Also known as the groundnut or potato bean this curious vegetable is a legume and shade- tolerant climber that produces strings of edible tubers up to about 2″ long:

I bought my original pea-sized tubers from the ART in Devon two years ago and grew them up a support made of reinforcing iron bar threaded through alcethene pipe and pushed into the ground; you can then easily tie wire mesh onto the hoops which stand about 2m high. The apios had been sorely neglected and were competing for both root space and space on the wire with a vigorous climbing berry. I didn’t harvest any last year, it is recommended to give them 2-3 years to get established- the tubers grow away and you can harvest at any time of the year, which is quite an advantage.

Oikos Tree Crops in the States supply larger varieties- but the cost of a plant passport to import them is expensive (which is why I havn’t done so yet.)

I saved most of the little tubers and ate about half a dozen of the larger ones- cooked for 15 minutes, tastes like potatoes with a nice nutty flavour. Quite exciting to finally get a small harvest of this promising crop- apparently with 15% protein content. Will definitely grow more next year and take more care of them! This might also be something that you could establish on the forest garden edge to climb into trees.

We were born in pre-history, an integral part of Mother Nature who nurtured us and taught us the Wisdom of the wilds, plant spirit medicine, and much more.

Being connected to Nature, so this story goes, was a birth rite robbed from us when we opened Pandora’s box and started unpacking nature’s laws with science, which then unleashed technology- the very opposite of Nature, with which we have created what we call The Modern World.

And, according to this powerful story, the modern world is everything that nature is not: mechanical, devoid of emotion, rational, intellectual, cold and meaningless.

One of the early formulations of this story that I came across in my Deep Ecological days, going back over 10 years, was in Thom Hartmann’s The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight.

In Hartmann’s formulation, humanity lived in a kind of blissful garden of Eden for many thousands of years, safe and secure in the bosom of Mother Nature, wise enough to live lightly and sustainably on the earth, never taking more than their fair share or more than the natural world can replenish.

Then, Something Happened: somehow, we separated from Nature, and so began the long fall which lead to the Atom Bomb, GE crops and Twitter.

Even as I repeated this compelling and popular story in those Deep Ecology workshops years ago I was aware of a small problem: why, if things were so good, did we leave Eden? Why did we give up on such a good deal and make the mistake of going it alone?

The answer is, because nature wasnt actually so great in the first place. Nature meant that we died young- in neolithic times, the average life expectancy was only about 20.

Being close to Nature meant high infant mortality, disease, danger, frequent tribal warfare, famine, slavery and cannibalism.

Being close to nature meant that life was tough, very tough, a struggle for survival, so when adaptations such as farming came along, the hairless apes who were our ancestors took it- even though there was a price to pay in increased work.

And as time went on and further technological adaptations enticed us, we took them , all of them, because although they all came with a price- a more complex, stratified society, the need for standing armies to defend the newly gained wealth, the pollution, the danger of collapse and return to earlier times if the crops failed- we took them every time because it always seemed worth the pay-off for a better life, a life with more opportunities, and, eventually, longer and healthier lives as the hard-won wealth that was gained by exploiting nature allowed us -or some of us- to improve our own local environments, and then by extension to care about the environment more as a whole.

And now, in the ultra-globalized world of the 21st century, we have a situation where some of the wealthiest, most secure and most successful humans, mainly people who have never known hunger and have never known real hardship, or what it means to have to live your whole life in one village with oppressive values (particularly to women), who have traveled the world on jet planes and have had every opportunity of education and leisure in their lives, perhaps not even having to have spent much time working at all, have turned around from all this and viewed nature from this privileged position and seen the destruction that must take place if we are to continue with our lifestyles, and have concluded that this human world of technology and concrete, schools and prisons and toxic sludge, is all deeply, profoundly flawed, because it is Not Natural, and that the answer is to Go Back to Nature and Reconnect with Her Wisdom, Her Purity, Her Sanctity.

From this complex modern world of ours, with all its flaws and rules and regulations, the natural world can seem just so much more appealing. The sunset, the ocean, the forest- beauty in nature can take the breath away and awaken a deep yearning for… something intangible … that the hubris of TV and fashion and celebrity and the filth of industry and the routine of manufacturing just cannot fulfill.

But there is a real danger in this yearning for a return to an idealized version of nature, because nature really isnt like that. In fact, it is only possible to see the natural world in this way if one is truly ignorant of what if means to eek out a living from the land- if, indeed, one truly has been separated from True Nature.

Because this is harder than modern people can ever imagine, and while many may find it a satisfying and rewarding lifestyle for a while, we would not choose it I think without the support system a modern society provides, without the safety nets of welfare, modern health care and cheap, readily available industrial food to keep the wolf at bay.

A real Return to Nature means a return to the wolf. It means Grizzly Man, it means Into the Wild , it means a life that is likely to be nasty, brutish and short.

It is completely understandable that these philosophies of the Return, steeped as they are in western Judeo-Christian myths, should emerge, for the comforts of the modern world do indeed often have a pay-off of alienation: part of us misses the danger, the excitement, the adventure, of life in the wilderness, and we want to escape the confines of security.

