5th GRUNDTVIG Partnership Meeting in Denmark

Grundtvig Learning Partnership Project

»Adult education strategies in making best compost and treating of manure practices in order to highlight better food quality and reduction of the nutrition losses with regards of social, initiative and entrepreneurship key competencies«

Denmark Project No.: 2013-1-SI1-GRU06-05514 4

Duration: 1. August 2013 to 31. July 2015

 

Minutes of the 5th Meeting in Hertha / Denmark, 29^th - 31^st August 2014

 

 Partners of the project

• Germany: Forschungsring für Biologisch-Dynamische Wirtschaftsweise e.V.
• Denmark: Foreningen for Biodynamisk Jordbrug
• Croatia:  Centar Dr. Rudolfa Steinera
• Slovenia: Društvo za biološko-dinamično gospodarjenje Podravje.

Day 1
Date: 29^th  August 2014

Present: Uli Johannes König, Meike Oltmanns, Matthias König, Alan Morau, Elmar Gunkel, Caroline Schürer, Erik Frydenlund, Birthe Holt, Niels Jensen, Sandra Percač, Jasminka Iličić, Ivan Kosak, Drago Purgaj, Sonja Mauko Purgaj, Radovan Šuman, Karl Vogrinčič,  Patricija Šenekar, Vesna Čuček.

Location: Hertha, Landsbyvænget 14, 8464 Galten, www,hertha.dk

Duration:  19.00 – 21.00

Summary

All the participants of all the partners introduced themselves, their experiences in connection with Biodynamic farming and compost. Erik asked all the participants to tell the group his/her question in relation with the topic of the project, on which he/she want to get an answer to.

 

Day 2
Date: 30^th 2014

Present: Uli Johannes König, Meike Oltmanns, Matthias König, Alan Morau, Elmar Gunkel, Caroline Schürer, Erik Frydenlund, Birthe Holt, Niels Jensen, Sandra Percač, Jasminka Iličić, Ivan Kosak, Drago Purgaj, Sonja Mauko Purgaj, Radovan Šuman, Karl Vogrinčič,  Patricija Šenekar, Vesna Čuček.

Location: Hertha, Landsbyvænget 14, 8464 Galten, www,hertha.dk

Duration: 8.30 – 20.30

 

Topic:  Working with the biodynamic preparations, Soil quality, plant quality and food quality, Laboratory - Biocrystallization method, Laboratory - Rising pictures, Visiting organic harvest market open to the public, Presentation of soil structure and cultivation, green manure, Biodynamic agriculture in Denmark.

Summary

Working with the biodynamic preparations

Workshop began with an exercise for the whole group. We had to give each other un uncooked egg with the spoon and take care that it doesn't fall down. We managed to do this without problems, with a lot of attention. Erik asked us at the end what we have learned from this exercise.

• Every step is important.
• The egg is alive it didn't fall down and we didn't kill it.
• We have to take care for each step.
• If the egg would fall down it would not be alive any more.
• We give to each step a lot of attention.
• We were doing it with awareness.
• If one step goes wrong it is lost.
• The same things are important by the work with the biodynamic preparations.

Important things by preparations:

• Sunlight
• Temperature
• Moisture
• Awareness

 

So many things can go wrong by preparations, especially if your attention is not there.

Erik showed different boxes for the preparations. Take a look at the photos. The double wall is very important (at least 10 cm). It should be filled with at least 8cm of completely dried peat. The preparations should not be together in the box. They have to be divided by peat.

 

If you put in the wall peat that is not dried, the wood will get moist and dry after some time and there would be holes in the walls. Therefore we should put attention on drying the peat on the sun.

The preparations should be stored in a special room without electric lines and electric rays. It should be dark and cold.

You can make such a place also in the ground with concrete; the ground is then an isolator.

It is also important that you have a box for the amount that you need.  There are some good advices about the measures of possible boxes in the book “A Biodynamic manual” by Pierre Masson.

The pot should be made of glazed clay, or glass. For bigger pots there should be holes in the bottom of the pots (6 holes).

