News & Events

We wish you all a very safe and happy solstice and may the new year bring you lots of amazing biodynamic produce.

Thank you to Juliet Batten for sharing her work with us at this auspicious time.

Te Maruaroa O Te Raumati: Summer Solstice, Monday 21 December

The signature sign of summer solstice in Te Ika A Māui, the North Island is the crimson flowering of the Pohutukawa trees that fringe the coastline. Dancing against the blue sea, they announce the promise of a sunny season with its pilgrimages to the beach for swimming, fishing, water sports and simple relaxation. In Te Wai Pounamu, the South Island it is the crimson flowers of rata that are associated with the pleasure of summer.

Summer solstice marks the passing of the sixth month when the sun has gained strength and all things greet Rangi and Papa. In both Māori and European traditions summer solstice was a time of hard work.

Resource: Juliet Batten. Celebrating the Southern Seasons. Page reference 149

New Commissioning Editor & Journalist

We are looking for a Commissioning Editor for Harvests Magazine. Please view role outline here. 

Is this you or someone you know? Please email Josie. We look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you for your wonderful support of the workshops in the last couple of months. We’ve really enjoyed hosting you and working with many of you.

The photos below are from the Canterbury horn lifting day in November.

Saturn and Jupiter

Star gazers are in for a treat leading up to Christmas. Jupiter and Saturn are about to touch (to the naked eye) at roughly 7:20am on the 22nd December. It will be light by then but they will be getting closer each night. If we get some clear nights then go outside and have a look. Apart from the moon, they will be the brightest things in the sky and will look like one big bright planet soon. They (we) move from east to west. This is the closest that they have been in the sky for 800 years. 
Fun fact – Jupiter takes 12 years to hoon around the sun. It takes Saturn 29.4 years.

Biodynamics book store

Our online book store has been restocked with great gifts for any season. Shop here.

Te Mahi Oneone Hua Parakore: A Māori Soil Sovereignty and Wellbeing Handbook

Edited by Jessica Hutchings and Jo Smith. 
Order online here or Order via invoice: info@projectfreerange.com

Soil health and security are key components of our wellbeing. Even so, soil is faced with many environmental challenges under the current iteration of capitalism. A paradigm shift is needed to encourage care for this resource. In te ao Māori, soil is taonga. It is also whanaunga – it holds ancestral connections and is the root of tūrangawaewae and whakapapa. It is the source of shelter, kai and manaakitanga.

Te Mahi Oneone Hua Parakore: A Māori Soil Sovereignty and Wellbeing Handbook shines a light on Māori relationships with soil, as well as the connections between soil and food security, and frames these links within the wider discourse of tino rangatiratanga from a variety of Māori perspectives. Through a range of essays, profiles and recipes, it seeks to promote wellbeing and elevate the mana of the soil by drawing on the hua parakore Māori organics framework as a means for understanding these wide-ranging, diverse and interwoven relationships with soil.

The Energetic Activities of Biodynamic Agriculture 

Based on 8 lectures given by Dr Rudolf Steiner June 7 to June 16 1924
Issued in 1938, From the shorthand notes of Dr L Kolisko, Edited by Glen Atkinson (2011) 

We hope you enjoy this re-edit of the Agriculture Course, highlighting and separating the two main conversations in the course the primary Energetic activities of Spirit Astral Etheric and Physical ; and the Physical Formative Forces.

Available on order here.

Office hours and prep distribution over December and January

The last prep dispatch for the year is Monday 21 December 2020 and we start back again on Tuesday 5 January 2021. The Office is closed Tuesday 22 December 2020 until Tuesday 5 January 2021.

Thank you all for your continued support. Our Association is going through a transition with new members, a new team and a new Council and we are looking forward to sharing so much more with you in 2021.

Summer

In radiant heights
Where, glistening in the sun,
The friendly dragonflies are
Flitting out rays of warmth
Which blend into the space around,
There, tarry thou, my soul;
For, thinking of me, they weave
From sadness, strength.
Already I can feel
How they are sensing me;
How warmth streams from them,
Permeating me.
The spirit dissolves
In cosmic interweaving,
The earthly heaviness
Into light of the future.
~Rudolf Steiner