It’s all in the preparation…

Biodynamics is a system and philosophy of farming that recognises the soil and entire farm as a living organism.  The respect for and care of the soil plays a prominent role. The biodynamic preparations form the cornerstone of biodynamic activity, and create balance and health in our soils and plants. 

We use a range of eight preparations within our farm and vineyards. One of the most important of these is Preparation 500. This is made when cows’ manure is buried inside a cow’s horn over winter, and then stirred into rainwater at body temperature to form a vortex before being applied to the vineyard by hand. This stimulates soil bacteria and fungi, improving soil structure and microbiological activity.

Three of our vineyard interns have been helping us make this and spread it across our entire vineyard…

David Wright, Farnham, UK

The digging up and application of preparation 500 marks the rejuvenation of life in the land and the beginning of a new growth cycle. For me it represents the intentions of the human custodians of the land to be aware of, and understand, the rhythms of nature to manage it productively. Unearthing the horns was a very thorough and insightful process and the myriad life forms that came up with them sparked many thoughtful discussions. Everyone that makes their living from Seresin vineyards was involved in the stirring and broadcasting of the 500. Together we covered every inch of every property, walking the flats, hills, creeks and pastures from angles I hadn’t seen before. This gave me a new perspective that cannot be gained from the cab of a tractor, a focus on the details that only comes when you give it a chance. I came away feeling good about the season ahead and confident that I had conveyed this positive message to the land.

Rose Capriola, California

My very first 500 experience proved to be an energizing one for the body, mind, and soul.  As we stood and stirred wilfully, I couldn’t help but notice the beautiful diversity of our participants, all brought together to inoculate the land with the spirit of biodynamics.   We flowed as a group through the vines, spreading our 500 and cow pat pit mixture with the flicks of our wrists, gaining momentum as we walked.  Smiles dawned on faces and the enjoyment was palpable.  Through this experience I was again reminded of the value of the ‘we’ in biodynamics and of the wonderful impact our community can have on the land that we tend to joyfully.  

Charlotte Javelle, Saint-Etienne, France

Even after 9 months at Seresin I’m still impressed by people’s involvement. The 500 experience was a great lesson in openness and sharing.  Barrels, sticks, water, Preparation 500… everything needs to be ready for the “ceremony”. Everybody gave a little bit of himself stirring the preparation during one hour and trying to make the best vortex ever! Even the children participated with keen interest and happiness. Then, buckets and brushes in hand, the preparation was sprayed across all of the property.

Laughing and singing animated these afternoons. It’s amazing how this act can combine a range of different nationalities, ages and cultures. Maybe we should use cow poo and water everywhere in this world to bring more respect, peace and well-being! I really think that the land is able to feel and memorise all the love, all the human implication and all the energy brought by people. Thereby it can give us the best quality in our grapes and olives.

Monty Waldin's Take on Biodynamics

Inspirational wine journalist Monty Waldin, author of the definitive biodynamic text 'Biodynamic Wine Guide', has posted this short video about biodynamics and its place in winegrowing and winemaking. He describes it as a "self sufficient way of farming which makes complete sense to me - and its changed my life". It's our favourite video at the moment - it's beautifully filmed, and it gives a great introduction to biodynamics.

Enjoy!

Cows and Wine - a Fine Pairing

What do cows have to do with the creation of a fine wine? One might wonder. For us, the two go hand in hand. Cows are earthly creatures, connected to the earth more so than many others. They are heavy, pensive, and generally calm. Through their physical presence on the land and our use of their manures in our compost, compost teas and cow pat pits, this earthly influence permeates the Estate. Both energetically and physically, they help us to grow vines that are more deeply connected to the land, to our terroir.

From a biodynamic perspective, cows, particularly ones that are lactating (producing milk), are an essential part of a farm. Nayan, who was the first Jersey calf that we brought onto the farm, is now fully grown and has just had her first calf, Kiran (Hindu for ‘ray of light from the sun’). We like to think of Kiran as a force of warming, positive and formative energy on the land, like the sun. She is particularly significant to us since she is the first milking cow born on our land, a true biodynamic cow. She is of this land and her connection to it will be passed on to us, our vines and wines, through her energy and manure, for many years to come.

Welcome 'home' Kiran!

