001 – The Seedy Story

001 – The Seedy Story

With host Linda Borghi

Farm-A-Yard Podcast logo: orange sun with sunbeams rising over a mound of black dirt with 2 sprouts and a microphone in green coming up out of the soil.
Farm-A-Yard Podcast — It’s a movement… have ya heard?

Seeds are very small, yet mighty! It is so easy to overlook the paramount importance and power of seeds. There is a worldwide seed diversity crisis today.  In this podcast episode, Linda reviews the movie, Seed: The Untold Story.  

Warning: listening to this episode could change your relationship with seeds forever!

  • 00:52 – Linda’s personal story about her relationship with seeds
  • 09:50 – Movie review: Seed: The Untold Story

This podcast is made possible by funding by our Patreon supporters.  

For extra free content or to become a patron please see us at https://www.patreon.com/FarmAYard

Links:

Music credit: “Insomnia” by John Sheehan.  Used with permission.

Solving the Soil Emergency: Soil Doctor to the Rescue

We’re not going to waste your time with standard soil advice.   Real sustainable soil health guarantees plant health and productivity — and that saves you time, money and extra work.

Think about it: healthy soil grows healthy people. And what we think, we grow. In a way, people and agriculture feed each other.

That’s why I started Farm-A-Yard. It just doesn’t make sense that we have 40 million acres of lawn being irrigated while people are going hungry. The great Wendell Berry said, “Eating is an agricultural act.” Whether you like it or not, everyone is a part of agriculture. At Farm-A-Yard we take this very seriously. It’s the core of our mission. 

So what can you do to grow a healthy future for our food?

Grow Soil, Not Just Plants.

It’s that simple. Want to learn how?

I’m excited to tell you how impressed I am with this absolutely vital information from “The Soil Doctor” Evan Folds.  I was so amazed by him that I asked him to become a part of the Farm-A-Yard team.

Click Here to Register for the Webinar

My name is Linda Borghi, and I have been an advocate for clean and nutritious food and water for decades, and when I met Evan, I knew that I had found an extraordinary and dedicated person who will bring you key information that you need immediately, before this food system crisis gets any worse.  

Evan leaning in to study some wheatgrass.Evan is spreading the word about how soil vitality affects plant health. I’ve been growing food for decades, and I know he’s right — I just can’t explain it.  To me, I do the right things and the plants grow like magic.  Evan can explain everything about soil health where I can’t, and he shares simple proven techniques that you can use in your garden or on the farm that will transform the way you think about the soil under your feet and seriously revolutionize your growing results.

To use a metaphor: conventional growing is like drowning in the ocean,  organic farming is treading water and barely staying afloat — but what Evan calls “BioEnergetics” is effortlessly swimming where you want to go. BioEnergetics is beyond organic.

This is absolutely essential information, so I’ve asked Evan to give a LIVE webinar.

Click Here to Register for the Webinar

The content in this LIVE webinar is powerful. You need to take advantage of this rich information on maximizing your gardening and farming efforts. I promise you it will answer the most pressing problems you have about soil fertility and remove the guesswork and expense of commercial soil management advice.

Let’s face it; I’m a farmer, I’m not a scientist and I find that Evan is amazing at communicating complex concepts in a way that even I can understand.  

Even more important, he shares, step-by-step, what you can do to restore and regenerate your soil in order to grow food with the life force that can heal people and the planet.

Click Here to Register for the Webinar

Do you want to turn dirt into thriving soil, teeming with life?

I know that you screamed YES! with me.

Here is some of the vital information you will learn in this FREE webinar:

  • Why Fertility is the Key to a Bountiful and Sustained Bottom line
  • The Fertility Investment that will Cut Your Costs and Work in Half
  • The Soil Doctor’s Rx that Takes the Guesswork out of Growing Healthy Soil
  • How to Correct Key Soil Management Mistakes
  • Demystifying Biodynamic Agriculture
  • Keys to Unlocking Soil Regeneration
  • The Roles of Minerals, Microbes & LIfe Force Energy
  • Top Garden Mistakes & How to Avoid Them
  • Personalized Rx for Soil Regeneration
  • A“Brew” for Bounty- Get Brewing, Get Life
  • BioEnergetic Secrets to Healing the Soil
  • What Weeds, Worms and Nematodes Tell Us
  • Busting Myths about Soil Management
  • Why Profitable and Sustained Farming Begins and Ends with the Soil
  • What is Activated Water?
  • Keys to Hydroponic Growing Success
  • Compost Tea – The Holistic Solution
  • Unleash Soil Regeneration No Matter What Kind of Soil You Have

Whether you are a seasoned farmer or totally new to the idea of growing  food , Evan’s free webinar, Solving the Soil Emergency: Soil Doctor to the Rescue, has something for everyone. Vitality of life on the earth starts and ends with the life force energy of the soil.

