Food for Thought

Historic Zinniker Farm Seeks New Lead Farmer

Zinniker Farm is the oldest, continually operated biodynamic farm in the United States and has played a huge role in the development of both the organic and biodynamic farming movements. The farm has 164 certified organic acres, thriving beef and poultry enterprises, and incredibly vital soil. At present we are seeking a farmer/farm family to help Mark and Petra Zinniker steward the farm into the future. On-farm housing is available, and a strong consumer group (The Zinniker Farm Stewardship Association) has formed that is in the process of developing an innovative CSA type model for the future of the farm. Click here to learn more about this opportunity. Or click here to apply. Or visit zinnikerfarm.com for more information.

Leon Zernitsky

The health question is a question of nutrition. The nutrition question is a question of agriculture.The agricultural question is a social question.” ~Karl Konig

One of the first thoughts Rudolf Steiner brings to us in the farmers Course, is that “Agriculture touches every aspect of human life.”

Right now we are enjoying the delicious abundance from our weekly Angelic Organics Farm share. One of the big questions we have been asking thru our work with the Zinniker Farm & our Family Farm Initiative is: ‘In what ways does bio-dynamics intersect with community & social justice?’

The Himalayan tea train that's running out of steam - BBC News

The world changed dramatically in Steiner’s lifetime (1861-1925), with advances in communication & transportation technology accompanied by tremendous social unrest in Europe. Many countries were experiencing the crumble of social structures in the old empire with its monarchy as part of the chaos around WWI (which also brought on the ‘Spanish Flu epidemic’)

Steiner responded to the unrest with ideas & initiatives to encourage social health. Steiner’s concept of the 3-fold Social Organism is founded on 3 ideals:

  • Equity & Equality in our human to human relationships in the ‘Rights Realm’’ -community empowerment.
  • Freedom in our individual & cultural expression, spirituality, art, education & initiative;
  • Cooperation (Sister/Brotherhood) in our Economic activities, allowing everyone’s needs to be met.

Bio-dynamics began in this 3-fold vision of social justice. Some of the 1st farms worked to implement alternative labor/management relations. Associations were formed with businesses, including farms & mills in a cooperative called Der Kommende Tag (“The Coming Day”).

What Is Biodynamics? | Biodynamic Association

Embedded in the 3-fold economic picture is a striving to understand the health of the land as a source of wealth, whose ideal is the Healing or Spiritualizing of the Earth. The original title of Rudolf Steiner’s lectures on agriculture was ‘Spiritual Scientific Foundations for a Renewal of Agriculture’.

What Is Biodynamics? | Biodynamic Association

At the core of Steiner’s work is the concern that materialistic thinking is permeating every aspect of human life & becoming a global epidemic. What are the consequences of seeing nature, plants, animals, & people as only physical, things? How do we grow food that nourishes the whole human being, in body, soul, & spirit, recognizing & honoring the spirit in all life, cultivating interdependence, growing community?

What Is Biodynamics? | Biodynamic Association

Steiner suggests that it’s less important to see food as providing substances for our physical body alone, but more significant that food provides fuel for our will.

Daphne Odjig, Enfolding
Daphne Odjig

So if the warmth that is generated by our metabolic system through the food we eat can be seen to have spiritual directives, & moral qualities, what role can food play in social justice? Can food help or hinder the development of this aspect of ourselves that is sensitive to the impact we have on others? How can we encourage the food that is grown & eaten to connect us with the spiritual world so that we may develop as moral human beings?

Kristena West

Steiner suggests that, as spiritual beings, one of the main reasons we even have a physical body, is to be able to convert physical warmth into compassion, empathy & LOVE.

Sea Cooke

A good place to start is to see that  bio-dynamic food can nourish our will to social justice.

Steiner wrestled as we do, with the dynamic of individuals living in community. He tried to express a healthy relationship in this verse:

A healthy social life is found only when, in the mirror of each soul, the whole community finds its reflection, and when, in the whole community, the virtue of each one is living.” ~Rudolf Steiner

Patricia Glibert

What does the mirror show us today?

~hag

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
SAINT JOHNSTIDE IV
The Spirit’s Gift
v15

I feel, as if enchanted,
the weaving of the spirit in the glory of the world;
it’s veiled my own being
in drowsiness of sense
to give to me the strength
that in my narrow bounds
I’m powerless to give myself.

The soul’s pregancy can begin
and the spirit child be born in this week’s mirror verse.
CHRISTMAS
The Spirit Child
v38

I feel the Spirit Child set free
from spell in womb of soul;
in heart’s bright radiance
from seed of holy Cosmic Word
the heaven’s fruit of hope
is growing into farthest worlds
rejoicing from my being’s ground of God.

23 July 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bright Arcturus is still pretty high after dark, but as summer progresses, it moves down the western side of the evening sky. Its pale ginger-ale tint always helps identify it. Off to the right of Arcturus right is the Big Dipper. Arcturus forms the bottom point of the Kite of Bootes.

