Biodynamic Farming

Harmony with the Earth

The winter before their first planting, Mike and Marnie were visiting Arizona wineries where they met Kief Joshua Manning, owner of Kief-Joshua Vineyards. Manning was practicing elements of biodynamic farming to grow his vines sustainably. Intrigued, Mike set out to learn more about biodynamics.

Biodynamic agriculture developed from the work of Rudolph Steiner. It is an approach that treats the farm as an organism unto itself, calling for a holistic balance between soil, plants, animals, and farmer. Similar to organic farming, biodynamic agriculture uses no artificial chemicals. Instead cover crops, green manures, compost, and crop rotations help keep the land and plants bountiful.

Mike’s friend Tim Brewer had also experimented with biodynamic methods at his vineyard in the Piedmont region of Italy. In an attempt to restore the soil’s nutrients, Tim followed a number of biodynamic techniques. He planted cover crops, mixed ground stag horn and aged manure into the soil, and sprayed at the appointed times with a fermented nettle extract mix. However, he wasn’t convinced that it made a substantial difference.

Mike continued investigating biodynamic farming and found that it was very tedious, involving dyanizing various elements into solutions by stirring them by hand for an hour or more.

“I decided that I wouldn’t use any chemicals on my grapes, but I couldn’t buy into the whole biodynamic thing either.”

He did, however, decide to use the biodynamic planting calendar, which breaks down appropriate planting and tending times for different crops based on the phases of the moon. For the past 50 years, the calendar has been published by Maria Thun, a German woman who has realized incredible results on her experimental farm as a result of this calendar.

“I thought, ‘Far be it from be to break with a tradition, even if no one can tell me why it works!’ Like the advice of my friend Tim, ‘In all things, you can’t be too rigid, and you will always have to compromise with the weather.’”

Two years from the initial planting, Old Folsom Vineyard is still chemical-free. To deter insects and rabbits from coming into the vineyard, Mike had 52 firemen conduct a controlled burn to create a barrier around the perimeter of the farm this past fall. He also implements a vigorous mowing routine in the aisles of the vines.

“What has been done to the land and vines by my vineyard will not compromise future generations to use this land for their needs.”