A Biodynamic Bible

We had a parcel arrive at the winery last week - a box containing Monty Waldin's Biodynamic Wine Guide 2011.

As well as being a highly respected wine writer and host of 'Chateau Monty', Waldin is well versed when it comes to organic and biodynamic winegrowing.

Monty has self-published the third edition of the book; a comprehensive guide to biodynamic wine. He clearly and concisely explains the ins and outs of biodynamic winegrowing and how it differs from organic and conventional wine, and profiles over 1500 wineries embracing biodynamics - including Seresin, which has one of the longest profiles of any winery in the book.

Otherwise only available on Lulu.com, we have five copies of guide for sale in our Cellar Door. If you would like to get your hands on a copy, please send us an email.

Horses Of Course

It's the time of year when our three vineyards receive their annual application of of Biodynamic Preparation 500. Last week, we hand applied 500 to our Raupo Creek vineyard.

Staff hand-stirring Preparation 500 for spraying on our Raupo Creek Vineyard.

Our Estate Manager Colin Ross took a short video of the staff standing at the top of the hill ready to spread the preparation over the Pinot Noir vines.

And yesterday it was the Home Vineyard's turn; using both staff and our one horsepower tractor, Bill.

Six year old Bill and his brother Tom are Seresin's newest additions. They came to us six weeks ago, and have been being trained by Phil Amberger. Phil and his brother Ron are shown here driving the horse sprayer.

Bill and Tom pull our specially designed Seresin Bertolini Horse Drawn Sprayer, which will spray up to 30 hectares of our Home Vineyard with Biodynamic Preparations and Compost Tea this year.

Diary of a WWOOFer

September 1

Today was another sunny day in Marlborough, and my first day WWOOFing at Seresin. The Seresin vineyards have an abundance of plant growth and the land looks healthy and lively. I met the vineyard team who were warm and keen to help me learn more about organics and biodynamics. They range from PhD graduates to gardeners, from India to Nova Scotia and work in all areas from pruning to milking to biodynamic preparations.

Right off the bat I got my hands dirty in the vegetable gardens in the Home Vineyard where rows of grapes have been removed. Sean (a well travelled farming guru) and I planted hundreds of onions using Japanese Nawashi tools to break up the soil. At 10am the team breaks for 'smoko' where we gather eggs, vegetables and rocket for a snack and people share fresh bread and cheese they've made.

In the afternoon Rob (an ex-Psychology professor) and I suited up like astronauts to go and check the beehives. Thousands of buzzing bees greeted us and we checked for Verroa mites which kill the hive and its honey production. The hive was thriving so we split it to start a new hive and in 21 days a queen will have been chosen and the new hive will grow.

September 3

The vineyard has about 40 chickens, ranging from zebra-striped barred-rocks to 1970's wallpaper patterned barnavelda, which produce eggs for the staff and the shells are used in the compost for their calcium. The chickens spend their days exploring every nook and cranny of the farm, and sometimes lay in the strangest places. This morning Erin (the apprentice) and I cleaned the coops and collected dry pine needles to lay in their cubbies.

Afterwards we walked Bill and Tom, our two clydesdale horses, to a fresh field so we could collect their manure for compost. The friendly giants are used to pull the spray machines in the vineyard.

Wendy and Kevin showed me how to make cowpat pits that result in highly nutritious soil for the crops. We turned a bathtub full amount of cow manure collected from the dairy cow over the week, added crushed eggshells and basalt meal until it was aerated and mixed. We placed the manure into brick pits in the ground where earthworms will work to decompose it. Finally we added biodynamic preparations 502-507; yarrow, chamomile, stinging nettle, oak bark, dandelion and valerian. In three months this decomposed mix will be spread through the vineyard to increase moisture absorption, earthworm and humus forming bacterial activity, and root penetration.

September 6

First thing this morning, I met Olga the milking cow. Wendy (a biodynamic expert) and I collected her from the vineyard and took her to the milking shed where she was given a treat of molasses, water and a salt crystal to lick. I learned how to squeeze the udder, pulling the milk down to prevent mastitis. From 4 udders and 4 hands we gathered 8 litres of milk! Afterwards I took Olga outside for a thorough brush. We returned her to the vineyard to roam freely and I collected her manure for future cow pat pits.