This is made up for in the immense popularity of sports, and in outdoor pursuits, and in gardening. But if we had no trappings of technology and modernity to come back to, even after extended stays away, we might see nature rather differently.

I have been through all this myself. I have on occasion had brief tastes of what it means to be part of nature in this sense, such as when getting lost for a few days in the Himalayas, and running out of food, entirely alone. A powerful, life-changing experience for a young 20-something full of the spirit of youthful adventure, but not something I would wish to repeat.

There is no doubt that gardening is one of the most beneficial activities, for all sort of reasons: exercise. fresh air, connection with the natural world, building social capital, education. It can even provide a useful amount of produce and, if you work hard and are good at it, even save money or earn you a living. It is absolutely right that we should encourage home gardening, community orchards and many other ways of providing for ourselves, but we shouldnt kid ourselves we really want to be self-sufficient.

It is natural that in a recession many will start to provide something for themselves and growing food is a natural place to start, but I think its main benefits will be social, unless we experience a Cuba-style collapse- although even in Cuba most food is still grown on large industrial farms.

But modern home gardening, with its improved varieties, crop protection, automatic irrigation and so on is a far cry from living wild from the land; and it would be a choice few would make if they had a choice. No-one really want to be a subsistence farmer, except at the weekends.

It is no doubt true that complete detachment from the natural world, as may occur in some cities. is extremely unhealthy, can lead to psychological and emotional problems, and that contact with nature and gardening can be very therapeutic. As Geoff Lawton says, “You can heal everything in a garden”.

Our predicament as a species is existential; in terms of improving our lot, as we will inevitably want to do, there is always a cost to the environment, and to other parts opf ourselves. Yet, the wealthier and more successful we become, the more space and time and leisure we have to appreciate, and therefore protect, the environment, and this is how it should be.

But beware those who explain the core predicament of the modern world as being “separation from nature”, unless you want to be eaten by a Grizzly.

Click here for MP3

Albert defends Steiner on the basis that Anthroposophy has created a “tribe” which he sees as a good thing. In reality, Anthroposophy is more like a cult, which obscures its intentions, and is doing untold harm in persuading people that just making stuff up is somehow just as good as scientific experimentation. Albert gives an uncritical appraisal of Steiner’s contributions to education, social care and organic farming, claiming that it provides a “holistic world view” lacking in reductionist, mechanistic approaches.

I have blogged on zone5 about biodynamics before, describing what it is, reviewing some of the scientific evidence, and explaining why it can have no place in permaculture.

BD is a system of superstition, based on astrology, sympathetic magic and animal sacrifice, believed to be true entirely on the say so of Rudolph Steiner, who never gardened or farmed himself, and claimed his knowledge came from clairvoyance, not scientific experimentation.

It is surely obvious that the reason people think it “works” is because they are doing all the things right that you need to do anyway to be a successful gardener or farmer. The superstition has nothing to do with it, although it can be argued that BD growers do well because they are more committed and spend more time in the field, and pay more attention to detail.

Anecdotes such as “I smelled the soil on a BD farm, it was wonderful!” are not science. Anecdotally I can tell you that people regularly come to my own garden, smell the soil and say “how do you get such rich black soil, it smells wonderful!”

Now, if I told them it was because I work with cycles of the moon and hang deer bladders from trees which I then add to the compost to bring down etheric energies, maybe that would be enough to convert them to BD.

Permaculture however is based on a scientific understanding of ecology, also physics, chemistry etc; so something as wacky as BD that lies far outside anything verifiable by science can play no role here.

Call a spade a spade: BD- and the occult philosophy of Anthroposophy it is a part of- is a religion. As such it can have no more part in permaculture than any religion- eg. how would permaculture students respond i wonder if I told them in a class that praying to Mecca five times a day will help the plants grow?

At this point folk will probably ask “what’s the harm?” but this is unfortunately easily answered.

BD is not just any old superstitious woo, but part of what has been called the most successful form of ‘alternative’ religion in the [twentieth] century, with hundreds of organisations worldwide including banks (Triodos), schools and colleges, and the social care Camphill Communities.

This is all very impressive- would that permaculture had achieved as much!- and therein lies the real danger, because underneath the superficial similarities with the aims of permaculturalists of alternative education, community care, organic gardening etc. lies a seriously dysfunctional ideology of anti-science and mystic racism.

Anthroposophy had historic connections with the rise of Nazism and propagates notions of Aryan supremacy, as has been extensively researched by Peter Staudenmeier.

The education system of Steiner-Waldorf schools is based on Steiner’s racist beliefs about karmic incarnation:

On the one hand there is the black race, which is the most earthly. When this race goes toward the West, it dies out. Then there is the yellow race, in the middle between the earth and the cosmos. When this race goes toward the East, it turns brown, it attaches itself too much to the cosmos and dies out. The white race is the race of the future, the spiritually creative race.

http://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch/steiners-racism

For many years now there has been a growing movement by parents disaffected with the covert aims of Steiner-Waldorf education, which is not to educate but to somehow guide the child’s “soul-journey”. Pity is, neither parents nor children are told exactly what is going on, while the schools themselves continue to pose as a more child-focused, alternative educational choice in order to seek state funding. In fact, they are part of a growing organisation based on a shadowy occult religion, where poor academic standards, cultish beliefs about racial purity, bullying (“it’s his/her karma”) and hard-core astrological mumbo-jumbo all-too-often prevail.