If you take 500 out of horns, there is a lot of activity therefore you can put horns at the bottom of the box for storage, so that water can go down. The balance between moisture and air is very important.

You have to be very careful in the first 3 months after you put 500 in the storage place – in the box.

If you have a bigger quantity it is easier to storage it, like for instance it is easier to storage larger amount of carrots than 1 carrot.

It is also important that 500 is connected, therefore Birthe carefully press the preparation in the pot.

It is very important that you know what is happening in the pot (use your smell, feelings, connection). If it is getting dry you spray it with water.

After the 500 is taken out of the horns it is Ok with worms.

The compost preparations should not be dried. They should be moist.

Uli told us that it is important to take a look at horns as you dig them out. If the horns are wet he lives them for some days outside, with the preparation 500 in the horns. After that he takes the preparation out.

Birthe told us, that she shakes the chamomile for preparation every day. The paper box has holes on the bottom. She advises silk for drying the herbs for preparations, because silk doesn’t takes moisture in.  Take a look at the photo.

If you use good cow manure and take care for the conditions, the 500 is good when you take it out. It goes out of the horns easily.

Jasminka told us they have problem with straw pieces in the cow manure. Birthe told us, that cows should be fed only with grass hay and NOT with clover hay, nor any other hay.

Erik doesn’t dry the manure before taking the preparation 500 out of the horns.

It is important how you dry the dandelion. You have to dry them quickly, not directly under the sun; the best is hot air under an opened window.

Storage of flowers for preparation is very important.

Dandelion properly dried has a special sound if you shake the flowers in the glass – the right one you can hear on a short film, made on the workshop. Birthe suggests that you fill the glass only to the half, so that you can shake the flowers.

Erik digs the preparation out in spring.

Birthe advises to beginners to buy the preparations for first years, so that they can see the results immediately. In this way you and your family can enjoy the best food from your own garden. When you get the results, you can start to make preparations on your own.

Birthe puts the nettle in a pipe. She plucked the leaves from the bottom to the top of the plant.

If you press juice out of the valerian, it is darker and heavier, but also OK.

The other possibility is that you take only the white part of the flowers of valerian and put them in the water.  Shake them every day. You use your nose and eyes to analyze and detect when this preparation is ready.  The energy in this type of valerian is better, according to Birthe’s opinion.

Soil quality, plant quality and food quality, Laboratory - Biocrystallization method
Lecture of Jens Otto Andersen
The plant is a very complete organism. Healthy soil gives healthy plants which can give health to people. The key question is the relation between soil quality and food quality. In hydroponic agriculture there is no soil, it is a completely industrial production (the nutrients are solved in the water).

1. Concept: soil aggregate stability, crumbs, humus, crumbs particles, colloidal structure. Very important are long term trials, Fibl doc trials (Fibl dosier).

2.  Concept: Plant
If we go away from the analytical approach, we can’t divide plant and the roots, because the plant is completely in symbiosis with microorganisms which are around the roots. This is the holistic approach. Therefore the quality of the plant depends of vast surrounding.

He told us about plant resilience which shows the ability of the organism for keeping the balance. (Resilience: the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity, the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties.)

He also introduced an experiment with diabetic people, where old varieties of plants didn’t have any negative impact on diabetes.

If you are vegetarian you should take care to buy organic food. If we aren’t buying organic food our health is endangered.

He also emphasized that we – consumers and also some scientists have a completely naïve view of the food quality.

If there is a heavy tractor on the soil with high humus it doesn’t damage the structure of soil.

He introduced us the results of cucumber experiment.  This is an excellent example of resilience stress test. He bought 3 cucumbers, one from conventional agriculture (bought in a big chain store), one from organic farm and one from BD farm. He cut them into 2 cm wide peace and put them in household folia, he left them for 20 days on 20°C. Take a look at the picture, he showed to us.

There was a huge difference between them after 20 days. The cucumber which is at the top of the photo is from conventional agriculture, the one in the middle is from organic agriculture, and the one at the bottom is from BD agriculture. The cucumber from Biodynamic agriculture was still fresh green and stick together as you see on the other photo. This is an excellent example of resilience stress test.