Back in the meticulously clean milk shed, we filtered and bottled the milk, to be separated from the cream tomorrow. I put yesterdays milk into a huge bottle and churned it for an hour until it turned into butter. Once solid, I washed the rem

aining milk from the butter and molded it into bricks. For lunch our guests from the Nelson Wine Company in Melbourne were served some very fresh butter!

September 7

Today I learned how to make compost tea. On our 1980's Jeep we collected year old compost as dark as 70% chocolate. All organic waste is saved daily to contribute to the compost. We took the compost to the mixing tanks where we added water, biodynamic preparations, molasses and sweet-smelling seaweed which had been aerated in a freeflow tank, and we left this all to mix. This liquid seaweed fertiliser will be sprayed on the estate at a later date to improve the health of the soil and grape growth.

Later on, the rest of the onions were planted and I weeded the raspberry field. I picked fresh leeks and potatoes from the gardens which I used to make a delicious soup.

By Meg Blakeman, WWOOFer from Niagara-On-The-Lake, Canada. September 2010.

Tasting by the Moon

The moon and its rhythms has long been an important part of Biodynamics. It has such a huge impact on the tides - why not soils, plants, people, and wine too? Biodynamics aims to work in harmony with these rhythms as much as possible - spraying the biodynamic preparations on the land and plants when they are best absorbed, pruning when vines are at their most resilient - the list goes on.

UK journalist Jonathon Ray, from the Telegraph, has been asking whether the moon affects how wine tastes. Ray discusses how the major UK supermarkets are holding their press tastings according to the Biodynamic calendar, and finding the results convincing. Click here to see the full article.

Team Attends Organic Pastoral Field Day

In November several members of the vineyard team attended a Biodynamic field day at Milmore Downs in North Canterbury to learn more about mixed cropping and stock management. They produce BD meat and grains, which they sell as whole grain, kibbled, flakes or flour. The flour makes great bread! The day was really useful, especially the discussion about crop and stock rotation to rejuvenate the soils and to manage parasites. It was great to see how Biodynamic practices had enhanced the property, and that these ideas were being well received by conventional farmers in the area. By Rob Thomson

Dandelion Days

Spring is upon us and the glowing yellow of the dandelions grace our land. A few rainy days followed by nicely warming temperatures has seen them burst forth in full force. On a sunny ‘flower’ day, we got a band of merry pickers together to gather dandelions, opened to just the right stage, for our Preparation 506. Aman, Lisa, me, Sean and Mauricio are pictured here with our sunny bounty. The flowers will be dried and stored until next autumn to be used in our preparation making.

Earthly Autumn

Autumn marks the time when the Earth is inhaling, the atmosphere is opened up to allow the cosmic forces to come down and penetrate the Earth, the soil is absorbing all of the energy and potential for growth for the coming year. In the realm of biodynamics, this is the time for making and using Preparation 500.

On an Earth day in a descending moon after the Autumn Equinox, we all paused in our day to come together to make our Preparation 500. To do this, we filled cow horns with fresh manure from our lovely cow and bury them over the autumn and winter. The manure will absorb the energies that are coming into the inhaling Earth and the horn helps to collect and direct them into the manure.

We also apply Preparation 500 in the autumn. This is the time of year when the plants are most connected with the Earth. Growth above-ground is reduced or halted, while the plants remain firmly rooted in the soil. Root growth continues and all of the nutrients in the plant are directed here and to woody parts of the plant. Preparation 500 enhances the biology in the soil, increases the cation exchange capacity of the soil and attracts worms. All of this makes nutrients more available to the plants and more firmly connects them to the soil and enhances the symbiotic relationships that occur there.

This autumn, we applied Preparation 500 in a descending moon at a time when the Moon was opposite to Saturn. The Moon supports calcium processes, while Saturn supports those of silica. It is thought that during this time of opposition, both of these forces are enhanced and that by applying Preparation 500 at this time its effectiveness can be enhanced, leading to stronger, healthier plants. The Preparation 500 must be stirred in warm water for one hour before applying it and for the first time we used one of our purpose-built compost tea tanks that creates opposing vortices for stirring it. Notice the little vortexes in the photo from the tank (just right of center).... They are identical to those created using our flowform. As always, we stirred a smaller amount by hand to place our good intentions into it.