The Camphill Communities, run on Anthroposophical lines, might look like a benevolent form of social care but in fact often are based on the religious belief of Karma, ie that the physically or mentally impaired are so for karmic reasons, such as wrong-doing in a previous life.

What exactly the aims of this religion are is difficult to say, but like all religions Anthroposophy is trying hard to propagate itself, and the environmental movement, organics and now permaculture as well are all easy targets which have become vehicles for distributing a frankly vile set of beliefs.

Compost Teas- evidence that Biodynamics works?

In Albert’s interview, he points to the work of the controversial Elaine Ingham with aerated compost teas (ACTs) as evidence that Steiner was really onto something.

There seems little if any scientific research that actually supports the claims made by Ingham and her company Soil Foodweb, which sells costly tea brewers and other bits of kit.

Most scientists and reputable organizations are dubious at best. See for example this paper by Linda Chalker-Scott

and this discussion on The Garden Rant

Here is another useful discussion:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/verm/msg0620302417324.html

The upshot seems to be:

-there is little evidence ACTs work or do what they claim;

-there is a real danger of contamination with E.coli because those organisms may also be increased by the aeration process;

-the claims made seem to be more marketing hype than science, and involve the purchase of expensive equipment and the use of electricity to make the teas;

-even if they do have some benefit, you can achieve the same with simpler, cheaper and well-tried and tested methods, like just using compost itself, good mulches, no-till methods etc..

Moreover, I don’t think it is true to say that the use of ACTs a la Ingham actually replicate anything Steiner was really saying; in fact BD is often credited with being on a par with another pseudoscience, homeopathy, as described on the Village Community Farm page:

The farm is not only organic (no artificial fertilisers or pesticides) but is also Bio-dynamic -a method which aims to improve the health and fertility of the land through preparations similar to homeopathy.

Now, homeopathy is essentially no treatment at all- it is just water. So a homeopathic addition of soil nutrients or micro-organisms would be no use at all unless you believe in Steiner’s woo. Indeed, my own experiences of working alongside BD-trained gardeners in Co. Monaghan some years ago were that they clearly believed they were sprinkling magic water “homeopathically” (I dont think they actually used the word) over the land to “bring down the etheric forces” to protect and energize the plants.

The BD method of making the “preparations” involved hand-stirring a bucket of the tea for an hour or so at a certain phase of the moon- a far cry from what is demanded to make ACT, 24hrs of constant mechanical bubbling in a special tea-maker.

In Permaculture there are the Ethical Principles of “Care of the Earth, Care of the People, and Fair Shares”. Care of the People must include in my view giving the best information we can based on science, and protecting the more vulnerable from pseudoscience, snake-oil salesmen and other hocus-pocus. Permaculturalists everywhere should inform themselves about Anthroposophy and how it operates in the world and reject it as having anything useful to offer.

Further reading

Biodynamics is a Hoax

Peter Staudenmaier

Waldorf Critics

Waldorf watch

Zooey’s Blog

Nagara

The Skeptic’s Guide to Biodynamic Wine

“Unorthodoxies have their orthodoxies too:”  she writes- “Graham Strouts, who heads the permaculture course in Kinsale, has learned and teaches techniques dependent on observations of phenomena in the natural world to replicate them in the human constructed world.- forest gardens are an example of this. (Permaculture is still regarded by some people as wild unorthodoxy). “However, he is blinkered when he slags off Biodynamic gardening as hocus pocus. Although some would regard Biodynamics as Astrology for plants and animals, what’s wrong with that? Years- lifetimes- of detailed observation of cosmic bodies and terrestrial plant and animal behaviour have formalized cultivation techniques.”

The first thing I would say is that to refer to something I may have said on hearsay without any reference, or context, or including any of the reasons I may have given to argue my case, is not just rude and bad practice, but misleading and pointless.

Also, to make a point of singling me out and highlighting the fact that I teach the permaculture course in Kinsale does rather come over as an attempt to discredit what I teach there.

What right does Hoad have to comment in such a way on the  content  of  a course she has not herself attended ? Where and when-and why-  did I “slag off” biodynamics? I hereby demand a public apology, both from Hoad and the editors of Organic Matters for publishing such an ignorant and irresponsible article, which I should say is almost unintelligible and tells us nothing about either permaculture or biodynamics.

(I had not actually read the IOFGA magazine before and in my naivety  was shocked to see that this, the voice of the Irish organics movement, is so riddled with superstition and nature spirits- more evidence that organics itself has only the flimsiest of scientific foundations.)

It does however give me an opportunity to express here unequivocally why I would not cover Biodynamics in a course on permaculture, and especially why such pseudoscience has no more place in public education than would have Islam or discourses on the Flying Spaghetti monster.

Evidence vs guesswork in weather forecasting

Judith Hoad is a member of the Irish Association of Master Medical Herbalists and is listed there as a

Herbalist and Vibrational Medicine Practitioner (Shen Tao Acupressure, Flower and Gem Essences).