He also showed us photos of different samples of fruit juice – picture done by biocrystallization method. On the photo with two pictures of two samples, the left one is from an organic not filtrated juice from the bottle, the right one is from a juice prepared – made of concentrate. He told us that the processing method - for instance filtration can destroy all the quality gained with organic production.

                                                        

So the processing method is very vital for the quality of food. With filtration the quality is worse than without filtration – these can be seen with the help of the biocrystallization method. With this method even the application of 501 preparations can be detected.

He also presented us a trial on a clinic for children with lactose intolerance.  Children who ate row organic produced milk didn’t have any problems NO allergy! Children who drank conventional produced milk reacted with allergy. It is because milk which is sterilized and homogenized isn’t milk any more.

The processing is very important, but the storage is also important for the food quality. The industry is inventing so many new technologies …. C-vitamin is canned sunlight, but it is broken at 90 degrees C.

At the university in Karlsruhe they have had a trial with rats, feeding them with juice made from concentrate an ordinary juice. The rats which were fed with juice from concentrate had significantly much more tumors than the other group fed with ordinary pasteurized unfiltered juice.

Biocrystallization method is now recognized as a scientific one. With this method they have proved how is farming method reflecting in the pictures. They want now to connect this directly with other experiments to show the impact of farming method on health.

In Denmark there is a great rising consumer attention to food quality. He told us they are now preparing a book with this information for consumers.

He advised us to visit the http://www.fqhresearch.org/  to get more information, vital for the consumers.

We visited the laboratory and they showed us pictures made by Biocrystallization method.

 

Presentation of soil structure and cultivation, green manure, Birthe Holt
In the green house they have only small tomatoes, because they have more flavor. On all the fields the consumers can pick the vegetables where there is a red flag. They have 150 consumers paying 200 Danish crones /month. In the greenhouse they don’t turn the soil, she sows oats, phacelia, buckwheat, (take a look at the film of project’s archive)). 500 is used when they sow.  You can easily see the effect of preparation 501 on plants, because they are turning to sun. In the spring when they cut the green manure, she adds the compost and covers the ground with a black cover.

For the cultivation they use Honda F560 which lifts the ground and doesn’t ruin the structure of the soil.

With the ripper they cultivate the soil, which should be dried not too wet at the time of cultivation. They sow green manure, a mixture (cereals, phacelia, buckwheat, legumes, some vegetables - the seeds you don’t need), than they use 500. After 3 weeks they use 501. They let the plants to flower and then they mulch them – this is then food for the worms which bring air into the soil. Half of the fields are under green manure, half of them are used for vegetables.

If you feed the plants too much leafs are looking down. They should look up to the sun.

You should observe the plants’ expression, if the leafs are not looking up to the sun, you should ask yourself what is wrong? If you use 501 you can see the effect mostly even after only one day. (Take a look at the photo.)

At the place you dig a hole for the horns for 500 there should be no plants. It is good if there is a slope at this place. The horns have to be covered with a soil that is full of life but ripe, so that there is no earthworms.

Birthe told us, that they cover the place where the horns are, with a roof.

Uli J.K. expressed his opinion, that an iron roof is really unreasonable, because it is a total isolator for the cosmic energy. He thinks that a roof is not necessary.

 

Soil quality, plant quality and food quality - Rising pictures (Capillary dynamolysis pictures)
Bent Pyskov has showed us the laboratory.

He explained the process of making rising pictures. He puts the juice of a plant into the hole and special paper to. On the first picture he marks the line, up to which the juice comes. He puts than      0, 25 % of the silver nitrate, it is so low to stay below cosmic influence. He takes the picture out and dries it. Then he adds iron sulfate 0, 25 % and let the picture rise for 3 hours. At the end he puts the pictures to light and the process is finished. The first photo shows control pictures.

This method requires the right proportion of water and juice, this proportion he finds out himself.

We observed rising pictures of the juice from beetroot from: Demeter farm of  Karl Henning Mikkelsen, Demeter farm Hertha, organic agriculture and conventional agriculture. The columns of pictures from each are seen on the photo. In the lines there are pictures of 1 day old juice, 2 day, 4 day 6 day old juice. As we could see the second sample from Hertha shows the most harmony. The conventional sample shows chaos.