We’ll come back to Preparation 500 in the spring again, when the Earth begins to warm and awaken, and exhale in a burst of life.

Biodynamics in Marlborough

This month, the Marlborough Biodynamic Discussion Group welcomed a special guest –John Ridout, Programme Director of the Taruna Certificate of Applied Organics and Biodynamics. John was awarded the NZAPAP Tutor of the Year award for his outstanding work over the last three years in the creation and delivery of a very special programme that has been successful at all levels. Past, present, and future students of the Taruna program in Marlborough were welcomed to Seresin Estate for a tour of some of our biodynamic workings and to share in a tasty biodynamic meal. The Marlborough Biodynamic Discussion Group meets monthly to give those practicing biodynamics or those interested in it a way to get together to learn, share ideas and support each other in our journeys.

Snug as a Bug

Our biodynamic preparations have a new home in craftily made wine barrel boxes. After the preparations come out of the ground they need to be stored until we are ready to use them and we’ve done this by putting each into a “hand” made unglazed lidded pot that has been tucked in to peat inside of the wine barrel. The boxes are nestled away behind an oak cuvee in the winery, below ground level.

Opening of The Taruna National Centre for Organic and Biodynamic Education

On September 13th, Colin Ross and Wendy Tillman from Seresin Estate were proud to be in attendance and supporting the biodynamic movement in New Zealand at the official opening of The Taruna National Centre for Organic and Biodynamic Education. The new classroom, the Christeller Room, at the Hohepa Porati was ceremonially opened with blessings, songs and thanks to those that made it possible. Peter Proctor (pictured here) concluded the ceremony with a blessing from Rudolf Steiner.

Students from Seresin Estate thus far include Colin Ross who completed the Certificate in Applied Organics and Biodynamics in 2007 and Sean Phillips who is currently completing his certificate.

For more information on organic and biodynamic education, as well as anthroposophical studies, in New Zealand see the Taruna site at: http://www.taruna.ac.nz/

Organic Viticulture Field Day

Organic Winegrowers New Zealand (OWNZ) held their first Organic Viticulture Field Day on Friday 13th June. Seresin Estate hosted the afternoon session, which began with an introduction from our estate manager, Colin Ross, overlooking our compost piles.








We then wandered down to the compost piles where guest speaker Mike Weersing of Pyramid Valley Vineyards introduced the group to the Biodynamic Compost Preparations.










We got 60 willing volunteers to help us finish our second pile by inserting the preparations into the pile.












And finished it off by stirring and sprinkling valerian on it.















Guest speaker James Millton of Millton Vineyards discussed Cowpat Pits with the group while we turned the manure.










From there, Colin led a vineyard walk to show the group our various weeders and mowers.










We finished up the cowpat pits back at the shed where we inserted the preparations and topped them off with valerian.














Mike provided an overview to the group of some of the biodynamic concepts.














The day ended with a wine tasting and conversation. It was a joy to be part of this event and to able to share our story and philosophy of managing the land with the group.

Composting with Intention

The first day of this past descending moon we began our composting in earnest. Quite a feat at the scale we undertake but nevertheless all of our energy and enthusiasm goes into it, as this will be the life and nourishment that graces our land for the next year. We give life to an otherwise disconnected, physically separate set of materials by gathering and assembling these elements of life and inserting our biodynamic preparations. We started bringing them together months ago. Some woodchips from a local sawmill; chipped up willow from along our creek; hay grown in our paddocks; manure from our favourite dairyman; grape marc (skins and stems) and olive pomace (pulp and pits) from our organic and biodynamic estate; gorse and broom cut and mulched from our terraces; coffee grounds and egg shells gathered from local cafes. Like a squirrel stocking up for winter, we too have been preparing by gathering all the ingredients to give us a wonderful steaming compost pile blessing us with riches for the spring.

We make three types of compost, each slightly different to suit the needs of the land that we will use them on. Our primary compost piles are quite large and will be used on our grapes and olives. They consist of layers of straw, grape marc, lime and reactive rock phosphate (RPR), wood chips, manure slurry, green manure, coffee grounds, crushed egg shells, etc. Here is a picture of a cross-section of a compost pile where you can see an example of some of the layers.