She begins with an account of a  radio debate between RTE’s weather forecaster Evelyn Cusack where “…in tones nothing short of strident arrogance she railed at and interrupted two men with different ways of understanding the weather.”

That was not my experience of hearing the debate in which the rather foolish RTE pitted an experienced and highly qualified physicist against a west Kerry farmer who claims to forecast the weather by observing cloud formations on Mount Brandon; and a New Zealander who claims he can forecast the weatheranywhere in the world using the moon.

I actually thought Evelyn did admirably well to keep her calm against these characters who seemed only dimly connected to reality, insisting as she should that it is the sun, not the moon, that is the main factor in determining weather.

Hoad’s article is full of classic New Age anti-science arguments. She claims for example that science is narrow because it wont accept “alternative” ways of finding things out:

“So, when Cusack was confronted with two weather forecasters, each using different techniques from hers and from one another’s, she got out the equivalent of the meteorologist’s Holy Water and screeched the prayers of Exocism!”

My goodness Judith! If there is any screeching going on, it does rather sound like it is coming form your good self; however, all Evelyn was guilty of doing in my recollection was calmly pointing to the evidence.

Warming to her task of dismissing science and sending us back to the middle ages, Hoad turns her attention to my own attempts to keep a rational perspective alive in my permaculture classes, which leads to the question:

Why on earth should we believe what Steiner said?

According to the Biodynamic Agricultural Association of Ireland, biodynamics is

Biodynamic agriculture springs from a spiritual worldview known as Anthroposophy (from the Greek anthropos, meaning human being; sophia, wisdom). The Austrian philosopher and seer, Rudolf Steiner; extended conventional science by integrating clear thinking with precise observation of sense-perceptible and spiritual phenomena. Anthroposophy offers an account of the spiritual evolution of the Earth as a living being, and of the physical and super-sensible constitution of the human being and the kingdoms of nature.

Biodynamics is a spiritual belief and practice which essentially relies on the testimony of one person, Rudolph Steiner, who concocted his strange theories not from scientific observation and practice but from inner “spiritual” revelations. Unlike science, Steiner did not verify his observations in any way, and his followers take what he said entirely on faith.

As such Biodynamics- along with everything else Steiner promoted- should be understood as religion, and should not be taught in public schools as having any kind of scientific basis. To fail to address this issue as part of my course would be a failure of the responsibility that I take very seriously to check the validity of what I teach and as far as possible back up any information I give with evidence.

It is true, in permaculture we like to experiment, but no one would suggest that, just because its founder Bill Mollison said something we should unquestioningly believe it. Permaculture is rooted in the ecological and physical sciences and should be tested and refined in practice. Some things that may be suggested as practical may turn out not to be; in accordance with scientific method, rather than believe for the sake of it, we need to be ready to abandon ideas that dont withstand the test of time.

Not so with spiritual or religious beliefs which, although they may morph and adapt to the pressures from secular society, have no internal process of verification and are just supposed to be taken on trust.

To explain the difference between real science and pseudoscience like biodynamics it might be useful to compare the work of Steiner with that of his near contemporary Albert Einstein.

Einstein: 1879-1955

Rudolph Steiner 1861-1925

Einstein is widely regarded within science as being the father of modern physics and of  having made one of the in not THE- greatest individual contribution to science ever. He was a genius whose theories have stood the test of time. He is almost universally admired and I cannot think I have ever read anyone say anything ill of the man.

Among many other discoveries, Einstein developed a theory of gravity that included the startling observation that space and time are a continuum, and that gravity is a kind of warp in the space-time continuum.

This is best explained by Marcus Chown, in his essential book Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You,as being a bit like placing a heavy object like a lead sphere in the middle of a trampoline; the trampoline represents the space-time continuum, which is warped by the mass of a planet say, causing an orange orbiting around the edge of the trampoline to be pulled towards the heavy object in the middle- it looks like the big sphere is actually pulling the orange towards it but in fact it is an indirect effect caused by the space-time warp.

Astonishing!

This, remember, is an example of science accepting a revolutionary idea which was not only counter-intuitive- just as was, say Galileo’s calculations that it is the earth that orbits the sun and not what common sense tells us, that the sun orbits the earth- but that had been completely missed by all the mystics and visionaries who brought us information from some other “mysterious” and unverifiable method.

Evolution would be another example, some would say an even more revolutionary one, because it provided an alternative to the established view that there had to be an intelligent designer in the universe to create everything with its apparent order, and especially to come up with something as intricate as humanity.

So if science was “blinkered” it would hardly have accepted these, or countless other revolutionary ideas would they Judith?

So why didnt Steiner figure that out? (One could also ask the same question of every shaman, mystic or guru who ever lived: the greatest ideas have been discovered by science, not by mystics.)

In contrast to Einstein, Steiner was not a scientist, but a mystic and a philosopher who did not subject his views to any kind of peer review or scientific testing. His “method” was to simply make pronouncements, and for his followers- both then and now- His word appears sufficient. Like the words of Jesus, they may have been reinterpreted by his followers, but they have not been shown to work in practice.

A very good way to distinguish real science from ideologies and superstitions is the question of fallibility. The wikipedia entry on Einstein lists numerous mistakes that he made, thatare well established, some of which he even acknowledged during his life time.

