh container via a filter like a piece of fine terelin fabric. Extract any juice contained in the solids by pressing and combine this with the larger volume of free run juice. Using the Valerian five zero seven compost preparation. The standard practice is to dilute the Valerian liquid concentrate in water to a five percent solution. Most biodynamic growers spray the Valerian compost preparation on newly made compost piles before the piles are covered with straw for winter. However, it is worth considering the argument that the prepared Valerian should, in fact, be sprayed only several months later. And when the pile of raw uncomplosted material has actually become chance formed into finished hummus rich compost. Of the six hydonomic compost preparations, Valerian is unique in two ways. First, it is the only one not to be buried underground, a process which concentrates forces within a substance. Second, it is the only one not to be used in solid form, but sprayed as a liquid. A process which allows forces contained within a substance to be released. So if you want to release those forces brought to and preserved within the raw compostable material by the five other preparations as it composts, then spray Valarian unfinished rather than newly made piles, or simply hedge your bets and spray it twice before and after. Valerian is the phosphorous, quote, light that switches the compost on. It makes the metaphorical blood within the compost and farm organism and perhaps the real stuff in your hand on a cold day finally flow. And this concludes our examination of the biodynamic preparations prescribed by Rudolphsteiner. My book, Biodynamic wine, covers each of these treatments in greater detail and explores some of the reasoning that led Rudolphsteiner and some of his contemporaries to the development of these preparations. If you're interested in my book, Biodynamic wine, my publisher infinite ideas is currently offering fifteen percent off through July the thirty first two thousand twenty with offer code, bio one five, o f f. Listen to the Italian wine podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud, Apple Pod casts, Hemalaya FM, and more. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show. If you enjoy listening, please consider donating through Italian wine podcast dot com. Any amount helps cover equipment, and publication costs. Until next time.