Biodynamics

Riverglen Biodynamic Farm encompasses a farmstead, gardens, an orchard, hedgerows, pastures, hay fields… It is surrounded by Greenbelt woodlands and wetlands, is traversed by creeks and borders the Ottawa River. All these parts function like organs in a living organism. Maintaining healthy, positive relationships between the plants, animals and humans is our main objective. We follow natural rythms, so our tasks are easier and more efficient.

No synthetic pesticides or fertilizers are used on any of our crops. Our fertile soil lives and breathes. We feed it mature compost, till it with care, and keep it covered with vegetable or cover crops. The living organisms which make up soil posess a remarkable intelligence. They transform raw minerals into compounds that plant roots can absorb, in exchange for delicious root exudates. We nurture life in the soil and enhance its ability to digest organic matter by applying specially made preparations of fermented herbs to our fields and compost piles.

Our compost is made of manure, vegetable scraps, landscape waste and trimmings. Since no organic farmer would want to give or sell manure, the only real sustainable option is to keep one’s own animals. Our animals our healthy, happy and relaxed. The feed on our pastures and scratch our barnyards. The compost resulting from their manure is the most compatible for your unique soil biology.

Although we have come to see our mind as seperate from our bodies, our minds still dwell within us. The food we eat nurishes our mind as well as our bodies. Good food clears our minds; it helps us deal with stress and negative emotions.

Food that has had a stressed out, overworked, mindless, confined, overfed, antisocial life will give its eater just the same.

Food that has had a happy, stimulating, supportive life will offer the greatest gifts to its eater.

Our commitment to the biodynamic method is certified by Demeter Canada.

Learn more

You can find out more about biodynamics at:

• The Society for Biodynamic Farming and Gardening in Ontario
• The North American Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association
• Demeter International

One principle we must grasp,
Otherwise no development will be possible in our crucial time.
Seek the truly practical life
but seek it in a way
that does not numb you towards the Spirit that is working in it.
Seek the Spirit,
but do no seek it out of greed for the supersensible,
from supersensible egoism;
but seek it, because you want to apply it
unselfishly in practical life, in the material world.
Make use of the ancient principle:
“Spirit is never without matter, matter never without Spirit.”
So that you say:
We intend to handle all material matters in the light of the Spirit,
And we shall seek the light of the Spirit in such a way
That it will kindle in us a warmth for our practical deeds.
Spirit that is led into matter by us;
Matter that is shaped by us until it reveals the Spirit it contains;
Matter that receives through us the Spirit revealed;
The Spirit that is brought by us to and into matter;
All this will build that active and vivid substance
Which can take humanity into real development;
Into that kind of progress that the people of today
In the deepest and most worthy longings of their souls
Can only but yearn for.

- Rudolf Steiner