Click Here to Register for the Webinar

Our challenge to you is to grow at least one thing that you can eat. If you already do, then grow more! We want to help you do it.

JOIN US LIVE!

Farm-A-Yard is a Movement, Have You Heard?

Linda Borghi
Farm-A-Yard Educator/Trainer/Speaker

So What’s with Water? You Can’t Learn This Anywhere Else…

I LOVE WATER… especially clean flowing river water.  I actually crave it and must make my way to get in a clean river every now and then, which is not an easy thing to find these days.

Like Linda Borghi and Evan Folds, I’ve been very concerned about water quality for a very long time and have chosen not to drink tap water for at least 40 years.  It is shocking at how little respect is shown toward water’s protection and management.

For the first time, after listening to Evan Folds as he broke down some concepts about water, I made a new connection on a very intuitive level.

Water is alive.  It is a nutrient.  It’s not just wet.

Water is an unbelievably complex subject.  There are more than 90 different parameters of water that can be measured & manipulated.

What surprised me the most is that there is an undeniable fact that water implosion is one of the most powerful components in the practice of Bio-dynamic/Bio-Energetic Ag.

I can’t tell you how intrigued I was with this new understanding!

The information that Evan will explain in his upcoming free webinar is not taught anywhere else. (get on the mailing list to be notified)  We all owe it to ourselves to learn how to really take care of the soil and how to leverage the wonders of water if we want to benefit from true nutrient dense foods.

You will learn about minerals, microbes, life force energy, the truth about typical soil management practices that only make challenged soil worse. 

Evan’s free webinar also sets the record straight about NPK, PH and nitrogen.  No where else will you find a clearer understanding as to why the emphasis on these is only creating more problems.

It will be an eye-opening time to say the least.

It has been some of the best time I have ever spent in the farming realm and it has revolutionized my path for sustainable growing success.

What you didn’t know to ask about soil health…  

This information will unlock sustainable practices and teach you how to release the life force energy that grows and matures your soil, produces truly healthy plants and heals the environment including people!

You will not just get tips here, but a foundation that will be awe inspiring and that will give you a new found respect for the intelligence of the soil and of water.

 

 

Okay, so let’s ask Evan Folds to explain the Biodynamic preparations…..

So, let’s remove some of the mystery around the Biodynamic preparations.

“Biodynamics is defined by the employment of specific fermented plants and herbs called “preparations”, or “preps”, numbered for unknown reasons by Steiner BD500-508. In truth, these preps are used as forces and not as substances.

If you think of your farm or environment as a living organism, these preps help to form and setup the “organ systems” in essence: the brain, nerves, skeleton, digestive tract, and endocrine system of your farm and plants.

Acting as stimulants, the preparations are applied in small homeopathic quantities, positively affecting soil quality, compost and soil microbes, the relationship between plants and nutrient elements, and especially, the quality of vegetable produce.

www.Microbemakers.com has made this SO EASY!

For our Farm-a-Yard Family you can get 15% off.  Discount Code: Farmayard

Here is a brief synopsis of each preparation:

Foliar Sprays

BD500 Horn Humus is the result of cow manure fermented in a cow horn buried over the winter, when all of the energy is inside the Earth.

The Earth breathes as humans do, in & out, with the seasons, allowing the fermenting material to utilize the digestive factors of the Earth’s telluric energy.

To apply BD500 in farming the resultant humus is stirred in both directions for one hour. One horns worth of BD500 is capable of treating almost four acres of land!  It is applied as a spray to stimulate biological activity in the soil and encourage root development. BD 500 relates to organic carbon, calcium and silica.  

When permeated by sufficient oxygen and nitrogen it allows the formation of a rich humus structure.  The root zone and the rhizosphere surrounding it act as the “brain” of a plant, regulating which materials are allowed to leave and enter.  

