About the Book
A magnum opus, Fifty Years of Biodynamic Farming: Essays From the Field is Henning Sehmsdorf 's tribute and testament to biodynamic living and farming. In writing and editing this collection of thirty-two essays, Sehmsdorf has created an enduring work that will be an invaluable tool for students and practitioners of holistic and self-sufficient food growing. Dozens of topics are organized into seven chapters, and their consideration is comprehensive. From personal histories with biodynamics to nutritionally-whole foods, herbal medicine, solar-powered micro-irrigation to the spirituality of the farm, Sehmsdorf and his colleagues reveal and discuss farming as a practice both sacred and personal.
The authors take on gluten intolerance, ecological livestock raising and the case for responsible animal care, bee colony collapse and concepts such as Goethe's theories around color and plant morphology. Favorite essays include Sehmsdorf 's life and farm partner Elizabeth Simpson's "The Viable Family Farm," and Sehmsdorf 's own "Home Food Security" and "Farming for Health," all stunning in their scope. Or, the conceptually brilliant "Emergy (Embodied Energy) Analysis of S&S Homestead Farm" by Andrew Haden (with Sehmsdorf). In his concluding essay, "The Spirituality of the Soil: The Idea of Teleology from Aristotle to Rudolf Steiner," Sehmsdorf 's unifying apprehension of cosmos and life as indwelling, transformative, and spiritual is manifest. It's what has powered his fifty-year farm plan, and what keeps Sehmsdorf researching, discovering, and creating today.
Together with Simpson, Sehmsdorf has built a life of deep connection, with commitment to service and education. Fifty Years of Biodynamic Farming is a unique study, and exceptionally useful for any student or practitioner of organics or biodynamics, or life, really, as it is nothing short of a treasure trove of lessons from lives truly lived with great curiosity, meaning, and beauty. (Gigi Berardi, Author FoodWISE, biodynamic cheesemaker, Shaw Island, WA; Director, Resilient Farm Project; Professor, Urban and Environmental Planning & Policy, Huxley College of the Environment, Western Washington University).
About the Author :
Henning Sehmsdorf completed a three-year apprenticeship and graduated from business school in Germany before emigrating to the United States at age nineteen. He took a degree in philosophy of science at the University of Rochester, NY, studied for a year at the Frankfurt Schoolof Critical Theory before taking a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. Offered a position at the University of Washington in 1967, he found land on Lopez Island, where he and his wife Elizabeth Simpson (Ph.D, University of Washington), developed a biodynamic demonstration farm, a farm-to-school program for local students, and educational programs for interns, apprentices, and the public. The essays in the volume describe the practices and applied research on the farm, nearly half of them written by interns and apprentices, and by university colleagues.
Review :
"Henning Sehmsdorf and Elizabeth Simpson crafted a fifty-year farm plan to bring to life the biodynamic ideal of farm individuality. This collection of essays wonderfully illustrates the many aspects in the development-from pre-earthly conception to after-life-of the farm organism that is their S&S Homestead." (Barry Lia, Ph.D., biodynamic educator and researcher)
"Henning Sehmsdorf's Fifty Years of Biodynamic Farming is a comprehensive description of the experiences, knowledge and expertise the authors have gained in over half a century. The book is broken up into seven parts: Biodynamics, Living the Holistic High Life, Growing Plants, Growing Animals, Building Things, Economics and World View; Holistic Science.
In Part I, Sehmsdorf explains that biodynamic farming is organic farming, but above and beyond organic as we know it. It encompasses: 1) the integration of animals to create a closed nutrient cycle; 2) the use of the astronomical calendar for planting, cultivating and harvesting; and 3) awareness of spiritual forces in nature, "a practice of living and relating to nature in a way that focuses on the health of the bioregion, landscape, soil, plant, and human life and it promoting the inner development of each practitioner." In "Living the Holistic High Life," we are encouraged to eat whole foods as eaten by our ancestors, with principles that will be familiar to any Weston A. Prince Foundation member, including chemical-free whole foods, raw dairy, saturated fat from animal products, lacto-fermentation of dairy products and vegetables, and small amounts of raw meat. "Teach Your Children Well," describes a delightful program to introduce adolescents to agriculture and real food. Through this program the farm has been able to work with area public schools to get not only local produce in the school cafeteria, but even local grass-fed beef.
Part II of the book, the section on "Growing Plants," covers such topics as pastoral versus industrial food production and advocates pasture-raised meats and animals raised well versus those raised in confinement, and discusses the hazards industrial meat cause, not only for our own health but also the health of the animals and workers, as well as environmental, social and ethical concerns. "Medicinal Plants," discusses various plants and herbs, along with their health benefits and preparation methods. An essay details starting up and managing a CSA, another compost management, a third nutrient balancing in soil, another seed production and another starting up a garden-to-cafeteria program at the local elementary school, and another discusses the sacredness of sourdough bread.
In the section titled "Growing Animals," various essays cover such topics as ecological livestock raising, biodynamic dairy, and bee health. The section "Building Things," covers solo- powered irrigation, and building a strawbale house and a barn in ways that encompass the ideals of the S&S Homestead.
Part VI: Economics," covers the ins and outs of maintaining a sustainable and viable family farm, with essays on home food security, marketing and stewardship. The last section, "World View and Holistic Science," discusses various theories of Steiner and Goethe, including plant morphology, color theory and teleology. Various essays evaluate the energy use of the farm, its impact on the earth, as well as the spiritual aspects of farming, an often overlooked concept in agricultural circles.
This book is insightful and educational, a must-read for anyone wanting to farm or homestead, or looking to understand how farming, when done right, benefits us, the earth and the animals. I give it a very hearty thumbs up."
- Abbreviated review by Jacqueline Garcia, Weston A. Price Foundation. For full text, see Wise Traditions, Fall 2023.
