The past few weeks I’ve been on the edge of my proverbial seat, wondering whether my health coverage will continue with my current provider. The whole thing has got me overly self-involved, a mess of needless worry. So as I take a break from my own fickle worrying, I don’t stray far from my original subject: health. The soil in Sonoma needs it too, not just my family and I. And as it turns out there are some 140 certified organic farmers in the county ensuring at least the dirt’s health coverage.
There are a few plots of land farmed one step beyond the organic model, where pesticides are prohibited, and instead follow the stricter biodymanic method. Biodynamic farming is one of the branches on the tree of German philosopher Rudolf Steiner’s ideas, and one I grew up with as a child attending a Waldorf School. Crops are rotated to ensure even mineral distribution in the soil, plantings are timed with lunar cycles and special soil medicines, tinctures made from boiled herbs, are buried at the ends of the rows inside cattle horns.
It’s not just a bunch of hoo-haa; one bite out of a gigantic biodynamic carrot and you’ll wonder what went wrong with the rest of the carrot population. Wine Spectator awarded the 2001 Sonoma Benziger Tribute, a biodymanic wine, with a 92-point rating, and in my view, the future of conscientious wine growing is only looking up. The combination of taste and earth-friendly benefits is a win-win for the likes of the Benzigers, and the folks at Truett Hurst Winery, a newer Sonoma winery to be certified by Demeter, the overseeing body of Biodnamyics in the US.
I’ve found hope for the health of our planet growing at these biodymanic farms.
Details:
Biodymanic Farming and Gardening Association: www.biodynamics.com
California Certified Organic Farmers: www.ccof.org
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