BD501 Horn Silica is made of finely ground quartz also fermented in a cow horn. To make BD501 quartz is ground into a dust and mixed with small amounts of spring water to make a paste.

This is then packed into a cow horn and buried again in the ground, but this time during the spring and summer months, exposing it to the Earth forces of summer. Its function is to enhance light metabolism in the plant, stimulating photosynthesis, increased sap sugars, and the formation of chlorophyll.

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The average horn produces 300-500 grams of 501, enough for 150 to 250 acres of land. BD501 is also potentized by stirring in a bucket back and forth for an hour and is normally applied in Autumn and Spring in late afternoon.

It is intended to influence the color, aroma, flavor, and keeping quality of the crops. BD501 exerts its formative influence directly on the plant itself and increases the light-intaking ability of the plant. BD 501 helps the plant to sense its surroundings.  

If you imagine BD500 setting up the “brain” of the farm and plants, then imagine BD501 setting up the “nervous and sensory system”, which is why BD500 and BD501 are used in conjunction with each other on the land. What good is a brain with no senses?

Vegetable Substances Used in Compost Preparations

These preparations are designed to be inserted into a compost pile to help micro-organisms transform it quickly into fertile humus, drawing on what Steiner called etheric formative forces.


BD502 Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) prep facilitates the plants utilization of potash and restores to the Earth the power to absorb the finest dilutions of substances. Yarrow is very high in sulfur, combined in a model way with potash. It is created by fermenting the blossoms of yarrow.

As the Greek legend goes, Achilles used the juice of the yarrow plant to rejuvenate his soldiers on the field of battle. As Steiner said, “Yarrow contains that with the spirit always moistens its fingers (sulfur) to carry the different constituents to the plants organs- carbon, nitrogen, etc.”

Steiner saw sulfur as the mediator between the physical and the formative power of the spiritual reality behind all substance.

The work of sulfur brings potash into the organic processes of the soil. BD 502 relates to the “endocrine” system, allowing the farm to regulate purification and excretion.

BD503 Chamomile (Matricaria recutita) prep is high in sulfur and related to the element calcium. It keeps plants physiologically healthy and stabilizes nitrogen.

BD503 relates to the activity of digestion and assimilation. It is known to transform depleted organic sources into forms available for plant nutrition. It also protects the plant from up taking any toxic elements.

It is created by fermenting chamomile after being buried during the active winter months.

BD504 Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioeca) is utilized as the great enlivener of the soil, stimulating its health and helping to provide plants with the individual components of nutrition they most need.

BD504 relates to the heart and circulation of the farm, giving it energy to function. High in sulfur and iron, it can be used to correct iron toxicity or deficiencies, energize minerals or activate soil enzyme potential.

Stinging nettle regulates the effects of manure on soil life to provide optimum conditions for the crops as if the soil were somehow permeated with order and reason. It is also well known to break-up heavy clay soils, build humus, increase nitrogen fixation, and unlock bound micronutrients.

BD505 Oak Bark (Quercus robur) dampens excessive growth forces, thus reducing the crops susceptibility to fungal disease.

BD505 relates to the skeletal system, naturally, as 77% of its substance consists of finely distributed calcium. Of the many forms in which calcium can appear, the calcium structure of oak bark is the most ideal.

BD505 provides what plants need to be upright with good form, it also develops the “immune system” of the farm, catalyzing disease resistance.

BD506 Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is also valuable for its calcium, working to attune the growing crop to the subtle influences of its environment. BD506 establishes a balanced relationship between calcium and potassium, and is also related to silicic acid / silica.

Consider how the flower blooms around Easter and opens and closes with the sun. BD506 relates to the “liver and endocrine system”, allowing the farm to balance, regulate, and harmonize its actions.

The flower of the dandelion is to be inserted into a cow’s mesentery – the membrane which surrounds the animal’s internal organs. It is to be buried during the winter. Dandelion attunes the growing crop to the subtle influences of its environment. For those familiar with medicinal herbs, dandelion should be very familiar.

BD507 Valerian (Valerianum officinalis) is merely a tincture produced from the juice of valerian blossoms. BD507 relates to the farms “respiration” and ability to produce heat. It will activate phosphorus, bringing it into the organic process.