Did Steiner make any mistakes? It’s a bit like asking, did Jesus? Did God? People who claim access to unseen “spiritual” realms such as Steiner are assumed infallible; how could divinely inspired knowledge possibly be mistaken?

As with the alternative therapies that Hoad sells, “evidence” simply does not come into the picture, and it is noteworthy that Judith does not even attempt to provide any. The “alternative” way of knowing is nothing more than conjecture and personal opinion. What makes science what it is is careful, precise measurement and repeated checking with peer review. The observations of casual or folk weather forecasters are a start, and they are all we had until modern times; but we know from the actual results that they are not as accurate and are based on a false understanding of physics.

What are the specific claims of biodynamics and why doesn’t science accept them? they are surely no more revolutionary for their time than the views of Einstein, but they have not been demonstrated to be correct.

One important part of biodynamics is moon planting.

The astrological system on which it is based predates Steiner of course, but the absence of any methodology for actually demonstrating that it works might explain why there are several different moon planting systems which dont all agree with each other. This doesnt make any differenc to those who swear by it- one person might plant carrots on someone elses’ leaf day, to a believer it all works just as well.

Hoad repeats the same mistake that I hear from everyone I have ever discussed this with- that because the  moon affects the tides, and we and plants also contain a lot of water, it “makes sense” that the moon should also affect plant growth.

This kind of simplistic thinking reminds me of the Monty Python witch test: to discover whether a suspected witch is a real one, find out if she floats;

since ducks float, and also wood, if she weighs as much as a duck, she must be made of wood and therefore a witch…

The Monty Python Witch-If she is made of wood she must be a witch...!

BURN HER!!

Actually,  I struggle to see why this would seem so logical anyway- the glass of water in front of me does not appear to rise and fall with the tides, nor does, fortunately, the water that makes up my body.

Anything might seem reasonable, and this indeed could be the impetus for scientific study; however, it is well understood that the gravitational effect of objects near a plant- the gardener, for example, or the wheelbarrow- would have a gravitational pull millions of times greater than that of the moon on a small object like a seed. This is because the moon is so far away relative to the wheelbarrow:

“The suggestion of similarity between the planet and our bodies fails on two counts: first, only the “surface” of the earth has a 80:20 ratio and gravity involves the attraction of a total mass, not just surface composition. Second, the moon only causes tides in great unbounded bodies of water such as the oceans and even in large land-locked lakes the influence is negligible. In comparison, the water contained in the human body is quite insignificant.

A comparison of other tide-raising objects by which we are surrounded, emphasizes the point even more dramatically. Using the principles of classical mechanics, it can be shown that a mother weighing 55 kg and holding a child at a distance of 15 cms or so, will exert 12 million times more tidal-force on her child than the full moon in whose shadow she stands. When the other large masses by which we are surrounded are taken into consideration, then it can be seen that the effect of the moon is of no concern.” (From Investigator No. 81)

Vincente Santos, in his review of biodynamic wines, concluded after reading Steiner’s original work that

His (Steiner’s) philosophy is so backwards, and so completely ignores anything contrary to it, that at the end it remains totally unsupported – no true foundation for the dogmatic regulations and theory is ever laid.

Steiner was ignorant of modern science, and certainly shows no connection whatsoever to the real science being done at the same time by the likes of Einstein; he does no experimental work to check his theories.

Studies that have been done dont seem to have separated ordinary organic techniques from the biodynamic preperations etc, so it is hard to tell if biodynamics actually adds anything measurable; the literature around the subject is replete with mention of nature spirits and earth energies, so perhaps it would be naive to expect a testable hypothesis.

Professor Linda Chalker-Scott of Washington State University writes:

These processes were not developed through scientific methodology, but rather through Steiner’s own self-described meditation and clairvoyance. In fact, Steiner declared that these spiritualisticallydetermined methods did not need to be confirmed through traditional scientific testing, but were “true and correct” unto themselves (Kirchmann, 1994). The rejection of scientific objectivity in favor of a subjective, mystical approach means that many of Steiner’s biodynamic recommendations cannot be tested and validated by traditional methods. In practical terms, this means any effect attributed to biodynamic preparations is a matter of belief, not of fact.

and concludes

• Biodynamic agriculture originally consisted of a mystical, and therefore unscientific, alternative approach to agriculture • Recent addition of organic methodology to biodynamics has resulted in a confused mingling of objective practices with subjective beliefs • Scientific testing of biodynamic preparations is limited and no evidence exists that addition of these preparations improves plant or soil quality in organically managed landscapes • Many organic practices are scientifically testable and can result in improved soil and plant health parameters • The academic world needs to address the explosion of pseudoscientific beliefs and help nonacademicians become more discerning learners

People will continue to practice biodynamics, and that is their right if they wish.  Look, they will say, the quality of these vegetables is fantastic, and they may well be right- but there remains no evidence that the magic potions or “preperations”, nor the moon planting, is responsible.

I have known many biodynamic gardeners and they are amongst the best and the most dedicated of that profession. Perhaps the meditative process of stirring the preperations at dawn; perhaps the ideological commitment to their craft, the extra tiome they may spend in their fields may all contribute to their success.

