52.
The Fragrance Of Nature In Balance
Jon Morgan - Businessday, November 11, 2010
Ms Heather Smith, an American from the verdant eastern state of Vermont has made a home in New Zealand for the past 14 years. She lives at her picturesque farm in the shadow of Hawke’s Bay’s craggy Te Mata Peak.
She first heard about New Zealand as a university student in the 1980s.
She arrived in New Zealand in 1997, after working with groups in Vietnam, Taiwan, Hawaii and Alaska fighting to save endangered species, such as tigers and bears, and on habitat restoration projects.
Now, on her 275-hectare farm, she has a similar mission.
It is to help revive a way of life that she fears has been almost submerged by the drive for greater productivity at any cost.
She is concerned that farming is becoming too industrialised at the expense of the small family unit, of environmental and animal health and of urban shoppers' knowledge of where their food comes from and what goes into the making of it.
Her farm is an eclectic mix of sheep, cattle, chickens, feijoas, grain crops and truffle trees, all grown organically using the principles of early 20th-century philosopher Rudolf Steiner.
Known as biodynamics, the farming methods shun all synthetic chemicals, replacing them with compost and manure fertiliser nurtured in buried cow horns, and follow the phases of the moon and planets in planting crops.
"I know it sounds wacky," Ms Smith says, "but it works for me. There's a feeling here of nature in balance. It's hard to explain, but there's a fragrance in the air - the trees, the soil, the animals, everything just smells right. People who come here tell me their souls feel so much better."
She was travelling by train from Napier to Wellington when she first encountered biodynamics. Seated near her was a family with a bucket of worms. The worms were a gift from pioneering Kiwi biodynamics soil scientist Peter Proctor to the family. "I sat there with them for the whole five-hour trip, talking and learning. They were so smart, really into it."
Inspired by her encounter with the family, she began to learn more about biodynamics by reading and talking to practitioners.
With the help of farm manager Nick Radly, she gradually began to change the farm over to the new regime.
An essential part is the use of Steiner's Preparation 500, made by filling a cow horn with cow dung and burying it in autumn to be dug up in spring.
The cow horn is a keratin-rich container and it is filled with beneficial material from one of nature's most complex digestive systems. She describes the contents of the retrieved horn as fine, silky dirt. "It doesn't look like manure any more. It's full of beneficial fungi and bacteria."
She first heard about New Zealand as a university student in the 1980s.
She arrived in New Zealand in 1997, after working with groups in Vietnam, Taiwan, Hawaii and Alaska fighting to save endangered species, such as tigers and bears, and on habitat restoration projects.
Now, on her 275-hectare farm, she has a similar mission.
It is to help revive a way of life that she fears has been almost submerged by the drive for greater productivity at any cost.
She is concerned that farming is becoming too industrialised at the expense of the small family unit, of environmental and animal health and of urban shoppers' knowledge of where their food comes from and what goes into the making of it.
Her farm is an eclectic mix of sheep, cattle, chickens, feijoas, grain crops and truffle trees, all grown organically using the principles of early 20th-century philosopher Rudolf Steiner.
Known as biodynamics, the farming methods shun all synthetic chemicals, replacing them with compost and manure fertiliser nurtured in buried cow horns, and follow the phases of the moon and planets in planting crops.
"I know it sounds wacky," Ms Smith says, "but it works for me. There's a feeling here of nature in balance. It's hard to explain, but there's a fragrance in the air - the trees, the soil, the animals, everything just smells right. People who come here tell me their souls feel so much better."
She was travelling by train from Napier to Wellington when she first encountered biodynamics. Seated near her was a family with a bucket of worms. The worms were a gift from pioneering Kiwi biodynamics soil scientist Peter Proctor to the family. "I sat there with them for the whole five-hour trip, talking and learning. They were so smart, really into it."
Inspired by her encounter with the family, she began to learn more about biodynamics by reading and talking to practitioners.
With the help of farm manager Nick Radly, she gradually began to change the farm over to the new regime.
An essential part is the use of Steiner's Preparation 500, made by filling a cow horn with cow dung and burying it in autumn to be dug up in spring.
The cow horn is a keratin-rich container and it is filled with beneficial material from one of nature's most complex digestive systems. She describes the contents of the retrieved horn as fine, silky dirt. "It doesn't look like manure any more. It's full of beneficial fungi and bacteria."
A teaspoon of the preparation is stirred into 40 to 60 litres of warm water and sprayed on pasture to "kick the soil organisms into activity".
She calls on a science analogy to explain it. "It's like taking a swab from a strep throat and making a culture of the bugs in agar in a petri dish. On the farm, that's the cow horn of manure. In the dish, you can see the bacteria expand rapidly. And on the farm the same thing is happening when we've sprayed the bugs around. The difference is we're using good bugs."
The spray stimulates the soil biology, which leads to the growth of more nutrient-rich pastures, crops and garden vegetables and fruit, she says.
On her farm, this is seen in healthier animals and pastures. "The cows and sheep are more fertile, the sheep have less flystrike, I don't need to worm the horses, thistle numbers have plummeted and the pastures hold on to water longer and stay greener longer in summer."
It meant they coped better in the recent droughts, not being forced to sell stock. A low stocking rate and more than 7000 trees for shade and shelter also helped.