Being a “warmth-giver” BD507 has been used to protect against late frost damage.   (Make sure you heard Linda’s experience with this one!!)

Steiner did not expound upon its significance very much, only to say that Valerian is somehow connected to phosphorous…consider how many products are preserved with phosphoric acid.
BD507 Valerian is used by spraying the compost pile and serves to “fix” the finished humus.

BD508 Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) is not used directly in making biodynamic compost, but is brewed into a strong tea and sprayed onto plants and trees in the spring and summer to prevent fungus molds.

BD508 regulates “watery growth” common during times of heavy rainfall (especially during full moons). This prep helps to conserve energy during these watery times to ensure a hearty plant with enough energy to fully mature with good form.

Our lack of focus and attention towards the energetic components of living systems for the last 100 years of agronomy has resulted in empty food and empty people. People are waking up to this reality and seeking answers to the wrongs that we must right. The biodynamic method is part of that answer.  

Incorporating biodynamic methods and products into your garden will provide immediate results and begin the process of mineral, biological and energetic rejuvenation, and will only get better with time.   

In this method of investigation, we have much work to do, with potentials limited only to the imagination…so the Earth may be healed.”

 

Artificial Fertilizer is “Fast Food” for Plants

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Artificial fertilizers contribute to soil degeneration.  It is no different than highly processed fast food which causes the degeneration of human health.  It’s like drinking caffeine to artificially get the energy you need temporarily but not address the real reason for your low energy.

Healthy soil can sustain itself because it has the real food and healthy environment it needs to regenerate and propagate.  That’s what nature does naturally, all on its own.

Healthy soil makes healthy plants for healthy people.  Period.

Today, many people are interested in learning how to grow some of their own foods without toxic/artificial inputs.

Many people have tried and failed too.

One reason is that the soil is so depleted and it takes quite a while to make your own compost and build your soil health.

I know this because it happened to me when I first got started. All I had was sand to work with.

A lot of people try to garden and when they fail they think that they just have a “black thumb”, when it’s really about the damaged condition of the soil, which is, then, rightfully called “dead dirt” because of toxic chemicals and the absence of living organisms.

One of the biggest challenges with starting a garden or farming project is having the healthy soil you need to make it successful.

Everything depends on that.

FYI…Healthy soil cannot be found in a bag at the garden stores.

BUT DON’T LET THAT STOP YOU!

Linda Borghi has been a Biodynamic farmer for years and knows intimately that the quality of her harvests hinged on the simple commitment to feeding the microbes in the soil with the Biodynamic stir and spray preparations.  She was personally so profoundly affected by the dynamic results that she was determined to spray the country!!

This was really exciting for me to finally learn about this simple solution and it has saved me so much time, work, money and GUESSING.

I was just surrendered to the fact that I had to take the natural “slow road” to fertility by making my own compost and covercropping etc.

Then I got a prescription for my soil from Evan Folds, and he explained, in a comprehensive soil report, exactly what was going on.   He also made some mineral recommendations that I decided to apply to correct those deficiencies.  Now all I do is stir & spray the food for the microbes and continue to add organic matter.  Simple.

I was so grateful to hear Linda’s experience and find out about this.

Check out the education and solutions at:

www.microbemakers.com   (Special 10% discount, use code: farm-a-yard)

Evan Folds, the Soil Doc can also give you a detailed prescription to meet the unique needs of your soil if you’re interested.

Or you can just start stirring and spraying to feed the microbes and just let them do the work for you.

This concept parallels the picture of the human gut and its need for prebiotics to feed the microbiome for gut health.  This is critical for a strong immune system.

Biodynamics/BioEnergetics is food to build/heal the earth’s immune system.

https://www.facebook.com/microbemakers/videos/1166775200108466/

Linda would LOVE IT if you joined Farm-A-Yard in spraying your part of the country too!!   Feed the microbes, heal the earth, heal the people!

We can do this.

This wholistic approach builds soil so effectively that it also cuts water consumption by at least 50%!

FYI….Did you know that in 10  years 57% of our farmers will be retiring? So who is going to grow our food?

Just one more reason to be an urban farmer and farm your yard. (“just sayin”)

Changing the way we eat one yard at a time.

It’s a movement, have ya heard?