1913 – Birthday of Anthroposopher Ernst Katz – read about him here

Music Workshop Introducing: New Impulses in Music

When: August 5 & 6 – 2022

Friday night @ 6:30 – 9:00***** and *****Saturday @ 9:30 -12:00 and @ 2:00 – 4:30

Where: New Vision Church: https://newvisionbic.org/aboutus/N14W27995

On Silvernail Rd. Pewaukee (just south of I-94 / at the SS EXIT)

About our instructor: Veronika Roemer

In her own words she says “Music speaks to our souls, and through its three basic elements of melody, harmony, and rhythm, it speaks directly to our three soul forces of thinking, feeling, and willing. When making music, we are always encountering all three of these forces in an interweaving, harmonious process. Music is nourishment for our souls.” In this workshop she will be introducing participants to these instruments and illustrating the following characteristics that make them essential “for our time”. In short, she will show how

  • the “sound quality brings healing to the inner ear” and helps the listener reconnect to their inner musician.
  • the “technical ease of the instruments” makes them accessible to everyone. 
  • the movements in space make musical realities visible, like the movement from tone to tone, or of one chord to the next.”
  • the group processes reconnect people. Because connections are built through music and not talking, the social aspects of the group processes are more subtle offering an extra bonus to the musical work”. Finally, music lifts the mood and allows people to laugh and enjoy themselves and others.

Veronika has extensive training and experience. Her initial training was gained at the Musikakademie in Basel and Musikhochschule in Zurich Switzerland inclusive of orchestral and string quartet performance in Europe followed by a student Foundation year at Emerson College and five additional years teaching and instructing for them as faculty. She also has multiple years of study and instruction at the Dorian School of Music Therapy. From 1998-2013 she was a resident and co-worker at Camphill Village Kimberton Hills developing a music program for adults with developmental disabilities continuing as an instructor for the group through 2021 as well as instructing for the Camphill Academy at Beaver Run and at the Kimberton Waldorf School. Currently she is a founding faculty member for the SunGate Educational Community and active member of the Lyre Association of North America. Wherever she goes she is happiest to be making music with people.

Veronika is returning to visit us in Wisconsin where she lived (in Wales) from 1990-1998 and had a connection to the Prairie Hill Waldorf School. At that time she began her family of five children and was the founding mother of the Rafael Foundation for New Impulses in Music and a local lyre group.

In each workshop session we will sing, play various instruments such as bordun lyres, wood, and metal instruments, do rhythm games and more.

We are delighted to have Veronika return to present these workshops and hope that you can attend. Come for one or come for all!

For more information or to RSVP contact: Gail Sauter- Rafael Foundation for New Impulses in Music 262-391-8939 or sauterg96@gmail.com

Renewing the Mysteries:The Founding of The Christian Community
& the Burning of the First Goetheanum

Spring Valley, NY – August 8-13, 2022
REGISTER NOW!* lectures * artistic workshops * conversation * evening performances
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg will be offering a program on Tuesday 9 August for the Free Initiative 2:30 -3:30 pm ET – From Artemis to the New Isis
Many anthroposophists have understood the 1923/24 Christmas Foundation Conference as constituting a renewal of the Mysteries. Nine months after the Christmas Conference, speaking to the priests of the Christian Community, Rudolf Steiner pointed to a sequence from the founding of the Christian Community in September 1922 to the burning of the Goetheanum at the end of that year to the Christmas Conference.In this 100th anniversary year of both the founding of the Christian Community and the burning of the Goetheanum, can an exploration of these events help us to understand the nature of the New Mysteries?

The keynote speaker is Daniel Hafner, priest of the Christian Community. He will address this theme with a particular focus on the colored windows of the First Goetheanum.

The Act of Consecration of Man will be celebrated during the week and there will also be a Class Lesson for members of the School of Spiritual Science.

Venue: SPRING VALLEY, NY, Threefold Community, and The Christian Community

*REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED TO ATTEND THIS EVENT: A conference on the scale currently planned requires that a minimum number of participants register by July 20th.

INFO OR QUERIES: Rev. Paul Newton paulknewton@msn.com
(845) 517-4101

Sponsored by The Christian Community Spring Valley Area and the Threefold Branch of the Anthroposophical Society

2 thoughts on “Food for Thought

  1. Hazel, this topic, food and its relationship with community, is very timely . . . yes our garden too abounds with nutritious gems. And I too am ever conscious of Rudolf words regarding the importance of bio-dynamic food, essentially saying there is no hope for community if the food is not sufficiently spiritualized (if that is the right word?).
    Having farmed for many years, and lived in intentional community, I have many thoughts around this food / community connection. One thought that stands out is the question, “what makes for a successful community?” I lived in a highly successful community for twenty years and I watched it come to naught when the spiritual leader died. Not that a new, equally qualified, spiritual leader wasn’t immediately established, but the difference was . . .?
    I still wrestle with this. Why after all those years of vibrant, loving existence did it all disperse? The food was up to bio-dynamic standards, I made sure of that.
    Now, in my little postage stamp sized farm here in the midst of a big american city, I watch my experience of community . . . the game of the Gods vs. the Jealousies, I imagine. Pygmalion in action, does Eliza Dolittle really change? Lots of questions!
    A then you, and Rudolf, gives us this – “A healthy social life is found only when, in the mirror of each soul, the whole community finds its reflection, and when, in the whole community, the virtue of each one is living.” ~Rudolf Steiner
    So True! Outside of community love is only imagination. Sharing is sooooo important.
    Thanks Hazel, important thoughts.

    1. Hi Rod, yes all hail the postage stamp sized gardens of the world!
      Thank you for sharing a bit about the intention community you were part of. I guess for me I feel it is important to cultivate community where there is no ‘Leader’ but that everyone is their own leader – contributing their unique gifts to the community, stepping up to get the things done that best serve the whole. But it seems most folks need that leader & when they aren’t there is hard to keep the circle intact.

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