This year’s theme is: Celebrating the Art and Science of Good Living
Enjoy the company of other gardeners, farmers, homesteaders, and life-enthusiasts for a weekend of good food, excellent workshops, farm tours, and fun.
Your conference fee gets you: all of your home-grown, home-cooked, biodynamic, organic meals and beverages throughout the weekend, admittance to all workshops and lectures, and a place to camp.
This is a family friendly conference. There are beautiful places for children to play, and children under 16 are admitted free of charge (pitch in for meals if you can please). If you do not wish to camp, look into rooms in Red Boiling Springs, just up the road: https://www.armourshotel.com/, or http://thomashousehotel.com/.
Some of the fantastic presenters:
Dan Kittredge has been a regenerative (organic) farmer for more than 30 years and is the founder and executive director of the Bionutrient Food Association (BFA), a non-profit whose mission is to “increase quality in the food supply.” Known as one of the leading proponents of “nutrient density,” Dan works to demonstrate the connections between soil health, plant health, and human health. Dan will be presenting at the Friday evening after-dinner keynote. Don’t miss it!
Susana Lein has made her living from an off-grid permaculture farm she created from scratch beginning in 1999. Imagine a system with high weed suppression, nearly non-existent erosion, thriving biodiversity, increasing soil carbon and organic matter… a farm with minimal off-farm inputs and healthy crops. Join Susana to learn more about “Farming with Permaculture”, with a focus on diverse grain, dried bean, forage and vegetable production, via permaculture.
Mark Hancock, MD MPH, will be sharing: “The Connections Between Biodynamic Agriculture and Anthroposophic Medicine – From the Agriculture Course”. Mark and his wife Enid founded the Humanizing Medicine in Atlanta in 2015. The clinic is strongly rooted in the couple’s belief that everyone should have quality integrative healthcare options. Dr. Hancock has worked with Anthroposophic medicine for the entirety of his career.
Greg Brann will lead a workshop titled “Biodiversity, Landscapes, and Livestock” on Friday afternoon. Greg worked as the State Grazing Land Soil Health Specialist for 23 of his 40-year tenure with NRCS. Greg is a featured speaker at many conferences and grazing schools around the country and is well known for his extensive knowledge of soil health, grass and livestock management systems, and plant identification.Kristina Villa is a farmer, communicator, and community coordinator who believes that our connection to the soil is directly related to the health of our bodies, economy, and society. Kristina uses her skills as both a communicator and a farmer to share photos, stories, and information which help inspire change in human habits and mindsets, causing the food system, climate, and overall well-being of the world to improve. Join her to learn about: “Rethinking land access and security with Agrarian Trust“.Anne Nicholson is a Mind Body Therapy Practitioner and Transformative Movement Educator. She is originally from Nashville where she was involved with Waldorf school, anthroposophy southeast an the local food summit before leaving to pursue eurythmy, speech and social arts. Now she is in Los Angeles working in community mental health, teaching art and movement workshops and taking care of rabbits, goats, and bees. She will lead “Second Skin – Interactive Workshop for Communities”.
“The Waldorf Approach to Early Childhood Development” –
Molly Eaton has worked in Waldorf kindergarten and pre-school education for two decades. She has completed early childhood teacher trainings with Lifeway of North America and Sunbridge Institute, and a further level of therapeutic early-childhood training at Nurturing the Roots in Colorado; Molly now offers an early childhood program from her own home outside Nashville. She will lead a Waldorf circle, share a story, describe the Waldorf approach to early childhood education, and lead a nature walk for parents and kids around the farm. There will plenty of time for questions answers.
Learn about “Pendulum Dowsing” with our friend Shabari Bird Lovel. Shabari is a passionate, inspiring, brilliant woman with a heart of generosity and compassion. Her lifetime devotion to living in remembrance of the Sacredness of Life, breath, water, soil, and atmosphere. She will share her extensive experience in dowsing with a pendulum and look at specific ways dowsing can be helpful on a farm or homestead.
“Therapeutic Eurythmy” – Corinne Horan – Therapeutic eurythmy works on the principle that every consonant and vowel has a corresponding gesture, and that these are linked with specific areas or organs of the human body. Thus, doing specific movement sequences can have a specific effect on health.
Tea Jay is a biodynamic farmer and spiritual researcher in east TN. The Vuck Farm is a 10-acre farm offering experiential educational opportunities in market gardening and medicinal herb production. They received their biodynamic and esoteric christian mentoring from the lates Hugh Courtney and Bob Lehman at Earth Legacy Agriculture, 2009-2019. “The Spiritual Metaphor Considered” will provide a general overview of Steiner’s esoteric christian philosophy and how it relates to biodynamic principles.
Jeff Poppen, “The Barefoot Farmer”, long time biodynamic farmer, and conference host, will spend the weekend making biodynamic preparations in the barn and enjoying the company of all the good folks who come to enjoy the weekend on the farm.Please bring instruments, poems, dancing shoes, hula hoops and a good spirit to the Saturday night talent show, which is a long-standing highlight of the weekend.
Biodynamics was initiated in 1924 when Dr. Rudolf Steiner recommended we view our farms as living organisms in connection with all of the elements of the earth and cosmos. He suggested that the farm’s fertility should come from the farm itself, not from artificial fertilizers, because the latter would tend to make our food less nutritious and our thinking and feeling more materialistic. Along with practical methods for integrating soil, plants, and animals into a self-sustaining farm, biodynamic gardeners work with spiritual elements by using homeopathic preparations to create compost, high quality produce, and a pleasant atmosphere.
