Barefoot Biodynamics

With decades of knowledge and proven, common-sense methods from “The Barefoot Farmer,” this practical guide to biodynamic principles and practices will appeal to growers of every scale and experience level.

In Barefoot Biodynamics, organic grower Jeff Poppen-“The Barefoot Farmer”-combines tales from his personal history of building a harmonious farm community in rural Tennessee with the practical applications of biodynamic principles and the deep aspects of the biodynamic methods that continue to make his farm a success today.

Jeff’s friendly, direct, and humorous writing will appeal not only to the biodynamic-curious, but also to farmers and gardeners who have experimented with the biodynamic approach and are looking for a deeper understanding of the practice.

Rooted in the teachings of biodynamic pioneer Rudolf Steiner, Jeff’s unique insights and deep reflections on “guiding lines” of biodynamic growing are an invaluable resource. Those “guiding lines” include:

producing a farm’s fertility using cover crops, compost, and other on-farm inputs
enjoying the renewing power of farm festivals
augmenting scientific knowledge with the power of observation and intuition
avoiding chemical fertilizers
understanding that carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen make up 95 percent of the physical structure of plants and are freely available in the air around us
enhancing the availability of critical minerals such as silica and lime through good farming practices
building humus-rich soil teeming with microbial life
using homeopathic preparations to heal and enrich the soil

In addition, Jeff walks the reader through the eight lectures on farming given by Steiner in 1924, summarizing important points from each lecture and “translating” them from Steiner’s profound yet sometimes impenetrable vocabulary into plain language. In Barefoot Biodynamics, Jeff provides new insight into these enigmatic lectures, revealing an often overlooked yet cost-effective farming method rooted in common sense.

Author Biography

Jeff Poppen, a Midwestern farm boy, helped develop an organic farm and Tennessee homestead in the mid-1970s, and ten years later began applying biodynamic methods and making the preparations to do so. His livelihood comes primarily from vegetables and cattle grown on the 270-acre Long Hungry Creek Farm, where cows, compost, and community keep the land vibrant and productive. Jeff advocates for a more peaceful agriculture by mentoring young farmers and gardeners, along with a bit of lecturing, consulting, hosting events, and facilitating a few new farm enterprises. His style of old-time farming comes from paying close attention to what elder farmers thought, felt, and did, and by studying how farms were managed before agricultural chemicals were first manufactured on a large scale over one hundred years ago. Like his animals, he gets his food from the farm.

Sandor Ellix Katz is a fermentation revivalist. A self-taught experimentalist who lives in rural Tennessee, his explorations in fermentation developed out of his overlapping interests in cooking, nutrition, and gardening. He is the author of four previous books: Wild Fermentation, The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved, The Art of Fermentation-which won a James Beard Foundation Award in 2013-and Fermentation as Metaphor. The hundreds of fermentation workshops he has taught around the world have helped catalyze a broad revival of the fermentation arts. The New York Times calls Sandor “one of the unlikely rock stars of the American food scene.” For more information, check out his website: www.wildfermentation.com.