There is however no need to resort to such esoteric practices to be a successful grower, and any qualitative difference will be marginal compared to the results that can be obtained from any good gardener who cares about what they do.

What’s wrong with Astrology and Biodynamics? They are just superstitions, and as a teacher in a public college funded by voters and tax payers, I feel I have an obligation to stick to what can be demonstrated scientifically, and I have a responsibility to the students to cover material that will actually work and help them grow their own vegetables.

Increasingly, Biodynamics is offered as a kind of “Organics Plus” symbol. I have even had someone starting up a market garden tell me in all seriousness “Oh, we are going for the biodynamic label for higher premiums; there is no need to believe in all that Steiner nonsense”.

Indeed, there is not.

The course was professionally delivered by Martin who has encyclopedic knowledge of his subject and was a fantastic experience, re-inspiring my own attempts and forest gardening and showing me some areas i need to focus on more if I want to achieve success. Lunches were provided by his wife Sandra using as much produce from the garden as possible including an amazing array of jams and chutneys, dried fruit and, my favorite, chestnut pate.

Situated in the Dartington Estate near Totnes in Devon, Martin designed and planted his experimental forest garden in the early 90s and now, 15 years after its design, it stands as perhaps one of the important examples of perennial agriculture, and a demonstration that this is a viable and productive method of food production in the cool temeprate climate of Britain.

.

Martin Crawford  discusses Apricot trees underplanted with comfrey;

The E.F. Schumacher Forest Garden in the Dartington Estate

The Forest garden has always been an iconic feature of permaculture design, and the image of a successful food forest of fruit and nut trees underplanted with successive layers of fruit bushes, climbers, herbs and perennial vegetables, ground cover, roots and tubers and even fungii, has been for many- myself included- a kind of Holy Grail of

the permaculture concept: the designer would become the recliner, lolling in a hammock in a Garden of Eden of her own making, the only concern being Fear of Falling Fruit.

This vision has inspired many to plant fruit trees and other tree crops and encouraged them to seek more diversity in the shrub and herbaceous layer, but for many the end result has been perhaps disappointing: many of the more experimental and exotic plants have failed to produce in our conditions; weeds have defeated the mulch; and, perhaps most common of all, things that seemed to have space when small quickly became over-grown and tangled in each other, leaving not enough light for the ground layers to  yield well.

When David Jacke first visited Martin Crawford’s 2-acre Forest Garden near Totnes in Devon, they had already seen many attempts at forest gardening which had been far too densely planted to be very productive, and were pleasantly surprised not to find the same story here:

“Eric [Toensmeier, co-author with David Jacke of Edible Forest Gardens]‘s first comment… was ‘Wow! The trees are planted the right distance apart!”

He goes onto say:

“As we learned during our stay, Martin was doing many things right. Our time there proved to be one of the highlights of our trip, and his work remains  critical reference for the development of the field”.

Italian Alders with lower branches removed are used to bring nitrogen into the garden without incurring too much shading;

A pollarded large-leafed lime provides an abundance of edible salad leaves.

The concept of Forest Gardening was first brought to the west by Robert Hart who created a Forest Garden in Shropshire. I was lucky enough to visit Robert on my first permaculture Design Course in 1989; Robert died in 2000, but his vision has come a long way since then, with David Jacke’s seminal work representing a sort of coming of age of the concept.

Back in Devon, the work of Martin Crawford doesnt leave the suggestion of a no-work garden: although he told me that it is mainly just him working in the forest garden and nursery, what is on dislay is the result of 15 years  dedicated work and research. Nevertheless, the fact that he manages to maintain two acres of such productivity with just 10 days of maintanance a year suggests his method of ground cover plants works well.

This was certainly one of the aspects of his garden that impressed me most. In particular, there are carpets of  Nepalese Rasberry Rubus Nepalensis always giving us something to munch on as walked around, and mints, a fantastic pest-insect predator attractant.

Also covered in depth was shleterbelts, fertility in garden- with particular emphases on Nitrogen fixers- and canopy design.  We were introduced to a wide range of plant species as well, some of them in fruit while we were in the garden, including Gaultheria Shallon, Cornus kousa chinensis, the Szechuan Pepper tree Zanthoxylum schinifolium and a giant edible bamboo phyllostachys vivax growing over 20 feet high and throwing up edible shoots in the early summer up to 6cms in diameter.

For me, the highlight was actually after the course had finished and myself and another participant had the opportunity to visit Martin’s nut plantation nearby. Here he has 8 acres of well-established sweet

chestnut and walnut covered in nuts, plus a few Monkey Puzzles, Gingko and Holm

Oak.

This was the first time I have actually seen a successful nut orchard, and this, together with the forest garden itself, stands as the most inspiring testimony to the potential of perennial agriculture in this part of the world.

I was visiting my sister this week, who lives nearby in Bodmin, and got the opportunity to visit, with my father.

We were both hugely impressed and had a highly enjoyable trip. This week visitors got a chance to see the extraordinaryand extremely rare Titum Lilly

Amorphophallus titanum one of the largest flowers in the world which only flowers for 48 hours.

