Features
A stirring experience
On a bright, blustery Sunday morning, fresh with the suggestion of spring, a group gathered at Garraun Lane, where Cloughjordan’s Community Farm is located. The group was about to plant trees, including an apple orchard, and also prepare and spread the Three Kings Biodynamic preparation. All who gathered for this ceremony were members of the Community Farm – they pay a weekly subscription to receive regular supplies of vegetables and milk as well as occasional supplies of meat and eggs. In total, there are fifty family units paying into the farm at present.
There are plans to grow the farm in new and exciting directions, and many areas for members to get directly involved. Helping out on specific days when specific tasks are to be carried out is one such way. And so, member families spent one Sunday in January planting, stirring, chatting, listening, debating, stirring, walking, more stirring and sprinkling – all in the name of nature, the cosmos and good food.
And all kinds of everyone turned up - parents with children of all ages up to twelve, retired folk, and every age category in between. Some were well used to tree planting or biodynamic preparations; others did not have an iota. But all brought the key ingredient of enthusiasm.
Orchard planting
First up, the tree planting. A variety of natives, from oak to ash, were planted following instructions from the ever urgent and upbeat Pat Malone. Within minutes, parents had begun to spill off with the youngest of children, and a core of hammerers was left, trying to avoid splitting stakes. Next up, into the cabin to make and discuss the preparations. Some had been involved twelve months previously when the Three Kings was also carried out. For the majority in attendance, however, this was a novel experience. A discussion led by Pat, David Fairclough and a couple more around biodynamic preparations began. Practical and more abstract elements of what we were about to do were introduced.
We were going to used tiny essences of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh, stirred in a potentising fashion, into water. We were then going to sprinkle this on the perimeter of the farm's land to create something of a protective border.
The discussion started broadly about biodynamics in general, about how farmers used to use similar practices and patterns in the past, about the DOK trials and the evidence the trial unearthed of increased microbial activity in the biodynamic soil, and about the way biodynamic preparations and sprays harness and put to use energy from the cosmos and life forces.
More specifically, we heard about bringing air and energy into the liquid, how to build and destroy a vortex - essentially chaos and order in a bucket of water. Volunteers stepped up to the bucket – some to do their share of the communal one hour stir, others for the big job – the solo one hour stir. Pat assured us all that it had to be an hour, due to the homeopathic ups and downs of energy that come from longer or shorter stirring sessions.
Lively discussion
As people stirred, people spoke and listened. The most animated debate occurred when the penny dropped, and people made the connection between the Three Kings and the bible. Maybe it’s an Irish thing, with all the ‘water under the bridge’ with religion on the island, but the connection to the story of Jesus seemed to stir up its own bit of chaos.
For some, this preparation was just practical – if it worked, so what about the Bible? For others, the elemental importance of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh was key – what they actually are and how they function and have functioned. History, medical uses, incorruptibility, the symbolism of the eastern origins of the Wise men, the usurpation of many ancient rituals and actual places and things by Christianity – it all got a say on the day.
Meanwhile, stirrers stirred in their own worlds of ever increasing silence, and the soup and the bread became ready. We ate, we spoke some more, some went to plant the orchard, others went off a sprinklin’. Buckets and paint brushes in hand, we then circumnavigated the land.
There is something eminently satisfying about getting the bearings of the land this way. Both as a ritual and as a simple, straightforward practice, it makes a lot of sense. Nature, boundaries, bounty, the universe, the unknown, history, homeopathy, connectedness, crops, doubt, debate – they are all part of life’s rich tapestry.
As the group dissolved, individuals went their ways, a little closer to the land that would produce some of their food for the coming year.
A Soil Association report in the UK finds that Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) offers many benefits to members,
communities, local economies and...
