“This place is entrusted to us – to make it the most healthy and vital piece of land is really important.”

Beth Ann O’Dell, a teacher and farm administrator at Sunfield Land for Learning, said the farm on which its K-8 Waldorf school thrives is now a key focus for the nonprofit education center in Port Hadlock.

“Our school is already doing really well,” O’Dell said of the Waldorf school. “The farm is ready for the next phase of its development.”

The 81-acre farm, which is to be featured on the 2017 Jefferson County Farm Tour and has been certified organic since 2012, reached a milestone in January of this year when it officially received its biodynamic certification.

The objective of biodynamic farming is to treat the land as a self-nourishing living organism, O’Dell said.

The philosophy behind the method was developed by Waldorf education founder Rudolf Steiner in the 1920s. O’Dell said that Steiner, who was one of the forerunners of organic farming, envisioned biodynamic farming as a way to bring back health and vitality to a land wrecked with the chemicals that were introduced at the turn of the century.

“It’s really to heal the earth,” O’Dell said of the principles behind biodynamic farming, and by extension, “to heal the human being.”

A CLOSED SYSTEM

“A biodynamic farm tries to be a closed system,” said O’Dell. “Everything the farm needs, it produces itself.”

For example, hay grown on the farm feeds the cows, whose manure is turned into compost, which then is placed on the ground to produce more hay.

“You’re not trying to source other material to bring onto the farm,” O’Dell said. “That’s what makes it a closed system.”

Sunfield received its biodynamic certification through Demeter USA, and currently is saving seeds from certified crops and grass to use in the future. In addition to crops, Sunfield also has sheep, goats, cows and chickens. “Animals are very much a part of biodynamic farm,” O’Dell said.

O’Dell notes that the Sunfield animals themselves are not certified biodynamic, as that requires a different threshold of certification.

A certain percentage of the land also is left natural as part of what she calls the interconnected whole.

RHYTHMS OF NATURE

Biodynamic farming works with the life forces inherent in nature to bring life to the land, O’Dell said.

“On a biodynamic farm, you’re working with nature and cosmic forces,” she said, speaking of the moon, rain, stars and sun. “All of that is important.”

Crops are planted and harvested on specific days based on an annual calendar that tracks planetary and star systems.

Working with these cosmic rhythms engenders the most healthy land possible, O’Dell said.

There are also different methods for treating the land.

One such method involves placing manure in a cow horn, which is buried in the fall and dug up in the spring. The transformed manure is then mixed with water before being spread on the land to stimulate humus formation.

“It’s kind of like a homeopathic treatment to the earth,” she said.

The idea is that life forces captured during this process are transferred to the soil.

AN EDUCATION CENTER

The farm is another realm of Sunfield’s Waldorf education curriculum that strives to develop children as well-rounded human beings.

Inside the classroom, students learn through an artistic program that cultivates all of their capacities and honors all spiritual and cultural traditions, O’Dell explained.

Outside, children learn to be stewards of the land, take care of animals and observe their surroundings, asking questions such as “What is nature telling us?”

The farm and school are integrated in Sunfield’s mission to “engage the hands, awaken the mind, and nurture connections between the earth and its inhabitants.”

In the coming years, O’Dell hopes to see the farm become a place for the community to learn, too. Sunfield is bringing back an apprenticeship program and hopes to have a thriving seasonal farm stand.

O’Dell notes that Sunfield is not looking to be in competition with the other farms in the area, but rather is hoping to develop future partnerships.

“We are an educational farm, we are not a market farm,” she said. “Part of Sunfield’s mission all along was to be this agricultural learning environment, not just for the children, but for the county as well.”

BLESSING THE ANIMALS

In addition to being open for the two-day farm tour, Sunfield is also hosting a Blessing of the Animals ceremony on Sunday, which two years ago also was held on the farm.“It was so beautiful and it was so moving,” O’Dell said.

O’Dell said Sunfield hopes to become a central place for hosting community gatherings. In October, Sunfield hosts a two-day Plough Day Jamboree, which draws about 130 third-grade students from other Waldorf schools in the Pacific Northwest. Public school classes in Jefferson County also are invited to come and learn about the farm.

“These visitors are immersed in the life and activities of the farm and leave with a deeper connection to the land and hands-on farm experiences,” said O’Dell.