The rain forest dome also included many tropical plants that have provided important cash crops for the west throughout the colonial era and continue to do so and it was fascinating to see the plants of many common products like rubber, coffee,

pistachios, bananas and many spices like ginger and cardamon in the flesh.

The Mediterranean dome also had lots of interest to the permaculturalist, with many fruiting plants such as olives and grapes and kiwis on display.

There was also some examples of innovative ways of growing, for example the autopot system of growing in very dry conditions.

There is a big educational aspect to Eden , with outside gardens exhibiting the “crops that feed the world”- the 6 main ones being corn, potatoes, soybeans, rice, wheat and peanuts- although the potato patch looked positively sickly in contrast to most of the other crops.

Inside the Core building were many interactive and multi-media educational exhibits aimed at increasing the public’s awareness of their environmental footprint and global issues such as climate change, food, energy, waste. These showed great innovation and creativity and perhaps represent the state of the art as far as this kind of environmental  exhibit is concerned.

The really hard issues were however avoided, in common with most presentations of “mainstream environmentalism”: the main message being a need to transfer to “Green tech stability” with a lot of information on technological alternatives to oil such as wind and solar and even hydrogen fuel cells, without an analyses of the limits to growth and possible powerdown energy descent scenarios, or an emphases on the need to radically change our lifestyles and the issue of population reduction.

Inspired by the displays however, it would be a great project to create such exhibits for Peak oil and Permaculture. Indeed it seems that a permaculture garden was conspicuously absent from the project; maybe we will see this added in the future as the need for practical self-reliance becomes more widely accepted.

If Eden takes such a project on, I feel confident they could do a fantastic job.

All in all, a really great day and highly recommended.

I am off to attend a Forest Gardening course with Martin Crawford at the Agroforestry Research Trust in Totnes, Devon, next weekend, so I thought it would be appropriate to tell you how some of my own fruit and nut trees are doing, seven years after moving to Derryduff.

Of greatest excitement, I have a walnut!

A single, solitary specimen, but a walnut nevertheless- on a grafted tree of the cultivar “Broadview”. It is only planted here two years and just 3ft high, but the fact that it has a nut at all so early in its life is hugely encouraging and shows that it is possible in this climate.

As a timber tree, walnuts and related varieties grow like the clappers in the moist warm Irish climate, and should be considered for that reason alone.

In fact, the most spectacular tree i have on the property is a Heartnut (Japanese Walnut) given me about 10 years ago as a nut by my sister. I need another heartnut of a different cultivar to get nuts, which I will plant this year.

Of more tested viability, I have a few varieties of cobnuts, which are related to the native hazel but grown for their larger nuts. Some of mine are beginning to produce a handful of nuts each this year. For more information on cobs, check out the Kentish Cobnut Association and download their pruning booklet.

More as a curiosity than as a serious crop, I planted a couple of Bladdernuts- Staphylea pinnata-

soon after I moved here and they started producing their odd-shaped nuts after the second year. The nuts are tiny- only about 1/2 cm across (the ART claim up to 1cm) and enclosed in odd sacs that are unavoidably reminiscent of a scrotum!

I also have a few cultivars of sweet chestnut, purchased from Woodkerne Nurseries

of Skibbereen, still young, but with tremendous potential as a staple tree crop for Ireland. I also planted a small stand of the common sweet chestnut for coppice- the timber is as durable as oak heartwood and grows faster here, ideal for outside furniture, fencing stakes etc, these will be coppiced in another few years. This year for the first time they flowered and may have set some small nuts, but you need the larger cultivars for good nut production. For nuts, they also need a lot of space- 8-10 meters is recommended by Martin Crawford, so not for the small garden.

As far as fruit is concerned, I have a few apples and pears, but I cannot neglect to mention the ever-reliable blackcurrant crop which has yielded 17 ibs already from 10 bushes- the birds have probably had as many- and have i guess another 10 lbs still ripening. Many special thanks to Ciara for making jam! I also have Japanese Wineberries just coming ripe now, one of my favourites, not massively productive but easy to grow and very sweet.

That’s it for now, Im off to the Irish Green Gathering and then to the UK so reports from these will come when I have time.

In particular, a large extension to the small pond has now been created, with multiple potential uses:

-swimming hole- glorious to have!

-general large store of water in the landscape- not as high up as I would have liked as it is below the house but invaluable nevertheless;

-micro-climate creation- the edge around a large pond may serve as a protection against frost for early spring vegetable i could grow there, as a body of water can keep the immediate environment from freezing;

-added reflected sunlight to the northern terraces above the pond;

-potential for edible water plants

-potential even for small-scale fish-farming ( something I know little about, but many of my friends and neighbours around west Cork are also creating large ponds with this in mind).

-general wildlife habitat, especially good for frogs which may keep down the slugs

-adds tremendous beauty to any site

The pond was constructed by the one and only Big Johnny D with a 6 ton digger- the largest suitable for my sloping and narrow site. We stripped off the peat bog that lay on top and used this to make a series of terraces for blueberries above the pond.

The sides of the pond were constructed with what at first seemed like good clay, but on closer inspection appears to be a fine silt- not ideal for ponds as it wont seal in the water that well. However, a second visit with the digger and another couple of hours of battering, squashing and compressing the sides and it now seems to be holding well.