We have a separate compost pile that will be used in the making of our compost teas. We need this one to be very fungally active so we use more woody materials. The compost that we use for the gardens needs to be more bacterially dominant, so we use less wood and more green matter and food scraps.


Our favourite part of making compost is when we get to use our latest invention – “the slurryator 9000” – to spray manure that has been mixed with water into a slurry onto the pile. Great fun!
All of our compost piles have the biodynamic compost preparations added to them (502-507), temperatures regularly monitored and are turned when the drop to 40ºC, after having risen to 60ºC+. A second round of the biodynamic compost preparations are added when we turn the compost.

We add the compost preparations to the pile by making small balls of cowpat pit, inserting each preparation into one ball, making a hole in the pile with a steel rod and inserting the balled up preparation as far as we can, literally up to our elbows! We do this for preparations 502-506 (yarrow, chamomile, stinging nettle, oak bark, dandelion), but we mix preparation 507 (valerian) with water, stirring it for 10 minutes, creating vortices, and then pour it into holes on the top of the pile and sprinkle it into each of the holes we made when inserting the other preparations.

The primary reason that we make compost is to create a nutritionally and biologically rich substance to nourish our lands and attempt to replace what was harvested from the land this season. It is also a way for us to spread our biodynamic preparations as we apply the compost and use it in our compost tea. We believe composting is a good way to recycle materials that would otherwise be considered waste, for example our grape marc and olive pomace which are rich in nitrogen; coffee grounds which are also rich in nitrogen; and egg shells that are high in calcium.


Here is the first of our creations, approximately 1.4m wide by 1.2m high by 34m long! We added 12 sets of our biodynamic compost preparations (502-507), which gave us about 1 set per 5 cubic meters of compost. That’s 60 ‘up to your elbows’ into the pile plus the valerian!

Sharing with Students

Second-year Viticulture students from the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) who are interested in organic and biodynamic growing methods joined us for an afternoon of discussion and hands-on making of Cowpat Pit (right) and a compost heap (left). Sharing our techniques and philosophies with future stewards of the land with such hands-on activities gives them the opportunity to gather information and have experiences that will help them form their own opinions and shape how they will choose to interact with the land.

Busy with Biodynamics

The autumn is a busy time of year for our biodynamic activities. It is the time when all of the energies and nutrients that have made their way into the vegetative part of the plants now return to the earth (think of it as the earth inhaling). It’s at this time that we make and bury the majority of our preparations so they can receive this returning goodness. During the last descending moon cycle, while the moon was in an earth sign (April 28th and 29th) we made our biodynamic preparation 500 (filled cow horns with fresh manure), 503 (stuffed cow intestines with dried chamomile flowers), 504 (packed a clay pipe with dried stinging nettle) and 506 (wrapped dried dandelion in a cow mesentery) [pictured clockwise]. These were then each buried in their own clay pots, as was our preparation 502 (stags bladders filled with dried yarrow) which had been hanging in our walnut tree for the summer. We also made our preparation 505 (filled a cow and sheep skull with oak bark and submerged them into a barrel of water and decaying vegetation) and unearthed our preparations 501 (cow horns filled with ground quartz) and 504 (the stinging nettle from last year).

Making Rainbows

At the start of veraison, the time when the berries begin to ripen, we apply biodynamic preparation 501 – the horn silica preparation. This preparation is made from quartz crystal (silica) that has been ground to a very fine powder and then buried in the soil in cow horns over the summer. It is said that the properties of the silica help the vines to connect more strongly to the cosmic or airy forces, particularly sunlight. By applying this to our ripening grapes, we hope to increase the amount of photosynthesis the plant is performing and the amount of sugar in the plants, therefore the fruit. It’s like giving the vines a boost of liquid sunshine.

The application of preparation 501 begins well before sunrise… at 5:30 a.m. our dedicated team begins by filling barrels (to be hand-stirred) and our flow form with warm water – it needs to be right around body temperature before we can add in the 501. The preparation 501 is first mixed in a bucket and then introduced into the larger volume of water. We use 2.5g of the preparation in 32.5L of water for one hectare. We stir this for one hour, creating vortices, everyone taking turns.