Then we observed the rising pictures of the milk samples. The most harmony could be seen at the sample from Hertha, the cows are milked only once a day.

Biodynamic agriculture in Denmark

Niels Jensen introduced us the history of biodynamic in Denmark. The first organization was founded in 1936 by a businessman and 19 farmers, 12 of them were owners of big farm estates. In the period from 1940 – 1960, there were only some stores where you could by BD food, the consumers were mostly the members of vegetarian society. The situation changed after 1968, many consumers - young people were interested how to cultivate the land without polluting the environment. In 1980 organic farming started, those farmers learn from the BD farmers about the alternative way of agriculture, but they didn’t want the spiritual part. The BD farmers discussed much the new organic movement and how much connected they should be with it. In praxis a lot of Demeter food was sold as organic food.  After 1990 the situation changed and BD opened to the world. They have opened an office and they have very skilled people.  Also the organic farmers come with questions and wish their opinion. New farmers who are nowadays joining the BD association are mostly organic farmers. In the last 10 years they have experienced a new and positive interest of what they do, also from the consumers who are interested in the aspect of quality of Demeter food.

Now there are 35 biodynamic farmers in Denmark who cultivate 2.300 ha of land. They are highly respected from consumers. Biodynamic agriculture is therefore in good shape and develops although it is a difficult job to survive economically amongst Danish most efficient agriculture producers.

Day 3
Date: 30^th 2014

Present: Uli Johannes König, Ulrike König, Mike Oltmanns, Matthias König,Alan Morau,Elmar Gunkel, Caroline Schürer, Erik Frydenlund, Birthe Holt, Niels Jensen, Sandra Percač, Jasminka Iličić, Ivan Kosak, Drago Purgaj, Sonja Mauko Purgaj, Radovan Šuman, Karl Vogrinčič,  Patricija Šenekar, Vesna Čuček.

 

Topic:  Soil quality, Visiting farm of Karl Henning Mikkelsen, Nordlundvej 105, 7330 Brande and vegetable production at Farstrupvej 4, Morud.

Location: Nordlundvej 105, 7330 Brande and Farstrupvej 4, Morud.

Duration: 9.00 – 15.00

 

Summary:

Karl Henning Mikkelsen, he has 4-5 ha potatoes, 2-4 ha vegetables, 20 heads of cattle.

He bought the farm in 1994. In 1998 he began with organic agriculture He went to Germany and saw results from biodynamic farming therefore he decided for BD agriculture.  For him it was so impressive that the sunflower oil from BD agriculture was bright and golden in comparison with the other one from conventional agriculture.

For him it was very important to meet and learn from Alex Podolinsky.

On the farm the soil is very sandy. Therefore he plugs, sows the seeds and after that he puts the compost around the vegetables – in 2 days the roots develops.

For the pastures this machine on the photo is very important for spreading cow pads. It is very important for the soil and the output is doubled.

 

With the mulcher he cuts the grass and leaves it on the pasture. He sows clover with grain. When the grain is harvested the clover can grow for two more years.

Most of the work he does himself. He has some new and some old machines. With this machine on the photo the star rollers open the soil and bring the air to the soil.

Organic farmers sow usually a mixture of clover with some herbs and spring barley. They sow this mixture in spring. After barley clover is already there…. In spring clover takes light and weeds don’t grow so much. He cuts grass twice a year.

Some big farmers ask him how is it possible that he doesn’t have to irrigate this soil because it is so sandy. The answer is in the compost preparations and the use of compost.

He explained us how he prepares the compost hip. He puts the material (straw with cow manure) from the shadow places on pastures on hips and covers the hips with foil.

 

 

He opened the hip for us.

Take a look at white roots.

 

Look at leafs of beet on the photo below. They show a lot, they shine, looking to the sun.

On the field with onions there were no weeds till the end of July but in August the weeds exploded. This field with onion was 3 times cultivated with a cultivator with goose foot.

 

Written by: Vesna Čuček

 

 

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.