A few days ago I hosted a 1-day Introduction to Permaculture course here at Derryduff which was well-attended, also by some local farmers and small-holders which is a gratifying indication of the spread of interest in PC to the general population.

We covered Permaculture design Principles, a tour of the gardens, fruit and woodlands, and conducted a practical mulching of some terraces where we constructed a hooped climbing support for berries or vines.

These hoops are made of lengths of 10mm iron re-inforcing bar or “re-bar” commonly available from builders’ suppliers. they are threaded through lengths of 3/4″ alcethene pipe to make them softer to handle and tie plants to. 2m high chicken wire can then be fitted to this support which is a really quick and handy way to establish a trellis or climbing support

.

Many thanks to all who participated. I plan a series of similar courses covering different aspects of permaculture design and practice starting this autumn. Please check the “Courses” page on this blog for more details.

Right: Sustainability editor Andy Wilson hard at work

Andy Wilson’s creation of the Sustainability Magazine has been a remarkable achievement, bringing a much-needed serious journal into the Irish environmental landscape. Starting up a new magazine from scratch is no mean feat and the scholarly and well-researched articles on a wide range of topics is to be greatly welcomed. The third issue is out this week.

I also got a chance to see the recently refurbished cottage that Andy and Meetje have been renovating over the past couple of years. Now finished with new more insulation, hemp and lime plaster, skylights- triple glazed!!- ad many other improvements, the cottage is an impressive example of what can be done to improve energy efficiency and comfort in an old stone cottage and it is great to see Meetje and family safely ensconced once again under the new roof!

Andy is also an expert on renewable energy systems and contributed the most useful chapter of the booklet I wrote with Dr. Colin Campbell, Living Through the Energy Crisis in which he details how the household reduced its domestic energy consumption and now is run largely from onsite wind-turbine and PV cells:

A return to Clare Island was next where we repitched the yurt for the Clare Island Yoga Centre- surely one of the most spectacular views from a yurt anywhwere.

While on the island we stayed with Sean and Maggie O’Grady. Sean showed me around the farm he had grown up on which was a poignant snapshot of how island life has changed over the last two or three generations, from growing up in the pictured stone thatched cottage and living in close proximity with the animals to taking on the farm while his siblings left the island to seeing the end of the Celtic Tiger and a progressive erosion of farming life during the last few years as grants have disappeared, stocking levels been drastically reduced and turf cutting (for fuel) banned for environmental reasons.

“The island needs some new blood. Many islanders have land they can no longer use- why not invite in some young families from the cities who could make a new start here and reinvigorate the community? With the young people leaving the island and few young families left the long term prospects for the island are poor”.

Next we moved onto the Organic Centre in Leitrim where I gave a one-day intro to Permaculture course as last year. This was again well-attended and the feedback was excellent- it is always gratifying to see people curious and new to the permaculture concept be stirred by its power to help see things differently and provide real solutions. We also had the opportunity to work on the Organic Centre’s forest garden which is beginning to look very good.

One one of the course participants was Rebecca Hillman who blogs about her smallholding adventures on Sally Gardens and kindly invited us to pay a visit after the course.

Of particular interest were Rebecca’s Californian meat rabbits which she has recently blogged about.

Below: Meat rabbits- to cute to eat?

Thanks to Rebecca and dan for showing us around and good luck with all their future projects.

Please try and limit your consumption and reduce your ecological footprint this holiday season, and otherwise have a great time; but if you are not sure what to do with yourselves these long dark evenings and want to both save money AND do your bit for the environment, have a look at this. (thanks to minktoast)

Apologies for irregular blogs the last couple of weeks- loss of my wind turbine in a storm has meant restricted power. Stay tuned for the next installment of the back to nature series in the New year, and in the meantime here are a few notes and photos from recent garden activity:

Garlic This year I have planted two varieties of garlic from The Isle of Wight Garlic Farm – Lautrec Wight and Elephant garlic;

also a local variety from some neighbours. The Elephant Garlic has to be seen to be believed- one clove is the size of a whole corm of regular garlic. Alliums are easy to grow and ideal for planting through a newspaper and straw mulch -slugs don’t trouble them too much.

I also harvested occa, machua and Jerusalem Artichokes this week.

Machua- tropaeolum tuberosum is an edible tuber originating in Peru. Pretty much pest free and easy to grow, with a climbing habit and attractive orange trumpet-like flowers,I harvested about 6 egg-sized nobbly tubers from each plant, so it is potentially quite productive. This is the first time Ive grown it so I was looking forward to tasting it, but it was not exactly delicious. Plants for a Future says:

“The tubers are quite popular in South America but can probably be best desricbed as an acquired taste”. They recommend freezing them or leaving them in the ground until after a frost to improve flavour.

I thought they had potential as part of a forest garden guild with oca oxalis tuberosum planted around them as a ground cover. Ive been growing oca for a few years now and although not high-yielding it is again easy to grow and tasty. A new Irish site dedicated to oca can be found here. Next year i am going to add Jerusalem Artichokes into the guild for the Machua to climb up -a sort of perennial “three sisters”. The idea is, like the Three Sisters of Corn, beans and squash, you can get three yields in the same space because of their different habits and niches.