Just as the sun is rising, we set out to apply all we have made in just one hour – before the sun begins to warm things up. We use a very fine mist that hovers in the air... Here you can see Sonya at Raupo and Kevin off in the distance, and if you are lucky you get to make a rainbow!

The Makings of a Cowpat Pit

A cowpat pit (CPP), also known as 'barrel compost', is a fermentation of cow manure, assisted by the biodynamic preparations. It is essentially a process to convert the manure into beautiful compost that contains concentrated amounts of fungi, bacteria and the energies from the biodynamic preparations. There are many variations on how to make CPP, but here's a peek into how we do ours here at Seresin Estate.

It all begins with a good supply of cow manure, fondly referred to as moo poo, preferably from lactating cows. The best way to do this is have your own dairy cows, but in the absence of that at the moment we were able to get some brilliant manure from a dairy farm in Linkwater on the north coast of the South Island to mix in with a bit from our biodynamic cows. The next key ingredient is some willing volunteers to help do the mixing - on this day in December, we had lots of help from Clive, MJ, Jan and Colin. With about 60kg of manure loaded into a trailer, we mixed it with shovels by turning it from one side of the trailer to the other for about one hour. It has been said that it takes 40 minutes to deprogram the manure and then 20 minutes to reprogramme it. While mixing, we gradually add in powdered egg shells (that we dried and ground) - about 200g per pit, or a total of 4-5 half shovels, and basalt dust - around 300g per pit, so 5-6 half shovels full in total. During the mixing the texture of the manure changes, becoming light and airy and then almost silky. You can tell when you are done purely by the changes in texture that have occurred.

While the mixing is being completed, we wet down our pits and get the preparations ready. We like to use balls of CPP from a pit that is fully decomposed as the vehicle for the preparations, to pass on some of the goodness they've got. So we make small balls with an indent large enough to fit about a teaspoon of preparation in, which is then squeezed closed. One ball per preparation per pit, for 502 (yarrow), 503 (chamomile), 504 (stinging nettle), 505 (oak bark), 506 (dandelion). Preparation 507 (valerian) is diluted (around 75ml into 2L of water) and re-energized by stirring it with a stick in a bucket for 15 minutes, creating vortices in opposite directions every 30 seconds or so.

The fluffy, silky manure mix is then put into our pits, about 1 and a half bricks deep, and the top is smoothed over. We put 5 holes into the smoothed top, deep enough to place the preparation balls in. Since all of these preparation have been made in the organs of animals, it can be seen that this action is like placing the organs back into this substance to create a new living organism. We then sprinkle the pit with the valerian solution, by hand. The pits are then covered with hessian sacks that we have stuffed with straw or wool. Another little sprinkle of valerian and then they are left to do their thing for 4 weeks. At that time, we'll uncover them and turn them with a pitchfork to aerate them. After that, they'll be turned about every 2 weeks until they are ready. This helps to not only aerate the CPP but also to maintain a more even moisture level through the pit.

Once the CPP has fully matured we use it in our compost teas, seaweed sprays, cordon drenches, pasture sprays, Preparation 500 applications and compost heaps as an inoculuation of all the concentrated energies and living organisms. Spreading the love!

From Crystal to Cow-Horn

We've been continuing with the creation of our Biodynamic Preparations this week. It's time for some 501. Preparation 501 works on strengthening the above-ground activity in plants. It helps with photosynthesis and strengthens a plant's structure and cells to resist infection. Made from finely ground, treated silica quartz, it fosters silica activity in plants and helps plants to resist fungal attack.

The image below illustrates the process we used to start the creation of our very first estate-made batch of Preparation 501. Starting from the bottom left with the first small bowl and working clockwise, you can see the silica quartz crystals we started with. These were roughly crushed (bowl 2) using a mortar and pestle-type arrangement until we had a course sand (bowl 3). This was ground by hand (see Colin Ross literally at the grindstone!) between two sheets of glass ( the bowls are sitting on one) until we had a fine, almost talcum powder-like powder (bowl 4). This was mixed with water to create a paste (bowl 5) which was spooned into hollow cow horns and allowed to set (middle bowl).

Once set, the cow horns containing the quartz 'plaster' were buried (on a descending moon) where they will remain for the summer. We'll see what it looks like in 6 month's time and let you know what we do with it then.