Jembella Farm: Bio-dynamic Field Day and The Ordinary Days Ahead

Friday, 5 April 2019

Bio-dynamic Field Day and The Ordinary Days Ahead

There was a large turnout at our Bio-dynamic Field Day on Tuesday this week, where attendees embraced the talks and demonstrations with great interest.
It was wonderful to spend the day with so many people who are keen to learn the finer points of living, growing and farming using the bio-dynamic philosophy; as Brian and I have been doing for the past fifteen years.
John Hodgkinson from Bio-dynamics Agriculture Australia Bellingen, NSW kept us all enthralled with the spiritual aspects of BD, and Shane Joyce from Kilkivan, Qld, inspired us with his knowledge of practical cattle farming using bio-dynamics.

Bio-dynamic Field Day at Jembella Farm on Tuesday April 2nd.

Filling cow horns with fresh cow dung.

Brian and Shane Joyce burying the cow horns in the pit to make Prep 500.

The crowd were interested in our Peter Andrews inspired leaky dam. Now it just needs to rain.

Our Team; Shane Joyce (Qld), Brian, Roger Carthew (BAA Chair), John Hodgkinson (NSW), Sally.

Ordinary days ahead at Jembella Farm

All of the events for this summer have been ticked off on the calendar.
Beekeeping workshops, Farming workshops, visitor tour groups and catering.
The people have gone home. The catering boxes of cups, crockery and urn have been returned to the cellar, the trestle tables are back in the shed.
Life here at Jembella will take on an ordinary rhythm once again.
It feels good. No pressure. Ordinary is going to be wonderful.

Happy weekend ahead dear reader.

Sally XX

2 comments:

Emma Christian6 April 2019 at 17:17
Sally the bio-dynamic field day looks amazing! What a wonderful day for all to attend. I know how much effort you put into your beautiful events and I'm sure everyone learnt a lot and had a lovely time. If I was closer I would have loved to attend too.

You have been so busy with your workshops, which I know you love but how lovely to catch up and simply "be" for a bit, milking your girls, gardening and hopefully taking some time to read the odd book or two.

I hope you have a lovely weekend dear Sally, Much love.
xx
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Jembella Farm7 April 2019 at 22:11
A few months of ordinary days is what we both need Em, but there's never a dull moment around here. ;-) A renovation has just begun! (she says as she rolls her eyes.)
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About Us

Whether you're living in an apartment, in a house in the suburbs or on acres, you can live frugally and sustainably. There are many things you can do to save money, eat ethically and healthily, reduce waste and live an enriched life.
We are Sally and Brian and we live in the Barossa Valley (South Australia) in a 100 year old house on sixteen acres with 2 dogs, 7 cows, 2 alpacas, 5 geese, 35 chickens, 78 sheep and a few bee hives.
Our way of life takes team work and dedication, but over the years we've learned to be more productive without seeming to put in quite so much effort. We've learned through making mistakes and taking a different approach to what the conventional ways would be. Still learning every day and constantly researching old and new methods, we believe that our lives are greatly enriched, we are healthier and we couldn't imagine any other way of life.
Considered to be living The Good Life, people love to visit us on our small farm to learn about our simple living philosophy.

Why do we do it?
Our love of good food, concern for our health and respect for all animals. The further we got into living on the land the more aware we became that most of the standard practices of growing food were not satisfactory. We couldn't eat with a clear conscience.
Milk from sad cows, pasteurized and homogenized into white liquid. Meat from distressed, hormone and antibiotic pumped livestock. Vegetables and fruits grown and sprayed with chemicals. What to do? Grow our own!
Slowly we grew our knowledge and took one step at a time, becoming proficient in one skill before moving on to the next. The learning curves were steep. We fell over and got back up again. There has been some derision and criticism of our approach from a few, but that's life when you swim against the tide.
If we are not the "norm" then so be it. There is nothing "normal" about growth hormones fed to beef, anti-biotics and chemicals fed routinely to chickens, cruelty and disrespect for farmed animals, meals in a box, GM foods, strawberries and tomatoes in winter.
Thankfully the World is waking up to cleaner and more ethical food. We didn't know back then that Organics and Bio-dynamics would become the "new black". The tide is turning and our swimming is becoming easier.