She calls on a science analogy to explain it. "It's like taking a swab from a strep throat and making a culture of the bugs in agar in a petri dish. On the farm, that's the cow horn of manure. In the dish, you can see the bacteria expand rapidly. And on the farm the same thing is happening when we've sprayed the bugs around. The difference is we're using good bugs."
The spray stimulates the soil biology, which leads to the growth of more nutrient-rich pastures, crops and garden vegetables and fruit, she says.
On her farm, this is seen in healthier animals and pastures. "The cows and sheep are more fertile, the sheep have less flystrike, I don't need to worm the horses, thistle numbers have plummeted and the pastures hold on to water longer and stay greener longer in summer."
It meant they coped better in the recent droughts, not being forced to sell stock. A low stocking rate and more than 7000 trees for shade and shelter also helped.
This Solution Could Make Paddy More Resistant To Pests
The following was taken from the daily, The Hindu, October 22, 2009. “Dilute one litre of cow’s urine in about 5 litres of water, take paddy seeds required for an acre and tie them into several small bundles and dip them in the solution for half an hour then dry the seeds under shade before sowing. Using this method several farmers have been successful and able to record that the seeds have become more resistant to infestations from pest attacks!”
With a mindful application the farmers, may be able to avoid the cost of pesticides, delivering a less harmful product to the consumer at a cheaper cost!
The soil is dark, crumbly and full of worms. Grass roots go deep and a clay pan is gradually being broken up. "People who come here, curious about what's happening, dig a hole, look at my soil and go, 'Ooh, aah'," she says.
Other fertilisers are lime, a worm-based compost tea and a variety of composts made from horse, cow and sheep manure, food scraps, basalt dust and Steiner preparations using camomile to stop nitrogen from leaching, yarrow to help the absorption of potassium and sulphur, nettles to promote iron and magnesium, dandelion for silica and valerian for phosphorus.
She has 300 ewes and 220 cattle of varying ages and takes 150 dairy grazers at a time.
At weaning, the cattle are given a black walnut remedy to reduce stress. "Every year, it gets easier," Ms Smith says and adds with a laugh, "and this year I swear the calves ran from their mothers."
The feijoas are a big future hope. She sells them to a juicer and an ice-cream maker, getting $1.30 a kilogram for her organically grown fruit, as against 70 cents for conventionally grown.
"It's a gem of a fruit," she says. "It's made into juice and pulp and all through the process retains its unique taste character, much more than other fruits."
However, the local market is saturated and export sales are needed to grow the industry.
She has seen the demand for organic food grow enormously and is frustrated that more is not being done to encourage organic farming. "It's crazy," she says. "The Government is allowing the science institutes to spend money on genetic engineering research when there's no demand for it. Why can't that money go into organics, which is in hot demand?"
She has a favourite saying: "We don't photosynthesise - we are what we eat. More and more people are coming to realise that. They don't want chemicals in their food. They want natural goodness."
Thirteen years on from her first experiments with biodynamics, she feels she is still learning.
"We're still in an establishment phase and I don't know how long that will last, but every year it is a little easier. There is a cost to it, though, and it can be difficult some years to keep your head above water."
An endless stream of wwoofers (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) flock her farm. "They're fabulous workers, so keen. They care so much for the planet and they come here to get back to nature, learn how to milk a cow, make cheese and bake bread - and hopefully spread the word as they travel. It's really inspiring."
Other fertilisers are lime, a worm-based compost tea and a variety of composts made from horse, cow and sheep manure, food scraps, basalt dust and Steiner preparations using camomile to stop nitrogen from leaching, yarrow to help the absorption of potassium and sulphur, nettles to promote iron and magnesium, dandelion for silica and valerian for phosphorus.
She has 300 ewes and 220 cattle of varying ages and takes 150 dairy grazers at a time.
At weaning, the cattle are given a black walnut remedy to reduce stress. "Every year, it gets easier," Ms Smith says and adds with a laugh, "and this year I swear the calves ran from their mothers."
The feijoas are a big future hope. She sells them to a juicer and an ice-cream maker, getting $1.30 a kilogram for her organically grown fruit, as against 70 cents for conventionally grown.
"It's a gem of a fruit," she says. "It's made into juice and pulp and all through the process retains its unique taste character, much more than other fruits."
However, the local market is saturated and export sales are needed to grow the industry.
She has seen the demand for organic food grow enormously and is frustrated that more is not being done to encourage organic farming. "It's crazy," she says. "The Government is allowing the science institutes to spend money on genetic engineering research when there's no demand for it. Why can't that money go into organics, which is in hot demand?"
She has a favourite saying: "We don't photosynthesise - we are what we eat. More and more people are coming to realise that. They don't want chemicals in their food. They want natural goodness."
Thirteen years on from her first experiments with biodynamics, she feels she is still learning.
"We're still in an establishment phase and I don't know how long that will last, but every year it is a little easier. There is a cost to it, though, and it can be difficult some years to keep your head above water."
An endless stream of wwoofers (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) flock her farm. "They're fabulous workers, so keen. They care so much for the planet and they come here to get back to nature, learn how to milk a cow, make cheese and bake bread - and hopefully spread the word as they travel. It's really inspiring."
